Fmr. Assistant TSA Administrator: Airport Pat-Downs a Violation of the Fourth Amendment (w/Video)

Three Fingers of Politics ^ | 11/15/10 | Stupac

[Superstu321]

In a Nov. 15 interview with the Fox News Channel, former TSA Administrator Mo McGowan admitted that the newly instated TSA pat downs are a violation of the Fourth amendment and said, “Nobody likes having their Fourth amendment violated going through a security line, but the truth of the matter is we’re going to have to do it.”

McGowan left the TSA in 2009 and was the Assistant Administrator for the Office of Security Operations. There he was in charge or the largest non-military workforce in the U.S. Government. McGowan currently is employed by the Command Consulting Group, a private “international advisory firm.”

In the last few weeks the TSA has drawn the ire of both sides of the political spectrum over their use of full-body pat-downs. Many have claimed it has violated their Fourth amendment right, which guards against unreasonable search and seizures. Some have gone so far as to claim they might be committing sexual harassment. TwitThis

[Tanniker Smith]

Agreed, especially since I don't know how you can make that case unless air travel is now designated a right of all Americans like healthcare.

Unless you are searched anyway after you decline to take the plane and state that you are leaving, which should end their jurisdiction (or whatever the term is) over you.

[41Thunder]

I’d like to know what law Congress passed authorizing molestation by the TSA at US airports. When was it passed, and what BOZO signed it into law!

[Mike Darancette]

What if it moves?

[Steely Tom]

Unless you are searched anyway after you decline to take the plane and state that you are leaving, which should end their jurisdiction (or whatever the term is) over you.

Controlling legal authority?

[jonrick46]

I believe that technology will be the answer to this dilemma which seeks to detect explosive materials and other materials meant to do harm while on the other hand, minimizing the invasion of personal privacy.

There is one troubling method that avoids the type of detection now being employed. It is the surgical implanting of explosive materials that can be triggered to explode with inductive coupling. Standard X-ray scanning devices will fail to detect deep body cavity explosives and their electronic triggering mechanisms. All circuits and all wires can be hidden inside a body cavity to be triggered inductively by specially engineered devices that are inbedded in the circuits of commonly used devices. To detect such devices, one will have to do hospital type X-rays on every passenger. And that will be challenging because it would require an X-ray scrutiny of great detail to see wires and electronic circuits hidden inside bones and explosives made to look like body fat. The human body becomes the bomb strong enough to blow a hole through the pressurized cabin of an airplane. Because of the hazards of X-rays, such a procedure would not be good for the public health.

If I can think of a way to circumvent the nuisance procedures of airport workers, I can imagine what is being developed by those who want to take down the air transportation industry of the West.

That is why more advanced scanning devices need to be developed that detect the chemicals used in bombs or the materials used in circuits which trigger the bomb chemistry. Such devices would not image the private parts of the body. It would only be able to detect chemistry deep inside the body and display the chemistry being detected.