Airport Security???  Humor links and Horror stories

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Woman Upset With Screener's Request To Feel Her Breasts
...Drives Home Rather Than Submit To Airport Search

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Source:
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/

Many Women Say Airport Pat-Downs Are a Humiliation
http://snipurl.com/aucw

By JOE SHARKEY

November 23, 2004

At a security checkpoint recently at the Fort Lauderdale airport, Patti LuPone, the singer and actress, recalled, she was instructed to remove articles of clothing. "I took off my belt; I took off my clogs; I took off my leather jacket," she said. "But when the screener said, 'Now take off your shirt,' I hesitated. I said, 'But I'll be exposed.' " When she persisted in her complaints, she said, she was barred from her flight.

Heather L. Maurer, a business executive from Washington, had a similar experience at Logan Airport in Boston recently. And a few weeks ago, Jenepher Field, 71, who walks with the aid of a cane, was subjected to a breast pat-down at the airport outside Kansas City, Mo.

These women and a good many others, both frequent and occasional travelers, say they are furious about recent changes in airport security that have increased both the number and the intensity of pat-downs at the nation's 450 commercial airports. And they are not keeping quiet.

In dozens of interviews, women across the country say they were humiliated by the searches, often done in view of other passengers, and many said they had sharply reduced their air travel as a result.

The new security policies on body searches were put into practice in mid-September, after a terrorist attack in Russia a few weeks before that destroyed two planes, killing 90 people. Two Chechen women were thought to have carried nonmetallic explosives onto the planes, officials said. It is not known whether the explosives were hidden in the women's clothing, or whether the women merely boarded unimpeded, carrying the explosives.

But the Transportation Security Administration in the United States, already worried that metal detectors could not pick up nonmetallic explosives, issued new regulations requiring airport screeners to conduct more frequent and more intense secondary searches and pat-downs.

The agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security, declined to break down the percentage of searches conducted by gender, but a spokeswoman said it did not treat women differently from men under the policy. While some men have complained about the groping nature of the searches, women object the most. Several women interviewed said that male colleagues had scoffed at their complaints, saying that a physical pat-down was a small price to pay for security.

"I laugh when men tell me that," said Betty Spence, president of the National Association for Female Executives, who says she has been selected for pat-downs several times in the last month on trips from New York to Chicago, Washington and Miami on various airlines. "Men don't know how offensive it is to be touched by anyone when you don't want to be touched."

She said she had switched to driving whenever she could.

Amy Von Walter, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration, said: "The pat-downs were put in place to address T.S.A.'s abilities to detect explosives at the checkpoint. That was a key recommendation by the 9/11 Commission."

With such a new procedure, she said, the agency expected complaints. So far, it has received about 250, with the numbers trending downward in recent weeks, she said.

None of the complaints have been resolved so far nor have any penalties been imposed.

But dozens of women are now publicly sharing their experiences of being examined in uncomfortable ways, suggesting that the complaints were more widespread than the official count.

As many as 15 percent of the estimated two million daily passengers are chosen for secondary screenings, including pat-downs, Ms. Von Walter said, and these do not count people who set off metal detectors when passing through security, who are automatically wanded.

Under the previous rules, travelers were randomly selected for secondary screenings or taken aside if they set off metal detectors. Security would ask travelers to remove their shoes and coats, and then use a magnetometer to scan their bodies. Carry-ons were inspected by hand.

                                         Yeah Show us your Boobs. We want to make sure they won't blow up!!!          

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Justice Department Tracking Greens?
http://www.greens.org/s-r/30/30-08.html

by Doug Stuber

I was trying to make an important trip to gather artists for Henry James Art in Raleigh, NC, USA when I was told (ticket in hand) that I was not allowed to fly out that day.

Curious, I asked “why not?” and the answer at Raleigh Durham Airport (RDU) was that I had yelled, over three rows, “Bush is as dumb as a rock.” This was part of a conversation with two African American men I had never met, and that included talk of how the CIA polluted downtown America with crack, and how Jerry Falwell used church coffers to buy planes for “Falwell Aviation.”

So I was denied a flight, but thought I’d come back the next morning, really early, switch airlines and fly to Paris, to catch a train to Prague from there.

Naturally, I went back the next morning, and instead of paying $670 round trip was forced into a $2,600 same day fare. I was mad enough about the money, but what happened in the next 24 hours was mind-boggling.

