Senators and TSA Defend "Love Pats" at Airports

Senators and TSA Defend "Love Pats" at Airports
Their message is simple. Submit to our will or the Terrorists will get you.(CBS) Transportation Safety Administration chief John Pistole and several senators from both parties defended the new, enhanced airport security screening procedures as necessary in the face of a persistent and evolving Terrorist Threat in a hearing Wednesday on Capitol Hill. Pistole, calm and confident in the face of an increasing public outcry against the procedures, talked extensively about the repercussions of last ye...

Sen. Claire McCaskill on TSA Love Pats
Liberals say the darnedest things. Today Senator Claire McCaskill defended the TSA’s new enhanced pat downs (AKA groping) of Air travelers. Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri said prior to Pistole’s Testimony that she believed TSA was in a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation, because people would be hopping mad at TSA if Christmas bomber Umar Farouk Adbulmutallab had succeeded. She went on to say the new advanced imaging technology-which has cau...

UNBELIEVABLE! Senator Claire McCaskill Defends TSA Groping as Love Pats
Radical Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) defended the TSA “love pats” also known as groin checks yesterday during a hearing yesterday in Washington DC. Transportation Safety Administration chief John Pistole and several senators from both parties defended the new, enhanced Airport Security screening procedures as necessary in the face of a persistent and evolving Terrorist Threat in a hearing Wednesday on Capitol Hill. Pistole, calm and confident in the face of an increasing public o...

Dem Dismisses Groin Searches as 'Love Pats'
Transportation Safety Administration chief John Pistole and several senators from both parties defended the new, enhanced Airport Security screening procedures as necessary in the face of a persistent and evolving Terrorist Threat in a hearing Wednesday on Capitol Hill. Pistole, calm and confident in the face of an increasing public outcry against the procedures, talked extensively about the repercussions of last year's attempted Christmas Day bombing being the impetus for the enhanced screening...

TSA Defends New Screening Procedures - Swampland - TIME.com
Some dramas seem tailor-made for the Internet's ephemeral obsessions, and the kerfuffle over the Transportation Security Administration's new Airport screening procedures is a perfect example. It's got all the ingredients to feed a media circus: a whiff of government overreach, Children prodded to tears, bold push-back, splashy Protests, federal employees apparently frisking nuns--an irresistible  recipe seasoned by the immediacy of next week's Thanksgiving travel crunch. With furor of the ...

Instead of a TSA airport search, he'll take the train
Kyle Whitney is headed home for the holidays next week, but unlike 1.6 million Americans who say they plan to fly, he's taking the train. This Story Instead of a TSA Airport Search, he'll take the train Poll: Full-body scan or pat-down? Dr. Gridlock: TSA officials get 'pat-downs' If you won't submit to screening, you won't fly, TSA says Airport 'pat-downs' cause growing passenger backlash Poll: Have you ever been subjected to an Airport Security 'pat down'? Full-body Scanners installed at Dul...

Why We Are Angry at the TSA
Transportation Security Agency's new Airport passenger screening procedures, which force airline passengers to submit to a full-body scan or an invasive frisk, is turning Dick Cheney’s biggest fans into latter-day Ben Franklins. The conservative, Torture-friendly Washington Times, declared that "a balance must be struck between reasonable security measures and the maintenance of a free society." Abu Ghraib was a fraternity prank, but getting frisked at the Airport is a sign of,...

TSA chief faces lawmakers on pat-downs, body scans
Washington (CNN) -- The head of the Transportation Security Administration defended his agency's security procedures Wednesday, telling lawmakers it is "using technology and protocols to stay ahead of the [Terrorist] Threat and keep you safe." John Pistole's Testimony before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation follows a Controversy that broke out over the past week about the agency's full body scans and pat-downs. "We've adjusted our pat-down policy that ...

