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Most holiday travelers opted for controversial full-body scanners, TSA says

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Most holiday travelers opted for controversial full-body scanners, TSA says

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Old Nov 29, 2010, 6:58 pm
  #1  
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Most holiday travelers opted for controversial full-body scanners, TSA says

the Transportation Security Administration said 99 percent of holiday travelers opted in nationwide
Jim Fotenos, a TSA spokesman. “The opt-in rates for Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) over the long holiday weekend are consistent with what we've seen since this technology was deployed in 2007 — approximately 99 percent chose to be screened with AIT.”
from the same article:
For most travelers through Newark Liberty International Airport, however, the choice between a full-body scan and an aggressive pat-down was strictly academic. The half-dozen scanners now operational at Newark Liberty were largely idle during Opt Out Day -- and for much of the Thanksgiving holiday before and afterward -- depriving passengers of the opportunity to opt out even if they had wanted to.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/201...travelers.html

Well, any publicity is good publicity, I guess. Anybody who reads the article knows the banner is TSA BS.
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Old Nov 29, 2010, 7:16 pm
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Not surprised. Odd as it sounds for many being seen nude by anonymous person they can not see is better than being felt up by some stranger. Mental contact vs physical contact. That said the smarter ones at least know that both are theatre. Others are sure the guvmint is doing the right thing.
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Old Nov 29, 2010, 7:18 pm
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TSA math is funny

How could 99% opt-in if only about 1% are randomly-selected to have the option?
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Old Nov 29, 2010, 7:20 pm
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I purposely waited a bit at SFO T1 11/24 around 1230 to see if anyone fell for that silly NOOD; for the 5 mins I was watching, all but 2 people went thru the NoS but nobody else seemed to care. FT seems to forget it's its own fishbowl.
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Old Nov 29, 2010, 7:56 pm
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Originally Posted by kennycrudup
I purposely waited a bit at SFO T1 11/24 around 1230 to see if anyone fell for that silly NOOD; for the 5 mins I was watching, all but 2 people went thru the NoS but nobody else seemed to care. FT seems to forget it's its own fishbowl.
Could you be more specific, please? How much is 'all but 2'?

I have yet to see anyone get through the NoS in less than 2 minutes - sometimes much longer.
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Old Nov 29, 2010, 8:03 pm
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Originally Posted by pmocek
How could 99% opt-in if only about 1% are randomly-selected to have the option?
TSA logic works something like this.

We have two choices: the NoS or the grope. The default choice is the NoS. Those who don't specifically opt out of it have therefore opted in, even though that was the choice TSA steered pax to and may not have communicated it was optional. Of course, TSA may have otherwise "persuaded" people that were going to opt out to opt in thru intimidation.

Now since we know that most of the NoS weren't in use across the country, there was nothing to opt out of. Since the default decision was the NoS, therefore people had opted in by default. TSA claims victory.

Confused? I'm sure that's exactly what TSA wanted.
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Old Nov 29, 2010, 8:15 pm
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Originally Posted by Superguy
TSA logic works something like this.

We have two choices: the NoS or the grope. The default choice is the NoS. Those who don't specifically opt out of it have therefore opted in, even though that was the choice TSA steered pax to and may not have communicated it was optional. Of course, TSA may have otherwise "persuaded" people that were going to opt out to opt in thru intimidation.

Now since we know that most of the NoS weren't in use across the country, there was nothing to opt out of. Since the default decision was the NoS, therefore people had opted in by default. TSA claims victory.

Confused? I'm sure that's exactly what TSA wanted.
That sounds right, I mean..., wrong, I mean..., uh, typical of TSA.

It also looks like "99%" is TSA code for "we really don't have any numbers but we want to make it sound good." They have to make it consistent with their earlier (equally unsupported) claims that "99% of passengers think the NoS is a good idea."
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Old Nov 29, 2010, 8:15 pm
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Originally Posted by Superguy
TSA logic works something like this.

We have two choices: the NoS or the grope. The default choice is the NoS. Those who don't specifically opt out of it have therefore opted in, even though that was the choice TSA steered pax to and may not have communicated it was optional. Of course, TSA may have otherwise "persuaded" people that were going to opt out to opt in thru intimidation.

Now since we know that most of the NoS weren't in use across the country, there was nothing to opt out of. Since the default decision was the NoS, therefore people had opted in by default. TSA claims victory.

Confused? I'm sure that's exactly what TSA wanted.
I'm still confused by the reference to a 2007 deployment date?? How did I miss that?
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Old Nov 29, 2010, 8:24 pm
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Originally Posted by RadioGirl
That sounds right, I mean..., wrong, I mean..., uh, typical of TSA.

It also looks like "99%" is TSA code for "we really don't have any numbers but we want to make it sound good." They have to make it consistent with their earlier (equally unsupported) claims that "99% of passengers think the NoS is a good idea."
Or, TSA was able to "beat" 99% of the people into submission. The other 1% were found to be freethinking and were referred for re-education further screening.
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Old Nov 29, 2010, 8:36 pm
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NOS were off at both MSP and EWR over the past week for me...
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Old Nov 29, 2010, 8:57 pm
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Also turned off @ DEN on Monday
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Old Nov 29, 2010, 9:37 pm
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How could 99% of the travelers through the airports go through the WBIs if they were roped off?

They certainly were in very, very, very limited operation at PHX this past Wednesday. So, if PHX had, say, 50,000 passengers go through TSA screening on that day and only one checkpoint with WBI (there are four checkpoints alone in T4), that would be some feat to come up with 99% of the passengers at PHX going through the WBIs.

But, then again, the TSA has been known to lie and spin in order to further its manifesto.
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Old Nov 29, 2010, 10:01 pm
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TSA, how can some one opt out when the "nudie" lanes are closed or folks who planned to opt out were sent to the WTMD ?
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Old Nov 29, 2010, 10:18 pm
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Originally Posted by kennycrudup
FT seems to forget it's its own fishbowl.
Sadly, we are all too aware that we have an understanding not shared by the general public.
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Old Nov 30, 2010, 1:18 am
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Originally Posted by chollie
Originally Posted by Superguy
TSA logic works something like this.

We have two choices: the NoS or the grope. The default choice is the NoS. Those who don't specifically opt out of it have therefore opted in, even though that was the choice TSA steered pax to and may not have communicated it was optional. Of course, TSA may have otherwise "persuaded" people that were going to opt out to opt in thru intimidation.

Now since we know that most of the NoS weren't in use across the country, there was nothing to opt out of. Since the default decision was the NoS, therefore people had opted in by default. TSA claims victory.

Confused? I'm sure that's exactly what TSA wanted.
I'm still confused by the reference to a 2007 deployment date?? How did I miss that?
They stuck the first backscatter machine in Phoenix back in 2007. It's been sitting at the D checkpoint in a corner ever since. It is a gigantic brown thing that looks like a big air-conditioning unit. A totally different thing than the current ones...

I haven't used WN out of Phoenix since April, so I'm not sure if it's still there. It was in April though.
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