Winning comments on the experience:

“They wouldn`t let me get on the plane because I`m female,”

“They asked if I was on the flight to Denver, I said yes, they said that they couldn`t screen me because they sent all the female TSA agents home,”

Apparently what happened was that all the female TSA agents had already been sent home and according to new regulations, a male is not authorized to pat-down a female traveler. Winning also asked if she could sign a waiver and have a male agent screen her, but her request was denied. She was turned away and had to rent a car and make the 350 mile drive home to Denver.

FOX 31 in Denver received this message regarding the incident from the TSA:

“In small airports, TSA works closely with the airlines and airport to keep the security checkpoints open to ensure that all passengers are screened appropriately.

In addition, a TSA officer also made two public announcements asking any remaining passengers to report to the security checkpoint for screening.”

Here’s what some folks on Twitter had to say about it:

The Lesson of the Woman Prevented by the TSA from Flying to Denver: RUSH: All she wants to do is get on a airp… bit.ly/y66Gcn

— Rush Limbaugh (@rushlimbaugh) February 10, 2012

Nuts! RT @staffordtea:No female TSA agents means no flight for Denver woman – women no longer free to travel? ow.ly/1FYJMu @RonPaul

— TradiCatholic (@TradiCatholic) February 10, 2012

The incompetence of our federal government is truly astounding.Their idiocy knows no bounds… fb.me/1B3Gi6sGw

— Phred Barnet (@Americanly) February 10, 2012

Slowing but surely, as our freedoms are drained away, some people are just giving in. goo.gl/4iIf0 #tcot

— June Pfaff Sigler (@Junemarie424) February 10, 2012

I do not enjoy strange TSA agents touch my body for no reason. It is gross. Disgusting. Read the 4th amendment. They violate the law daily

— Ronald Lewis (@RonaldLewis) February 8, 2012

This isn’t the first time that the TSA has gotten bad press in the last few weeks. At the beginning of the month, A TSA agent was suspended for stealing $5000 in cash from a Bangladeshi passenger at JFK in New York.

The 31-year-old Brooklyn resident has been arrested on charges of grand larceny. She has worked for the TSA for over four years. The money has yet to be recovered however, a surveillance video shows Schmid removing the money from the jacket pocket, hiding it in a plastic glove and then taking it to a nearby bathroom. Police suspect she may have given the money to someone else involved.

TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein comments on the theft:

“We do hold our officers to very high standards, and we have a zero tolerance policy for theft in the workplace”

That last detail is causing a bit of controversy, it seems. In addition to heavily restricting what people can bring into the stadium with them, security personnel have also installed full-body scanners at entrances to the stadium. Matt Touchette, a reporter for WPRI in Indianapolis, wrote a brief blog post about his experience of some of the preparations being made in the city and the stadium for Sunday’s big game. Tucked away in that post is the fact that getting into the stadium required going “through intense security which included full body scanners.”

These scanners have created considerable controversy over their use at airports. In addition to constitutional and privacy concerns, there have also been a concerns about the health risks posed by the devices. The scanners use backscatter x-ray technology to look through the clothes of people they scan. While potentially useful for discovering certain kinds of contraband material, x-rays are ionizing (i.e., cancer-causing) radiation. Unlike x-ray machines in medical facilities, though, those used by the TSA are not under the supervision of the FDA.

What do you think? Would full body scanners keep you from going to the Super Bowl if you had tickets? Sound off in the comments.

It is not clear what the intent of these hacks was, but clearly the events have drawn some attention to the issue of security for railways and other public transportation which can be controlled via computer systems. A meeting held on december 20th was attended by the Association of American Railroads, the Boeing Company, Indus Corporation, and representitives from the FBI, Homeland Security, and the TSA. The focus of the meeting was communication and, “…. to bring, at a higher level, an understanding of the national impact to cyberattacks,” said Steve Carver, an aviation industry consultant.

“Amtrak and the freight rails needed to have context regarding their information technical centers” said TSA officials in a memo about the incident. Furthermore they explain, “Information stating the incidents were a targeted attack was not sent out” .

“The processes set in place for government to work with the industry in real-time communications regarding a cyber event aligned superbly,” claims a recap about the meeting.

Meanwhile in Germany, Stefan Katzenbeisser, a professor at Technische Universität Darmstadt warns of the risk of attack by hackers on their rail systems.

