Posted on 11/17/2010 10:32:49 AM PST by markomalley
The head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) offered on Wednesday to have airport screeners come to Capitol Hill to give senators a pat-down so they could fully understand the mechanics of the newly deployed, controversial technique.
John Pistole told senators on the Senate Science, Commerce and Transportation Committee that he insisted on receiving the pat-down to experience what that involves so that we would know before we rolled it out, and added that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has gotten a pat-down as well.
Honestly, any member who has not experienced that pat-down [and] who would like to do that I would not offer it but an experienced qualified security officer would be glad to do that, Pistole said.
Pistole has been at the center of growing public concern about the new pat-down techniques, which he described as clearly more invasive than the traditional screening airline passengers have been used to. But, he said, the invasiveness is justified by the level and types of threats to the airline industry that he is privy to.
Yes, it was more invasive than what I was used to, said Pistole. Of course, whats in my mind is what are the plots out there, how are we informed by the latest intelligence and latest technology and what do we need to do to ensure the American people that as they travel that we are being thorough.
So yes, it is clearly more invasive. The purpose of that is obviously to detect the type of devices that we had not seen before last Christmas. I am very sensitive to and concerned about peoples privacy concerns and I want to work through that as best we can.
Pistole told a separate panel of senators yesterday that the pat-down technique is so thorough that, had it been used, it would have thwarted the suspected Christmas Day bomber, who allegedly hid an explosive device in his underwear.
He declined to go into specific details on Wednesday about what the pat-down technique entails, saying that he didnt want to give a road map to anybody on how to defeat the technique.
Under new TSA rules, passengers are required to go through whole-body imaging systems. But because some people believe that the technology is too invasive, TSA officials give people the option of passing through a metal detector or receiving a pat-down, which some have said makes them feel like theyre being groped.
Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) said he went through the whole-body imaging system and then received a pat-down before a recent flight. Pistole said he wasnt sure how that would have happened under the current security guidelines in place at airports.
Pistole said he hopes that new screening technology will soon be available that will depict images of passengers that are more like stick-figures than the life-like representation currently produced by whole-body imaging systems, which have spurred privacy concerns.
Nearly all of the senators at Wednesday's hearing said they had received dozens, and in some cases hundreds, of phone calls from concerned constituents about the new screening procedures.
Senator Claire McCaskell just called them “security love pats.” How nice! One wonders just how Claire would like to be “love patted?” My guess is that it’s a task even a TSA employee would refuse.
Nonsense. Full body cavity search will be the norm once the jihadist nutjobs figure out how to use suppositories smoother than cornhusks.
The sheer innanity of this “security protocol” is galling, and it’s good to see that some people are making a stink about it.
But I don’t think it’s going to do any good at all to complain about the inconvenience without also noting that significant security issues remain utterly unaddressed.
We simply have to be willing to speak the truth: we have to look for the bomber as well as the bomb. Even more so. Yes, some innocent people “matching the profile” will be unfairly singled out. Yes, some could still slip through a poorly designed (or even the best designed) system.
But we don’t need to surrender our principles, or our health (ionizing radiation anyone?), or our privacy to get an adequate level of security. We just have to take security seriously, and hold our “leaders” to account.
Any Senator serious about the truth will fly with the masses, so he can not be recognized by the screened. Let everyone on the subcommittee go through it a dozen times until they have adequate data about reality.
I say make Pistole go through a full body cavity search every time he comes to testify then schedule him for a full month of testimony. Then he can start making offers to senators.
The TSA had BETTER NOT say to Sen Boxer: “Step over here, Ma’am.”
Anyone think that Congress would get the same treatment as the rest of us. They’d get a little pt then scold the rest of us getting the TSA real treatment.
when he gets ‘round to patting down Al Franken can we have it televised? (say NBC, Saturday night, after 11:30...)
It’s going to get worse. They plan on rolling this out for all public transportation. Trains, subways, buses atc.
"Oooh! Oooo! Me first!!!"
This whole reasonableness thing is a theme with statists.
Reasonable gun-control and now reasonable 4th Amendment violations.
Did he explain how they’ve done nothing and prevented nothing?
Barney Frank isn’t a senator but I’m sure he would gladly volunteer.
More to the point, forget McCaskill; how would she like her children or grandchildren to be groped by strangers?
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