Airport body scanners, pat-downs to stay, Napolitano says

Source: USA Today

The nation's controversial airport pat-downs and full-body scanners are here to stay, at least for now.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano defended the systems on CNN this morning, crediting them with preventing unknown numbers of potentially dangerous devices from making their way on to airplanes.

"The new technology, the pat-downs, is just objectively safer for our traveling public," Napolitano said. "We pick up contraband now, and we pick up more contraband with the new procedures and the new machinery. What we know is that you can't measure the devices that we are deterring from going on a plane."

Read more: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2010/12/airport-body-scanners-pat-downs-working-napolitano-says/1

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Ah, the smell of 'changiness' in the morning... smells like... same ol' BS. :argh:

these dinos are getting all sorts of busts i bet.. im working against them 2012

Pilots on food stamps and now the TSA groping. Could someone not want US to travel? Destroy every business in the US?

I want to have some slogans painted on my body next time I fly. These will have to be done using some sort of ink the bastards can see, but which won't be seen through my clothing.

That's bad enough. Getting lead poisoning as well? Not a great deal. Many people think the skin is a barrier but it's actually the body's biggest organ and as such, has a great deal of back and forth with the environment. Iodine is another thing that could be absorbed in quantities that would be bad for the thyroid.

I've thought of various protests but in the end, I've decided to protest with my wallet. I won't fly. I will ride the train and drive. There are many things I might have gone to do, conferences and the like, but now the distance precludes it. It's a sacrifice but necessary, not only for my health, but for my dignity.

Better just body paint sans clothes.

I would have caught that. LOL. I had planned, well over a year ago, before these things proliferated like cancer, to have a protest at the airport, standing in the backscatter position, naked, with protest signs in each hand. I was told by my husband that he didn't care for the mother of his son going to jail. I relented. I wish I hadn't.

Should be proof against Tasers, microwave weapons and backscatter.

After 17 years as an air carrier pilot, back when they still served food, I doubt I will ever be a passenger.

just that it's too much of a pain in the ass if you don't even get to touch the controls. I've always been a white knuckle flier, so I'm kind of relieved to be offing that burden. I wish I had visited Hawaii first, but, oh, well, it isn't like I don't live in one of the most beautiful places in the US.

What in the world would your chain mail be made of to be Taser-proof? I'm thinking that would be electrocution central.

I told somebody recently that given a choice between going to jail and flying commercially I would choose jail. The strip search in jail is less invasive, stress positions are outlawed (what is sitting in a center seat between two three hundred pounders?), you have a right to habeas corpus in jail (on an aircraft you can get stuck on the taxiway with no rights) and they have to feed you in jail. I use much the same argument about nursing homes.

Maybe they will start up the Matson Lines again, barring that you might take a freighter with accommodations to Hawaii.

Chain mail should be able to short out the two probes from a Taser. I haven't tried it out yet, but soon.

Do we still have the freedom of speech?

And especially not with Fatherland Security. Have you tried practicing your freedom of speech with those brownshirts? I wouldn't recommend it unless you have a lot of free time on your hands. And money, for bail.

I don't know if that will show up on the millimeter-wave systems.
Metallic inks should work for both, but might not be good for you.

Tesha

they will make you safer

Submit, peon.

Because we've forgotten what our rights used to be.

Tesha

Americans are sheep now, and just like the German people prior to WWII, we are on a dangerous road.

So, tell me again why men and women are wearing the uniform of the U.S., because it sure isn't to protect our freedoms!

They dropped that ball when the Patriot Act was passed.

America will either end up like Soviet Russia or Nazi Germany, neither is a good thing.

"So, tell me again why men and women are wearing the uniform of the U.S., because it sure isn't to protect our freedoms!"

The men and women are wearing the uniform because it is simply a job to make money, facilitated by Defense being the United States's only product. The next big assignment will be to defend the government from its own citizens. But unlike Russia when the troops refused to fire on its own people, the US troops, now hardened from slaying children and torturing old men at will, will cut us down like dogs in our own neighborhoods regardless of whether we call Bernie Sanders or not.

n/t

and they plan on expanding this shit to shopping malls, movie theatres and concert venues this year.

Soon, you will not be able to eat a Big Mac without some extra from "Deliverance" sticking his finger on your prostate/cervix.

Wal Mart called their employees peasants and took out life insurance policies on them . Wal Mart is the beneficiary. Bank of America does the same thing. Do not shop or bank at either one of them. One way to stop the insanity.

But I bet they pick up more "contraband" that way.

:puke:

... when I can just buy a ticket and get on an airplane again.

It's been a long long time. Since long before the 9-11 massacre.

Eternal warfare has the been bi-partisan official policy for most of my life and I'm not so young.

:mad:

-Laelth

stupid me to believe in that "change we can believe in" crap. :grr:

Uh, not

which this clearly violates. Nice try, though. Have some more Kool-Aid®. Extra choco-rations for you, loyal citizen!

And what law does it clearly violate?

In your answer, please start with U.S. vs Davis, 482 F.2d 893.

Getting lied to sucks, don't it?

-Fleetwood Mac

But got another clinton administration which , to me, was very destructive to the US.TPTB want hillary. Only problem dems. and repubs. do not like her. So Obama's administration is packed with clinton retreads. Lanny Davis in Africa now propping up another dictator..just like Honduras.

As did I and most others here at DU.

We voted AGAINST the party that lied us into war, the implemented torture, and inflicted the Patriot Act upon our nation. And now the guy that was supposed to end the wars, increased them, continued the torture, instituted assassination squads for American citizens and continued the Patriot Act is unleashing an army of power-mad neo-gestapos on us.