TSA Chief Defends Body Imaging, (Falsely) Asserts It Would Have Foiled Christmas Bomber
On Wednesday, TSA Director John Pistole testified before two Congressional Committees. Citizen backlash at whole Body imaging (WBI) screening and aggressive physical searches made its way into his Testimony. Media continue to report claims made by Government officials without advising the reader than the official is severely stretching the truth. WASHINGTON - The head of the Transportation Security Administration refused to back down from using aggressive pat-downs and full Body scans at a...

Airport scanners and pat-downs: Napolitano and Pistole on different pages
Joshua Norman writes today in a CBS News article about the Senate Testimony yesterday of TSA Administrator John Pistole. While Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has spent the last couple of days insisting that the pat-downs are "discreet" and not intrusive, Pistole testified that he had submitted to pat-downs and found them to be "more invasive than what I was used to." In support of TSA and Pistole , Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) displayed either willfull or inadvertent ignora...

Pistole Tells a Whopper in Senate Testimony to Cover His AIT Spending Spree
TSA chief John Pistole went for the big lie yesterday in his Testimony before the Transportation and Commerce Committee: Currently, the most effective technology for detecting small threat items concealed on passengers, such as explosives used by Abdulmutallab, is Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) . AIT safely and effectively screens passengers for both metallic and non-metallic threats, including weapons and explosives, without physical contact. As of today, TSA has deployed 385 AIT machines ...

TSA Chief: Full-Body screening 'invasive' but necessary
At a hearing Wednesday on Capitol Hill, TSA chief John Pistole defended the airport screening procedures and said they were necessary in, "the face of a persistent and evolving Terrorist Threat," according to a report by Joshua Norman of CBS News, but acknowledged the pat-downs were invasive. After submitting to a pat-down himself, he said they were, "more invasive than what I was used to." “The TSA agent felt along my waistline, moved behind me, then proceeded to feel both of my butt...

KT McFarland: Forget Body Scans and Pat Downs -- Let's Get Busy Profiling
Why don't we start profiling for Terrorists and stop trying to put everyone from toddlers to granny through the same security procedures at airports? We're wasting money, time and the people's patience in an effort to be politically correct. In the end, it's not keeping us any safer; if anything it's making us less safe since it's diverting resources that could otherwise be used on better Intelligence gathering, or developing screening devices for cargo on commercial and civilian Aircraft, or ch...

The Things He Carried - Magazine - The Atlantic
Airport Security in America is a sham—“security theater” designed to make travelers feel better and catch stupid Terrorists. Smart ones can get through Security with fake boarding passes and all manner of prohibited items—as our correspondent did with ease. Pilots are not allowed to carry onboard pocket knives and bottles of shampoo, but they're allowed to fly enormous, fuel-laden, missile-like objects over American cities. One obvious technique the TSA is using to funnel...

Ann Coulter Takes On Our Reactive Airport Security System
Something happens, TSA reacts. The only thing they haven't managed to notice is who it is that's attempting these Terrorist Acts. From Ann Coulter: After the 9/11 Attacks, when 19 Muslim Terrorists -- 15 from Saudi Arabia, two from the United Arab Emirates and one each from Egypt and Lebanon, 14 with "al" in their names -- took over commercial Aircraft with Box-cutters, the government banned sharp objects from planes. Airport Security began confiscating little old ladies' knitting needles and ...

Agency defends airport pat-downs
WASHINGTON: America's transport security czar has refused to back down from using aggressive pat-downs and full body scans at airports, telling a Senate committee the screenings were necessary to protect passengers. John Pistole, the director of the Transportation Security Administration, said the pat-downs, which included searches of passengers' genital areas, and scanners that revealed Nude images of their bodies, would have found the explosives on the ''underpants bomber'' last Christmas. M...

Senate Democrats back TSA 'virtual strip searches'
Foes of the Transportation Security Agency's new Air-screening procedures, including Law Enforcement-style pat-downs and what have been called "virtual Strip searches," had hoped that today's Senate hearing would lead to a Privacy outcry on Capitol Hill. Not quite. The hearing quickly cleaved along partisan lines, with Democratic senators applauding the Obama Administration and Republicans offering only modest criticism. "Mr. Pistole, you're doing a great job," Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia...