“Trains could not crash, but service could be disrupted for quite some time…denial of service” hacks are one of the easiest forms of cyber terrorism. He insists that security keys for the coordination of railway operating systems must be made more secure in order to preserve the integrity of the system already in place.

The TSA reports, “Cyberattacks were not a major concern to most rail operators”. We know the government has made progress in defending against cyber terrorism, obviously it has not trickled down to all sectors of the transportation industry. I think most people’s perception would be that the TSA is fixed on the Airline industry in regard to regulation and security. The information is scarce, but it appears the railways and TSA were caught with their pants down on this one.

In response, a TSA spokesperson had this to say to Politico. You can see that they don’t actually reference Senator Paul:

When an irregularity is found during the TSA screening process, it must be resolved prior to allowing a passenger to proceed to the secure area of the airport. Passengers who refuse to complete the screening process cannot be granted access to the secure area in order to ensure the safety of others traveling.

And now, the TSA is doing some more PR via Twitter, as they have taken to responded to around a dozen major news organizations’ tweets about the incident. They are using the same response in each, saying “This passenger was rebooked on another flight and completed screening without incident.”

Although Rand Paul has yet to comment on the incident via Twitter, Ron Paul is using it as an opportunity to make a campaign promise:

His statement is as follows:

The police state in this country is growing out of control. One of the ultimate embodiments of this is the TSA that gropes and grabs our children, our seniors, and our loved ones and neighbors with disabilities. The TSA does all of this while doing nothing to keep us safe.

That is why my ‘Plan to Restore America,’ in additional to cutting $1 trillion dollars in federal spending in one year, eliminates the TSA.

We must restore the freedom and respect for liberty that once made American the greatest nation in human history. I am deeply committed to doing that as President of the United States.

Both Ron and Rand Paul have been staunch opponents of the TSA for some time now. We will update this story when more becomes available.

Moira Bagley, the junior Kentucky Senator’s Communications Director, just tweeted this:

Rand Paul’s father Ron Paul, who you might know as a Presidential candidate, also tweeted about the event, referring to an “anomaly” regarding the body scanner:

Both of the Pauls have been critical in the past of the TSA’s patdowns and other practices, referring to them as government overreach. Speaking to a TSA official in 2011, Rand Paul said “[my constituents] are still quite unhappy with you guys as well as myself and a lot of other Americans who think you’ve gone overboard, you’re missing the boat on terrorism because you’re doing these invasive searches on six-year-old girls.”

It also appears that this incident is interfering with an event that Paul was supposed to attend today. Paul’s last tweet says that the Senator was on his way to March For Life in DC:

But sometimes it is. And the TSA is one entity that has gained quite a bit of attention since then. As airports have continued to implement stronger safety measures over the last decade, many have put the Transportation Security Administration into the crosshairs, railing against random searches and pat-downs – which they say violate some of their basic human rights. One thing on which we can all agree – getting patted down in an airport isn’t a whole lot of fun.

What is the limit of free speech on the internet? In a situation where no facts have been entered into the legal record, should someone be able to make accusations in a blog post? Let us know in the comments.

One woman had a particularly nasty experience during a TSA pat-down. According to columnist and blogger Amy Alkon, her experience with a particular TSA agent went way past uncomfortable.

In a blog post, Alkon details a March 31st incident where she accuses a TSA agent of “raping” her with her hand during a public pat-down in Los Angeles.

Alkon writes about her disapproval of the whole procedure in general, saying that the pat-downs are both a physical violation as well as a constitutional one. On that day, she admits that she decided to make a scene on purpose, to bring attention to what she thinks is an unfair act, “to make it uncomfortable for them to violate us and our rights,” she said. So she began sobbing, loudly. According to Alkon, this was what happened next -

Nearing the end of this violation, I sobbed even louder as the woman, FOUR TIMES, stuck the side of her gloved hand INTO my vagina, through my pants. Between my labia. She really got up there. Four times. Back right and left, and front right and left. In my vagina. Between my labia. I was shocked — utterly unprepared for how she got the side of her hand up there. It was government-sanctioned sexual assault.

Upon leaving, still sobbing, I yelled to the woman, “YOU RAPED ME.” And I took her name to see if I could file sexual assault charges on my return. This woman, and all of those who support this system deserve no less than this sort of unpleasant experience, and from all of us.