We can no longer trust ANYONE, and we must ALWAYS defend every aspect of the Bill of Rights.

Because if we let them get away this, and considering that they will keep the War On Terror going on for the next 50 years, where will Freedom be then? Nothing but a distant memory?

I have something for you.

Makes me more and more grateful that I learned to fly back in 1965. It may not be as fast as a jetliner, but for trips of 600 miles or so my puddle jumper can beat most airline connections.

Most small FBO's know their customers by sight. They might not remember your name, but the line crew remembers your N-number. Real airplanes have round engines and tailwheels.

you have achieved your goal. Short of a death in my husband's family, I will not fly again.

You may not be able to measure the "devices that we are deterring from going on a plane.", but you can measure how many humans are being deterred. Ask us, we'll happily tell you. Oh, wait, you don't really want to know that, do you?

THIS IS NOT OVER YET.

Turns out Americans are now so docile, they will accept any indignity while traveling, if you tell them with a straight face that it's for security.

such great numbers that the airlines would have no choice but to take notice and start applying pressure on the government goons. I realize that some air travel is necessary - family emergency, company travel that the boss insists on, but Americans could bring the airlines, and in turn, TSA, to their knees if they gave up all discretionary flying. It's Americans willingness to submit to this crap that keeps it going.

That number obviously did not include those of us who have refused to fly.
that number was a quote from the Airline Association in a comment about the recent snow storms effect on flights.
So we need to convince another 4 million, give or take, to quite being so docile.

all the TSA shit - brainwashed into thinking it has something to do with security. I suspect as more and more people are subjected to the latest abuses, however, the numbers of people who decide it isn't worth the humiliation will grow and it will eventually start to affect the bottom line. One can hope.

calling torture enhanced interrogation makes it seem less criminal

How soon will those on the street who do sexual assault or molestation - call it 'just a pat down'

How can unknown numbers possibly equal a success? This is also in the face of reports showing that 70% of test items get through.

:eyes:

As you may recall, domestic wiretapping, etc. kept us safe by preventing an unknown number of terrorist attacks.

New boss, same as old boss.

Fuck. Al Qaeda says, "Boo!" and the US government shits it's pants.

The "contraband" ends up in the pockets & homes of TSA employees. DUH!

("That's a nice pair of shoes in that luggage. Looks like my size, and they look new. SWWWEEETTTT")

I really chafe when someone makes absolute comments like that. She's a damn coward, too afraid to have anything happen on her watch so she puts her career above everyone else's civil rights in case something happens and she gets questioned about it.

Does being treated in a fascist way by our government get called what it is yet?

But then again, there are elected officials who should be thinking about what they are doing here.

But I guess since no one questions her then what she does is sanctioned.

Just to be safe, of course...

Our security is their priority! :crazy:

I suppose I wouldn't be so flippant if this story hadn't broke recently:

SFO pilot gives up gun after posting sensitive YouTube videos

or this one:

Man Accidentally Carries Loaded Gun Onto Plane; TSA Failure Rate May Approach 70%

Ms. Napolitano's comment that we should still be subjected to groping is disingenuous. It's all smoke-and-mirrors designed to make Michael "Shirtoff" and his investors at Rapiscan into multi-millionaires.

Idiotic.

n/t

I just got in to America last night, changing planes in Atlanta on the way to Charleston, SC.

At the transfer security check, there was a huge line, and the old-style metal detector alongside the new scanner.

The TSA sent EVERY passenger through the old-style metal detector, and not one person through the hated scanner.
And, although this may seem strange, not ONE evil incident occurred despite the scanner sitting there unused. I
get the impression that the TSA doesn't feel like singing the TSA Blues (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3LNxvG1qQM)
any more, either! (at least in Atlanta--either that or we got lucky)

When can we look forward to that security theater, Janet?

She doesn't have to be scanned or patted down. Why should she give a rat's ass wha happens to you?

from the beginning. The change is that people are letting slip their real agendas. It's like they can't help it.

The underwear bomber was set up just like the other 'foiled' terror 'attacks' that the FBI set up all year long.

And OBTW the 'unmeasurable' amount of contraband is not unmeasurable. You can measure it by the freaking barrel.

But it simply won't be measured, because then someone would have to admit that the 'contraband' is bullshit - nailclippers, lighters, baby formula, hamburgers wrapped in foil.

Amazing success indeed.
:sarcasm:

they NEVER stop them. :grr:

in recognition of services rendered

make money for corporations, the hell with our health and privacy. Fuck them all. I'll take the train next trip.

This is where we are headed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi

They lost a lot of airline passengers. My brother now drives up to Va from Fla instead of flying. We take the train to see the inlaws in Seattle. We both used to LOVE flying, and took many short vacations (bro to Las Vegas, us to Maine and out west)
Now we don't fly unless a family emergency strikes. I know many others who say the same.

And what, pray tell, are we all going to do about it?

Oh, yeah. Same as we (Americans in general) always do.

Q3JR4.

with this CRAP...ya just keep it up and show your Orwellian BS

because people know this is BS

so they get their jollies by treating ordinary Americans like terrorists, and go home with a feeling that they 'did something'.

Napolitano is as bad as they are. The assclown needs to go.

They'll be sticking around about as long as you will.

"What we know is that you can't measure the devices that we are deterring from going on a plane."

You can't measure the number of people who avoid airlines because they are sick and tired of being frisked and x-rayed, either.

SHE doesn't have to go through this legalized groping?