Opinion: 'National Opt-Out Day' a revolt against TSA pat downs
Need to travel, particularly for the upcoming holidays? Is flying the only way to get there? Are you OK with TSA subjecting you to a full-body scan? If the answer is no -- you can participate in a Protest Nov. 24 during National Opt-Out Day. Brian Sodegren wants travelers to pass on the scan at Airports everywhere. He urges fliers instead to go for TSA's upgraded Body pat down in full view of other people. Is the TSA going too far with invasive screening? Just Say No to TSA Groping Brian Sode...

DHS Source: TSA Infuriated With Coverage Of Nationwide Backlash
A Department of Homeland Security source has told CNN that the TSA is infuriated with the attention the media has given to the nationwide backlash against naked Body Scanners and aggressive new Airport pat down procedures. Pistole also ludicrously claimed that TSA workers were “professionals in terms of how they carry out their business,” despite a deluge of stories about TSA officials abusing, sexually assaulting and humiliating travelers, including a case currently the subject of a l...

Polls: Americans 'overwhelmingly' endorse full-body scanners
There may be an uproar brewing over the Transportation Security Administration's use of full-body Scanners, but it seems that most Americans claim not to have a problem with their use at the nation's Airports. When asked if U.S. airports should use full-body scanners at security checkpoints, 81% of those surveyed in the CBS poll said yes. Only 15% said no. CBS says there's a 3-percentage-point Margin of Error for the poll. CBS writes "although some Civil Rights groups allege that they represent ...

Florida Independent: News. Politics. Media
As DREAM Act supporters get ready for yet another action on Wednesday in Miami, they are getting support from Miami Republicans. While a conservative resurgence this year has discouraged prospects for Immigration Reform, Cuban-American Republicans from Miami are swimming against the tide by backing a bill that would give a break to the Children of Illegal Immigrants. Reform advocates this week touted comments by Republican U.S. Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Cuban-Americans f...

Ron Paul: Cut out thisSoviet-style nonsense
With a week to go until the Thanksgiving travel peak and Americans' anger continuing to rise over heightened airport-security measures, a U.S. congressman launched legislation today to end what he calls Soviet-style searches by the American government. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, introduced the Air Traveler Dignity Act to protect Americans from physical and emotional abuse by federal Transportation Security Administration employees conducting screenings at the nation's airports. "We have seen the v...

TSA To Congress: "Pat-Down Would Have Caught Underwear Bomber" - Arlington Airlines
John Pistole, Director of the TSA, sat before Congress today in a question-and-answer session regarding Airport Security checkpoint policies, cargo Security practices, and present and future methods and technologies. Sen. Roland Burris (D-IL) asked Director Pistole at one point, "Would patting down have caught  the Underwear Bomber?"  Pistole said simply, "Yes."  When Sen. Burris pressed further about the "depth" of a TSA-approved pat-down, citing the diaper-like setup of the Unde...

Controversy over pat-downs, body scans lands at DIA
Transportation Security Administration agents perform enhanced pat-downs on passengers at DIA on Wednesday amid growing Controversy about the screenings and full-body Scanners, one week before Thanksgiving Air travelers crowd Airports. (Craig F. Walker, The Denver Post) Despite ongoing criticism from some Washington lawmakers and many travelers, Transportation Security Administration chief John Pistole refused Wednesday to back off the agency's position that tougher airport screening techniques ...

Ron Paul Would Like to Give You Back Your Dignity
Photo: Michael Nagle/Getty Images Everyone is really bringing their A game in response to the TSA's Controversial pat-down and Body Scanners. For his part, Texas congressman Ron Paul introduced a piece of Legislation called the American Traveler Dignity Act that aims to "protect Americans from physical and emotional abuse by federal Transportation Security Administration employees." He adds: In one recent well-publicized case, a TSA official is recorded during an attempted Body search saying, ...