Msliberty

This is a letter I sent earlier today, so too early for a response. Will post when/if I get one.

Dear Senator Boxer,

I am really concerned about the new body scanners. There are all kinds of long term issues that have not been even considered.

What about a fetus in a pregnant woman?
What about young children (who are more sensitive to radiation)? What about people with in remission melanoma?
What about individuals that have very sensitive skin that radiation
could harm?

To add to the health concerns there is the question of privacy. I won't go into all the issues there as you have probably heard it all.

Ok, so we opt for the pat-down instead. Do you really think it is necessary to grab someone's genitals and breast (which get twisted and pulled)?
What about young children whose parents have told them never to let anyone touch their private parts (oh, except the government?)?
What about young teenage girls (and boys) who are already embarrassed by their changing young bodies, how humiliating!!!
What about all the older (or any) persons who cannot go through the X-ray due to health reasons and have no choice, how humiliating?

There are better (and cheaper) ways to find drugs, bombs, etc and one is using dogs trained to sniff this stuff out.
Up the sensitivity of the metal detectors, and have teams that carefully watch people for suspicious behavior (regardless of color, dress, sex, etc.)

I would rather give up some more information (like place of Birth, mother's maiden name, etc) or even more info if necessary when I buy a ticket to assure I am the one checking in at the airport and that I am not a security risk. This would allow me to go through the metal detectors and not the scanners or pat-downs.
I would also pay for a security clearance to avoid the 2 new methods just put in place.

The terrorists have really won, as America's civil liberties as well as civility have been, not so slowly, taken away. Yet they will find away around this technology and the next and the next while the citizens of America continue to be herded and humiliated and the terrorists get the final laugh.

I urge you to have the TSA reconsider these methods. I am sure you realize that the TSA employees are only required to have a GED or HS diploma and that they are basically paid a low wage.
These are not the individuals that should be in charge of equipment that could easily malfunction and potentially give travelers a higher dose of radiation.
Please push for no more groping of genitals and breasts this will eventually lead to some law suites I am sure, especially with children involved.

Please help restore some common sense to the TSA. We are all in this together, we all need to live with ourselves and others with a sense of respect and dignity.

Sincerely,

DrLeeCRogers

November 14, 2010

Re: Airport Screening Procedures

Dear [Sent to my congressmen, senators, and American Airlines],

I am a podiatrist, author, and international speaker and I practice at Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys, CA. I am a frequent flyer (Executive Platinum) with American Airlines and fly over 150,000 miles per year on AA and other airlines.

I am expressing my deep concern over the new TSA screening procedures using Advanced Imaging Technology including backscatter x-rays and �enhanced pat downs�.

First, as a doctor, the backscatter x-rays have not been proven safe by an independent body of experts, notwithstanding their questionable effectiveness at uncovering paraphernalia on dedicated terrorists. There is no FDA oversight, as there is with other radiation-emitting devices used for medical purposes. The operators of the devices are not certified to utilize those devices. No one knows the cumulative effect of chronic exposure to this radiation on airline employees or frequent flyers. If this were a medical device, it would require years of research. But because it might uncover a terrorist, medical safety is cast aside.

Second, the �enhanced pat down� is humiliating and is a violation of privacy. It violates the Fourth Amendment because it subjects one to a search by a government officer without probable cause or even the lower standard of reasonable suspicion. It would be the equivalent of searching every home on a block to possibly uncover illegal activity. Additionally, I have an 18-month-old daughter. Like all parents, I will teach her that it is not appropriate for any adult to touch certain parts of her body. But when we travel together, I will be idly standing by giving my forced consent for a government official to touch her inappropriately, without any cause.

Must we all give up our civil liberties as a reactionary measure by the government to terror acts and threats? I have already delivered several lectures by Apple iChat where I can sit in my office and avoid travel. These new screening procedures and hassles are causing me to explore how I can avoid air travel through new technology. I estimate that my travel expenditures are around $100,000 per year in airfare, hotel, ground transport, and meals. Can the travel industry and the economy really afford to lose many loyal travelers like me?

Sincerely,

divemistressofthedark

Folks, these issues are coming up again. If you've written any letters lately you don't mind sharing, please post 'em here.

