TSA spokesman tells outrageous lies about pat-down complaints
 

Here is an small excerpt of some recent events involving non-threatning passengers:

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/loc...a-news-broward

Not everyone has been reluctant to complain. Though the TSA won't release numbers, news reports and an informal survey of airport passengers indicate the agency has offended hundreds of women in the past two months.

It is funny how some posters here and the official TSA spokesperson said there are only a handful amount of complaints. The TSA won't release the number of complaints, however, you can bet is is significantly higher than several hundred. When these goons start telling the truth, they will be exposed for the entire world to see their unexplainable behavior.

Get it through your heads TSA: All pax should not be considered threats until they pass through your un-American screening.

Failure rates and complaint statistics are, I'm sure, SSI so we mere mortals who pay for this travesty will know nothing.

Here in our nation's capital, lying by government officials simply doesn't happen. Instead, it's called "truth biasing." ;)

concept
 

So you're saying that everyone at the gate is now a threat? What a concept!What a country!

These low numbers of complaints are bald-faced lies. They are only counting full written letters of complaint mailed to their offices: email and phone complaints go into the circular file.

If you care about rescuing your children and your wives from hideous sexual abuse, write a letter to the TSA's main office, and carbon-copy it to John Mica and your local senator, congressman. Please, write another letter to the editor of your local paper. I honestly believe if we keep the pressure on, we can make this nightmare stop.

I found a new address for sending complaints (I got this address from the DOT Air Consumer Protection division):

[edited to replace invalid address - the one below IS good]
Transportation Security Administration
601 South 12th Street
Arlington, VA 22202-4220

I totally agree. Maybe even our TSA friends would agree with this statement.

Bruce

I'm sorry you've had bad experiences with screening, GradGirl, but sometimes your rhetoric seems to be way over-the-top and your message gets lost in the rhetoric.

Saying that people who are being pat-down are victims of "hideous sexual abuse" is an insult to those people who really have been victims of hideous sexual abuse. I have relatives who have been such victims and I know they agree.

GradGirl is right in that the "low number" of complaints being reported by the TSA are those complaints made to the TSA, presumably both those made by telephone and those in writing (although they may only be referring to those made in writing, I don't know).

As for making the screening stop by complaining to Congress and the media... I disagree. Congress has given the TSA great discretion in how it operates, from security measures to personnel practices. I find it unlikely that Congress will "undo" what it has done.

The Aviation Transportation Security Act (ATSA) of 2001 allows the TSA to operate with more autonomy than any other federal agency. The TSA can take action against its personnel "without regard to any other federal law." TSA employees are the only federal employees who have to re-certify annually to keep their job and can be terminated "at will" with no appeal outside of the agency. But I digress.

For the sake of passengers and screeners, however, I hope I am wrong and that Congress rescinds those applicable portions of the ATSA that have contributed to the abuse and lack of accountability that is so prominent in the agency.

But as for the pat-down searches... Until the sniffer portals are deployed in every airport, I think the pat-downs are something that passengers (and screeners) are going to have to endure.

I'm not sure how valid that is. It looks like the old address for when TSA was part of DoT. TSA Hq is now in Arlington and there are no offices left within DoT, except for maybe a liaison person.

Thank you for the note, LeoB. I appreciate your correcting my information. The TSA's website lists the current address as :

Transportation Security Administration
601 South 12th Street
Arlington, VA 22202-4220


Send in those letters of complaint, everyone! Let's force the HQ to acknowledge the scope of the problem. Facing the existence of a problem is the first step toward change.

GradGirl, most people are fair-minded -- and that includes those of us who object to TSA policy.

Exaggerations such as the one I cited only serve to turn off those who are otherwise in your camp.

Gradgirl have you ever seen REAL victims of hideous sexual abuse? Have you ever done a post-mortem rape kit on a young woman who no longer had a face because hers was crushed with a crowbar? Have you ever sawed open the skull of a 6 year old kid who choked to death from forced oral intercourse? Have you ever picked pieces of skull out of a brain after a jilted lovers murder-suicide? There's just a few highlights but never once did I read anything about a security check or a HHMD doing anywhere near that kind of trauma.
I'm sure your experience sucked and i'm not trying to say it was right but come on! You act like you need to be in a support group for survivors or rape or something. I would really like to see the faces of the others in that group when you share your "traumatic" experience.

Gradgirl,
I too have relatives that were victims of sexual assault, and I wonder what their thoughts of the back of a hand tracing the underwire versus their abusive experience...

I do not mean to compare the two for you may deem this as sexual assault. I do not know your past, but I am assuming that this is the worst "sexual" experience you've had and thus you can rank it up there with rape or sexual molestation. I regret that your experience through screening was unpleasant, and I agree that our new procedures are overly invasive, but it is insulting to constantly see them placed in the same category as rape and sexual assault.

My biggest hope is that we do not have to go any further than we already have. Being that I was once a medic in the Army and that I have performed procedures that I am not too proud of, I would hate to have to go through that again. :eek: .ouch! Perhaps with the introduction of the new technology, these new procedures will be eliminated. I fear that it may take some time for all airports to receive these new "sniffing" portals.

Exactly. Read the TSA mandate. All passengers are considered a threat until they pass security. If not, profiling would be used and TSA wouldn't be feeling up people that pose no other threat than "loose clothes, big breasts, or especially the ones who get the GeSSSSapo designation." Do you really think someone who sees this on their boarding pass, and was planning on doing some harm, would actually go through security after knowng they were selected for secondary screening? Now you know why the TSA is out of control from top to bottom.

How long did it take you to come up with the "GeSSSapo" line. Boy, you must have been think for that for a while.

Do screeners really think a person who has SSSSs on their boarding pass and plans to commit harm will continue to secondary? Probably not but the screeners are charged to perform screening. The selectee system is not under the control of the screeners.