Apparently, the lawsuit idea fell through as her lawyer told her she had an unwinnable case.

But now, the TSA agent in question is threatening to sue Alkon for her blog post, claiming defamation. Thedala Magee has asked for $500,000 as well as the removal of the blog post.

It doesn’t look like Alkon is going to comply with that request, as she writes today on her blog –

Magee is looking for me to pay her $500K, apologize to her, and take down my blog item about her — because I had the nerve to exercise my First Amendment rights and complain after she jammed her hand sideways into my vagina four times. (Unfortunately for Ms. Magee, I’ve always made a pretty crappy victim.)

She has also gained the services of a First Amendment lawyer named Marc Randazza who is working the case pro bono.

The letter that Magee sent Alkon requesting the monetary damages and the retraction of the “rape” allegations says that the “outbursts in public and writings on the internet” have subjected Magee to “hatred, contempt, and ridicule” and caused her “severe emotional distress, fear, and problems doing her duty.”

Alkon’s lawyer Randazza sent a letter back, saying –

Your client aggressively pushed her fingers into my client’s vulva. I am certain that she did not expect to find a bomb there. She did this to humiliate my client, to punish her for exercising her rights, and to send a message to others who might do the same. It was absolutely a sexual assault, perpetrated in order to exercise power over the victim. We agree with Ms. Alkon’s characterization of this crime as “rape,” and so would any reasonable juror.

He then quotes precedent defending the use of the word “rape” as hyperbolic language. So even if Magee didn’t “rape” Alkon in some meaning of the word, he says that she has the right to characterize it as such.

TSAAlkonThedalaMageeLtr

Response to TSA Agent legal threat

TSA pat-downs have remained a hot button issue for years. Recently, the Texas legislature was forced to pull their “Groping Bill” when the U.S. Attorney for Texas warned that the passing of said bill would most definitely result in flight shutdowns. The “Groping Bill” would have made any TSA pat-down that involved the anus, buttocks or sexual organs a crime.

If everything actually happened as Alkon reports, then you have to agree that this TSA agent’s actions crossed the line – no matter where you stand on the larger issue. Still, some would argue that penalizing the agent for enforcing policies under the instruction of the federal government is the wrong approach. Although it’s highly unlikely that a superior has ever told an agent to go as far as Magee allegedly went.

At this point, it seems to be a case of one person’s word against another person’s word. Should Alkon have the right to make these statements about her experience on her blog? Does a blog post like that fall into the realm of defamation of character? Let us know what you think.

How many times can you actually scroll through your RSS reader and consider that a good time-wasting activity? Sure, complaining over the various social media outlets could be cathartic, but even that would run its course pretty quickly. Now, imagine if you’re delayed overnight because your flight was canceled, and you decided to stay in the airport to avoid going through the security screenings again. Oh, and the terminal is primarily empty and the overpriced watering holes, restaurants and stores are all closed.

Such a decision could get awfully boring, awfully fast, but what if you had a video camera? Could that change the excitement level of your delay? It could if you decided to film a movie during your delay, showing just how much fun one could have in an empty airport, provided they let their mischievous side shine through, and that’s just what’s going on in the video that leads this article.

The video, courtesy of Joe Ayala and Larry Chen, demonstrates, among other things, there is fun that can be had at the expense of an empty airport terminal. This includes wheelchair races, escalator races — apparently, tests of speed are the thing to do when boredom takes over — and having a beer at one of the aforementioned overpriced watering holes, only this time, without the appropriate staff in place. In other words, the fun had by the two is what many in the establishment would consider chaos at the expense of an empty, minimum-staffed airport terminal.

To be fair, almost none of the footage recorded by these two would be possible during normal business hours. Not without the appropriate reactions from those who work at the airport.

Nevertheless, the video was uploaded and it’s already hit the wires and had some viral success, and, off course, there is already some reaction available from the “establishment,” this time, in the form of a Dallas Fort-Worth official who was not impressed with the video in question:

DFW airport board member Betty Culbreath says while it may have been a prank, it sent the wrong message. “It’s not funny. It’s not going to happen again as far as I’m concerned. It should not have happened because it gives the perception the airport is sitting out there unguarded and that’s why I was concerned, and am still concerned.”

All things considered, Culbreath has a point. In today’s airport-security-is-a-major-concern world, a world that sees TSA agents perform security checks on infants, the fact that Ayala and Chen were “allowed” such unfettered access to the inner-workings of the DFW terminal — at least in concern to serving themselves a beer — is surprising.

