Orin Kerr says that case law suggests that the new scanners will likely pass constitutional muster. Of course, his analysis is based on the supposition that they enhance safety, which is debatable.
John Tyner of Oceanside (the “if you touch my junk I’ll have you arrested” guy) is being named in a suit by the TSA.
Gizmodo has obtained pictures of millimeter-wave scans that were saved in a courthouse (the millimeter-wave machines are less sharply defined than those done by backscat scanners). But I was told that neither type of machine (other than a few produced for training purpose) were capable of saving images. So what gives? You don’t think we’re being lied to, do you?
And then, there’s this:
I am a frequent traveler and I have noticed that screenings have become more and more invasive. And they have become astonishingly stupid. The agents always say “I have to tell you that if the wand alarm goes off I have to pat the area down.”
I have an artificial left knee, it being replaced three years ago. Sure enough, my knee set off the metal detector and the guy wanded me. He waved the wand over the front of my knee and it beeped. And he patted my knee down. Then he wanded the back of ny knee and it beeped and he patted my knee down. Then he wanded both the inside and outside of my knee and it beeped over both areas and he patted down my knee on both sides.
I was wearing shorts. I have a five inch scar over the front of my knee and he patted it down repeatedly.
The difference between the Flopping Aces writer and me is that I regard moderate American muslims as my allies in this struggle, because they believe in the importance of modesty, as do traditional Jews, devout Protestants and good Catholics (I’m the other kind of Catholic). And, no–I read the original guidelines by the dispicable people at CAIR, and I see how they would like Muslim women to avoid the pat-downs, using a lawyerly trick (getting the the TSA agent to say that it was the headscarf that led to them getting patted down, and thereby having them skip the bodily pat-down and limit the scrutiny to the head scarf, leaving the larger “tent” created by the overall garment unchecked). But I don’t know that that is going to work, if the faithful of other religions–sisters, for instance–are being patted down.
This is not a left vs. right thing. This is not a Muslim vs. Jews & Christians thing. This is a civil liberties thing, and an airline safety thing (that is, all the resources being poured into it are not going into appropriate screening procedures).
More, from the comments board on a travel website:
We flew on EL AL to Israel, several years ago, and we were questioned by a young very sharp young lady in a very secure area (there were armed non – American personnel there with I believe automatic weapons). I was shocked that they knew that I was a retired naval officer. I suspect that they (Mossad?) do a background check on all passengers before they board. I understand that they do not have last minute passengers on their flights. Perhaps the TSA could learn something from the El AL procedures.
Perhaps the TSA does not want to learn anything.
UPDATE: Is it time for the airports to opt out?
; ?>/images/user.png)
; ?>/images/email.png)
; ?>/images/feed.png)
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
TSA or Tyrants Squeezing Ass?
Imagine the fallout if a famous movie star’s naked airport scan was circulated or sold on the black market by a TSA employee. That might happen when you consider that TSA has been documented keeping thousands of naked scan photos of U.S. Citizens.
If not stopped, Airports are just the beginning of Citizens being X-rayed / Stripped Naked by Government, having their Private Body Parts Touched, Squeezed and Patted-Down by Government Employees. It is problematic Americans (next) will be X-Ray Scanned and Physically Molested boarding trains, cruse ships, buses; when entering sports events and office buildings. Continued Low Radiation Exposure is Accumulative and believed to cause Cancer.
Americans should boycott airlines; that would get TSA’s attention and stockholders of airlines. Meanwhile Not just pilots and flight attendants, “ordinary air passengers” should also be afforded privacy, when felt up, searched at public airports.
Talk about government in your face. Recently the Obama government purchased hundreds’ of X-Ray Vans that will travel our streets without warrants, x-raying Americans, seeing Citizens naked when walking, standing, riding their bike. Government/police will use the x-ray vans to peer though Citizens’ homes and vehicles, exposing Americans and their families to radiation. X-ray vans are an affront to privacy, allowing government to view Citizens in their bedrooms. Americans need to ask Obama if independent studies were conducted to determine if Citizens could develop Cancer, if (repeatedly exposed) to police X-rays. It is easy to imagine government/police with or without a warrant every night X-raying a person of interest in his or her home. It is foreseeable some Citizens might install similar to smoke detectors, sensors that will set off an alarm, if their home or vehicle is being bombarded with X-rays.
Obama’s X-Ray Vans can ALSO be used by the military or police to secure perimeters to control civil unrest and instances of revolt, to screen and stop Citizens carrying guns, cameras; any item. Does Obama expect Americans to revolt?
The Nazis used national emergency as a premise to repeatedly target and detain, search and question Germans boarding or taking trains considered political dissidents or morally unworthy; targeted Citizens were intentionally delayed by police/military so they would be late or miss work. Of course many lost there jobs and could not survive.
I only wear skirts/dresses. (well, very rarely I may wear culottes or a long split skirt)
So when I fly i get patted down solely because of my skirt (that is what I am told everytime) – it was just funny (I am 5-2 not much of a threat also when they pat down my bare arms -????) and annoying. Now i can’t fly because I refuse to have someone touch my private areas.
and I am planning to go visit a missionary friend next year. I wonder if the train goes to sao Paulo. 😀
I would bet on the side that all images are saved–if only for Morbidity and Mortality
Assessments when things go wrong. The only issue is if operators have designed access to the images.
And whether someone with a little savvy can get around the system that prevents access.
As to what the operator sees, that is a separate issue. I would bet that the information saved can make
anyone blush. Remember a certain Photoshop of a Playmobile Airport scene? The photo on the right (on the Jumbotron) is made from the information on the left and a simple filter. I would bet that the raw file has all the data required and more. And no
bars or distractions to obscure any views.