I'm going to update the letter in the OP tonight to reflect some new developments (I'd do it now but I'm late for a meeting). Check back later if you're interested.

I reiterate, anyone fighting the AITs/groping has my express permission to borrow, adapt or modify anything I've personally written for his or her own purposes.

stifle

Customer Relations
Aer Lingus
Dublin Airport
Co. Dublin
Ireland


Re: Dangerous and undignified airport security

Dear Sir/Madam,

I have travelled with Aer Lingus numerous times over the past ten years and have rarely been anything but very satisfied with my travel experiences on board as well as before and after flying.

I�ve recently had to move to England for work, and of course will want to get back to Ireland on a regular basis, and up until last year, my first and only port of call for this journey would have been aerlingus.com. In the same way, I�ve never flown transatlantic with any other airline, and hadn�t had any reason to change that habit.

Unfortunately, I do have to change. Why is this? Because the airports I�d have to use to make my journey have chosen to install millimetre wave scanners and/or back-scatter X-ray scanners at their security checkpoints. These scanners, as you may know, are used instead of or in addition to the traditional walk-through metal detectors. The metal detectors, in conjunction with baggage x-ray, have proved eminently successful in Ireland and other countries at preventing onboard terrorism incidents.

The problem is twofold. There is limited if any scientific evidence that the scanners are safe to go through on a regular basis. It is common knowledge that x-rays are harmful, and little is known about the safety of millimetre waves. Those studies that have taken place work on the assumption that the systems are properly installed and maintained, which in a world of cutbacks is surely not an assumption we should stake our health on. Secondly, the images that the scanners produce (you can see samples on the website www.dontscan.me as well as many other sites) leave little to the imagination. If a minor was scanned I should think the image would count as pornographic. Plus, there is in many cases no control over how long the images are stored for, or anything to prevent the security agent reproducing it on a mobile phone calendar or similar device.

While some airports allow selected passengers to opt not to be scanned (although not those in the United Kingdom), this is often at the cost of a highly intimate frisk search which would be just about tolerable in a maximum-security prison.

As a result, I have serious reservations about travelling from any airport where these devices are installed, and once I have flown my existing bookings I will have to think long and hard about whether I am able to risk making a new booking where my dignity and health are put at risk.

The scanners operate at London Heathrow, London Gatwick, and Manchester airports, and are shortly to be installed in Birmingham. So now, to fly from London I need to choose Stansted, Luton, or City airports, none of which, regrettably, have an Aer Lingus service. Similarly, as all the airports served by Aer Lingus in the USA operate the scanners, I will be forced to use different airlines� services should I choose to travel there.

I am disappointed to have to cut down my use of your services, but I know that through the aviation industry, if not directly, you have contact with many government officials. I do not know how frequently you receive letters like this, but if it is regular, then perhaps in the interest of protecting your revenue you may wish to use those contacts to ensure that the health and dignity of passengers are not sacrificed in order to create the illusion of better airport security � let�s not forget that there has not yet been any confirmed detection in the UK by the scanners of any dangerous device which would not have been found by traditional security methods.

Yours sincerely,

stifle

divemistressofthedark

Thanks a lot, stifle. That letter reads beautifully.

I have updated the letter in the OP. It's way long, but folks are welcome to use whatever they like - even a couple of sentences - if that's all you have time to send.

Oneworldplus2

This letter has been doing the rounds on the 'net, l'm not sure if it has been posted yet on FT.

DevilDog438

Cannot find it right now, but that has been posted and debunked multiple times.

jtb226

FYI - not sure if it has been posted elsewhere in this thread, but [email protected] is not a valid email address. I believe it is [email protected]. Haven't received a reply yet, but it didn't kick back like the original did.

user_from_california

Hello, I really appreciate your feedback and comment on my letter to senator Boxer. English is not primary language

Dear Senator Boxer,

I recently had the experience of traveling by air to Las Vegas, flight ... Of course, this required that I go through the security lanes at the airport manned by the TSA.

I was asked to go through the Whole Body Imaging device twice. I am a breast cancer survivor. My breast is mutilated by the surgery, probably it set up an alarm for the scanner.

