Hats, turbans part of new extra screening at airports

WASHINGTON - Was it the monkey smuggled under a man's hat on a flight into LaGuardia Airport earlier this month? Or does the new hat screening policy reflect concerns that terrorists will find novel means to bring explosives onto airliners?

The Transportation Security Administration won't say.

But an Aug. 4 directive advising the nation's 43,000 airport screeners to scrutinize anyone wearing a head covering that might hide explosives -- be it a turban, baseball cap or beret -- is prompting bitter denunciations by Sikhs and Muslims, whose head coverings are part of their religious observance.

"We have complaints from our community that the way it's being conveyed on the ground is a mandatory pat-down [of turbans]," said Neha Singh of the Sikh Coalition, the nation's largest Sikh civil rights organization. "People who travel all the time tell us that they're stopped every time."

A Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman denied that turban pat-downs are mandatory, or that the agency is engaging in religious or ethnic profiling. "This is not a profiling issue, and in fact we have multiple measures in place to make sure profiling does not occur," said the spokeswoman, Amy Kudwa.

She said that the revised procedures urge screeners to be vigilant about any attire that might hide an improvised explosive device. She declined to be specific for security reasons. But sources who have seen the instructions say they mention several types of hats and dress as potentially suspicious, among them turbans, cowboy hats, long stocking caps and habits.

Kudwa also downplayed any connection between the new focus and the monkey smuggling incident, which occurred on a Spirit Airlines flight from Lima, Peru. "We make adjustments to our screening procedures all the time," she said.
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Security Screening of Head Coverings

On August 4, 2007, TSA implemented revisions to its screening procedures for head coverings. TSA does not conduct ethnic or religious profiling, and employs multiple checks and balances to ensure profiling does not happen.

All members of the traveling public are permitted to wear head coverings (whether religious or not) through the security checkpoints. The new standard procedures subject all persons wearing head coverings to the possibility of additional security screening, which may include a pat-down search of the head covering.

Individuals may be referred for additional screening if the security officer cannot reasonably determine that the head area is free of a detectable threat item. If the issue cannot be resolved through a pat-down search, the individual will be offered the opportunity to remove the head covering in a private screening area.

TSA's security procedures, including the procedures for screening head coverings, are designed to ensure the security of the traveling public. These procedures are part of TSA's multi-layered approach to security screening

This could be anything from a loose fitting shirt to baggy pants. How about just employing the puffers at all airports and actually use them?

There you go with common sense suggestions again.

Why bother investing in equipment that actually detects explosives, when you can employee thousands of people to harass people, sniff their shoes, pat down their heads, and miss up to 90% of the bombs that test crews smuggle though???

Bingo! That's exactly the reason. If TSA actually had equipment that detected explosives, there might not be a need for Thousands Standing Around.

Last week I met a woman who told me about her Cuban friend who smuggled a parrot through customs by putting it in her pants. She drugged the bird to keep it quiet but it started to wake up during the flight. She went to the bathroom and gave it another pill - which knocked it out for a few days - and successfully completed her smuggling operation.

more stupidity from the US Govt...


http://www.mercurynews.com/religion/...nclick_check=1

Sikh men feel targeted at airports
TURBAN `SEARCHES' ANGERS COMMUNITY
By Rebecca Rosen Lum
MediaNews
Article Launched: 08/28/2007 01:39:46 AM PDT



A new Homeland Security Department policy singles out Sikh men for rigorous airport security searches at the discretion of screeners, a national civil rights organization says.

The United Sikh Coalition has written to Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff to protest the policy, implemented Aug. 4, which it says amounts to racial profiling. Nearly 2,000 have signed petitions.

Previously, travelers wearing turbans were searched only if they failed to clear metal detectors or other preliminary checks. The new rules, implemented Aug. 4, allow pat-downs of religious headgear at the screener's discretion.

For the world's 25 million Sikhs, the turban is an article of faith, only to be removed in the home or in private.

"In the last three weeks, we've heard dozens of complaints, people being asked to remove their turbans in public and denied the use of a mirror or space to re-tie them, said Kavneet Singh, East Bay resident and director of the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund. "For a Sikh man, that's like being strip-searched."

J.P. Singh, president of the Sikh Center of the San Francisco Bay Area in El Sobrante, teaches Department of Justice and local law enforcement agencies about Sikh practices.

"It's like asking a woman to take off her blouse in public," he said. "It's that bad."

Continued...

"What was very strange to us is they are saying it's totally up to the screener," he said. "It's the perception of the screener. And that person could be biased."

Screeners may also search people wearing cowboy hats or straw hats. Skullcaps, worn by many observant Jews, are not on the list of suspicious head coverings, "so it means a specific community is targeted," Kuldip Singh said.

http://www.mercurynews.com/religion/...nclick_check=1

Obviously, she hasn't tried flying while being a brown skinned, middle eastern or hispanic looking, male through GSO lately.

I know, I know. I keep forgetting that common sense and TSA are opposing poles on a continuum.

Fortunately, the TSA hasn't discovered yet that people have pants pockets.

Mike

Keep telling yourself that, TSA!!!

Or body cavities. Kip needs to be strung up like a pinata and given a couple of good whacks with a stick. What an idiot.

Or shown where those orifices are with a stick.

Hats & headware in general needed to come off previously, right? The TSOs I dealt with sure seemed to think so.

So is this then that the TSA will no longer honor religious customs regarding hats, etc.?

I wear my USMC ballcap all the time when traveling, have never been requested to remove it.

Guess you've been lucky, and I have not. No matter whether it's a ball cap or a fedora, anytime I've tried to go through the WTMD with one on (and a lot of time just when approaching the x-ray to deposit my bins), a TSO has said, "Your hat, too."