A video taken of one of our officers patting down a six year-old has attracted quite a bit of attention. Some folks are asking if the proper procedures were followed. Yes. TSA has reviewed the incident and the security officer in the video followed the current standard operating procedures.
Yet in a November 2010 posting ‘TSA Myth or Fact: Leaked Images, Handcuffed Hosts, Religious Garb, and More!,’ written in the hopes of dispelling ‘rumors’ about the new invasive pat-downs, Blogger Bob of the TSA claims that children under 12 are supposed to receive a modified pat-down.
Pat-downs Myths & Facts
Myth: All children will receive pat-downs.
Fact: TSA officers are trained to work with parents to ensure a respectful screening process for the entire family, while providing the best possible security for all travelers. Children 12 years old and under who require extra screening will receive a modified pat down.
So why did the little girl receive the full, invasive treatment, particularly after having already been screened via body scanner?
After all, the ‘modified’ TSA policy was even publicly announced back in November, as in the USA Today article, “No ‘enhanced’ pat-downs for kids, TSA says.” It cites comments from TSA spokeswoman Kristin Lee who stated, “After a thorough risk assessment and after hearing concerns from parents, we made the decision that a modified pat-down would be used for children 12 years old and under who require extra screening.”
Further, the TSA blog deceives the public over the perception that pat-downs only occur for passengers who opt-out of the scanners, writing, “Only passengers who alarm a walk through metal detector or AIT machine or opt out of the AIT receive a pat-down.” However, the girl’s parents revealed what the video did not show– that their child had already been sent through the body scanners, and was then selected for a groping ‘enhanced’ pat-down. If the girl somehow alerted the scanner, the TSA did not disclose that fact to her parents when they asked why she was receiving the additional screening. In fact, the parents were given no reason, but were instead threatened non-verbally to comply with their daughter’s pat-down or face ‘trouble,’ as they told Good Morning America. Is intimidation part of the official policy, too?
Adding insult to injury, the TSA has previously lied about the fact that body scanners can store nude images of the passengers it surveys (and have done so) . Couple that with the controversy raised over the fact that body scanners violate many child indecency laws, or that numerous cases have arisen over perverted and/or criminal TSA employees abusing their power. These parents weren’t comfortable with an officer touching their child, and they shouldn’t be comfortable sending their kids through naked body scanners either. WeWontFly.com, an organization who helped launch the would-be protests against scanners last Thanksgiving, have initiated a campaign demanding an end to pat-downs for children. Second that, but for scanners, too– scanners are both invasive and dangerous, all the more so on both counts for children.
Meanwhile, CNN aired a piece largely justifying the pat-down of the 6 year-old, which featured two individuals supposedly representative of the public who were both almost completely apologetic for TSA power. A mother said her four year-old ‘understood’ why TSA did what it did, telling other passengers to “suck it up” for airline safety. She added that it ‘only took a few seconds’ to undergo a pat-down, even if it was like the one of the 6 year-old that CNN reporters showed her.
Similar duplicity was expressed by the TSA during the backlash leading up to the Thanksgiving 2010 holidays. The TSA insisted that use of body scanners was indispensable to prevent terrorists and could not be curbed because of public outrage; then days later, TSA stood down at airports across the United States and turned off scanners to prevent protesters from gaining any traction or publicity. Then, as if in concert, mainstream media outlets gave reports that the airports were running smoothly, omitting the fact that body scanners were turned off, proclaimed the protests a failure, and then misrepresented public support for TSA by selectively representing travelers with only supportive interviews.
Such contradictions are typical of any overly authoritarian government; its very nature will always argue for more power and say anything to prevent that power from being taken back. Also typical is that thing with known liars… what else are they lying about?
Whatever delusional reasons TSA comes up with to justify its harassment of young children, ordinary Americans and travelers from around the world, the people clearly aren’t buying it. At a glance, comments in TSA’s own moderated comments section are overwhelmingly against airport abuse. Here are just a few:
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Parents Threatened by TSA Before 6 Year Old was Groped, Girl then Broke Down in Tears Steve Watson | The parents of a six year old girl who was subjected to an enhanced pat-down at the hands of the TSA appeared confused and disturbed.
Steve Watson
Prisonplanet.com
April 13, 2011
The parents of a six year old girl who was subjected to an enhanced pat-down at the hands of the TSA appeared confused and disturbed in an interview on ABC News’ Good Morning America today as they called for a change in security procedures.
Selena and Dr. Todd Drexel, of Bowling Green, Ky., were thrust into the spotlight this week after a video of their daughter, Anna, being searched at New Orleans Armstrong International Airport went viral on the internet.
The couple said they allowed the video to be uploaded to Youtube in order to gauge other opinions on the incident which they feel was very wrong.
The video (below) shows the child in some distress as she is intimately probed by a stranger while her parents look on powerless.
“Initially she was just confused,” Todd Drexel said. “Afterward she broke down crying because she really didn’t understand what she had done wrong.” he added.
“I did ask for alternatives, I asked for her to be rescanned. They just refused and said they were going to do what they were going to do.” Selena Drexel said, adding that a TSA supervisor made it clear in a non verbal way that “there would be trouble” if the parents “caused a fuss” and refused to allow the pat down to be completed.
Mrs Drexel added that TSA agents did not adequately answer her questions when she asked why her daughter had been selected for a pat-down.
“We struggle to teach our kids to protect themselves, to say ‘no, it’s not ok to touch me in this way in this area,” Mrs Drexel, said. “Yet here we are saying it’s ok for these people.” If we don’t find other ways we’re making them more vulnerable, she said, adding that procedures for children should be changed.
Watch the interview:
LIttle Anna’s reaction to the incident speaks volumes. She was upset and distressed because she thought she had done something wrong and was being punished by the so called authorities. The untainted innocence of the child’s view of the incident tells you that there is something very very wrong with the way millions of Americans are allowing their government to act in the name of security.
To pick out a six year old child a a possible security threat and frisk her for dangerous weapons in an American airport is utterly insane, however it is far from an isolated incident, as we have previously documented.
If anyone else abducted someone’s child and then sexually molested them they would be rightly called a pedophile and locked up for a long time, but when the government does it not only is it deemed acceptable, but it also trains a whole generation of children that being kidnapped by an adult and having their genitals groped is normal.
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Jesse Ventura Talks TSA Groping With Lou DobbsThe former Minnesota Governor sounds off on video of the TSA groping a six year old girl in New Orleans.
Fox Business News
April 14, 2011
The former Minnesota Governor sounds off on video of the TSA groping a six year old girl in New Orleans.