Next step I was ordered to get pat down by the TSA agent. At my station the agent was busy frisking the old, really old lady. So I got a volunteer from another station.

She slowly groped my genitals, buttocks and breasts. She pulled up my sweater so she can touch my waistline. I was sexually assaulted in front my horrified husband and a dozen of other, also horrified, passengers.
Then, smiling, she asked me with the curiosity 'Is it your first time?' It triggered my memory which I was to trying to suppress all these years. I was assaulted when I was a child, and a rapist asked the same question with the same curios expression on his face. Now I remember.

How is it possible that sexual assault is protected by law in this country? What is your role to make is legal?
My citizens' rights to privacy are jeopardized, my constitutional rights are infringed. What are you going to do to restore the law?
Do you get the same treatment at the airports or you found the way to exempt you from this procedure? If you exempt, please, explain, why?
In case you don't know, these �security measures� do not work. Read these articles:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/201...70_247786.html

http://www.truthistreason.net/tsa-fa...a-surprisingly

and so on.

I travel all over the world. There is only one country in the world treats air passengers as criminals. What did you do to prevent this country to slip further? What are going to do to restore this country image?

I did not vote for you because I do not consider you as a strong person in regards of human right protection. Now it is your time to prove me wrong.

Thank you

Your constituent,

(your name)

divemistressofthedark

(applause)

Come to think, I need to send mine again, since I only heard back from one of my elected reps (Sen. Lamar Alexander.)

ladytraveler

Can anyone tell me if the addresses in the first post on this thread are up-to-date? I'd like to send some letters, but the thread hasn't been updated in a while, as far as I can tell. I've checked the airlines websites (Delta, United, and USAirways) and it's hard to figure out where to send an actual paper letter. Thanks.

PS. I wanted to tell them that I just drove 2400 miles from San Diego to Columbia, SC because I didn't want to go through the hassle it now is to get on an airplane. It was a lovely trip!

InkUnderNails

Please, please do not read the sample letters I wrote early in this thread. I was on some pretty potent meds.

My son was threatening to buy a tranquilizer gun to put me down safely. It was a fun time.

Addition:

Just went back and reread my posts. Good thing this was before the split or I would have been bounced to the spitball side in a New York minute.

Schmurrr

New poster here. For what it's worth, I thought I'd share the response I received from Congressman John Mica (well, his office) on December 29, 2010.

Dear (me):

Thank you for contacting me with your comments about the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), intrusive pat-downs and privatization of security operations at our airports. It was good to hear from you.

I share your concern about TSA's use of intrusive procedures and technology which violates our right of privacy. Like you, I believe there is a better way. When I helped draft the TSA law in 2001 my original draft called for private security companies, with federal training and oversight. While the majority of my colleagues voted for a new public screening force, I was able to put into the law a provision for five airports to remain private, with TSA oversight and training. Those five airports have consistently performed better than public TSA screeners in tests and evaluations conducted by the Government Accountability Office and TSA itself. I also included in the law a provision allowing for airports to opt-out of federal screening, switching to private. They would still be subject to TSA oversight and training. About a dozen airports have done so. However, TSA has attempted to discourage and block attempts by airports to exercise their opt-out. In an effort to move the process along, recently I wrote to directors of 100 major airports reminding them of the opt-out provision in law and encouraging them to consider it.

In my view, the TSA has become an out-of-control, bloated agency. With 63,000 current screeners and 3,500 high paid administrators in Washington, this agency is more than three times larger than originally authorized and envisioned. I feel it is time to act to bring some common sense to the process, and you can be assured that I will continue working to right-size this agency and improve our security procedures. Thank you again for contacting me on this matter.

Now that I'm on his mailing list, I get "updates" every so often. The latest was the news about TSA storing millions of dollars of security equipment in a Dallas warehouse.

cbn42

He has very conveniently avoided mentioning the scanners and pat-downs at all. Instead, he has taken the opportunity to push his own political agenda.

When I am at an airport, I don't want to be irradiated, and I don't want to be groped. I couldn't care less whether the guy running the machine or doing the groping is on the payroll of the federal government or a contractor.