Bare Feet to Pat-Downs: Five Big Changes in TSA Screening at Airports
Wednesday 24 November 2010
by: Andrew Heining | The Christian Science Monitor | Report
Security screening at US airports has undergone waves of changes in the years since 9/11. Here are five of the biggest changes to affect air travelers in recent years.
Privacy and Pat-Downs
The TSA began testing the use of backscatter and millimeter wave technology full-body scans in 2007, but the technology did not become the primary form of passenger screening at many US airports until late this year.
Those who refuse a full-body advanced imaging technology (AIT) scan – either for health or privacy reasons – are now subject to an "enhanced" pat-down that includes checking travelers' groin areas. The TSA accelerated the use of both AIT and enhanced pat-downs after Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to ignite explosives sewn into his underwear on Christmas Day 2009.
Resistance to the body scans and pat-downs came to a head two weeks ago when John Tyner, a flyer at San Diego International Airport, recorded himself telling a TSA screener that he'd have him arrested if he touched his crotch. Mr. Tyner likened the TSA pat-down to sexual assault. Loosely organized "opt out day" protests have been planned for Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, which is traditionally one of the busiest travel days of the year.
TSA chief John Pistole has said the agency tries to make security screening as "minimally invasive as possible."
Toner Cartridges Taboo
Toner cartridges landed on the "no-fly" list late last month when suspicious packages originating from Yemen were found aboard UPS and FedEx planes bound for the US.
"Toner and ink cartridges over 16 ounces will be prohibited on passenger aircraft in both carry-on bags and checked bags on domestic and international flights in-bound to the United States," said Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano in a Nov. 8 statement responding to the discovery.
Common printer ink cartridges, such as the ones found in most desktop inkjet printers, are not subject to the new ban.
Liquids Limited
By now most air travelers are familiar with the TSA's 3-1-1 policy for liquids – each passenger may carry 3.4-ounce containers of liquid through checkpoints, provided the containers fit in a one-quart plastic bag, and each passenger has only one bag.
The policy took hold in August 2006 after British intelligence foiled a plot to blow up multiple planes with liquid explosive. A blanket ban on all liquids in carry-on luggage was implemented for the three months following the discovery but was later relaxed.
Anecdotal reports from travelers find that these days the TSA is being less strict about liquids being in plastic bags. Baby formula and medical liquids are also exempt from the TSA's 3.4-ounce restriction, provided passengers declare them to checkpoint officials.
Shoes Scanned
The requirement to remove one's shoes at airport security checkpoints can be traced to Dec. 22, 2001. That's the day admitted Al Qaeda operative Richard Reid tried and failed to ignite explosives hidden in his shoes while aboard American Airlines flight 63 from Paris to Miami.
Security protocol fluctuated at airports in the days following the attempted attack, but eventually everyone traveling through airport security checkpoints was required to remove their shoes and pass them through X-ray machines.
Laptops Out
Almost as ubiquitous as removing one's shoes, taking a laptop out of its case and running it through an X-ray in its own plastic bin has become the norm for people passing through airport security.
The practice has its roots in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. No, laptops weren't around in 1988, but in that case, a bomb was concealed in a cassette player.
Airport security screeners insist that laptops be removed from cases because the complex components inside could obscure a prohibited object inside a passenger's luggage. Recent portable electronics – iPods, cell phones, and even small laptops – are small enough to be exempt from the policy.
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Don't complain yet--the next
Wed, 11/24/2010 - 11:49 — Anonarcmous (not verified)Don't complain yet--the next step is retina scanning with the damage done to even more delicate and sensitive tissues. I think the AlQ folks must be laughing daily.
These writers of such
Wed, 11/24/2010 - 19:53 — S. Wolf Britain (not verified)These writers of such articles such as this one trust so much of what the government and/or their mainstream media lapdogs [aka "Fawning Corporate Media (FCM)" according to Ray McGovern] claim! Please stop it! Believing them that is. They have proven time and time again, ad nauseum, that they lie to us over and over and over again, perpetrating such monumental conglomerations, and/or whole slews, of lies manufactured to lie us into completely illegal wars of aggression, "the supreme international crime", such as the wars against Iraq AND Afghanistan, which has mass-murdered over a million innocent civilians in the process, none of which the government truly cared, and/or cares, about regardless of their protestations to the contrary, which are yet more lies upon lies upon lies!
