PHOTOS, PAGE 1

       Editor and prime reporter is Doug Terry, a veteran television and radio reporter in   Washington, DC, (details below)

ANYTHING THE TSA CHOOSES TO DO WITH OKAY WITH THE COURTS? YES.

Anyone following the news this week knows that naked strip search machines and “enhanced pat-downs” have become a sudden big issue. That’s because more of the machines are being installed at airports. A man from California set off the storm when he recorded the audio portion of his conversation with a TSA screener during which he told them that he would have them arrested if they touched his genitals.

The TerryReport has been operating under the belief for years that “voluntary screening” means just that. As free American citizens with rights under the Constitution, you should have the right to voluntarily leave the screening area at any time you object to the screening process. It turns out that the TSA, and one court ruling, goes against this idea of freedom.

Here’s the strange deal: the TSA says over and over again on its website that going through the strip search machines is voluntary. If you choose not to go through the machines, then you are forced to undergo the enhanced patdown, otherwise known as a feel between your legs and at various parts of your body. BUT, should you also decline the enhanced patdown, the TSA believes it has the right to force you to submit before leaving the airport and, on top of that, to threaten you with a ten thousand dollar fine for not submitting.

This shocking little bit of news came out on a website maintained by KCSI in San Deigo and put out by City News Service (evidentially a local news gatherer in San Deigo. It turns out that the man from Oceanside, California who declined to be touched between the legs was escorted to the ticket counter and given a refund. Then, someone from the TSA told him he must submit to the patdown anyway and could be fined if he left the airport. He left anyway and posted his story on youtube.

So, it seems that the TSA position is that you are, in effect, submitting to a kind of arrest situation the moment you step into the screening area. You are voluntarily giving up your rights to privacy and to travel about unmolested. Anything the TSA decides is necessary can be applied to you and, if you wish to decline and leave, those measures can still be applied, with force if necessary.

This is an intentional trap for travelers with security measures set up by the Bush administration in the national panic atmosphere following 9-11, 2001. It is not unlike the contract you sign with your cell company: once you are in, there is almost nothing you can do about any charge they choose to impose on you. The difference in this case is that the force of law, and law enforcement, can be brought to bear. If a TSA employee decides that you are causing trouble, or if they are just having a bad day, you could be detained and, to prove their point, they could impose a huge fine on you.

In effect, anything the TSA decides to do with you while you are in the screening zone goes. If they choose to shove a finger up your backside, they have a court ruling on their side saying you may not refuse and simply leave the airport peacefully. If this is fine with you, might I suggest you write your congressman and let him know how good you feel about all of this. Also, I don’t like to be rude, but this is not a polite situation, so, bend over.

Doug Terry, 11.17.10

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