TSA Videos VINDICATE Meg McLain!

by George Donnelly on November 11, 2010

The TSA has released their surveillance videos of their attack on peaceful traveler Meg McLain. Oops, the videos vindicate her. See for yourself. You might need a magnifying glass though. Where are the timestamps? Why don’t they show the whole thing? Lame, TSA. Let’s the whole video. Here’s an image of Meg in cuffs. See the last few seconds of the video that clearly show her in cuffs.

{ 3 trackbacks }

{ 107 comments… read them below or add one }

penta November 12, 2010 at 9:17 am

are you going to believe meg, or your lying eyes?

Reply

Ruperto November 13, 2010 at 4:36 pm

Did you watch the second video? If you’re not patient enough, just watch this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXlMbsR0MMc&t=630

Reply

NuclearShadow November 12, 2010 at 10:13 am

I sure hope there is something she can do about this clear mistreatment. I hope at the very least she can file a lawsuit.
The TSA will have to change its behavior if it loses the case.

If I worked for the TSA what I would have done personally is talked to this young woman and make sure she fully understands what the scanner is. If not then I would tell her in a purely honest manner best to my knowledge. If she still rejects then I would offer her a chance to simply be padded down by a female TSA, Nothing extreme just the standard.

This scanner in my personal opinion should not be forced on anyone however it should grant a faster method of getting through security if one so chooses. I think this is fair.
Sadly however we live in a age where paranoia outweighs reason.

Reply

DD Weller November 12, 2010 at 10:48 am

Hm. I hold no brief for the TSA … but I saw neither the dragging-by-the-arm nor the handcuffs that McLain reported. Are the videos perhaps incomplete? Or is there another explanation?

Reply

DR November 12, 2010 at 1:29 pm

The video at the bottom covers the entire incident. The whole thing lasted about 10 minutes.

She’s lying, probably for the attention.

Reply

Rob November 12, 2010 at 12:09 pm

What do you mean the videos vindicate HER? It vindicates the TSA because pretty much NONE of what she said happened according to the video.

Reply

joshuaism November 12, 2010 at 12:29 pm

Could it be possible to edit the video to highlight where it reveals Meg being handcuffed to the chair. I can’t be bothered to watch 20 minutes of video to verify her claims.

Reply

Brian November 12, 2010 at 12:53 pm

Vindicates her? She lies from the very beginning.

If you don’t like flying, don’t fly. If you don’t lilke TSA, lying about how they treat you isn’t going to bring them down.

You should ashamed of yourself.

Reply

Sam November 12, 2010 at 1:14 pm

It appears you don’t know what vindicate means.
There were no handcuffs, there was no arm-grabbing, and several people were subjected to scanning throughout the video above.
Whether the scanning/pat-down procedure is proper or not aside, what she said happened clearly did not happen. She refused both screening methods, and was therefore escorted from the premises. The agents are vindicated by the video above.

Reply

DR November 12, 2010 at 1:28 pm

How can you possibly claim that those videos vindicate her? They do the exact opposite! Where are the handcuffs she claims were put on her? She claimed repeatedly to have been handcuffed to the chair. She was not. She claims to have been physically intimidated. There is no evidence of any of this in the video. She claims to have been escorted by nearly 20 people out of the security area. There were about 6 people.

She also claimed the episode lasted an hour. It lasted all of 10 minutes.

Come on. I’m sure there are real cases of people being intimidated by the TSA. You’re harping on this case only because it’s an attractive white woman. If it were a middle eastern male, you wouldn’t give a ****.

Reply

Nunya November 14, 2010 at 9:25 pm

You’re right I wouldn’t care if it was an arab, they need to be checked for everything.

Reply

steve clancy November 12, 2010 at 1:49 pm

I’ve worked in public service for over 30 years. I am very familiar the body language of the TSA agent with the pony tail. She is trying to explain the necessary procedures to this woman in a matter-of-fact attitude. She does try to defuse and clam the situation several times. The agent who comes later with the short hair does the same thing. While the first agent is clearly frustrated, I did not see anyone take an aggressive stance or make aggressive movements towards this person.