When is the standard operating procedure of the U.S. government, "al(l)-CIA-duh(!)" and the U.S. military of lying to the American people and to the entire world going to be enough lies for you?! When is enough going to be enough?! ALL OF US should have LONG AGO gotten COMPLETELY fed up with 'our' "status-quo-of-lying" government and TOTALLY stopped believing almost everything they, and their propaganda ministry the "FCM", tell us!! Most of you mealymouthed "progressives" disgust me. You almost never unflinchingly and completely tell it like it is; and, whether you mean to or not, you constantly state claims of the lying FCM and U.S. government as if they are entirely-'undoubtable' "facts", and as if the source(s) of those claims don't come from an almost-always-lying government and/or FCM...
...The U.S. government,
Wed, 11/24/2010 - 19:53 — S. Wolf Britain (not verified)...The U.S. government, specifically the FBI, has been caught on multiple occasions controlling people who were allegedly "terrorists", providing them with bomb-making materials and/or supposedly fake bombs, and in some case real bombs; e.g./i.e., in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, etc. Documented evidence has been uncovered and produced that many of the so-called "19 hijackers" of 9/11 had connections to U.S. military bases right here on U.S. soil. And the list of such facts and/or examples goes on and on. Thus, all of you should be ONLY working from the premise that almost nothing that the U.S. government and its affiliates tell us is to be trusted AT ALL. But what do most of you so-called "Americans", whose Founders warned them to NEVER trust government, including their own, do? They believe most of what that almost-always-lying government tells them hook, line and sinker.
God help us all, especially with moronic, "much-too-trusting-of-the-almost-completely-'untrustable'-government" articles such as this one!
Check this out: Title: TSA
Wed, 11/24/2010 - 23:17 — S. Wolf Britain (not verified)Check this out:
Title: TSA Gestapo Empire
Author: Paul Craig Roberts (former U.S. government employee as a member of the Reagan administration)
Website: Infowars.com
Date: November 24, 2010
URI: infowars.com/tsa-gestapo-empire/
Wolf, this article is simply
Thu, 11/25/2010 - 00:49 — Uppity Woman (not verified)Wolf, this article is simply a recounting of the changes to TSA airport security, and their rationales. It is appropriate for TO to share this info, and I didn't detect any sanction of it as Truth (you know, with the capital T). None of us here in the good ol' US of A believe a damn thing the government says, whether we are liberal or conservative, or people who refuse to be pigeon holed by simplistic thinkers. Unfortunately, some here do believe the lies spewed by our ridiculous media, and it is true that too many of those who don't believe a damn thing the government says do believe the lies on Fox. Those folks are a minority here, a definite minority, but they provide cover for the media people to ignore the rest of us, who do know better.
continued
Don't kid yourself Wolf.
Thu, 11/25/2010 - 00:50 — Uppity Woman (not verified)Don't kid yourself Wolf. This isn't about conservative or liberal politics; the vast majority of Americans hold both perspectives, depending on the issues involved. But we are not fools, nor are we fooled, by and large, by all these lies.
The biggest problem facing us now, in light of all we do know, is how to go about solving the problem. Many of us are mad enough to drag out the tar and feathers, but we really don't want to solve our problems violently, thus becoming too much like the lying scoundrels we abhor. The scoundrels know this, and take full advantage of our goodness, not our stupidity, because, really, all the people I know, of every stripe, do not believe the lies, but neither do they want to hurt anyone, or start an altercation we cannot win.
But we are canny people Wolf. We will figure out how to solve this mess, and on appropriate terms. The idle rich are only fooling themselves with this hogwash, and they have become complacent in their lies and manipulations. That will be their undoing, as great pride goeth before a great fall.
