[IP] more on DO READ THIS DJF -- Aggressive Searches Pat-down Searches/Sexual Harassment at the Airport

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Same thing happens to me at National and ONLY at National. No explanation
and to top it all off, the floors are filthy there.

Dave


------ Forwarded Message
From: Serge Egelman <egelman@cs.cmu.edu>
Date: Sat, 01 Jan 2005 20:56:51 -0500
To: David Farber <dave@farber.net>
Subject: Re: [IP] more on DO READ THIS DJF -- Aggressive Searches Pat-down
Searches/Sexual Harassment at the Airport

For IP if you wish:

I just flew to Costa Rica for break (here now).  At National going through
security they didn't say it was required that I take my shoes off, so I
wasn't
going to (I don't usually have to do that, and I know that this particular
pair
of shoes has no metal in them).  As I was about to walk through the metal
detector, the TSA goon said, "are you going to take your shoes off?"  "not
if it
isn't required"  "well if you don't you will fit the profile for secondary
screening."  Off they came.

serge

On Sat, Jan 01, 2005 at 03:21:32PM -0500, David Farber wrote:
> 
> ------ Forwarded Message
> From: Rob McMillin <rlm@pricegrabber.com>
> Date: Sat, 01 Jan 2005 07:33:01 -0800
> To: <dave@farber.net>
> Cc: Barry Steinhardt <bsteinhardt@aclu.org>, Esther Dyson
> <edyson@edventure.com>
> Subject: Re: [IP] more on DO READ THIS DJF -- Aggressive Searches Pat-down
> Searches/Sexual Harassment at the Airport
> 
> David Farber wrote:
> 
> >
> > ------ Forwarded Message
> > *From: *Barry Steinhardt <bsteinhardt@aclu.org>
> > *Date: *Sat, 25 Dec 2004 12:09:01 -0500
> > *To: *Esther Dyson <edyson@edventure.com>
> > *Cc: *<dave@farber.net>
> > *Subject: *Re: [IP] DO READ THIS DJF -- Aggressive Searches Pat-down
> > Searches/Sexual Harassment at the Airport
> >
> > Esther,
> >
> > Happy New Year!
> >
> > We met with the TSA last week and astoundingly they have no statistics
> > on how many searches have been conducted at each airport or what the
> > ratio is between men and women.
> >
> > They did tell us that the TSA screeners had been told to pick out
> > passengers with an "unnatural physical form" -- a judgement that seems
> > to be entirely idiosyncratic, albeit  skewed to women as the screeners
> > seem particularly focused on breasts.
> >
> > We have logged a hundred + complaints from flyers around the country.
> > The TSA admitted last week that they have received 400.  All of ours,
> > so far, have been from women, who range in age from 23 to 93. Many of
> > them are business travellers, who report repeated instances of
> > "groping" --the most frequent word we hear.
> >
> > My 16 year daughter having read all the news accounts is now refusing
> > to fly anywhere for vacation. Apparently she is not the only woman to
> > have made that judgement and the airlines are not happy either.
> >
> > Please do let me know if you have any troubling experiences.
> 
> Nothing nearly this bad, but returning home from Arkansas yesterday, I
> had a TSA officer complain -- with great hostility -- at the way I took
> my boarding pass back from me! Good lord, they ask us to take our shoes
> off, take off our coats, and now they think they're tin gods? No wonder...
> 
> Still waiting for an explanation how any of this is improving actual
> security...
> 
> ------ End of Forwarded Message
> 
> 
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-- 
/*
Serge Egelman

"Those who have had a chance for four years and could not produce peace
should
not be given another chance." --Richard Nixon, October 9, 1968
*/

------ End of Forwarded Message


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