How does the second video vindicate her?

Was it when she was thrown to the grown and beaten about the head and shoulders by the facist TSA agents?

Oh, wait. That never happened.

Reply

K. Lewis November 12, 2010 at 2:27 pm

I didn’t see any kind of harassment on TSA’s part. Nor did I see cuffs. REMEMBER PEOPLE, they have a job to do, just like you and me. They are doing what they get paid to do, according to their training. ALSO, cuffs would have been placed on her IF she was unruley. SINCE they already had her detained, and she wasn’t acting all crazy, they didnt need them. Yes, I dont agree with the full body scanner, but its there, and someone saw it as protection to U.S. soil. Can’t really fight whats already been in place. LASTLY, I 100% DISAGREE with field searches. They are NOT any kind of LAW official and have no right but to detain. Also, WHY WERE’NT THE COPS CALLED INITIALLY?? In any situation, to where you detain someone, a cop(or martial) should be called IMMEDIATELY.

Reply

JC Rimbaud November 12, 2010 at 2:54 pm

Come on Mr Donnelly! Vindicated? How can you state the video justifies Meg McLain’s story? Did you watch it? Starting with how she was singled out for the scan – you can see several people go through the scan before she approaches the area. And then she’s wiping her tears with her right hand and pointing over “yonder” with her left, obviously without handcuffs. I’m all for fighting for someone’s rights when truly they’ve been victimized. Sorry, not so in this case.

Reply

Dan November 12, 2010 at 8:15 pm

“See the last few seconds of the video that clearly show her in cuffs.”

I watched the WHOLE video, and at no point was she handcuffed. Nor yelled at. Nor patted down. Nor was her ticket torn – though that might have happened out of view in the 2nd video.

I am not a fan of TSA’s new procedures, but your website and Meg McLain have lost all credibility here.

Reply

GDW November 12, 2010 at 9:41 pm

Meg NEVER said she was cuffed TO the chair.

She said she was cuffed while IN the chair, which makes being in the chair inconsequential, that is, she was sat in a chair, and she may have been cuffed, does it really matter if the two occurred at the same time? Is being IN a chair while cuffed a worse thing than just being cuffed?

It still waits to be seen if she was actually cuffed in the second video, where we can’t see anything besides her head.

Those saying it was only tn minutes, you do realize that the two videos are NOT happening at the same time? The videos show that the incident lasted AT LEAST 23 min and 47 sec, and that’s assuming they happen back to back, and that the second video was the end of it. That is, assuming there wasn’t more after that where ever they walked off with her.

I’m sure being detained for around 24 min while in a state of high anxiety can feel like at least an hour.

Reply

grams November 12, 2010 at 9:57 pm

Meg McClain followed up on-air yesterday (Thursday Nov. 11, 2010) on these videos saying they are only showing part of the interaction.

She was later moved to another chair which is not shown on these videos. This part of her encounter is not shown. She also clarifies that she meant other people were not secondarily screened in the area she was in during the time she was there.

The problems with the videos she claims they do not encompass the entire time frame and are also at angles that didn’t cover everything. The arm pulling is blocked by the imaging machine.

No time stamps seems very suspicious for footage in a multi-million dollar security operation, perhaps inconceivable. Even simple convenience stores and gas stations have them. Perhaps it was cropped out and part of the image was zoomed in.

You can listen to her response to questions about her story here:

https://traffic.libsyn.com/ftl/FTL2010-11-11.mp3

(She starts at 1:23:30 into the audio)

She also refers to her website if you want to follow up with additional information from her:

https://freekeene.com/

Reply

Christopher November 13, 2010 at 11:33 am

Saw the website. Why am I not surprised, a buch of nutjobs. That wraps it up, I think.

Reply

grams November 13, 2010 at 11:39 am

I left the same message about Meg’s audio reply on the TSA blog site. It was moderated out and never got posted. Other comments before and after mine were posted.