While the minimum staffing edict is clearly being obeyed by DFW, the fact there isn’t any security roaming the terminal is a shock. Apparently, American airports are only a security concern during normal business hours.

According to Forbes, The Groping bill would have made illegal any pat-downs performed by the TSA that involved touching the “anus, sexual organ, buttocks, or breast…including through the clothing.” Texas law enforcement would have been able to arrest TSA officials for sexual harassment. The penalty could range from fines of up to $4,000 and/or jail time.

The Texas House of Representative actually passed the bill, much to the chagrin of the TSA. They blogged about the passing of the bill, saying that “We wish we lived in a world where you could just walk on a plane with no security screening, but that just isn’t the case unfortunately. Aviation security agencies worldwide have been using pat-downs long before TSA was created to prevent dangerous items from getting onto airplanes.”

As the bill was about to be voted upon in the Texas Senate, the U.S. Attorney from the state passed out a letter that warned of the consequences of enacting the new law. Basically, the Groping law would be in violation of federal law, and states are not allowed to pass measures that regulate the federal government.

HB 1937 would conflict directly with federal law. The practical import of the bill is that it would threaten criminal prosecution of Transportation Security Administration personnel who carry out the security procedures required under federal statutes and TSA regulations passed to implement those statutes. Those officials cannot be put to the choice of risking criminal prosecution for carrying out their federal duties.

If HR 1937 were enacted, the federal government would likely seek an emergency stay of the statute. Unless or until such a stay were granted, TSA would likely be required to cancel any flight or series of flights for which it could not ensure the safety of passengers and crew.

Basically, pull the groping bill or you guys aren’t flying anywhere.

Republican bill sponsor Dan Patrick withdrew the proposal after the realization that he wouldn’t have enough votes in the Senate to pass it. The U.S. government messed with Texas, and won.

The TSA is a popular punching bad across the interwebs, as images and videos from pat-down procedures often go viral. Last month, this video went viral of a 6-year-old girl being checked by an TSA agent:

And earlier this month, this twitpic also made the rounds showing what looks like the investigation of a baby for a diaper bomb.

Facebook has a plethora of pretty funny pages to like if you too feel oppressed by the TSA – “When TSA gropes me, I will fake orgasm” and “If the TSA wants to grope me, they should at least buy me dinner first” being two of my favorites.

How do you feel about this state vs. federal government stand off? Should TSA agents pay for privacy invasions, or are they just doing their jobs?

Lead image Courtesy

There is no notification of the breach at the flyclear.com site, nor has anything been reported on the breech blog or on the attrition.org data loss site on this issue yet.

The "Fly Clear" program is designed for travelers to speed through the TSA checkpoint at airports because they have already been background checked, and provided the government and its contractor all the information necessary to ensure that you are not a danger to yourself or others. Joining clear requires that you give up the following information.

Step Two: Stop by a Clear enrollment station to have images of your iris and fingerprints captured, and to submit two forms of approved government-issued identification for verification. Please bring a US Passport if you have one. Please read the document requirements before you come to complete to the Clear enrollment station. Source: Clear FAQ

CBS 5 is reporting that all this kind of information has been lost with the theft of an unencrypted laptop from a locked cabinet at the San Francisco airport.

Verified Identity System’s Clear program allows passengers to scan their smart cards at a kiosk for a speedier security screening. T.S.A. spokesperson Ann Davis told CBS an unencrypted computer storing the personal information on the cards went missing from SFO on July 26th. Davis said VIP is a privately run company that the airport provides with background checks of enrolled customers. Now the company must suspend new enrollments, notify affected customers, and secures computers until they can install encryption. Source: CBS 5

With both standard information and biometric information on the loose, this makes for almost a double whammy when it comes to data loss and the influence this can have on a person and their identity. It is unknown what the longer repercussions are going to be with the loss of biometric information outside of the fingerprints (if anyone knows how to hack iris readers let me know that would be an interesting article to write about), printing or wax impressions of fingerprints are well known ways to defeat most fingerprinting biometric systems. This should make that thumb print at the bank when cashing a check more interesting in the longer run as it is going to be impossible to change your biometric information while it is possible to get everything else cleaned up.

Travel this summer has been hard, and it looks like it just got harder for 33 thousand people.

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