Possible body scan protest (November 24) could clog airport checkpoints in South Florida, elsewhere

WEST PALM BEACH —

Travel experts fear a protest sparked by a single website urging travelers to refuse a body scan at airport checkpoints across the country next week could blossom into a national revolt against security measures.

Travel experts are warning that the "National Opt-Out Day" protest set for Nov. 24, one of the busiest travel days of the year, could lead to checkpoint delays at Palm Beach International Airport.

A website is urging air travelers not to go through new, high-tech body scanners the day before Thanksgiving, which means they'll have to undergo pat-downs if they want to board. Those who consider the scanners too invasive, however, may learn that the traditional pat-down has been replaced by a more intensive one.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano defended both the scanners and the pat-downs Monday in an opinion piece for USA Today. She asked for cooperation and patience from travelers.

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Protest organizers say most people don't know they can turn down the scan. "The goal of National Opt-Out Day is to send a message to our lawmakers that we demand change," the website, optoutday.com, says.

"No naked body scanners, no government-approved groping," the site says. "We have a right to privacy and buying a plane ticket should not mean that we're guilty until proven innocent. This day is needed because many people do not understand what they consent to when choosing to fly."

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The website is also taking aim at the TSA's new pat-down procedures, saying they simply go too far.

"You should never have to explain to your children, 'Remember that no stranger can touch or see your private area, unless it's a government employee, then it's OK,' " the website states.

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Steve Landes, President of the South Florida Airline Commuters Association and a frequent passenger at PBIA, fears that the opt-out protest will cause lengthy delays because the pat downs are more time-consuming than the scan.

"There are going to be lines around the block," Landes said. "I think anybody who would object, you are really stupid."

Landes, a Boynton Beach resident, has a hip replacement that triggers the metal detectors at airport security checkpoints. "For years now, every time I go through, the alarm goes off," he said. "Now they have this new machine. Anybody would be a fool if they said they don't like it."

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - A Charlotte-area flight attendant and cancer survivor contacted WBTV after she says she was forced to show her prosthetic breast during a pat-down.
Cathy Bossi lives in south Charlotte and has been a flight attendant for the past 32 years, working the past 28 for U.S. Airways.

In early August Bossie was walking through security when she says she was asked to go through the new full body-scanners at Concourse "D" at Charlotte Douglas International.
She reluctantly agreed. As a 3-year breast cancer survivor she says she didn't want the added radiation through her body. But, Bossi says she did agree.

"The T.S.A. Agent told me to put my I.D. on my back," she said. "When I got out of there she said because my I.D. was on my back, I had to go to a personal screening area."
She says two female Charlotte T.S.A. agents took her to a private room and began what she calls an aggressive pat down. She says they stopped when they got around to feeling her right breast… the one where she'd had surgery.

"She put her full hand on my breast and said, 'What is this?'. And I said, 'It's my prosthesis because I've had breast cancer.' And she said, 'Well, you'll need to show me that'." ..... Since then, Cathy has contacted the Legislative Affairs Team, a group through the flight attendant union. She says she wants to see a crackdown on these personal pat downs.

"There are blowers and there are dogs out there that can sniff out bombs," she says. "There's no reason to have somebody's hands touching your body parts."

A T.S.A. representative says agents aren't supposed to remove any prosthetics, but are allowed to ask to see and touch any passenger's prosthetic.

WASHINGTON — Transportation Security Administration chief John Pistole said on Monday that he disregarded internal advice to the contrary and decided not tell the public in advance about aggressive new screening and pat-down procedures for airline passengers, fearing terrorists could try to exploit the information.

In an hour-long discussion with reporters, Pistole said media officials at the Department of Homeland Security had urged him to “get out ahead” of the potential controversy by formally announcing plans for enhanced body searches and the use of new x-ray and radio-wave imaging devices at 70 airports beginning in November.

But doing so would have provided a “roadmap or blueprint for terrorists” to avoid detection by using other airports where the new technology wasn’t in place, Pistole said.

Rather than publicize the changes, Pistole said he made a “risk-based” decision to roll it out first and “try to educate the public after we did that.”

The result has been a firestorm of criticism from lawmakers and passengers who claim the technology and aggressive searches are unnecessary, intrusive and a violation of their privacy rights.

With the Thanksgiving travel crush beginning on Wednesday, several groups are urging fliers to boycott the new procedures on that day, when millions of people will jam airports to travel for the holiday weekend.

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