It was 6 am and my first flight wasn’t due out until 11:45 am, so I had plenty of time to kill. At exactly 10:52 am, just before boarding was to begin, I was approached by Officer Stanley (the same policeman I was ushered out of the airport by the day before) and he said he “wanted to talk to me.”

I went with him, but reminded him that no one had said I could not fly, and that my flight was about to leave. (I also knew that I could make the Air France connection in Atlanta and still make it to Prague in time, as long as I could catch a Delta flight at 1:10 pm, so I wasn’t too worried yet.)

They showed me a document from the Justice Department…that actually does show the Greens as likely terrorists.

The officer took me into a room and questioned me for one hour. By noon Stanley introduced me to two gentlemen I will refer to as Secret Service A and Secret Service B (SS-A and SS-B). Here is where the story proves the US is in a “totalitarian capitalist” state of fascism.

SS-A and SS-B took full eye-open pictures with a digital camera. They then asked me all the details about my family, where I lived, who I ever knew, what the Greens are up to, etc.

At one point I asked if they really believed the Greens were equal to al Qaeda. Here they made an error. They showed me a document from the Justice Department (Ashcroft and friends) that actually does show the Greens as likely terrorists. Just as likely as al Qaeda members. Man, I wish I had had a camera to be able to copy that document!

Sure enough we got out of there at about 12:45 pm, but with enough time to catch the later flight.

Here is where the pig-dogs really made me mad. They walked me to the Delta counter and asked that I be given tickets for the flight so I could make my connections. The woman quickly printed out tickets so that I could make the flight, and I was relieved that the SS hadn’t stopped me from flying.

In Greensboro, NC I was told flat out that I could not fly overseas or domestically.

I was wrong again. By the time I was about to be quickly placed on the flight, officer Stanley once again ushered me out the door. To be fair, he told me this: “Just go to Greensboro, where they don’t know you, and be totally quiet about politics, and you can make it to Europe that way.”

I felt like I was being yet again set up by this man, but I went to Greensboro anyway.

In Greensboro, NC I was told flat out that I could not fly overseas or domestically. I was told this after I showed my passport, so apparently the SS had moved quickly to shut me down from any kind of air travel. (One wonders whether Greens throughout the US are now barred from flying, since our national Co-Chair Nancy Oden had already been denied a flight from Maine to Chicago eight months before.)

Not to be denied, I then traveled to Charlotte. This is another hour and a half away, so I’ve been up for 40 hours, with a 1.5-hour drive ahead. I stocked up on Dr. Pepper and decided I would not be denied.

Of course, at Charlotte the same thing: get this terrorist out of here was the mode the cops were in.

I then drove three hours home (43 hours trying to catch a flight) and crashed hard in bed.

It appears that Greens, who have ten key values that include nonviolence, social justice, etc., are considered terrorists by the Ashcroft-led Justice Department.

I had always speculated that capitalism had gone too far. Now I know for sure.

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Source:
WKMG - Orlando
http://www.local6.com/index.html

Woman Gets $350,000 Settlement For Fla. Airport Strip Search
http://www.local6.com/news/2625671/detail.html

November 10, 2003 MIAMI -- The federal government has agreed to pay $350,000 to settle a lawsuit by a Houston woman who says she was singled out for a strip search by Miami airport agents because she is black.

Rhonda Brent's search and dozens of others prompted changes in federal law and policies based on claims that customs inspectors made it a national practice to single out minority women for unjustified, humiliating searches in the 1990s.

"She is relieved that it's over, and she in her way is also glad to know that other people can benefit from what she did to stand up for their rights," Brent's attorney, L. Obii Aham-Neze, said Monday. "This was one of the cases that forced the Customs Service to change their practices."

The Justice Department agreed to settle the suit without an admission of wrongdoing two years after Brent won an appeal that found she was subjected to an unconstitutional strip search and X-ray exam.

Despite the denial of liability, Aham-Neze said, "You wouldn't be paying $350,000 for not doing anything wrong, that's for sure."

Calls for comment to the Justice Department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement were not immediately returned.

Complaints and lawsuits claiming abusive strip searches in California, Florida, Illinois and Texas generated congressional inquiries and a Treasury Department investigation.

In Brent's case, she said she met a Nigerian man, the only other black person on a Rome-Miami flight, on her way home from vacation in 1991. On arrival, Brent shook her head in disapproval as the man was pulled aside for a luggage search.

A customs inspector ordered Brent to be detained "based on this look and gesture," the appeals court said in its review of the case.

She said she was held for 10 hours and denied an attorney while she was patted down, strip searched and taken to a hospital for X-rays. No drugs were uncovered on her or in her luggage.

"They just wanted to teach her a lesson," Aham-Neze said. Under revised rules, agents must have individual, reasonable and objective reasons for ordering strip searches.

General suspect profiles and subjective hunches are not legal grounds.

The lawsuit was so old that the original judge died while it was pending. A second judge accepted the settlement and closed the case Oct. 30.
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LewRockwell.com
http://www.lewrockwell.com/

Coffee, Tea, or Should We Feel Your Pregnant Wife's Breasts Before Throwing
You in a Cell at the Airport and Then Lying About Why We Put You There?
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig3/monahan1.html

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• David Socha, a 17-year-old on his way to Hawaii, was arrested in July at Logan Airport in Boston and charged with a felony for having a note in his gym bag which read: "(Expletive) you. Stay the (expletive) out of my bag you (expletive) sucker. Have you found a (expletive) bomb yet? No, just clothes. Am I right? Yea, so (expletive) you."

No, the young man's outrage over the suspension of his Fourth Amendment rights was not particularly prudent -- though I'm glad to see some of the spirit of John and Samuel Adams survives.

But should he really have been arrested and charged with "making a terrorist threat"? What threat? And what has happened to our First Amendment rights? Young Mr. Socha's protected political statement was zipped inside his own luggage.

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Susan Hallowell, the director of the Transportation Security Administration's security laboratory, allows her body to be X-rayed by the 'backscatter' machine at the Transportation Security Administration. The machine bounces X-rays off the skin, producing a black-and-white image. She is dressed in a skirt and blazer in dark, businesslike colors but on the monitor she is naked, except for a gun and a bomb that she hid under her outfit. The government is considering using the technology at airport security checkpoints because the magnetometers now in use cannot detect plastic weapons or substances used in explosives.

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Airport Screener Arrested For Being Former Nazi Guard

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Airport forces girl to remove fake limb

And it gets worse...    

Air Marshall goes overboard...

     Rambo in the air, blows a gasket on board'
Canadian sues U.S., saying air marshals brandished guns on plane, causing panic
http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?id={82720A73-A63F-475D-9CAD-AF78368F377F 

Isabel Vincent <ivincent@nationalpost.com>
National Post

Saturday, September 21, 2002

A Canadian physician of Indian descent is suing the U.S. government after
he was violently arrested on a flight during which two air marshals
allegedly sent panic through the plane, shouting and pointing a gun at
cowering passengers.

Bob Rajcoomar, a doctor who lives in Lake Worth, Fla., where he has
practised medicine for nearly 20 years, was forced to sit with his head
between his legs in his first-class seat on a recent Delta flight from
Atlanta to Philadelphia.

The doctor -- a former U.S. army major and military doctor -- was then
whisked off the plane and held for three hours in a filthy cell at
Philadelphia airport.

"It was Rambo in the air," said his wife, Dorothy, an accountant, adding
the actions of the air marshals, later identified by Philadelphia police as
B. McCullers and Samuel Mumma, created panic and confusion on the flight.

"I have to tell you that the very first thing we thought about after this
happened to us was moving back to Canada," she said in an interview from
her home in Florida yesterday. The Rajcoomars studied in Saskatchewan and
Ontario before moving to the United States.

"After they heard about what happened to us, a lot of our friends called
from Vancouver and said we should just pack up our things and go back," she
added.

The couple are suing the U.S. government for illegal detention and
emotional distress. They filed the suit two days ago in Philadelphia.

Their case has been taken up by the American Civil Liberties Union of
Pennsylvania, which called Dr. Rajcoomar's detention a civil rights
violation that should "send a wake-up call to Americans before it's too late."

"In our haste to protect ourselves, we are literally turning on each
other," said Stefan Presser, legal director of the ACLU in Philadelphia.

The two air marshals stationed on Delta Flight 442 on Aug. 31 seized an
unruly passenger and also detained Dr. Rajcoomar, who was sitting in a
first-class seat reading a book and drinking a beer.

Due to a seating mix-up, his wife was several rows back, in economy class.

According to witness accounts, the air marshals also aimed a pistol at
other passengers for more than a half-hour, shouting at everyone to stay
seated. The atmosphere was reportedly one of utter panic and confusion.

