Busted: TSA lied about promise not to grope children

TSA has defended the groping of a 6 year-old girl, saying it followed policy. Yet in Nov. 2010, TSA vowed no ‘enhanced’ pat-downs for children under 12.

Aaron Dykes -- Infowars

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) contradicted itself, even to the point of outright lying, in responding to controversy about a 6 year-old girl who received a groping pat-down AFTER already being sent through a body scanner. The video went viral after appearing onDrudgeReport.com and many other sites. TSA typically explained away this unnerving experience that left the girl in tears by arguing that the action is perfectly normal, follows all procedures and keeps us safe from terrorism, all, of course, in the name of ‘safety.’

You see, the TSA rationalized in its latest defense that, “terrorists are willing to manipulate societal norms to evade detection.” Thus, TSA would have it, we must abandon societal norms [and laws] like not touching children in their private parts, and instead subject them to pre-crime inspections. According to the logic, no women & children, little old ladies or men handicapped in wheelchairs or implanted with modern medical devices, no body cavity or private part is safe from extensive probing by the “guardians” in government. As the Justice Department recently proclaimed, the TSA assumes the authority to literally strip-search people on demand.
So, the shocking video seen across the alternative blogosphere today was standard operating procedure, as the TSA pointed out in its most recent blog posting, ‘Screening of 6 Year-Old at MSY‘:

A video taken of one of our officers patting down a six year-old has attracted quite a bit of attention. Some folks are asking if the proper procedures were followed. Yes.TSA has reviewed the incident and the security officer in the video followed the current standard operating procedures.

Yet in a November 2010 posting ‘TSA Myth or Fact: Leaked Images, Handcuffed Hosts, Religious Garb, and More!,’ written in the hopes of dispelling ‘rumors’ about the new invasive pat-downs,Blogger Bob of the TSA claims that children under 12 are supposed to receive a modified pat-down.

Pat-downs Myths & Facts
Myth: All children will receive pat-downs.
Fact: TSA officers are trained to work with parents to ensure a respectful screening process for the entire family, while providing the best possible security for all travelers.Children 12 years old and under who require extra screening will receive a modified pat down.

So why did the little girl receive the full, invasive treatment, particularly after having already been screened via body scanner?

After all, the ‘modified’ TSA policy was even publicly announced back in November, as in the USA Today article, “No ‘enhanced’ pat-downs for kids, TSA says.” It cites comments from TSA spokeswoman Kristin Lee who stated, “After a thorough risk assessment and after hearing concerns from parents, we made the decision that a modified pat-down would be used for children 12 years old and under who require extra screening.”

Further, the TSA blog deceives the public over the perception that pat-downs only occur for passengers who opt-out of the scanners, writing, “Only passengers who alarm a walk through metal detector or AIT machine or opt out of the AIT receive a pat-down.” However, the girl’s parents revealed what the video did not show– that their child had already been sent through the body scanners, and was then selected for a groping ‘enhanced’ pat-down. If the girl somehow alerted the scanner, the TSA did not disclose that fact to her parents when they asked why she was receiving the additional screening. In fact, the parents were given no reason, but were instead threatened non-verbally to comply with their daughter’s pat-down or face ‘trouble,’ as they told Good Morning America. Is intimidation part of the official policy, too?

Adding insult to injury, the TSA has previously lied about the fact that body scanners can store nude images of the passengers it surveys (and have done so) . Couple that with the controversy raised over the fact that body scanners violate many child indecency laws, or that numerous cases have arisen over perverted and/or criminal TSA employees abusing their power. These parents weren’t comfortable with an officer touching their child, and they shouldn’t be comfortable sending their kids through naked body scanners either. WeWontFly.com, an organization who helped launch the would-be protests against scanners last Thanksgiving, have initiated a campaign demanding an end to pat-downs for children. Second that, but for scanners, too– scanners are both invasive and dangerous, all the more so on both counts for children.

Meanwhile, CNN aired a piece largely justifying the pat-down of the 6 year-old, which featured two individuals supposedly representative of the public who were both almost completely apologetic for TSA power. A mother said her four year-old ‘understood’ why TSA did what it did, telling other passengers to “suck it up” for airline safety. She added that it ‘only took a few seconds’ to undergo a pat-down, even if it was like the one of the 6 year-old that CNN reporters showed her.



Similar duplicity was expressed by the TSA during the backlash leading up to the Thanksgiving 2010 holidays. The TSA insisted that use of body scanners was indispensable to prevent terrorists and could not be curbed because of public outrage; then days later, TSA stood down at airports across the United States and turned off scanners to prevent protesters from gaining any traction or publicity. Then, as if in concert, mainstream media outlets gave reports that the airports were running smoothly, omitting the fact that body scanners were turned off, proclaimed the protests a failure, and then misrepresented public support for TSA by selectively representing travelers with only supportive interviews.

Such contradictions are typical of any overly authoritarian government; its very nature will always argue for more power and say anything to prevent that power from being taken back. Also typical is that thing with known liars… what else are they lying about?

Whatever delusional reasons TSA comes up with to justify its harassment of young children, ordinary Americans and travelers from around the world, the people clearly aren’t buying it. At a glance, comments in TSA’s own moderated comments section are overwhelmingly against airport abuse. Here are just a few:

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