PHOTOS, PAGE 1

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

FOR THE MOMENT, the TSA types are talking tough about  about the naked scanners and the hands between the legs “patdowns” that they say are now required to fly in the United States. First question: who appointed these people god? Who says they, and only they, can have the last word about security? Well, that’s a long argument, I guess. Here is a clip from the story in the Wash Post about Congressional testimony. You can read the full story on the Post website:

If you won't submit to screening, you won't fly, TSA says

Tuesday, November 16, 2010; 9:57 PM

Airline passengers who object to any type of physical screening are not going to fly anywhere, the head of the Transportation Security Administration told a congressional committee Tuesday.

 Quizzed by lawmakers about a controversial new airport procedure that uses revealing full-body scan machines and intimate "pat-downs" of those who object or set off alarms, TSA Administrator John S. Pistole appealed to the flying public to become "partners" in the effort to combat terrorism.

 But Pistole told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs that his inspectors at 453 of the nation's airports are not going to back down in the face of complaints that techniques are invasive.

He said they try to strike a balance between privacy and security needs. "We want to be sensitive to people's feelings about privacy," he said. "We have to ensure that each person getting on every flight is secure."

 Asked by Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) about groups that objected to all forms of search on religious grounds, Pistole was unambiguous: "While we respect that person's beliefs, that person's not going to get on an airplane."

This kind of talk only makes it more likely that the whole scanning machine mess will fall around the feet of the TSA. Taking a mean, in-your-face stance puts the issue more starkly into public consciousness. In other words, they (the TSA) gain little or nothing from a “take it or stuff’ attitude over the longer term. It also makes it more embarrassing for them when they eventually have to back down. Those who are building movements to boycott flying on specific days (and I am very sympathetic to those efforts) should be thanking the TSA for making their work easier.

Money rules in the United States. When the airlines start losing billions, the pain will be too great. Of course ‘most people” currently support the scanning machines, because, one, they haven’t been to the airport lately and, two, they haven’t had a chance to be educated on the issue. Most people don’t know that the “penalty” for refusing to go through the naked machines is being felt up between the legs.

I sometimes am required to fly for business, occasionally on a frequent basis. Otherwise, flying is an option and I, like millions of other citizens, can take it or leave it. If the price of flying is to be electronically stripped or submit to groping, the choice is easy.

Doug Terry, 11.17.10

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