Originally Posted by uavking

Nude-o-scope was in action at the ORD T3 AA priority checkpoint this morning at around 0545. I stated that I opted out, and the gate smurf got on his radio for another smurf to pat me down. Walked through the WBI only after I was assured that it wasn't active and held on the other side for patdown.

The patdown smurf initially seemed to have some sense in that he switched gloves without prompting and let me keep in line of sight of my gear. The patdown, however, was the most aggressive patdown I've had, and that includes CDG and FRA. In fact, it was very akin to an EPW (prisoner of war) search in its aggressiveness. The smurf used his palms and grabbed my rear multiple times and poked around my front pretty firmly (I was wearing 5.11 tactical pants, so maybe his justification was to "thoroughly search" the rear slash pockets on them, but maybe he just hadn't got any action in awhile.). I had my passport, boarding pass, earplugs, and eye shade in one of my cargo pockets and removed these so the smurf could glance at them, but did not hand them over at first.

This is where it got even more interesting. The smurf demanded that he search my documents, and I declined citing the 4th Amendment. He went away in a huff and got a two striper. This two striper then got in my face and demanded to know what I was "concealing." I stated that I complied with the search but that I was not going to give up my Constitutional rights concerning my documents. This really ticked him off and I got several variants of "do you want to fly today?" By this time, the explosives test of patdown smurf's gloves came up negative. Two striper, however, thought it would be cool to yank my papers out of my hand, flip through my passport, and make more snide comments about how I was "trying to hide something." At that point, the smurfs backed off, I got my gear back and cleared the checkpoint onto the concourse, as I was too tired and angry to deal with that nonsense further.

Like Italy98, I've done my time in the Army, and I remember vividly the Oath of Enlistment and what it means. I find TSAs disregard for the Constitution disgusting, and I was this morning, and still am, pretty ashamed to be an American traveling in a country that seems to have lost its soul.