Obama Administration: The Pat-Down Outrage Is Overblown!

National Review ^ | 11-22-10 | Jim Geraghty

[Justaham]

The White House and the Department of Homeland Security indicated today that they won’t yield to demands to amend new airline passenger screening rules that have been decried as wildly intrusive.

On the contrary, administration officials are quietly and aggressively defending the policies against what they see as a media frenzy of distorted information. For instance, the administration noted that fewer than one half of one percent of the 34 million passengers who traveled on airplanes in or to the U.S. last week were subjected to crotch-area pat-downs.

They also disputed the very notion of a public backlash, even as those words played ubiquitously on news tickers and as video parodies of the Transportation Safety Administration were being emailed around the globe. Before press coverage of the new rules reached a roar late last week, TSA received only 700 complaints nationwide about its procedures, an administration official said. The official insisted on anonymity because the information was not intended for public release. The issue is sensitive because physical space intrusions are just about the last thing an administration cast by Republicans as prone to governmental overreach needs.

[Sarajevo]

[nmh]

Evenif it is !/2 of one percent that is too high in a civilized country. BTW it is a HIGHER PERCENTAGE.

I’d also like to know more about this:

Is TSA Exempting Women In Hijabs From Controversial Pat-Downs?

Rachel Slajda | November 22, 2010, 10:03AM

...

The rumor stems from an advisory put out by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an organization which, among other things, publicizes perceived wrongs on the Muslim community. CAIR put out a travel advisory saying, in part, “Before you are patted down, you should remind the TSA officer that they are only supposed to pat down the area in question, in this scenario, your head and neck. They SHOULD NOT subject you to a full-body or partial-body pat-down.”

Late update: A reader points out that the part of the CAIR advisory we excerpted is actually advice for women who have been selected for additional screening because of their hijab, even if the backscatter or metal detector didn’t go off. In those scenarios, CAIR said, a woman has the right to ask that only the area covered by the hijab — in this case, her head and neck — be patted down.

As far as the invasive pat-downs for those who refuse to go through the backscatter machine, CAIR suggests that women ask for the pat-down to be done in private and report any misconduct to the TSA and CAIR.

...

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/11/is_tsa_exempting_women_in_hijabs_from_controversia.php

[sport]

They are putting their spin on it now.

For the sheep. And from my point of view, the point is still being missed.

I stopped flying in 2004 for one reason. While being frisked, I realized that from the moment I purchased my ticket, I was, in their eyes , a criminal.

I did not like it and I knew that I am not big enough to change it. But , there was one thing I could do. Don’t put myself in that position. Stop flying.