The incident began when a man from Philadelphia, described by fellow
passengers as disturbed, aroused suspicion by staring at the luggage of
other passengers.

Alerted to this behaviour, the two air marshals, who were sitting in
first-class seats at the front of the plane, rushed back into the
economy-class cabin and began yelling at all the passengers to stay in
their seats.

"Air marshals issued a series of warnings to passengers to stay in their
seats," said a spokesperson for the U.S. Transportation Security
Administration, the new U.S. government agency that oversees air marshals.

On the topic of Dr. Rajcoomar's detention, the spokesperson said, "To the
best of our knowledge, he had been observing too closely.

"When the aircraft landed, the airline declined to press charges" against
Dr. Rajcoomar and the other man, who was not identified.

The Rajcoomars said after the air marshals detained the man who was staring
at the other passengers' luggage, they pushed him into the seat next to Dr.
Rajcoomar.

"They sat on the guy in the seat," the doctor said in an interview. "He was
groaning, and the more he groaned, the more they twisted the handcuffs."

Alarmed, Dr. Rajcoomar asked to be moved to another seat. Caught up in the
shock of the moment, he said, he continued to stare at the marshals and
their prisoner.

His wife described how one of the air marshals began to yell and point his
pistol at passengers in economy class when a woman rose to switch seats
with her child.

Then, without warning, one of the marshals approached Dr. Rajcoomar and
ordered him to put his head down and his hands over his head. The air
marshal handcuffed Dr. Rajcoomar and spirited him out of the airplane after
it landed.

At the airport, he was taken to the police station and locked in a cell.
Mrs. Rajcoomar had no idea where he was and spent several hours wandering
the terminal looking for him.

"One of the marshals said something like, 'We didn't like the way you
looked,' " Dr. Rajcoomar said.

"They also said something like, 'We didn't like the way you looked at us.' "

Dr. Rajcoomar, who has been a naturalized U.S. citizen since 1985, called
the incident "blatant racial profiling.

"They think they can pick up anybody, willy-nilly. This is not in keeping
with the traditions of the United States."

The air marshal program, which places armed undercover agents on some
domestic and international flights, has created a great deal of controversy
since it was introduced after Sept. 11 last year. Critics say there are no
security measures in place to prevent air marshals from overreacting to a
potential terrorist situation.

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The logic of using high powered M-16 rifles inside crowded buildings could only have come from some chest-beating Neanderthal caveman in Afghanistan or from a moron with complete disregard for public safety and little actual knowledge or concerns about ballistics. Most security personnel, with any common sense at all, use their lighter, more responsible 9MM guns inside buildings -if they actually intend to use them. 

And, for good common sense reasons,  not because they are sissies or cowards:

 An M-16 bullet comes out of the muzzle in the usual way, spinning at a blurring speed around its central axis because of the rifling in the barrel. If not deflected, it would strike the target point-on. Like any other bullet, the M-16 round could begin tumbling if it struck something solid enough to deflect its flight. Because the M-16 bullet was relatively light -- 55 grains -- it may have been more easily deflected than the 175-grain bullet fired by the M-14 and the M-60. It's possible that just striking the human body could cause an M-16 bullet to tumble. The standard 55 grain bullet has 1300 fp, (foot pounds per square inch) at the muzzle and has diminished to about 1000 fp at 100 feet. When the bullet strikes metal or a solid object, it can also flatten out like a nickel with razor sharp edges.  This is excellent on a battlefield but could be really bad inside airport terminals filled with people.

Of course, the M-16 bullet also travels faster than the M-14 bullet -- 3,250 feet per second versus 2,800 fps. That extra speed (inertia) should have made the M-16 round more stable.

Only a terrorist would shoot an      M-16 inside an airport terminal. Are Crowded Airport Terminals The Typical  National Guard's  M-16 Firing Range?

When the M-16 selector lever is on the AUTO position, a bump or a drop (like when diving to the floor) causing ANY movement of the bolt whatsoever, lets the hammer go home, discharging a round to fly around at nearly mach 3. In order to exhaust the impetus generated, the bullet could ricochet through dozens of unintended targets. (Friendly fire)? M-16s are designed and engineered for use in an open battlefield where reflection is desired or if it occurs, so what?  If a few more "enemy personnel" get injured -Great!  No consequences! 

