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Outrage
- “Adam Savage: TSA saw my junk, missed 12″ razor blades” (Ben Kuchera, Ars Technica with video)
- “DHS & TSA: Making a list, checking it twice” (Doug Hadmann, Canada Free Press) claims that DHS has an internal memo calling those 59% of Americans who oppose pat downs “domestic extremists.” No copies of the memo have emerged as far as I know.
- “How to force a refund when you opt out of groping” (Ed Hasbrouck, Papers Please)
Polls
- Zogby Interactive: 61% Oppose Full Body Scans and TSA Pat Downs; 48% Will Seek Alternative to Flying (Zogby.) USA Today/Gallup found “Most fliers bothered or angered by TSA pat-downs.”
- “TSA wants to hear from you” complaints, suggestions. (Interestingly, there’s nothing between forms 10 & 20 in the URLs. Was the site designed by BASIC programmers?)
Medical:
- “Review of the TSA X-Ray backscatter body scanner safety report” (Jason Bell, molecular biology phd student, UC Davis)
Analysis:
- “The Real Threat to America” (Roger Cohen, New York Times)
- “The TSA is invasive, annoying – and unconstitutional” (Jeffrey Rosen, a law professor at George Washington University, The Washington Post)
- “The Special Assistant for Reality http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703572404575634910388355000.html” (Peggy Noonan, the Wall St. Journal)
Category Archives: Air Travel
News Round Up: New blog edition
I’ll be contributing to a new group blog, “I will opt out“. I think that concentrating and combining resources will help the people who care find all the news they want. My first post is at “More news from around the web”
Grope up: Enough is Enough edition
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Analysis:
- “‘Strip-or-Grope’ vs. Risk Management” Jim Harper, Cato@Liberty blog. Really solid thinking, although I usually don’t like asset-centric approaches, I think that for the physical world they make more sense than they do in software threat modeling.
- TSA more likely to kill you than a terrorist. thread at Flyertalk (thanks Doug!)
- “Has Airport Security Gone Too Far?” (Noah Shachtman, Wall St Journal)
Protest:
- U.S. Travel Association Empowers Air Travelers with New Website to Share Opinions on TSA Screening Process and YourTravelVoice.org
Progress:
Introducing the American Traveler Dignity Act (Congressman Ron Paul) - TSA plans modest changes (Declan McCullagh, CNET)
- Orlando Sanford International Airport to opt out of TSA screening I’d be going to DisneyWorld, but they fingerprint people. And apparently, SFO has already opted out, but has nudatrons anyway.
Videos:
- Congressman Ron Paul
- San Mateo DA Steve Wagstaffe Promises to Prosecute Overly Touchy Pat Downs
- TSA Enhanced Screening Procedures Explained
Daily Grope Up
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Outrage:
- Transcript: Senate hearing on TSA, full-body scanners (yesterday, not one Senator cared.) Today’s hearing: http://www.c-span.org/Watch/C-SPAN3.aspx
- TSA Success Story (You can win in line.)
- If someone had done that to me at a nightclub I’d call the cops.
- Violated
- Traveling with scars
- Search this one for “pump” to learn about a diabetic’s experience.
- What would the TSA do if they found a menstrual cup inside you during a body scan? (TSA still hasn’t answered)
- The
PravdaUSA Today article which claims “Napolitano ‘open’ to fliers’ gripes over screening” is over 1000 comments, and none of the “most recommended” have anything nice to say about TSA. Come on, guys, you have 67,000 employees, can’t you astroturf? - RateMyBackScatter.com
Analysis and Data:
- Full Frontal Nudity Doesn’t Make Us Safer: Abolish the TSA (Forbes blogger Art Carden)
- Opting out from naked scanning – Canadian edition
News flash: Deadly terrorism existed before 9/11 “We’ve been dealing with the same threats for decades. But we used to be a lot calmer about it, less self-defeating” (Sing it, brother!)Response:
- Don’t miss the suggestion to wear a kilt if you’re flying on National opt-out day
- New Jersey and Idaho legislators have introduced bills to stop nudatrons. Petition “will send you updates on this and other important campaigns by email.” Another petition, privacy re: your email, unclear. And another.
- Minneapolis airport considering private screeners instead of TSA
- Rep. John Mica, the Republican who will soon be chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, is reminding airports that they have a choice.
Videos:
- See Me, Feel me
- Fmr Assistant TSA Admin – checkpoints violate 4th amendment (unprompted comment!)
- TSA’s enhanced security spurs US ‘airport rage’
On a personal note, I sent email to a social mail list at work, and I’ve never gotten so much positive response. People care deeply, and haven’t known where to go to complain or how.
It’s time to call your Senator!
There’s no news roundup today, the stories are flying, unlike people, who are sick and tired of the indignities, the nudeatrons and the groping. If you want to see them, you can follow me on twitter or National Opt Out day
Tomorrow, there’s a Transportation Security Administration Oversight Hearing whose only witness is TSA Administrator John Pistole. The good fellow over at opt out day has a list of Senators on the committee:
The committee chair is Sen Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) phone (202) 224-6472. The ranking member is Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison 202-224-5922.
The subcommittee chair is Sen Byron L. Dorgon (D-ND) phone (202) 224-2551. The ranking member is Sen Jim DeMint (R-SC) phone (202) 224-6121.
Regardless of your home state, call the chairpersons to ask whether recent TSA abuses are on the agenda for the oversight hearing. Ask to speak with the staffer responsible for dealing with issues related to the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
Here is a list of committee members, their homepage and phone number. If one of these people is your Senator, please also phone them, either at the number below or look online to find their nearest local office – you can even visit in person. A constituent who knows a senator’s committee assignments and addresses issues for the agenda for a scheduled hearing gives him/herself an educated and powerful voice.
