mongowatneymeyer

I went through security at 9am today at SeaTac, Concourse A.. They only had one AIT (nude) scanner running at the checkpoint, and it was over at the far side. All the other AITs were shut down. Most people went straight through the regular metal scanner, although I did see a mom & dad take their 4 little girls through the NoS. I walked right through the metal detector and didn’t get patted down. I was never even touched by a TSA agent. I didn’t get to opt-out or recite my speech about the 4th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. I feel strangely disappointed...

FoothillFlyer

Family came back from BGI into SFO last night, having totally avoided the NOS thanks to TOM911 (the UA checkpoint) and the absence of the NOS at MIA. Arrived at SFO Gate 60 (AA) right up front. As I obviously know how long it takes to offload a full 757 I spent 30 minutes watching the AA checkpoint. Every single person was herded through the NOS. No crewmembers appeared durig this time, but small (below 10) children, teens and adults all took their turn in the submissive surrender posture. No one received a subsequent pat-down.

What was demoralizing to me was the absence of a single opt-out during the time I was watching. Like the sheep they were, no one seemed to have a problem with this. I can only hope NOOD has some impact.

DR73

Thanks everyone for the info you've provided. Thanks Tom911 for the heads up regarding UA checkpoint at SFO.

I'm flying UA international out of SFO this Friday. If I use the UA checkpoint at T3, can I then get to the international terminal and avoid the NOS? If not, I'll have to opt out and hope to get a courteous TSO who will be gentle with me...

Thanks again for everyone's contribution.

FriendlySkies

Yes, if you use the UA elite checkpoint, or the regular one, you can walk to the connector which will take you to the international terminal..

expert7700

I flew back from PIT on Sun 11/14, and they were pushing all passengers in the far right screening lane through the backscatter machine.

Before the screening, I noticed the TSA was quick to print up signs banning any toner cartridges weighing 16oz or more from any checked or carry on bags. (For that one, I wondered where their calibrated scales are at the screening area).

The first thing I noticed is that the sign explaining what it was and that it was optional had been removed. There was no mention at all of it being optional.

I got right up to it and said no thanks, I am opting out. The TSA employee made me repeat myself about 3 times, and got 2 others over and said "listen to this one!, as if he couldn't believe my request was real.

He used new gloves, but screened me in public without any mention that it could be done with more privacy. Dozens of other passengers watched while he examined me, said "I'm going to feel your buttox area now", etc. Then he said I need to look inside your wasteband, and he proceeded to pull out my jeans wasteband and look as far down as that allowed him to view. He felt with his fingers along the entire wasteband.

The ironic thing: I was screened one foot past the exit of the NOS. Meaning I was blocking usage of the machine. During my lengthy screening, I'd estimate that 20 additional passengers were diverted to the regular X-ray machines.

After the screening I was permitted to turn around, and I saw that the bags that I had been forced to leave on the belt had been handled and moved by others without my knowledge or consent.

A day before flying I read the Johns Hopkins warning on the new airport machines. I feel that on Sunday, not only did I save myself a dose of radition, but also many others. Not as many as if I had the nerve to print up hundreds of opt out brochures and hand them out in the airport.

DR73

@FriendlySkies: thanks so much for the reply!!

vatraveler

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8320/4.5.0.81 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

Just saw an elderly lady opt out at DCA. She was thoroughly groped, and when she protested, the TSO snapped, "I offered you a private screening.". I am angered, saddened, and disgusted by what has come of our country.

fun321

On my last flight through BUF, I came to the checkpoint determined to opt out of the NoS. So I told already the guy who checks the documents that I don't want to go through an x-ray scanner ("coz I don't want to get skin cancer in 10 years").

I had to repeat this twice, but then he nicely told me to use the rightmost lane (at the same time there were also two wheelchairs there), where the Nude-o-Scope was cordoned off. Only the WTMD was used. So I uneventfully walked through the WTMD, and was "all set" immediately. No pat-down at all. Lucky...

Lately, I'm converting at least one other passenger per flight (usually my seat neighbors) to an Anti-Nude-o-Scope-Person. It's amazing how little average people know about these scanners! Recently, a woman thought that the backscatter scanner actually shows only the "bones". She was flabberghasted to hear that the scanner actually shows an naked picture of herself, and vowed never to fly again. I told her flying is ok, she can just opt out.

