Tacitusitis
King
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2010
- Messages
- 839
The TSA has installed hundreds of full body scanners that use millimeter-wave and X-rays to screen passengers at domestic airports.
Ironically the images from these scanners would probably be infraction-worthy if I were to post them as they show the human body completely exposed, bits and all.
We were told that blurring is added and the images are immediately discarded after you are cleared through security. Of course there is no law requiring TSA to discard images, it has been revealed that the machines DO have a memory function, and since blurring is ADDED that means the crystal clear naked image is on the machine somewhere and probably accessible. A TSA worker has been arrested for assault when coworkers made fun of his small size after he went through machines as part of a training session.
In addition to the privacy concerns, the fact that this is a virtual strip search, and the potential for TSA drones storing and abusing these images, there's the question of health.
How safe are these machines? Well, airline pilots are refusing to go through them. The machines produce a "small" amount of radiation, according to TSA. That's true averaged over the whole body, but nearly all the radiation is absorbed by the skin - that's what produces those sharp images. Radiation has a cumulative risk - there's a reason your dentist is never in the room when you do your X-rays. Scientists at UCSF have raised warnings about the risk of skin, breast, and testicular cancer. And all of this is assuming that the machines are used as designed. I trust a degree-earning, malpractice-liable doctor to X-ray me - but how about a poorly trained, poorly motivated, functionally above-the-law Epsilon?
And then there's this: "Since the attempted bombing of a US airliner on Christmas Day, former Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff has given dozens of media interviews touting the need for the federal government to buy more full-body scanners for airports. What he has made little mention of is that the Chertoff Group, his security consulting agency, includes a client that manufactures the machines."
That's right, your strip-searches are making a tidy profit for former Skeletor impersonator Chertoff.
Not all passengers are selected to go through the "advanced imaging technology" (AIT) scanners. You might be selected for this additional layer of screening if you set off the metal detectors. However, quite predictably, it has been reported at some airports that the TSA has placed the new AIT scanners next to the old walk through metal detectors, and when the line for WTMDs gets too long they are diverting hundreds of passengers through the AITs with no justification for this intrusive level of search.
You have a right to avoid a 4th-Amendment-violating assault on your privacy and health by saying "I opt out."
Now here's the bad news. The TSA treats opt-outers to a full body pat down, the kind used on convicted criminals. First they will yell "NEED A PAT DOWN" or something similar, drag the victim over to a ringed area (that is in full view of everyone passing through the WTMDs, naturally) and give a thorough pat down down the front, back, and up the thighs. People who have experienced it have come close to likening it to sexual assault. Even small children have been subjected to the pat down.
If you have any doubts about how closely TSA screens its hires, then what sort of people do you think are going to be working there now that the news is full of stories that employees can touch people in ways that would be considered sexual assault in any other context, and even get your face rearranged by a strip club bouncer?
Like a military flogging, the pat down is intended to be a painful, humiliating experience for the victim, and an intimidating warning to everyone else who is forced to watch.
However there is an answer.
First, if you can stop flying, DO SO. Boycott the airlines until the rules change.
If you must fly, be aware Nov 24 is National Opt Out Day.
Right and left, people across the political spectrum are coming together to say that THIS GOES TOO FAR.
Passengers across the nation will refuse to go in the machines, exercise their Constitutional rights, and force the TSA to pat down thousands of passengers. They will do everything from delivering prepared statements to people walking through the metal detectors, to doing a Meg Ryan impression from When Harry Met Sally.
If you fly before or after Nov 24, you can opt out as well! Try to make the process as public as possible and resist all attempts to humiliate or "make an example" of you. When the TSA Epsilons drag you over to be patted down, loudly ask how much the tip rate is, or threaten to wear a kilt next time.
Only when the process is unbearable for everyone involved, will there be change.
This IS NOT civil disobedience. You have a right to opt out of the scanners. TSA is just calculating that by making the opt out experience as unbearable as possible, they can intimidate the vast majority of passengers into getting into the DNA-frying machines.
