Head Of Tsa

The End Of “Don't Touch My Junk”?

Last week, the Transportation Security Administration announced that it would begin installing new software in some of its full body scanners, eliminating the detailed imagery that some travelers view as a violation of privacy.

TSA began installing “advanced imaging technology” at airports in 2007, which TSA spokesman Greg Soule says is “designed to detect metallic and non-metallic items on passengers, including explosives.” Currently there are about 500 AIT machines in 78 airports across the country. You know the drill: stand inside the scanner, raise your hands over your head, then step aside as a TSA officer in a remote location views the images and gives the all clear or instructs another officer to conduct further screening.

The images look like photo negatives, sans faces. Because the officer is elsewhere (and, I surmise, because you ain’t got nothin’ he or she ain’t already seen), it’s all supposed to be impersonal, clinical even, and TSA says that the images are not saved. Still, the embarrassed can opt out in favor of a pat-down – origin of the now famous quote from a passenger in San Diego about his junk.

If the new software detects no unexpected objects, the screener will see “OK” on a blank screen. If there is an anomaly, a generic outline – it reminded me of a paper doll - will show up with a mark indicating where on the body to search. And because the screener and screen-ee can now be in the same location, TSA expects this will speed the process.

The catch (isn’t there always a catch?): the new software will work in only about half of the 500-odd machines currently in use. These are the clear, cylindrical scanners using millimeter wave technology and sold by L-3 Communications. If you’re going through the others, which look like a pair of big blue boxes and use backscatter technology (low dose x-rays) from Rapiscan Systems, for now at least someone else can still see more than London and France.

More bread & circuses for the masses.

These new, more expensive machines (gee, who’s making money this time? Lockheed Martin, for one, to the tune of $72 million) are just a distraction.

TSA minions will still be able to bully, harass, and grope at whim. They will still violate passengers’ rights and bodies. They will still make people miss their flights.

And with their expanded surveillance powers — see Pistole’s latest statement re BDOs, a laughable addition to the already laughable FAST and SPOT programs — soon the smurfs will be assaulting you wherever you go at the airport. Papers, please!

Olbermann calls for TSA head firing in wake - The Daily Caller

It’s not just conservatives and libertarians crying foul over a recent Transportation Security Administration pat-down act on a 95-year old cancer patient, Lena Reppert, who was forced to remove her adult diaper as part of security check. Even some on the left are taking notice as well.

On his Monday “Countdown” show on Current, host Keith Olbermann blasted TSA head John Pistole during his “Worst Persons in the World” segment, giving him the highest honor as the “Worst Person in the World.” He recounted his interpretation of that incident.

“Our winner John Pistole, the head of the Transportation Security Administration – you have heard this story, too, right? Jean Weber is taking her 95-year-old mother Lena Reppert from an airport in northern Florida to Michigan for cancer treatment and special care,” Olbermann said. “She is in a wheelchair and after the TSA agents pat Ms. Reppert down and insist her daughter remove her mother’s adult diaper, which was used, the mother is stoic and cooperative. The daughter bursts into tears. So now the TSA agents have to frisk her, too, because her conduct is now deemed unusual. The daughter misses the flight and her 95-year-old mother has to travel alone.”

Olbermann then relayed the TSA response to his viewers, which he considered incorrect and suggested the TSA should have apologized.

“The TSA’s response? ‘We’re terribly sorry we went too far?’” Olbermann said. “Uh-uh. ‘In no instance would our officers ask a passenger to remove an adult diaper.’ The daughter says that’s a lie. The TSA still is refusing to acknowledge it did anything wrong. ‘While every person and item must be screened before entering the secured boarding area, TSA works with passengers to resolve security alarms in a respectful and sensitive manner. We have reviewed the circumstances involved in the screening and determined that our officers acted professionally and according to proper procedure.”

The remedy: Olbermann said it might be time for the TSA chief to go.

“Translation: Screw you, public, we can do whatever the hell we want,” Olbermann said. “That attitude has only been growing in the last year since the feel-ups began at the airports and if it’s not going to change – the agency is really going to defend abusing 95-year-old leukemia patients on the incomprehensible premise that they might be suicide bombers, then this John Pistole, head of the TSA – he needs to be fired and we need to get a human being in there to do his job. John Pistole, TSA chief: Frisk this buddy – today’s worst person in the world!

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