If none of these people is your senator, contact the committee chairs. Also contact your own senators and representative . They still need to hear your opinion, it’s just that they won’t be at this hearing.
D-AK Mark Begich (202) 224-3004
D-AR Mark Pryor (202) 224-2353
D-CA Barbara Boxer (202) 224-3553
D-FL Bill Nelson 202-224-5274D-HI Daniel K. Inouye (202) 224.3934
D-MA John F. Kerry [(202) 224-2742
D-MN Amy Klobuchar 202-224-3244D-MO Claire McCaskill 202-224-6154
D-ND Byron L. Dorgon phone (202) 224-2551
D-NJ Frank R. Lautenberg (973) 639-8700, (888) 398-1642D-NM Tom Udall (202) 224-6621
D-VA Mark Warner 202-224-2023
D-WA Maria Cantwell 202-224-3441D-WV Jay Rockefeller (202) 224-6472
R-FL George S. LeMieux (202) 224-3041
R-GA Johnny Isakson (202) 224-3643R-KS Sam Brownback (202) 224-6521
R-LA David Vitter (202) 224-4623
R-ME Olympia J. Snowe (202) 224-5344, (800) 432-1599R-MS Roger F. Wicker 202-224-6253
R-NE Mike Johanns (202) 224-4224
R-NV John Ensign (202) 224-6244R-SC Jim DeMint phone (202) 224-6121
R-SD John Thune (202) 224-2321, 1-866-850-3855
R-TX Kay Bailey Hutchison 202-224-5922
Daily Grope-Up: The Groping Will Continue Until You Drive Edition
- “‘Naked’ scanners at U.S. airports may be dangerous: scientists” (National Post) The head of the X-ray lab at Johns Hopkins says “statistically, someone is going to get skin cancer from these X-rays.”
- “DHS chief tells pilot, tourism reps scans and patdowns will continue ” (Infowars.com) includes link to a CNN story “Growing backlash against TSA body scanners, pat-downs” which contains an estimated loss of 9.6 billion dollars in business because of the previous measures being too annoying.
- Enough people are delivering resistance that TSA is threatening them with civil fines.
- Meanwhile, a three year old girl sobs “Stop touching me!” [Update: Brad points out that this is from January 2009. Good catch, but I can't see TSA regulations that demand child pornography or sexual assault reducing such incidents.]
- @snrk says “That it’s taken the TSA touching your junk to wake you up betrays a lack of foresight for where this was inevitably going to go, America.”
- “Airport Security is Killing Us!” (IndustryWeek) Literally. It’s killing us through cancer, it’s killing us through road deaths. We need a comprehensive policy that’s in line with dignity & the Constitution.
Lies, Damned Lies and TSA Statements: Today’s news grope-up
- Earlier this week, the White House responded to the UC San Francisco faculty letter on nudatrons. (We mentioned that here.) National Academy of Sciences member John Sedat says “many misconceptions, and we will write a careful answer pointing out their errors.”
- TSA has claimed that pictures will have blurred genital areas to “protect privacy.” Except as it turns out, they don’t, as documented by Dave ‘not very funny about this’ Barry in “Groin Update.” See also “So What Are We Able To See On The Body Scanner,” which would explain why a “blurred groin” is unusual.
- TSA has also claimed that the naked pictures they take will be shown in a seperate room. As CMU professor Latanya Sweeny documents, they are visible to the public. Airport Body Scanner Disrupts Personal Security.
- Despite TSa claims of equal treatment, Chris Soghoian reminds us that Congress and the cabinet don’t go through this.
- TSA’s claims that they don’t store the images have not yet been publicly disproven.
- All of which adds up to a great deal of national outrage:
Reuters reports that, “Executives from the travel industry, including online travel sites, theme parks and hotels, were set to meet Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Pistole on Friday to discuss their concerns that security is crimping travel.”
The feds were forced into action after five prominent pilot and travel associations, along with a flight attendants union, vowed to boycott naked body scanners as well as the new invasive pat down procedure, threatening travel chaos. The backlash has also been characterized by new cases of individuals being abused at the hands of the TSA, stories which continue to pour in on a daily basis.
Thanks to @ioerror, @nationaloptout, @samablog and to @boingboing for:

Today’s TSA news grope-up
- “Terror chief tries to board plane with banned liquids” (Mirror, UK) Obviously, the UK needs to get with the TSA program and exempt Ministers from search.
- Flight attendants union upset over new pat-down procedures
- “Airport security reaches new levels of absurdity” (Salon’s Ask the Pilot blog)
- “Know Your Options at the Airport” (ACLU of Massachusetts) Includes the lovely ‘fyi’ that “women in tight skirts that don’t allow an agent to feel the thigh area may be asked to remove the skirt”
- “Don’t Let Strip-and-Grope Become the New Normal” (Pajamas Media)
- There’s organization going on to make November 24th “National Opt Out Day”
UC San Francisco Faculty on Nudatrons
A number of faculty at UCSF have a letter to John Holdren, the President’s advisor on science and technology. There’s a related story on NPR.org, but I’d missed the letter.
It appears the concerns of 3 members of the National Academy of Sciences have been completely ignored.
TSA Body Scanners News: Why show ID edition
First, a quick news roundup:
- EPIC is suing DHS for improper rulemaking, violations of the fouth ammendment, the privacy act, the religious freedom restoration act, and the video voyerism prevention act.
- The ACLU has a news roundup and a form to report on TSA behavior.
- The Airline Pilots Association advises pilots to show resistance.
So given the new machines and how stunningly intrusive they are, is there any reason to show ID when you show up at the airport?