Buster

The comments on that LATimes article are very anti-TSA. Several people seem to have experienced the new pat-down (mainly people with hip replacements) and are appalled at the treatment. That's quite new - comments used to be mainly of the "anything for security" type.

lostinthewash

... the same day we start 100% screening the screeners, baggage handlers, ground workers, mechanical staff ...

Unfortunately (fortunately?) companies like UPS and Fed Ex have way more clout than poor ole frequent flyers - they have already started their campaign that it would bankrupt everyone and the economy would come to a screeching halt if they had to track and screen everything.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...1.48ee7c8.html

not the article I was looking for, but it's similar ...

AaronKamp

Thankfully there's still checkpoints without the Nude-O-Scopes in Seattle, otherwise I'd probably wear my athletic cup in preparation for the pat-down on my flight to EWR next week.

The return trip is another story.

I'd be VERY hard-pressed not to automatically react in a situation where an agent jams his thumbs into my scrotum.

TXagogo

OK - I saw the LA Times picture on here and I previously posted my pat-down experience at SJC. Now I am getting confused.

I have heard it said that the clerks use front-of-hand on places like arms and legs but back of hand across the frontal and backside areas. This is consistent with what I experienced at SJC.

Also, the kid in the picture looks like a doll. I know we have discussed this ad nauseum but are there any accounts of a clerk using front of the hand on the frontal area? I just CAN'T imagine any way this would be allowed.

Lumpy

Just keep lining up for all this, folks. Keeps getting funnier and funnier!!

username_unknown

don't forget how they "saved the day" by preventing the "toner bomb" which magically happened on the same day they announced the new mandatory sexual assault policy...

N965VJ

For posterity:

GUWonder

WTMDs are vanishing, just not vanished completely (at least not yet).

The distribution arrangement for the strip search machines at large airports is done so as to try to make sure that all checkpoints get at least one sooner than later. One strip search machine require more space than that required for one WTMDs (and thus the WTMD goes "poof"). The strip search machine processing time is worse for passengers than the WTMD search processing time. But I expect the TSA will try to "fix" that processing time difference (more than it has already) and do so by taking it out on passengers.

Carnage

Because bad people would never use children to do wrong.

But I do agree, no need to pat them down, just pop them through the x ray machine.

doober

RichardKenner

That's part of the problem here. Cross-examination is a critical part of court proceedings for a reason!

I have a recording of a witness testifying in a contested commercial bankruptcy case that a friend of mine was involved in. If you listen to the direct examination only, you'll come away with the belief that the witness was a major, highly successful real estate developer. But the cross-examination makes it clear that the person is nothing but a bunch of hot air. This is the case even though nothing in the direct testimony was untrue.

This thread purports to post a "first-hand" account. But it's not: it's second hand. The person is quoting somebody's first-hand account. That means we lose the ability to ask questions of that person and that's important in understanding exactly what happened even if everything in the account is completely truthful.

GUWonder

Killing off the children of today = fewer terrorists tomorrow. Brilliant "security" approach, as the only 100% security is that which comes to bodies in the grave.

While the TSA is quite a monster when it comes to dealing with infants/toddlers, the TSA's foreign functional equivalents performing screening at airports aren't all the better -- and in at least one way they are even worse in the UK than the TSA in the US.

N965VJ

Posted elsewhere, but I think it's worth being in this thread. From a screener posting on Fark.com, although the term "Alarm Resolution Pat Down" only shows shows on FT for the moment on a Google search. Oopsie!

Any guesses what the acronym "SPD" stands for?



Here's the dealeo, if you alarm the WTMD for whatever reason, hip or knee replacement ie, and you are unable to divest enuff metal to clear with any further passes, you are now a recipient for a SPD.

We will pat down every inch of your bod and when we get to your mid section we will sliiiide a hand up your inner thigh til we "meet resistance" Exact wording.

Then, we swab our gloved hands and if they alarm, you then receive an "Alarm Resolution pat-down".

This is done by a Lead or a Sup. and is always done in a private screening area.
The only difference with this one is that when he/she gets to your "groin" area he/she is now going to turn his/her lil hands around and pass them over your "groin" area with the front of his/her hands 6 times. 3 across & 3 going down and then swab his/her hands again.

If they alarm again, well it gets a little gray after that.

fnaime23

read an article this morning about this. after refusing to get in the full body scan. so r the only two options now, abuse and getting a bit too close into ur personal space or radiation. Can I pay extra and avoid this, does business or first class capable of getting another option, maybe the old metal detector. I swear I would pay more to fly business if I don't have to die from radiation or get sexually abused.

Carnage

Yes because that is exactly what I said isn't it. but hey feel free not to be restrained. I was simply pointing out that security should be applied to all equally otherwise there is no point in having security.

How are they worse in the UK? Maybe with your wealth of experience you can explain this?