Mom upset about 12-yr old daughter's full body security scan experience

abc2news.com ^ | 7.21.2010 | David Kosin

[rawhide]

The TSA calls them another weapon in the fight against terrorism.

The machines are meant to detect a wide range of threats. But even children could be picked by an agent to move through one, which doesn't sit well with Michelle Nemphos of Cockeysville.

Her 12-year-old daughter, whom she did not want to appear on camera, was at Tampa International Airport on vacation with a family friend when a TSA officer chose her.

"It's an image of a nude child that they're seeing. This is child pornography whether people want to believe this or not. How is this any different," said Nemphos.

A TSA spokeswoman say the agency's protocol protects privacy. Sari Koshetz says “The officer viewing the image is in a locked room with no windows. The door to the locked room is not opened until the passenger has cleared the checkpoint and the images have been deleted. Should the two officers need to communicate, that is done with whisper headsets."

For Nemphos, that's not enough, not only for her child, but anyone under age 18.

"People think that this is a blurry image. It is not a blurry image. It is an image of a naked person," she said.

Nemphos is still waiting on a response from the TSA.

[ExTexasRedhead]

Wonder if we can combine the scanning at the airport with our annual mammograms? Save time and money. LOL

[Candor7]

Yes, but you know that there is a selection process now in place. It may be random, it may be discretionary, but TSA employees decide who goes through the full body scan or not.

If one opts put of the full body scan, one is subject to a pat down that is far more rigorous than the one you have described.

I can do pat downs. I am trained in it,and there are various levels, dependng on the persons qualities you are searchng. An inmate of a prison who knows how to secret things about his body is treated much differently than say person who is arrested for DUI. The current pat down is quite rigorous, and the areas behind the scrotum are pressed for hard objects, along with the butt crack being pressed or fingered.
Now this rigorous search can be down quickly and innocuously if done professionally, but it seems the TSA staff are not trained well and they are clumsy.

Also you can imagine whether discretion would be exercised to pat down a woman in a burqua with her husband present? That violates every tenet of an orthodox Muslim faith and its culture. It is unlikely given the discretionary nature of such TSA classifications, and this needs clarification.

I have no objection to a rigorous pat down, but I do have a problem with it if it is not applied across the board to all racial and ethnic groups.If there is a functional exemption for Muslims, then I protest vigorously.It would fly in the face of the defined “security concerns” of Homeland Security and the TSA.

[dusttoyou]

Well, can’t have em stayin anywhere there’s any valuable resources, otherwise they’ll be back in another few hundred years. Won’t work, you don’t exile a mad dog.

[353FMG]

My wish has always been that they be converted. If that is impossible, let them live together in one place and not bother the rest of us. We don’t need their oil — we have plenty of it if we have the desire to develop it ourselves.

Besides, they can’t develop their own oil wealth without the help of the non-muslim world. Islam is a curse, even on muslims.

[numberonepal]

Innocuously? Are you serious? Stroking my sac and fingering my behind are not in any way innocuous. You and your ilk deserve the police state you’ll get with that attitude. This is America - learn the rules.

[dusttoyou]

We, the USA, could quit buying any oil from muslim countries and the Europeans and Chinese would still be pouring money on them to which they use against us. As long as there is a need for oil and they have any oil, it fuel their fire against non-muslims. Count on it!

Trying to be nice is nice, but folks like liberals and muslims will take advantage of this “perceived” weakness much to our detriment.

[terycarl]

a picture, no matter how explicit, of a child is not necessarily pornographic....if the child isn’t doing anythibg sexual it can hardly be considered porno.....check out nudist sites on your computer, people of all ages but no porno

[stuartcr]

Of course the personnel at the location are going to use their discretion as to who gets patted down or not, how else would it be done?. Time constraints will not allow for every person to be individually searched. That’s the reason for the scanner, isn’t it? To check more people in less time.

[Candor7]

Hwy, son;t blameme. LOL. THese are regular police frisks employed when ever a suspect is arrested.

Obviously you are a law abding citizen. So am I , but I served as a law enforcement officer, so I am not as sensitive about a frisk being an invasion of privacy.

But I love freedom as much as anyone. My beef is that there be no exemptions for Muslims in a burqa , for example, and also that TSA personnel should be much better trained.I think them unenessarily clumsy.

You are living in a liberal fascist police state, BTW, from the first moment Obama took office. Its taken two years for the word to get out.Where do you think all this is coming from? Santa Claus?

I can’t get too upset about the frisk though, I am more comcerned about Obama’s murdering hit team in Chicago and Washington , DC.

You won’t stop the police state by protesting frisking, you need a much more serious target for that,like the president himself.Its actually quite humorous, like a dog biting the stick that is beating him , rather than the person holding the stick itself.

[numberonepal]

Your point is prudent, but the crux is being arrested. I am not being arrested in the airport.

You are living in a liberal fascist police state, BTW

Don't I know it. We've been moving that direction before there was an Obamanation.

[ladyjane]

Frequent traveler? Some of us have to fly a lot more than once a month and it is getting totally insane. They haven’t used the back of the hand type search for a while, there are two different types of xray machines and the pat downs are invasive.

[ladyjane]

Children aren’t supposed to go through the xray machines. Kids and pregnant women shouldn’t be exposed to the radiation.

[ladyjane]

Annual mammograms? A thing of the past. They’re cutting healthcare jso they can pay for airport screenings. Insane.

[stuartcr]

OK, I guess we just haven’t had the same experiences...we must be different people.

[Candor7]

I agree, being arrested at an airport in really superfluous.

UNLESS it is done by almost everybody at the same time, as a wide ranging act of civil disobedience, Satyagraha ( Ghandi)style, accompanied by a demand for he re-embursement of all air-fares, pursuant to the 4th amendment.

Good way to start a federal law suit IMHO.

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons”