Some of it appears to be the verbal abuse they’re getting from travelers, but some of it is just the fact that they have to keep touching people they’d rather not touch in that way.
TSA pat-down leaves bladder cancer survivor covered in urine
TSA forces cancer survivor to show prosthetic breast
Obama’s reaction? The patdowns must be “frustrating” to all you little people.
Frustrating? Frustrating?? Try degrading and humiliating – as well as Orwellian and unneccessary. These searches do not make us safer. Actual intelligence work is what’s needed, not a clearly deranged and out-of-control federal agency that in the estimation of most security experts is clueless and ineffective.
Obama’s words are those of a remote president who has no inkling what the world outside his protective bubble is like. Nor does he appear to care. We technocrats know what is best for you, he says. Your opinion doesn’t matter to me.
It’s no wonder the Republicans are making such huge gains. And that TSA has succeeded in uniting people on all sides of the political spectrum.
Thank you! These DO NOT make us safer. It’s NOT a question of safety vs. security. It’s a question of safety, privacy, and clean government vs. people making money off of a system that doesn’t work.
Bob Morris & Jay Rosen you said it well,
Americans have a problem with being screened to board an airliner with cosmetic security by a reactive PC-
T otaly
S tupid
A gency
Israeli security experts have refused to install these scanners at Ben Gurion International Airport, which is widely hailed as the safest airport in the world. Rafi Sela, the former Chief Security Officer of the Israel Airport Authority, explained he could “overcome the body scanners with enough explosives to take down a Boeing 747.
Any idiot can thwart both the x-ray strip search and the “Enhanced pat-down” simply by internal body packing!
6 months later…CNN SPECIAL REPORT>>>>>>>”The new single use sterile rectum cam probes are being utilized as a process to make sure the traveling public is safe,” she said, adding that the probes did not pose health risks and that privacy safeguards have been adopted”.
What is my answer?
Who do the terrorists hate the most?
The Israelis.
Who has a perfect airline security record?
The Israelis.
Who does no routine groping and x-ray strip searches?
The Israelis.
Who profiles more than anyone in the world and has the best intelligence data base?
The Israelis.
Fire Ms. Napolitano and hire Israeli Mossad to manage our airport security.
Also, the Israelis at the gates are college graduates, trained to spot nervous / suspicious passengers, and are paid well.
I’ve been to several countries that have real security problems: India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Taiwan, and Korea, for example. All of them do a better job using less intrusive methods and with little or no wait to get to the gate. In contrast, TSA has set air travel back decades. Convenient and pleasant flying is now a thing of the past. We are getting used to the idea that traveling is no longer a right, it is a privilege.
TSA is not about security, it’s a first step in limiting our right to freedom of movement– one of several rights that have been eliminated in the wake of 9-11.