Another guy had bought the TSA tale that it's suuuuuch a tiiiiiiiny x-ray dose. Reminding him that the dose is actually accumulated in the upper skin layers (while the TSA divides by the whole body volume to arrive at their "low" value) made him think a lot.... I think he will avoid the Nude-o-Scopes in the future....

Oh well. I really hope these machines will go the way of the "air puffer" machine from a few years ago, and just disappear.

P.S.: Just now, I noticed that in Germany there was another "vague threat" terrorist warning issued by the government. Something like: "There is a vague terrorist threat, and everybody should feel quite worried, but we advise against hysteria"... (Apparently they wanted to scare people a little bit, to be able to pass even more privacy-invading laws). Interestingly, there were 85 comments to that news, which quite a lot for a single news article. Virtually ALL (!) comments were extremely (!) critical of this political panic-mongering. Users were actually making fun of the government, denouncing them, etc. It seems people are just not buying the "permanently-evolving-and-ongoing never-ending 'credible' threat" fairy-tale anymore. Great!!!



P.P.S.: On a less optimistic note, on my flight through BUF, I didn't see any signs in front of the Nude-o-Scopes that these machines are "optional". I got pretty close to the Nude-o-Scopes but couldn't make out any sign that said "optional" or something like that. So either the signs are REALLY small print, or there were simply no signs. I think the lack of signs is one of the greatest factors in keeping the average people in the dark about these scanners. Just what TSA wants.

fun321

... what if, during a patdown, when the TSA officer explains the procedure to you and asks if it is "ok" with you, of if you "consent with it", or if he or she "may proceed to 'clear' your xxx next", etc..... what if you reply "I do NOT consent to any of what you are doing, but will not resist the procedure because I want to get on my plane."

Would they then get worried, even stop the patdown and try to first make you say that you "consent", or "agree". And if you don't say it, would they stop and have you removed from the airport?

I'm just wondering about this...

If anybody has first-hand experience on such a situation, please share!

blondedawn

CVG, Delta terminal. Opt-out of backscatter. The pat-down itself was quick and relatively painless, but I was surprised when I was directed to the backscatter. When I approached the checkpoint, traffic was very light. They had 3 x-ray machines going. 2 fed into a single WMTD/backscatter, while the third was feeding its people into a separate WMTD. With regard to the first two machines, I could see that they were regularly directing people into the backscatter. However, at the third machine, it appeared no one was being sent to the backscatter -- indeed, the closest backscatter to this x-ray machine was at least 3 yards away next to a different (not functioning) x-ray machine, such that it looked like it was in a separate lane entirely. I attempted a positional opt-out by getting in this line.

As I said, I didn't see anyone in this lane be sent to the 3-yard-away NoS as I approached the checkpoint and waited for my ID to be checked. Moreover, as I placed my bags on the metal tables to remove liquids, laptop, etc., there were at least 4 men in front of me. Each was allowed to go through the WTMD. But when I reached the mouth of the x-ray machine, the TSO asked me if I was wearing a belt or had anything in my pockets. When I said no, he directed me to the backscatter.

I found it odd that I was told to go through the NoS when several people before me had gone through the WTMD. I did not see anyone emerge from the NoS prior to my direction over there (nor had I seen anyone sent over), so I do not think someone was occupying the machine. When I opted out, the TSO did ask the man behind me to go to the NoS, and he complied. However, I didn't see anyone else sent to the NoS from my line during the entire time I was having my patdown or for about a minute after, as I stayed for a bit to watch to see if anyone else would be sent. I'm not sure what exactly was going on. An attractive young woman was in line about 2 people behind me and was not sent to the NoS, so that suggests it was not gender-based (although she was wearing a pencil skirt, so maybe the TSO did not want to risk the time/energy of taking her to the super-secret patdown room to put on a gown so they could pat down her thighs if she opted out?). I was wearing a sweater, but it is (1) pretty thin and (2) form-fitting, not big and bulky, so I don't think apparel had to do with it. Regardless, it seems weird to send just 1 person out of 10 to the NoS -- you'd think it would either be active or not.

Anyway, when the TSO (who had been pleasant thus far) directed me to the NoS, I opted out. He said: "seriously?" in a tone that was partly surprised, partly incredulous. When I nodded, he paged for the female assist in a less cheerful tone than he had used with me moments earlier. She arrived only a few minutes later.