Hi, "Uppity"! I DON'T kid
Thu, 11/25/2010 - 03:00 — S. Wolf Britain (not verified)Hi, "Uppity"! I DON'T kid myself, nor believe, that it's supposedly about conservative or liberal politics. In fact, other than the false "hope" for "change" that far too many "progressives" still believe in, continuing to give ObamaCON a chance even after two years of him proving that he's nothing but a "company man", a corporate-fascist globalist, and a complete sellout of the American people, the U.S. as a country, and the Constitution; and other than the true right-wingers who I get falsely accused of being a part of which I'm not AT ALL (though I do agree with some few things that they believe in like about the so-called "birther" issue that Obama is most-definitely NOT Constitutionally-eligible to be president); I don't see things as "Left" or "Right". But I disagree with you that most Americans supposedly don't either; and I believe that most of them DO fall for the false "left-right paradigm". For instance, far too many of the "independents" and the "progressives" believe far too many of the lies.
What I meant about this article, is that the writer of it repeats a relatively long "list" of things that she and most "Americans" take for granted are the so-called "truth" just because the MSM and/or the government said "they are "so", or said they're "true". I'm not saying she listed them as a literal "list", but that on every section in which she is making a point as to why the government has taken the "security" steps it has, she takes for granted that the so-called "facts" of those matters are "true", when the only "proof" or source we have for them allegedly being "true" is the government and/or the MSM which lie to us all the time, and/or leave out very important pertinent news and/or facts that we need to know in order to get a completely accurate understanding of what's really going on. So, rhetorically-speaking, why do most of us automatically, and unconsciously without even realizing we're doing it, believe these alleged "facts" from an almost completely lying media that is an almost complete sycophant and servant to the lying government, and believe these alleged "facts" from the government itself, particularly after time and time again, for time immemorial, they have proven and/or shown the they're not be trusted almost at all, if ever?
For example: The author of this article presents each of these historical events the way we have been told they allegedly happened, taking for granted that such is "definitely the way they happened"; when chances are that we've been lied to about the specifics of said events as well, and/or that chances are there's been a cover-up of the true facts of the matters, or some or many of them. So, you claim that most "Americans" don't believe most of what the government and/or their propaganda ministry, the MSM, says; but they DO take the complete "accuracy", or supposedly almost complete accuracy, of such a list of events and how they "occurred" for granted. Thus, I have to disagree with you there as well...
...Also, though I wish you
Thu, 11/25/2010 - 03:02 — S. Wolf Britain (not verified)...Also, though I wish you were completely right of course, I believe you're much too optimistic about our chances as a people and a country of solving the mess we're in, and pulling ourselves out of it. But, believe me, I want it to be so, more than anything. I love this country very much, just not its now completely evil government, and I DON'T want it to go the way of "hell on earth"; but, very sadly, all indications, since I study in-depth every day what is really going that most people at websites like Truth-Out will not even consider because of the mass-insanity and fantasy world that they live, in which they really believe the lies that there's "hope" for "change" from sources which there is absolutely no hope for true or real change for the better whatsoever, because almost all of the people involved are complete traitors, and are intentionally destroying this country completely, in order to bring us under something far worse which being made to appear like "our only hope of salvation", and that is going to be the total ruination of the vast majority of us, forever, the globalist one-world government, aka the "New World Order (NWO)"...
...The NWO, if most
Thu, 11/25/2010 - 03:04 — S. Wolf Britain (not verified)...The NWO, if most "Americans" have even heard of it, is NOT a conspiracy theory; but you cannot even tell most "Americans" who HAVE heard of it about it, because they parrot the lies that everyone who believes in such "conspiracy FACTS" is supposedly a tinfoil-hat-wearing, Loony 'Tunes, fruitcake and/or nutcase that they aren't. Thus, because some small millions of Americans ARE waking up to the fact that these facts are indeed facts, and even though that IS encouraging, nevertheless out of over 300 Million "Americans", so far it is NOT enough, and it probably will never be enough, in time, before it's completely too late. I believe it would take at least half of the total number of Americans to wake up, in other words 150 or more Million Americans, to save this country and ourselves from the hell-on-earth that the true, real nutcases, fruitcakes, loonies, psychopaths and sociopaths, etc., who run everything, have pretty much made a foregone conclusion barring that uprising of at least half of Americans, and their being completely successful in taking our country and government back and bringing about a true Constitutional republic in the United States of America...
