Winter Wishes, Enhanced Airport Screening
Winter Wishes Happy Thanksgiving
In a recent year, about a week before Christmas, I was in a Schlotsky's restaurant, and there were these greeting cards on all the tables. How nice, NOT! They all had pictures of snowflakes and said "Winter Wishes!". Like something you'd get on a post card at a ski resort.
That has to be the ultimate politically-correct BS I've ever seen on a greeting card. On line, I found one with the same stupid greeting, but at least has a nice picture of a cat instead of a random, generic snowflake.
I was talking to my friend Johann about that, and he said, "Yeah. Like what's a winter wish? 'Hope you don't get frostbite.' ? " MY winter wish is that these mamby-pamby pseudo-holiday cards would just go away. I don't celebrate WINTER, I celebrate the birth of JESUS CHRIST.
Pilot unions at American and US Airways have urged their members to avoid the scanners. A flight attendants' union in Arizona has done the same.Enhanced Airport Security Screening (a.k.a. "gate rape")
Wednesday, November 24 is National Opt-Out Day
National opt-out Day organizers urge everyone flying today and this Thanksgiving holiday to opt-out of going through the Full Body scanners. You'll get the pat-down, but you don't have to let them take you to a private room for that. You should do it in full view of the public. If there are witnesses, maybe it won't get out of hand (so to speak). Click the link for more info about National Opt-Out Day.
Informed Consent-- Know what you are getting into.
There are two types of FBS. One is the millimeter wave scanner, which uses radio waves. These are also known as Terahertz scanners. The other is the backscatter X-ray, which uses x-rays.
If you opt-out of the scanner, then you get the groping enhanced pat-down, where they actually touch your genitals and breasts. If you try to opt-out of BOTH the scanner and the pat-down, you can't just leave, they will actually ARREST you. And guess what happens when you get arrested? The POLICE pat you down. Also, you are subject to a $10,000 fine.
The FBS were pushed to be installed and used because of a single incident Christmas day of 2009, when a wannabe terrorist, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to blow up Northwest Airlines flight 253, an Amsterdam flight to Detroit. The only thing that happened was the PentaErythritol TetraNitrate (PETN) powder burned his genitals AND he got the crap beat out of him by other passengers. GO PASSENGERS!
1. The Scanners take pictures of you, NEKKID under your clothes.
Both types of FBS make high-resolution nude images of you, your spouse, or your children. With a simple color inversion, they can be inverted back to original color. Click the picture for the full story.
2. The images CAN be saved or transmitted.
Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano lied when she said the images can't be saved or transmitted.
NOT TRUE!They can be saved to USB thumb drive and/or agents can take digital photos of the display screen.
Here's proof. A video of 100 leaked images from one of the FBS being used at a federal courthouse. The machine actually stored 35,000 of these images. Note when Gizmodo leaked the images , they were kind enough to degrade their resolution, but be assured the original images were high quality.
Click to viewDanger, Will Robinson! -- Notice the scanner is imaging the people in the BACKGROUND who aren't even in the scanner! Doesn't that make you wonder how much radiation is getting to people who aren't even being scanned, while they simply wait in line?
3. Full Disclosure -- One of the main proponents of the FBS is Michael Chertoff, former head of Homeland Security and co-author of the PATRIOT Act. Now he is a consultant for Rapiscan Systems, a manufacturer of one model of FBS used in airports.
The Scanners don't detect explosive powder, nor anything in a body cavity.4. The Scanners Don't Work -- In spite of the fact the Christmas Day incident was used to push these scanners, they can't detect powders like the one used by the idiot who tried to commit junk emolation on the Detroit flight.
Rafi Sela, an Israeli airport security expert who helped design security at Ben Gurion International Airport, has said:"I don't know why everybody is running to buy these expensive and useless machines. I can overcome the body scanners with enough explosives to bring down a Boeing 747...That's why we haven't put them in our airport"
Ben Gurion Airport is 9 mi / 15km southeast of Tel Aviv, and was named the best airport in the middle east by the ACI.
My thoughts: I believe this man. Nobody knows more about airport security than an Israeli security specialist.
5. Mandatory Use of these "enhanced security measures" violates your constitutional rights.
Both the nude imaging and the "enhanced" pat-down violate your 4th Amendment rights to be safe from unreasonable search and seizure. I.E. Without a reasonable suspicion that YOU have committed a crime, there is no probable cause. Therefore it is illegal for the TSA to require you to be imaged or groped without your permission.