The female TSO was very polite and professional. She had me stand so I could see my bags on the x-ray belt and told me to tell her if anyone touched them. She asked if I had a patdown before and, when I told her this was my first "enhanced" pat down, explained to me what she was going to do, hitting the highlights that she would be checking the waistband of my pants and running her hand up my thigh until she met resistance. (She did not offer me a private screening.) Interestingly, she also said she'd be using the back of her hand on my sensitive areas. She ran her hand down my ponytail to start the patdown and moved on to the rest of my body. She used the back of her hand to slide between and under my breasts, in a manner similar to pre-enhancement patdowns. For the waistband of my pants, she pulled it slightly away from my body while running just the tips of her fingers inside. She had to lift my shirt some (it was hip length) to reach the waistband, but she did not lift it so much that the folks at the checkpoint got a flash of midriff. She did not patdown my buttocks. The checks of my legs were very fast. She checked both the inner and outer thighs, but she did not go all the way up my inner thigh -- she didn't touch my groin or even come dangerously close to doing so. She tested her gloves from the patdown, but interestingly did not swab *any* of my carryons. (This is in contrast to DCA, where opting out caused them to swab every zipper on every bag and my laptop.)

While this pat-down was not too bad, though, it doesn't do anything to assuage my concerns. I think it likely that the credit for my relatively painless experience goes not to the procedures promulgated by the TSA but to the TSO (who I suspect would have received a low grade if her actions were compared to the "enhanced opt-out pat-down" checklist). And for that, I thank her.

tfar

Here is the link to the original post on OBOW where you can find many news bulletins and entries on the matter. Obow is really on it along with flyertalk.
http://www.1bag1world.com/obow-light...m/post/1306237


Recently I took a plane starting in Richmond, VA. Nice airport and all, except they have body scanners.

I refused the scanner. Impolite and unnerved look from female TSA employee who told me "You have to go through there." I said "No, I opt out" with a smile (might have been an arrogant grin).

She then called a male agent for a "male pat down screening". The male agent was very correct and professional. What was interesting was that he was charged with taking all my belongings of the conveyor belt. But since I had about five spots on the belt (case with laptop, shoes, case with toiletries, case with hat and coat, carry-on bag, computer bag) the wait created a back log in which they practically couldn't use the luggage x-ray machine until he had taken my belongings off.

He then explained the entire process and asked if I wanted a private screening. Thanks, no lap dances for me, please. I want everybody to see what is happening. He pats me down pretty rigourously. He did touch my posterior which I didn't mind. On the front he went over my zip with the back of his hands. I can deal with that. Though I can see how for others that might already be too intrusive. He didn't "touch my junk", as the recent traveler put it. He then did an explosives swap on the new gloves he had put on. Well, they came out of a box but they could simply stuff the old gloves back in the box. Nobody would know.

The entire thing took easily 7-8 minutes in which one man was fully busy with me. The x-ray was blocked for about 2-3 minutes. It also created a lot of attention as other travelers were curious to see what was going on.

By the way, the explanation of what the scanner is doing and the images it is producing was shown only directly next to the scanner. So there was no advance warning for the citizen to consider and to make up his/her mind. Plus the agent directed people authoritatively to the scanner. The scanner thing also took much longer anyway than the WTMD.

The lesson I learn from this is that if people refuse the scanner, which I think they should, it really messes up their logistics and eats up their man power. If only two out of ten people opt out, I estimate that it doubles the average screening time for these ten people. Huge queues will result unless they add more personnel. For each $150k scanner they will need another $60-100k in yearly salary for personnel to cope with the added work load of people who opt out. And fellow travelers will get so annoyed they'll hopefully voice their dismay against these machines.

For me the difference was about plus 7 minutes. So 10 minutes instead of 3 or four. Totally worth it. Much better use of time than sitting at the gate.

I won't travel for some time, but if I did I'd opt out every time. I can only hope many conscious fellow travelers voice their objection to the scanners and act accordingly by opting out, especially in the upcoming holiday period. Should be fun.

So opt out and make sure you have a ton of stuff on the x-ray belt and you get a public pat down.

Till

sctn8gp

i like that idea! ^

mindcandy28

The times I've encountered this (forcing a pat-down or bag search for whatever reason) is it eats manpower like crazy.

Another thought : take a half dozen worthless old laptops with you in your carry-on.

makfan

I will always opt out, and I usually have 2 bags plus 3 tubs because of all the stuff that has to be specially handled. One time I had 4 tubs. I guess I will be doing my part.

LessO2

Although I don't put my shoes in a bin, it might be time to do so. One shoe for each bin. Another one for my jacket, another one for my freedom baggie, another one for my laptop.......