IrishDoesntFlyNow

The video accompanying the interview made it pretty clear that the procedure is, as usual for TSA, hardly consistent. It's also clear that the terms "grope" and/or "fondle" are applicable.

Link for those who missed it.


~~ Irish

Boggie Dog

12 or 13 through 17, children and young adults should not be electronically striped searched or felt up by TSA unless some very compelling reasons are present. If those reasons are present then a LEO should be summoned.

Neither should adults!

GUWonder

DHS/TSA seems to be grooming children for sexual exploitation. Why else is the TSA encouraging children between the ages of 13-17 to let other people see them naked and rub their hands all over their body? All those lessons warning about sexual exploitation of minors -- from sickos wanting to see children naked to those same sickos wanting to rub against the private parts of young children (including 13-17 years old teenagers) -- are getting undermined by DHS/TSA.

DHS/TSA is the child molesters' dream and the parents' nightmare.

pirossalma

But probably the same targeted soccer moms will be very angry, when they meet the reality: TSO's have not got the memo on this new rule. Deifinitely kids have not been exempted from pat-downs so far.

Btw so now it is ok to tell the 'enemy' the gap of the security?

gobluetwo

Actually, I believe what he said is that kids 12 and under would not receive "that level of patdown," or something to that effect. What I got from it was that they would not be getting the "enhanced" standard patdown, but the old standard patdown. I really wish Lauer had asked the follow-up - what WILL happen to those 12 and under? Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Which takes my level of pissed-offedness, on a scale of 1 to 10, down from an 11 to a 10. I thought about whether I'd be ok with some TSA employee doing a previously standard standard patdown on my 5 year old if I were watching closely and, well, no dice.

Also, on the images of the men's bodies they showed on the piece, you could make out the guy's organ quite clearly. Also also, they showed toward the end what is a cartoonish figure with yellow squares all over the body, apparently representing what passengers and TSA employees at the gate can see. No commentary, just an assumption on my part. A far cry from what the person behind the curtain has to assess "in a matter of seconds."

CaptainMiles

People will kids should get that clip from Pistole on their phones, to play to the TSOs that have not yet gotten the memo on the policy.

doober

If they showed that image, it was duplicitous because that's the ATR image which the TSA says isn't up to their "standards" and is not used in the US although it is used abroad.

sbagdon

At least on CNN, I was taking that box to be a floating magnifying tool, something similar to photoshop. Move it around, to zoom in on the area in question. And the images they showed didn't leave much to the imagination, with highlights/lowlights showing every curve of the torso and genitals, including closeups using the tool.

I'm not picking sides, yet at least this shows the public the tools used, so they can make up their own mind of how to act/react.

tev9999

He was also on CNN American Morning after the Fox bit. John Roberts did press him on the claims that NoS would not have detected the underwear bomber. He basically said "it would have (trust us)" and went on about how they had to make everyone on the plane feel that every other passenger had been screened properly and there were no box cutters or bombs on board. He also hinted there might be some compromise coming with pilots.

Global_Hi_Flyer

Of course. The networks don't do real news any more. They just spout the government party line.

That and the Pilots - intended to divide and conquer the public.

ZFlyer72

I didn't hear the show but I can say that whether a fluke or not, neither me, my wife or six year old daughter were asked to go through the MMW at DTW or RDU over the weekend. We were ready to "Opt out".
There was a radio snippet from Napolitano this morning and an "independent expert" sound bite saying the scanners are great.

slidergirl

It was a little sad to see the old boxcutters, shoe bomb examples trotted out yet again. Lauer was a little soft, but did mention the touching of "private parts". There's only so much one can do in a 3 minute interview...

The "irresponsible" reply about Opt-out Day gave me the feeling that heavy retributions will be brought onto anyone daring to "disrupt and delay" fellow passengers that day. He did misspeak on this - he said that those of us who opt out don't want to go through any scanning. Wrongo. I'd be OK with the old status quo - WTMD and a light patdown. Maybe those traveling on 11/24 need to be at the airport 4 hours ahead of their flights...Wanna bet that they staff down on the female TSOs who work that day???

Scubatooth

If pissy and the TSA goon squad want to try that there going to have cameras covering there every move.

Personally i have 3 different cameras I will have on me and that 2 of the 3 will have capability to relay video and photo over wireless back to my car in the parking lot which then will upload them to my secure server. It would only take a single text message to a friend of mine to go in grab those videos and publish them to Youtube and have copies on newsroom editors desks very shortly.

TSA causing people to miss there flights because of there tactics could backfire and the travelers and airlines coming after them for fees, and other losses

gobluetwo

I, too, was disappointed with the "storming the cockpit with boxcutters" example, especially. Ever since they've battoned down the hatches, so to speak, it seems unlikely that this would work.

I've also always wanted to ask if they've ever had to undergo the invasive patdowns, or if they would allow their teenager to be subjected to it.

MikeMpls

I couldn't watch the whole clip. Pistole was making me ill, and I only have one laptop.

The checkpoint video was great, however, and I doubt the despots got a net gain of converts from this interview. They clearly showed people being groped, front & back, top & bottom, including one white-haired grandma who got her boobs checked out. As long as realistic video of the searches is run, Pistole loses.

Their arrogance & intransigence is just incredible. I can't recall any worse example at the federal level in the 5-6 decades that I've been around. Let them keep at it. The deeper they dig themselves in, the more likely we are simply to abolish die Transportsturmabteilung.