Show TSA they're wrong. Make it unbearable for THEM. Opt out on or before Nov 24.
Ironically the images from these scanners would probably be infraction-worthy if I were to post them as they show the human body completely exposed, bits and all.
We were told that blurring is added and the images are immediately discarded after you are cleared through security. Of course there is no law requiring TSA to discard images, it has been revealed that the machines DO have a memory function, and since blurring is ADDED that means the crystal clear naked image is on the machine somewhere and probably accessible. A TSA worker has been arrested for assault when coworkers made fun of his small size after he went through machines as part of a training session.
In addition to the privacy concerns, the fact that this is a virtual strip search, and the potential for TSA drones storing and abusing these images, there's the question of health.
How safe are these machines? Well, airline pilots are refusing to go through them. The machines produce a "small" amount of radiation, according to TSA. That's true averaged over the whole body, but nearly all the radiation is absorbed by the skin - that's what produces those sharp images. Radiation has a cumulative risk - there's a reason your dentist is never in the room when you do your X-rays. Scientists at UCSF have raised warnings about the risk of skin, breast, and testicular cancer. And all of this is assuming that the machines are used as designed. I trust a degree-earning, malpractice-liable doctor to X-ray me - but how about a poorly trained, poorly motivated, functionally above-the-law Epsilon?
And then there's this: "Since the attempted bombing of a US airliner on Christmas Day, former Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff has given dozens of media interviews touting the need for the federal government to buy more full-body scanners for airports. What he has made little mention of is that the Chertoff Group, his security consulting agency, includes a client that manufactures the machines."
That's right, your strip-searches are making a tidy profit for former Skeletor impersonator Chertoff.
Not all passengers are selected to go through the "advanced imaging technology" (AIT) scanners. You might be selected for this additional layer of screening if you set off the metal detectors. However, quite predictably, it has been reported at some airports that the TSA has placed the new AIT scanners next to the old walk through metal detectors, and when the line for WTMDs gets too long they are diverting hundreds of passengers through the AITs with no justification for this intrusive level of search.
You have a right to avoid a 4th-Amendment-violating assault on your privacy and health by saying "I opt out."
Now here's the bad news. The TSA treats opt-outers to a full body pat down, the kind used on convicted criminals. First they will yell "NEED A PAT DOWN" or something similar, drag the victim over to a ringed area (that is in full view of everyone passing through the WTMDs, naturally) and give a thorough pat down down the front, back, and up the thighs. People who have experienced it have come close to likening it to sexual assault. Even small children have been subjected to the pat down.
If you have any doubts about how closely TSA screens its hires, then what sort of people do you think are going to be working there now that the news is full of stories that employees can touch people in ways that would be considered sexual assault in any other context, and even get your face rearranged by a strip club bouncer?
Like a military flogging, the pat down is intended to be a painful, humiliating experience for the victim, and an intimidating warning to everyone else who is forced to watch.
However there is an answer.
First, if you can stop flying, DO SO. Boycott the airlines until the rules change.
If you must fly, be aware Nov 24 is National Opt Out Day.
Right and left, people across the political spectrum are coming together to say that THIS GOES TOO FAR.
Passengers across the nation will refuse to go in the machines, exercise their Constitutional rights, and force the TSA to pat down thousands of passengers. They will do everything from delivering prepared statements to people walking through the metal detectors, to doing a Meg Ryan impression from When Harry Met Sally.
If you fly before or after Nov 24, you can opt out as well! Try to make the process as public as possible and resist all attempts to humiliate or "make an example" of you. When the TSA Epsilons drag you over to be patted down, loudly ask how much the tip rate is, or threaten to wear a kilt next time.
Only when the process is unbearable for everyone involved, will there be change.
This IS NOT civil disobedience. You have a right to opt out of the scanners. TSA is just calculating that by making the opt out experience as unbearable as possible, they can intimidate the vast majority of passengers into getting into the DNA-frying machines.
Show TSA they're wrong. Make it unbearable for THEM. Opt out on or before Nov 24.