...I'm truly sorry that I
Thu, 11/25/2010 - 03:05 — S. Wolf Britain (not verified)...I'm truly sorry that I can't be more optimistic; but, knowing the real facts as I do know them, I would be lying, and would be a liar, if I was to project a false sense of optimism; and I absolutely refuse to be a liar. I'm not sure that it's entirely hopeless yet; but, like I said, it would take the majority of Americans waking up and completely standing up against all of the madness being perpetrated against and foisted on us, and it certainly doesn't appear that such a majority of Americans is going to do that; though, again, I hope and pray that I'm completely wrong on that point, and that they do. As you've hopefully seen from my writings, I encourage it happening, but I say now that I don't hold my breath that it will. Most "Americans" are in all probability just too dumbed-down and washed-of-brains, and live in much too much of a fantasy world, in that most of them are completely deceived into completely believing that the mass-insanity is supposedly "sanity" and "normal", and that all those who face all of the real facts of what's really going on are supposedly "abnormal" and "insane".
But I do believe in miracles and that they are VERY MUCH a possibility; and, though it would take a major miracle, and/or a major series of many miracles, for at least 150 Million Americans to totally wake up and stand up against what is really going on, and what it is leading to, which is the absolute subjugation and enslavement of the entire human race, and of this entire planet, I am not discounting that it is possible that it could happen. I pray and hope that it does; but, once more, I'm not hoping against hope that it will; because, from what I know, it's not very likely that so many Americans would allow such a major miracle, or major series of miracles, to happen; as they are so completely deceived that they actually and/or literally do not want that miracle, or those miracles, to happen...
...Most Americans believe
Thu, 11/25/2010 - 03:06 — S. Wolf Britain (not verified)...Most Americans believe the absolute lie that this insane world is going to go on and on pretty much as it is, but that we're somehow going to pull ourselves out of this mess "by our own bootstraps", and that we're going to redeem ourselves all in our own "strength" and "power" without turning to and receiving any True Divine Help. Therefore, our only Real Hope, and only on an individual basis, is that True Divine Help, AND NO OTHER. But the most evil and powerful religious cult and counterfeit of Christianity on the entire face of the planet, the Roman Catholic Church, and the anti-christ who is very soon to appear on the scene, are going to come forward with false "miracles" presenting their way, that of accepting their one-world government and religion, as being our so-called "only hope". Yet, their god, though they of course fraudulently claim it's Jesus the Christ, who truly IS the only True Way to God (John 14:6), is Evil itself, and is going to deceive the vast majority of humankind into believing its false "miracles" and that their way is supposedly the right and only way to go. Thus, short of our own personal, individual, real miracle(s), and being totally transformed by and in-filled with that ONLY True Divine Help, and/or Real Hope, there is no other true or real hope of our redeeming ourselves whatsoever.
more us military bases
Thu, 11/25/2010 - 10:42 — not america (not verified)more us military bases around the world ... that will make us safer .. won't it ?
more projection of total theatre dominance ?
Air, Sea, Land, Cyber; total spectrum domination ... that will make us safer ... won't it ?
it takes powerful intellect
Fri, 11/26/2010 - 07:29 — Anonymous (not verified)it takes powerful intellect that in the process of solving a problem a set of new ones aren't created,well I guess we don't have it,why not try a side by side comparison with what they do in Israel,with focus on dollar cost per passenger
Wolf, thanks for your reply.
Sat, 11/27/2010 - 01:58 — Uppity Woman (not verified)Wolf, thanks for your reply. I, too, believe in miracles, and I suspect that we will not escape entirely unscathed for our present mess. But I take the long view, and evil has yet to ultimately triumph. I'm sure your faith includes an acknowledgment of the power of love. I think that will be the source of our miracle, and hopefully our mistakes will teach us a lot- not only about love and forgiveness, but also about the means to curtail those who are not so evolved that they may not seize power for evil or violent ends ever again. We have come a long way, and we have further to go, but I believe that we will get there.
Remember too, that we are much loved, and have helpers of great power and compassion who will come to our aid in times of great need if we will but ask. Even your Good Book says that all will be well in the end. So do many of the Native Nation's prophecies. Hang in there and love yourself and others as much as possible. In the end that is the most radical act, and something the oligarchs cannot stop or control.
Love to you, my brother.