Transportation Security Administration

Joe Friday on the TSA

Published Tuesday, November 23, 2010 A.D. | By Donald R. McClarey

Joe Friday is of course correct that the searches made of minor children by TSA employees would be felonies if not conducted under color of law.

As indicated by this, adults are not treated any better. However, the TSA is attempting to improve the situation:

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Secretary Napolitano Explains it All

Published Wednesday, November 17, 2010 A.D. | By Donald R. McClarey

Hattip to Instapundit. The video is by Don Surber. As noted in my post Full Body Stupidity, the wrath of the public is beginning to be roused by the full body scans or intrusive pat downs that airline passengers are being subjected to. In response the Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, or BIG SIS as some people refer to her, tells us that we have nothing to worry about:

And we ask the American people to play an important part of our layered defense. We ask for cooperation, patience and a commitment to vigilance in the face of a determined enemy.

As part of our layered approach, we have expedited the deployment of new Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) units to help detect concealed metallic and non-metallic threats on passengers. These machines are now in use at airports nationwide, and the vast majority of travelers say they prefer this technology to alternative screening measures.

AIT machines are safe, efficient, and protect passenger privacy. They have been independently evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, who have all affirmed their safety. And the weapons and other dangerous and prohibited items we’ve found during AIT screenings have illustrated their security value time and again.

Rigorous privacy safeguards are also in place to protect the traveling public. All images generated by imaging technology are viewed in a walled-off location not visible to the public. The officer assisting the passenger never sees the image, and the officer viewing the image never interacts with the passenger. The imaging technology that we use cannot store, export, print or transmit images.

If an anomaly is detected during screening with AIT, if an alarm occurs after a passenger goes through a walk-through metal detector, or if a passenger opts out of either of these screening methods, we use pat-downs to help detect hidden and dangerous items like the one we saw in the failed terrorist attack last Christmas Day.

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Full Body Stupidity

Published Tuesday, November 16, 2010 A.D. | By Donald R. McClarey

Many things done by the Obama administration have mystified me since they appeared to be bound to alienate great swaths of the population. However, I have never seen a policy of this administration more likely to create a great public outcry than the current policy of the Transportation Security Administration that all passengers must submit to full body scans or physical pat downs. The full body scan produces a naked image of the traveler.

Many people are offended by this, and hence we have nuns subjected to pat downs. This three year old girl being subjected to a pat down shows the joys that await parents if they do not want to have their small children subjected to a full body scan.

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