Growing backlash against TSA body scanners, pat-downs

From Zenbuoy

This is a photo of the TSA booth by the security check-in point at Indianapolis International Airport. Take a close look at the wallpaper on the computer in that booth. Nervous yet?


In case you don't recognize the image in the wallpaper, it's this fake children's book cover:

Source


TSA Screener Accosts 3 Year Old Child at Security Checkpoint

The federal government has been forced to respond to the accelerating backlash against new TSA measures which have outraged the nation, with TSA Administrator John Pistole and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano set to meet today with executives from the travel industry and heads of pilot associations.
Following intense and sustained focus on the issue by the Drudge Report, Infowars and Prison Planet, Reuters reports that, “Executives from the travel industry, including online travel sites, theme parks and hotels, were set to meet Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Pistole on Friday to discuss their concerns that security is crimping travel.”
The feds were forced into action after five prominent pilot and travel associations, along with a flight attendants union, vowed to boycott naked body scanners as well as the new invasive pat down procedure, threatening travel chaos. The backlash has also been characterized by new cases of individuals being abused at the hands of the TSA, stories which continue to pour in on a daily basis.
In addition, the TSA is reviewing its policies towards children at security checkpoints following widespread revulsion at the fact that TSA workers, some of whom may be pedophiles given the agency’s poor standard of background checks for its own employees, are openly groping children’s genitals in airports across the country.

“We have received hundreds of e-mails and phone calls from travelers vowing to stop flying,” said Geoff Freeman, an executive vice president of the U.S. Travel Association, which set up the meeting with the Obama administration officials.
“You can’t talk on the one hand about creating jobs in this country and getting this economy back on track and on the other hand discourage millions of Americans from flying, which is the gateway to commerce,” he said.

It’s vital that those representing outraged Americans at today’s meeting with Napolitano and Pistole do not allow themselves to be placated by the rhetoric they will undoubtedly hear about the supposed terror threat making the new TSA measures a necessity.
Clip from Info Wars

Airport body-scan radiation under scrutiny

(CNN) -- They're arriving at airports across the country. Some complain they are invasive and an assault on our privacy. But are body scanners at security checkpoints dangerous?

Some scientists and two major airline pilots unions contend not enough is known about the effects of the small doses of X-ray radiation emitted by one of the two types of airport scanning machines.

The Transportation Security Administration's advanced imaging technology machines use two separate means of creating images of passengers -- backscatter X-ray technology and millimeter-wave technology.

At the end of October, 189 backscatter units and 152 millimeter-wave machines were in use in more than 65 airports. The total number of imaging machines is expected to near 1,000 by the end of 2011, according to the TSA.

While the TSA says the machines are safe, backscatter technology raises concerns among some because it uses small doses of ionizing radiation. The use of millimeter-wave technology hasn't received the same attention, and radiation experts say it poses no known health risks.

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http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/11/12/travel.screening/index.html?hpt=T1