The behavior of these bullets are fascinating, terrifying and unpredictable at the same time. There are lots and lots of first hand accounts from Vietnam. Oddly, one round was cold-stopped by the cigarette lighter in the shirt pocket of a North Vietnamese officer, yet the shock killed him. A supersonic bullet traveling at 3250 Feet Per Second (FPS) doesn't necessarily go -straight through a target; it worms it's way through an object. A marine stationed at Fort Bragg described this, saying the gun could fire into the first floor a two story building, the bullet had a tendency to reflect inside and zip up inbetween the walls, exiting on the second floor and bounce all around until it's impetus is exhausted.

Also, the bullet, traveling at nearly Mach-3, could enter a bone, (like an ankle bone), and find it's easier to zip up the center of the bone than go straight through the other side, and could exit near the hip joint and just drop out on the floor. (The knee joint would probably slow it down to around Mach 1.5).  The entire leg has to be amputated. These supersonic bullets have a tendency to transfer up to 1300 fp of shock, (Shock Transfer) into an object it just grazes as it travels on. A strike almost anywhere in the arm can cause the entire arm to have to be removed, up to the shoulder.  A stream of bullets  fired into an enemy helicopter or vehicle  will bounce around and "grind all the meat" inside. An M-16 would be handy if a vanload of Arabs crashed through the chainlink fence and roared on towards the tarmac, but inside the terminal, all M-16s are doing is making air travel even more dangerous and uncomfortable for innocent Americans.    ...Which is Bin Ladin's sworn mission.  

ARE THE NATIONAL GUARDSMEN JUST SCARECROWS?

In a heated commentary on CNN, one man described the 18 year old national guardsmen with M-16s as "scarecrows."  Nobody is going to shoot their way into an airport terminal, shoot through the security, shoot their way onto a plane, get it off the ground and be able to fly it into a national landmark or other target of national concern. What's actually happening is that questions surrounding Police Powers have arisen and incidents of soldiers grabbing women by their arms and getting in their faces and venting their personal political views have been reported. (Has martial law been declared or how are abuses to be redressed in the courts?) Even the presence of M-16s inside airport terminals is absolutely stupid. Bin Ladin is probably pretty proud that his cause has been carried forward by the morons placed in charge of airport security.

*Would the 18 year old guardsman make the same quality of judgment calls that a regular trained policeman would? What would happen if shooting actually starts?

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Critics: Searches Are Haphazard And Humiliating
PUBLIC'S ANGER SIMMERS OVER AIRPORT SEARCHES
Los Angeles Times

The Horrigan family was about to board the flight back to Pittsburgh
from Walt Disney World when the gate agent scrutinizing their boarding
passes stopped them.  "Caroline is going to have to step aside for a
manual scan," he told Courtney and Frank Horrigan. Caroline is their
3-year-old.  .  . From Orlando, Fla., to Phoenix to Philadelphia, such
incidents are prompting travelers to wonder whether aviation security is
in danger of running amok and turning on ordinary citizens. Whether the
problems stem from overzealousness or bureaucratic ineptitude, making
the system more user-friendly has become a concern second only to
stopping terrorists.

www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-031102secure.story

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To ensure we Americans never offend anyone - particularly fanatics intent
on killing us - airport screeners will not be allowed to profile people.
They will continue random searches of 80-year-old women, little kids,
airline pilots with proper identification, Secret Service agents who are
members of the President's security detail and 85-year old Congressmen with
metal hips.

Let's pause a moment and take the following test:

In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by:
(a) Norwegians from Oslo;
(b) Elvis;
(c) A tour bus full of 80-year-old women;
(d) Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by:
(a) A pizza delivery boy;
(b) Crazed feminists complaining that being able to throw a grenade beyond
its own burst radius was an unfair and sexist requirement in basic training;
(c) Geraldo Rivera making up for a slow news day;
(d) Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by:
(a) Luca Bratzzi, for not being given a part in "Godfather 2;"
(b) The Tooth Fairy;
(c) Butch and Sundance who had a few sticks of dynamite left over from the
train robbery
(d) Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

In 1998, the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by:
(a) Mr. Rogers;
(b) Hillary, to distract attention from Wild Bill's women problems;
(c) The World Wrestling Federation to promote its next villain: "Mustapha
the Merciless;"
(d) Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked and destroyed by:
(a) Bugs Bunny, Wiley E. Coyote, Daffy Duck, and Elmer Fudd.
(b) The Supreme Court of Florida trying to outdo their attempted hijacking
of the 2000 Presidential election;
(c) Mr. Bean,
(d) Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

Hmmm ............. nope, no patterns anywhere