{"id":392,"date":"2010-11-24T12:03:23","date_gmt":"2010-11-24T10:03:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/?p=392"},"modified":"2015-04-28T00:41:51","modified_gmt":"2015-04-27T22:41:51","slug":"the-tsa-and-thanksgiving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/the-tsa-and-thanksgiving\/","title":{"rendered":"The TSA and Thanksgiving"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everyone in America loves this weekend, and everyone dreads it<\/span>.<\/p>\n

To us, Thanksgiving (the fourth Thursday in November)<\/b> is the biggest family holiday there is. Christmas is for the nuclear family<\/span>, but Thanksgiving is for the extended family<\/span>, from Grandma and Grandpa on down through the aunts and uncles to the children who have to sit at an extra table for dinner.<\/p>\n

The airports are unusually crowded<\/span> as all these people travel at once. This time, in at least 68 US airports<\/b>, many passengers will be asked to enter a full-body scanner<\/b> that uses “advanced<\/span> imaging technology” (AIT).<\/p>\n

Some of the 385 scanners used by America’s Transportation Security Administration<\/span> (TSA) employ millimeter radio waves<\/b>, like the ones in Germany. Others, however, use “backscattered” (reflected) X-rays<\/b>. The TSA claims: “The energy projected by millimeter-wave technology is thousands of times less than a cell-phone<\/span> transmission<\/span>. A single<\/span> scan using backscatter technology produces exposure<\/span> equivalent to two minutes of flying on an airplane.”<\/p>\n

However, because the effects of radiation<\/span> are cumulative, and because many Americans don’t want pictures of their bodies to be taken, the TSA allows a second option: to be “patted down<\/span>” (frisked<\/span>) by a security officer of the same sex, if the passenger asks to “opt out”. The pat-down involves the officer touching the inside of the leg<\/a> until the groin<\/span> is reached.<\/p>\n

Hands off!<\/h2>\n

This was too much for John Tyner, a student-age blogger<\/b> in San Diego, who was pulled out of the line<\/span> for the traditional magnetometer screening<\/span> and sent to the AIT. Doubting the safety of the new machine and the confidentiality<\/span> of the pictures it produces<\/a>, Tyner chose the pat-down. But when told how it would be done, he warned the officers: “If you touch my junk<\/span>, I’ll have<\/span> you arrested<\/span>.”<\/p>\n

“I repeated that I felt what they were doing was a sexual assault<\/span>, and that if they were anyone but<\/span> the government, the act<\/span> would be illegal,” Tyner states on his well-written blog<\/a>, which includes cell-phone video of much of the encounter.<\/p>\n

Tyner agreed not to fly, and got<\/span> the airline to refund<\/span> his plane ticket. However, he was told he could not leave the airport<\/b> because he had begun, then not completed, security screening. When he left anyway, he was threatened with a $10,000 fine<\/span> and sent a summons<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Tyner’s fascinating and detailed account<\/span> of a trip gone wrong is not the only one. Passengers at New York’s JFK Airport claimed in May that their valuables<\/span> were stolen while they were inside an AIT machine<\/a>, unable to keep an eye on their bags.<\/p>\n

Who wins?<\/h2>\n

Recent weeks have shown us that terrorists are getting cleverer and that we need closer inspections. But even the smartest equipment<\/span> won’t always help. A friend of mine who worked at a major German airport refuses<\/span> to fly with a certain Middle Eastern airline after seeing its first-class passengers led completely around the security area with their luggage<\/span>.<\/p>\n

The terrorists of September 11<\/a> did not fly economy class either. Nor did they have nail clippers<\/span>. Nor did they leave any fingerprints<\/span> (or irises) behind. But these terrorists, and the people who sent them, achieved what they were fighting for<\/b>. It wasn’t to defeat us. It was to inconvenience<\/span> and humiliate<\/span> us.<\/p>\n

The hijackers<\/span> of United Flight 93, as well as the shoe bomber, liquid bomber and underwear bomber, were stopped not by security checks<\/span>, but by the alertness<\/span> and heroic efforts<\/span> of other passengers.<\/p>\n

Tyner’s escapade on November 13 has made him a hero<\/a> among those who would<\/span> boycott the AIT machines on National Opt-Out Day<\/a> \u2014 Thanksgiving<\/b>. Just don’t touch their junk.<\/p>\n

\n

Language note:<\/b> “Junk”<\/b>, in this context, is American youth slang for the male (and occasionally female) genitalia. Tyner writes:<\/b> “I used the word ‘junk’ partly because I was uncomfortable using a more technical term and also as an attempt to introduce some levity<\/span> to what I knew was about to become a fairly tense situation<\/span>. I was actually trying to smile almost the entire time, trying to keep the situation from escalating.”<\/p>\n

\n

Update, Dec. 9:<\/b> John Tyner isn’t the only person with this problem. The Indian ambassador<\/span> is also upset<\/a> about being patted down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everyone in America loves this weekend, and everyone dreads it. To us, Thanksgiving (the fourth Thursday in November) is the biggest family holiday there is. Christmas is for the nuclear family, but Thanksgiving is for the extended family, from Grandma and Grandpa on down through the aunts and uncles to the children who have to sit at an extra table … >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[18,102,154,82,35,120],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1784,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392\/revisions\/1784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}