6. Radiation Safety Concerns X-ray Backscatter Machine Radiation dose was miscalulated.
The dose was calculated compared to your body VOLUME, when it should have been your SURFACE AREA. This leads to your exposure being 1 to 2 orders of magnitude higher than advertised. (10 to 100 times higher than the TSA claims).
This information is courtesy of Wikipedia:Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, have argued that the amount of radiation is higher than claimed by the TSA and body scanner manufacturers because the doses were calculated as if distributed throughout the whole body, but the radiation from backscatter x-ray scanners is focused on just the skin and surrounding tissues:
The majority of [the scanners'] energy is delivered to the skin and the underlying tissue. Thus, while the dose would be safe if it were distributed throughout the volume of the entire body, the dose to the skin may be dangerously high. The X-ray dose from these devices has often been compared in the media to the cosmic ray exposure inherent to airplane travel or that of a chest X-ray. However, this comparison is very misleading: both the air travel cosmic ray exposure and chest X- rays have much higher X-ray energies and the health consequences are appropriately understood in terms of the whole body volume dose. In contrast, these new airport scanners are largely depositing their energy into the skin and immediately adjacent tissue, and since this is such a small fraction of body weight/vol, possibly by one to two orders of magnitude (emphasis mine), the real dose to the skin is now high. In addition, it appears that real independent safety data do not exist.
The "Enhanced" Pat-Downs
Bear in mind the Latex gloves are for THEIR protection, not yours. TSA procedures don't require the agents change gloves for each passenger. That means they can transmit a disease from someone else's junk to your junk.
You must therefore demand the agent patting you down to use a clean pair of gloves, NOT FROM HIS POCKET, but from the original container. The pocket could contain native pathogens from the screener and/or used gloves from earlier pat-downs.
Or if he's really a moron, previously clean gloves in the same pocket with dirty gloves, so that he THINKS they are clean. Don't take chances with your junk.
My Thoughts
Totally your choice, but do you really want to have to explain to your young children that nobody should touch their private parts or see them naked except for federal employees?
What's being done
EPIC has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for violation of 4th amendment rights, as well as various Federal statutes under the Privacy Act.
Congressman Ron Paul of Texas, November 17, 2010 introduced the American Traveler Dignity Act, mandating that federal employees are not exempt from laws protecting you from being molested and violated. Have you ever seen legislation this concise? I love this man. Here is the whole bill:A BILL - HR 6416
To ensure that certain Federal employees cannot hide behind immunity.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. NO IMMUNITY FOR CERTAIN AIRPORT SCREENING METHODS.
No law of the United States shall be construed to confer any immunity for a Federal employee or agency or any individual or entity that receives Federal funds, who subjects an individual to any physical contact (including contact with any clothing the individual is wearing), x-rays, or millimeter waves, or aids in the creation of or views a representation of any part of a individual’s body covered by clothing as a condition for such individual to be in an airport or to fly in an aircraft. The preceding sentence shall apply even if the individual or the individual’s parent, guardian, or any other individual gives consent.
If you think they aren't checking your package, you should know many TSA screeners refer to the body scanners as "Dick Measurers".What you can do
- Sign this petition to stop the insanity.
- Always opt-out of the Full Body Scanner.
- Do NOT go to the private area for them to touch YOUR private area. You have a right to make them do it right out in public, so there are witnesses.
- Insist on new gloves from the original container, and watch them do it.
- If you feel uncomfortable or violated, ask for a supervisor and explain the problem.
- Ask for a police officer if you have a complaint so a report can be filed.
- Wear radiation protective undies (inexpensive) http://rockyflatsgear.com/. Not only do they protect your private parts from radiation, but the machines can't see through them.
- Contact your airlines. Let them know you won't fly as long as those procedures are in place. Here's a list of contact numbers for all airlines.
Suggested Solutions
Explosive-sniffing dogs
I like Rusty Humphries' idea. He said get some friendly-looking dog, like a golden retriever that can smell explosives. Other than the normal metal detector, don't pat down or body scan anyone the dog says is Okay. That way, if the dog alerts on someone, THEN there's probable cause. And we don't have to hear from the ACLU and CAIR about profiling. The only people who should complain about this are terrorists, and I really don't mind if they get offended.
Your choice of pat-down agents
If you have to get groped, you should be able to pick who you like. I'd be embarrassed to have a big hairy dude named Lars check my package, for example, but if there's a female agent who looks gentle and attractive, like this one, I would not protest a whole lot. I might even get to the airport early and go through the line twice.
Either way, there's no risk of radiation, and no treating of passengers as criminals. Problem solved.
Best Wishes,
