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A Tennessee woman landed in jail after allegedly yelling at Transportation Security Administration officers and refusing to allow her daughter to go through a full-body scanner and a pat-down search. According to a report in the Tennessean, Andrea Fornella Abbott shouted and cursed at TSA workers at Nashville International Airport on Saturday. Abbott said she didn't want her daughter's "crotch grabbed," the paper reported, citing a police report.

Giving Transportation Security Administration agents a peek under your clothes may soon be a practice that goes well beyond airport checkpoints. Newly uncovered documents show that as early as 2006, the Department of Homeland Security has been planning pilot programs to deploy mobile scanning units that can be set up at public events and in train stations, along with mobile x-ray vans capable of scanning pedestrians on city streets. The non-profit Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) on Wednesday published documents it obtained from the Department of Homeland Security showing that from 2006 to 2008 the agency planned a study of...

ORLANDO, Florida -- The head of the Transportation Security Administration said the agency will look further into allegations that two male TSA workers picked a woman for additional screening because of her breasts. Eliana Sutherland recently flew from Orlando International Airport and told our sister station WKMG Local 6 she felt the two male TSA workers were staring at her breasts and chose her for additional screening because of their size. "It was pretty obvious. One of the guys that was staring me up and down was the one who pulled me over," said Sutherland. "Not a comfortable feeling." Experiences...

WASHINGTON (AP) - With one of the year's busiest traveling days fast approaching, the Obama administration's top transportation security official on Monday urged passengers angry over safety procedures not to boycott airport body scans. John Pistole said in nationally broadcast interviews he understands public concerns about privacy in the wake of the Transportation Security Administration's tough new airline boarding security checks. But at the same time, he said a relatively small proportion of the 34 million people who have flown since the new procedures went into effect have had the body pat downs that have come under withering criticism in...

Full-body airport scanners are just as likely to kill you as a terrorist's bomb blowing your plane out of the sky, a leading scientist has said. The controversial machines have been brought in at major airports across the globe, including the UK, leading to fears that the increased exposure to harmful radiation may cause cancer. Now a US physics professor has added to the debate by claiming that the scanners are redundant because you are just as likely to contract cancer from the radiation as you are to die in a terrorist bomb on your flight. Peter Rez, from Arizona...

The Israelis are developing an airport security device that eliminates the privacy concerns that come with full-body scanners at the airports. It's a booth you can step into that will not X-ray you, but will detonate any explosive device you may have on you. They see this as a win-win for everyone, with none of the whining about racial profiling. It also would eliminate the costs of long and expensive trials. Justice would be swift. Case closed! You're in the airport terminal and you hear a muffled explosion. Shortly thereafter an announcement comes over the PA system: "Attention standby passengers...

Let's just call this what it is: Domestic Terrorism. That is exactly what is being implemented by TSA. The only agency to have policies that tell all persons to get ready for rape you cannot object to. Might as well have a sign that says: "It's gonna happen, just shut up, lie back, and try to enjoy it. We will." And then trying to fine you 10 grand if you decide you don't want to fly and have to go through the "assume the position" naked scan radiation zapper or get felt up without even a dinner and a movie....

SNIP...like most government scandals, FOLLOW THE MONEY [my emphasis]. Guess which company owns a large manufacturer of backscatter x-ray devices? Give up? The Chertoff Group which is a security consulting agency run by former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. That’s right, in the wake of the Christmas Day bomber Chertoff has been pushing for more and more of these full body image scanners and it’s no wonder considering that this is going to put a large chunk of money in his pocket. Go figure!

HAVING been taught by nuns in grade school and later going through military boot camp, I have always disliked uniformed authorities shouting at me. So I was unhappy last week when some security screeners at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago started yelling. “Opt out! We got an opt out!” one bellowed about me in a tone that people in my desert neighborhood in Tucson usually reserve for declaring, “Rattlesnake!” Other screeners took up the “Opt out!” shout. I was marched from the metal detector lane to one of those nearby whole-body imagers, ordered to take everything out of my pockets,...

HAVING been taught by nuns in grade school and later going through military boot camp, I have always disliked uniformed authorities shouting at me. So I was unhappy last week when some security screeners at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago started yelling. “Opt out! We got an opt out!” one bellowed about me in a tone that people in my desert neighborhood in Tucson usually reserve for declaring, “Rattlesnake!” Other screeners took up the “Opt out!” shout. I was marched from the metal detector lane to one of those nearby whole-body imagers, ordered to take everything out of my pockets,...

To screen passengers as persons would reduce costs and inconvenience very greatly, because entire categories of passengers could be waived through with a rapid examination of travel documents and a few random checks now and then. These include a variety of easily recognizable groups that not even the most ingenious terrorists could simulate: touring senior citizens traveling together (a category that contains a good portion of all American, European and East Asian tourist traffic), airline flying personnel who come to the security gate as a crew, families complete with children, and more. In each case, the critical procedure would be...

Nation's Perverts Endorse Full-Body Airport Scanners A woman waits patiently for her luggage after undergoing the airlines' new WYSIWYG scan. RENO, Nev. (CAP) - America's largest organized group of perverts and degenerates has released a statement wholeheartedly supporting plans to install full-body scanning equipment in the nation's airports. "Any device that can prevent terrorism while at the same time allowing you to see through people's clothes is A-OK in our book," said Nigel Friedrichsen, president of the Reno-based National Association of Perverts (NAP). "That's the definition of win-win. Um ... At least our definition." The scanners have been highly controversial,...