Box Cutters and Personal Pouches: State of Airline Screening

A sad review of America's descent into ignorance and acquiescence is in order:

Triggering event:  19 Saudi Arabian terrorists hijacked four planes.  Two crashed into the Twin Towers, one into the Pentagon and the last into an open field in Pennsylvania.

The Transportation Safety Administration is established.  Of 142 million passengers, nineteen hijackers represented .00000013% of fliers.  Cockpits are fortified. Major passenger and baggage screening systems are devised and put into place.  A "no fly" list is created. 

Triggering event:  1 British terrorist tried to light a bomb in his shoe.

TSA adjusted procedures, asking people to remove belts and shoes, as part of the screening process.

Triggering event:  1 Nigerian terrorist smuggled bomb making materials in his underwear onto a flight.

Of 151 million passengers, this one terrorist represented .000000006% of fliers.  TSA was in the process of implementing full body scanners, which image citizen's genitalia.  However, the underwear bomber accelerated plans. 

Think about it.  Because the government failed to monitor a suspected terrorist, whose name was turned in by his father, the TSA needs to look at or pat the genitals of women and children?

Triggering event:  2 packages containing bombs are found on airplanes.

Packages fly on passenger, as well as, cargo flights.  TSA ramped up passenger screening.  Citizens refusing to have their private's imaged, must now assent to security agents touching their genitalia. Prior to getting on a flight with unscreened cargo, passengers must be seen naked or fondled?

CBS News says pat downs will be done by same sex agents. This was not the case with Alex Jones' assistant.  She had to ask for a woman agent for her two young girls.  

Terrorists are a tiny fraction of the population.  They rarely travel.  Changing the system to deal with a special cause, brings heavy losses.

America's solution, inspection, isn't foolproof, not by a long shot.  What did nine years of screening find, when TSA agents were acting within their mandate?  We have data from nearly a billion travelers.

What cannot be screened by order of the U.S. government?  Diplomatic pouches.  Apparently, Ben Bernanke's personal pouch is also off limits. Not yours, which will be imaged or groped.  That's the choice.  We are now at systematic dehumanization.



Update 11-21-10: TSA Chief says molestation procedures will not change. When asked if she would submit to a pat down, Hillary Clinton responded: "Not if I could avoid it. No. I mean, who would?"