This is a guest post from Mark C.
I received an email from Sen. Bob Casey of PA today in response to my objections to what the TSA is doing to air passengers. Here’s a passage from Casey’s email with a special part that caught my attention:
On June 24, 2010, Senator Robert Bennett of Utah introduced the SAFER AIR Act. This legislation would require the Department of Homeland Security to ensure that passenger information or pictures obtained through body imaging are discarded, facial features are blurred and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees are prohibited from having cameras or cell phones present while in the screen areas. This bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, of which I am not a member.
Casey’s canned reply mentions some legislation that has me thinking. I have trouble believing that at voting time any bill explicitly denying a TSA agent a camera phone won’t also effectively deny the same thing to passengers. It seems too tempting for the DHS/TSA to simply mandate that all cell phones and recording devices be turned off as you reach the security checkpoint for the sake of traveler privacy. The above passage doesn’t say that, but awful legislative wording is often inserted under cover of darkness just before a vote. Weren’t we told by the Speaker herself to “pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it” regarding Obamacare?
Cell phones have provided the words and images that caught peoples’ attention and made them follow what’s really going on. I don’t believe government ever wants that kind of evidence to exist. We know the TSA turned off the scanners on Opt Out day so there would be no story. It’s quite possible that was only the short term fix. The long term fix might be to have no active recording devices at all.
Please stay vigilant. If we start hearing government and its media apologists showing concern over people who are embarrassed by being thrust into the limelight, then beware. It’s much more plausible that the TSA wants no light of where the blue gloves are being thrust. That way with any controversy it’s just the word of an official TSA agent against that of a potential terrorist.
Mark in Pittsburgh
————-
From: Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr.
Sent: Friday, December 03, 2010 6:34 PM
Subject: Response from Senator CaseyThank you for taking the time to contact me regarding the implementation of new security measures at the nation’s airports. I appreciate hearing from you about this issue.
Following the failed Christmas Day terrorist attack by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stepped up efforts to better secure our nation’s airplanes. In doing so, major airports across the nation are or have installed body imaging machines to better detect weapons and explosives. Additionally, in the fall of 2010, TSA implemented a new policy in which those passengers who opt-out of going through the body scanners will be subjected to a full body pat down.
On June 24, 2010, Senator Robert Bennett of Utah introduced the SAFER AIR Act. This legislation would require the Department of Homeland Security to ensure that passenger information or pictures obtained through body imaging are discarded, facial features are blurred and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees are prohibited from having cameras or cell phones present while in the screen areas. This bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, of which I am not a member.
I know that there is concern about the invasion of privacy as airports across the country install body imaging machines and institute pat down procedures. The TSA has stated that they have taken necessary measures – deleting the digital images after a passenger has cleared check points, placing the monitor and the observer in a separate room, and concealing passengers’ faces and private areas – to protect people’s privacy. They have also pointed to a Federal Drug Administration (FDA) study that found no health threats to passengers exposed to the body scanners. On November 17, 2010, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation held a hearing to review TSA’s new passenger screening policies.
I firmly believe that any misuse of body scanners or pat downs leading to a violation of a person’s privacy rights should result in with hefty penalties levied against offending TSA officials. My highest priority is to ensure the protection of all Americans, which means dismantling and deterring terrorist networks that seek to destroy our way of life. Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future about this or any other matter of importance to you.
Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future about this or any other matter of importance to you.
If you have access to the Internet, I encourage you to visit my web site, https://casey.senate.gov. I invite you to use this online office as a comprehensive resource to stay up-to-date on my work in Washington, request assistance from my office or share with me your thoughts on the issues that matter most to you and to Pennsylvania.
Sincerely,
Bob Casey
United States Senator
7 Responses to Guest Post: No Cameras, No Proof, No Story
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This is scary — I’m sure they won’t really take the TSA employees’ cameras away. What I’ve been noticing flying a lot this holiday season has been that the genital scanner machines have been unused but they leave them turned on anyway. It’s as if they realize that actually using them will create too much of an uproar but they want to keep the right to use them whenever they see someone (i.e. a pretty young girl) who they want to see naked or grope.
Patrick from MA recently posted..Brother MFC-7840W Multifunction Scanner Review
Frisk me. Just once. OOHH! Do it again. A little to the left. Harder this time. Will you be here when I get back? You sure got a purty mouth. Was it good for you, too?
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I think the question of recording is crucial, and I thank Mark C. for bringing it up. A good bill addressing passenger empowerment needs to include a clause that guarantees a passenger the right to a recording, with audio and video, of their screening. Moreover a passenger shouldn’t have to stand out in order to make this recording, by being forced to use their own electronics or by making a special request which will raise eyebrows: recording should be the default. A passenger may be forced to make themselves stand out if they request the recording but presumably that only happens if there was a serious dispute already.
But Bennett’s bill is wise to deny TSA officers their cell phones and cameras – personal ones, I mean. Frankly, they’ve got no business having those devices in security checkpoints in the first place, partly because they should not have any expensive electronics. People are separated from their cell phones and cameras all the time, and saying that TSA officers can’t have these devices will help deter theft. Second, they’re a distraction – if they’re supposed to be looking for terrorists, they’re not supposed to be texting or snapping photos of things that amuse them. And most especially they should not have these devices in the separate screening room where the naked scanner pictures are displayed, because of privacy concerns.
We need to hand the passengers some rights they can rely on, as a way to diffuse the power of TSA agents who think they are god.
The feds will have to adjust their strategy unless the desired outcome IS to destroy the airline industry and change our travel habits.
The following are anecdotal but illustrative of something going on.
My girlfriend is flying out today and leaving out of Orlando. She arrived around mid morning to a practically empty airport, no scanners anywhere in sight. In almost 20 years of flying out of that airport at all times of the year, she has NEVER seen it that empty.
I happened to be in Orlando back in October when the local news was talking about the imminent installation of the scanners. The reporters from the local Fox affiliate were at worst lying through their teeth about the health effects and at best were reading from a script that some other lying creaton wrote for them. I had understood since then that the scanners where installed in Orlando, but they were no where in sight today.
I spoke with another friend in Colorado this morning. His 81 year old father refuses to fly anymore. He and his wife drove from Texas to Los Angeles to spend the Holidays with his son. That is a four day trip for them at their advanced age.
There is a growing awareness among the general public that this is theater and more and more travelers are refusing to play the part of the actor dancing to the strings of the feds in order to make the production a success.
The naked emperor must have the willing gawkers to make the charade successful.
Should I wear my underwear outside my pants so you can look inside them?
I’ll need your full name for the court documents.
How do I know you won’t give me (germs, fleas lice, scabies, the clap, herpes, hepatitis) from the last guy?
I emailed the TSA and told them that the TSA workers could reproduce any scanner image by taking a photo to of the screen with a digital camera. It is irrelevant whether the scanners can save images or not. The resulting digital images will be as good as the original.
Even though the cops and TSA are trying to stop people from digital recording, to my knowledge the rules about passenger images have not changed.
Unless the TSA workers are screened, making that rule will not stop them from taking cameras into the workplace.