Reply

Christopher November 13, 2010 at 12:56 pm

It doesn’t mean anything. I’m sorry, but that’s not how things work,. She gave a very precise narrative in the first interview, not a vague one. I believed her myself. Then I saw these videos, and very important parts were not absent or anything, they were just completely different from her narrative, starting from the agents who were not aggressive but instead almost gentle to her. If her reply is that parts are missing, it’s a stupid reply.
Listen, this is how it works: if you fly, you know you have to go through these things. I don’t like it myself, but you have to, and honestly there are better fights to fight. You wanna protest? Fine. But accept the consequences. That’s how society works: if you don’t like the rules, you either work inside the law towards changing them, or if you defy them directly to take a stand, you accept what comes from that, in this case, obviously, not flying. Now, if they mistreated her as she said at the beginning, she would be right, it would have been a very grave matter. If it didn’t happen, if, as the video shows, she was treated right and just escorted out without any of the big scenes she mentioned, she really has nothing to complain about, and she gave a false account that, if for some reason there were no videos, would have put people who were just doing their already not very fancy job in big trouble. Which in my book is kind of a dickish thing to do.
Now, seeing she is part of a cooky anarchist conspirationist anti-governement nutjob website thingy…yeah, everything is a lot more transparent and clear. And really, for me, the case is closed and I won’t care about it a second more.

Reply

grams November 13, 2010 at 7:32 pm

I would tend to agree if they released uninterrupted, time-stamped, full frame, video and this is all that happened. Otherwise, it seems we don’t have sufficient evidence to judge against her.

Reply

Ali November 12, 2010 at 11:18 pm

There appear to be gaps in the video when she’s moved from one place to another. Why is there no time-stamping? Assuming the videos occurred back to back we can see that the incident was at least 23 minutes long, but I find it hard to believe that the TSA doesn’t have time-stamping capabilities in their video. I think it’s more likely that these videos have been edited to show only what the TSA wants you to see. Meg never claimed to have been handcuffed to a chair, but said that she was handcuffed in a chair, which is clearly stating that she was sitting in a chair and was handcuffed. I can’t say for sure that I believe her 100%, especially knowing that when you’re in a high stress situation you may perceive things differently, or fail to see specific events occur. But I do think there are holes in the TSA video and I want to know why?

Reply

DP November 13, 2010 at 5:31 am

Amazing how she can lie the way she did and people see the video and still believe her. Just because they hate the TSA. She was never cuffed, searched or assaulted in the video. If she was searched in the little room she would have been cleared to fly and not escorted out by the police. Get over your hate and discontent towards the TSA Officers, they are not inept, ignorant or uneducated morons such as stated before. Many are highly educated with many years of service to our country in numerous ways.

Reply

CLC November 13, 2010 at 8:33 am

I wonder if anything like this has ever (or will ever) happen to an American citizen of middle eastern (looking) descent?

Reply

Colin Smith November 13, 2010 at 3:32 pm

Typically of an attention seeking journalist. Note that on her exit there were only two police and two TSA agents. This snotty little girl should have been made to carry her own bags out of the terminal.

As for those that disagree with security procedures, adapt or drive. As an ex pilot I do not care how tough the security is as I would not want the be blown out of the sky by anyone who just happened to have a problem with a pat-down.

Reply

Ruperto November 13, 2010 at 4:43 pm

All you people who accuse meg of lying should click here. It will only take a few seconds of your time. Then, unless your are totally blind, you will see Meg in handcuffs. Just look, OK? Just take one look. Unless you are a shill for the TSA, you will change your mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXlMbsR0MMc&t=630

Reply

gd November 13, 2010 at 5:49 pm

Isn’t that one of the same vids linked above?

Meg herself said that she was briefly cuffed.between the videos. If you watch the end of one, and the start of the second, you can see they are not directly after eachother.
There are different agents with her in each.

Reply

Nat November 13, 2010 at 6:15 pm

No! on that video when she walk out she didn’t get handcuffs it’s her bracelets. she was handcuffs on a chair for few minute because she try to get her cam! but it not show on CCTV. Well, just by watching these 2 videos and listen to story she told you know she lying.

New Vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPQJYxLlZn4&feature=player_embedded

Reply

tom November 14, 2010 at 6:26 am

tsa doesnt carry handcuffs…and if she was handcuff it would be from an officer…and officers dont handcuff people in the front…they handcuff in the back

total lies on her part

Reply

Amanda November 15, 2010 at 9:48 am

Why do morons like you (Tom) insist on commenting on stuff that you obviously know nothing about. Do you know a police officer? Are you a police officer? Have you ever even met a police officer? Or are you going off what you see in movies and TV shows? Well, I do know police officers (personal friends) and I know how they handcuff people. When they are detaining someone, say for the sake of searching their vehicle, they will handcuff them in the front unless that person has given them resons to do otherwise (disorderly). If they have a reason to bring them in or to subdue them, then yes, they will handcuff them in the back, and even then that is not always guranteed. If someone is in full cooperation and they are taking them in for a non violent offense, sometimes the officer will handcuff them in the front.

You people are complete morons. Your arguments are because you cannot see her side in non-timestamped videos released by the TSA. I can gurantee you they have better footage and they put time on their videos. There is no audio in these videos either, so no one can say that these people weren’t being hostile unless you’re a lip reader. Your conclusions are based off of nothing and your lack of self-respect is degrading.

I was in the military and I had some rights taken away, but what airports are allowed to do is disgusting. You’re all given a false sense of security over body scanners and random pat downs, but I can tell you from knowledge that you are no more safer. The reason for our safety is intelligence not body scanners. Not to mention terrorists aren’t going to continue trying to attack us from the same spot. Read up on some of the attempted terrorist attacks recently and see all the ways they can think of to get to us, but it wasn’t someone being molested that tipped off security.

Now that your security comments are quashed why don’t you go look up the 4th amendment. Everytime you go through the degrading body scanner or pat down your rights are being violated, yet nothing is being done. I hope she brings this to court and things change once and for all. I was in the military and I was there to protect YOUR rights, not have them taken away by a government that spews out trash such as security over personal rights. All of you nay sayers should truly be ashamed.

Reply

mikehell November 13, 2010 at 5:53 pm

I don’t like anal cavity searches, but if ever the TSA finds it necessary to search my anal cavity, I’m going to submit. After all, I do have a choice: I can bend over for the TSA and be rewarded with my flight, or I can drive. That’s a choice, right? Bend over or drive. Why can’t you anarchist freaks understand what a _choice_ is? No one is forcing you to get on that plane! And besides, remember that all of this is for the common good. Oh, I forgot. You believe that individuals _own_ themselves and therefore no one else can make force their rules or rulers upon you. Well, phooey on your logical and moral consistency. Me and my fellow compliant fliers will have none of your silly talk.

Reply

Nunya November 14, 2010 at 9:33 pm

I don’t believe you, I believe you enjoy them.

Reply

mikehell November 14, 2010 at 9:39 pm

Prepare your cavities, Nunya. It’s coming….and it’s for our own good.

Reply

JPCD November 13, 2010 at 6:11 pm

I really don’t know why you guys bullshits on George…

“Oops, the videos vindicate her. See for yourself. You might need a magnifying glass though. Where are the timestamps? Why don’t they show the whole thing?”

I agreed with George that you can clearly see that these videos doesn’t show the same place and the same time…

First video: In front of Megan you can see a wall 10 to 15 meters away… She seems to be in the middle of the security area. I didn’t get trough that airport, but everyone will agree that for the international airports those area are HUGE!.

Second video: Megan is sit down in a corner surrounded by walls and TSA agents.

The real question is what happened during this time laps? Do you guys really think Megan appears only in 2 videos of this airport. I’m ready to bet a lot that TSA agents can provide us the full path of Megan from is arrival (outside the airport) to the end of this story. These 2 videos are cleary not significant to declare Megan a liar and it’s clear to me that this story hide something.

It’s just my 2 cents and I personnally doesn’t care about those procedure

Reply

CrapOnTSA November 13, 2010 at 6:49 pm

The fact is the TSA are using the threat and reality of RAPE to force people to choose to be irradiated and exposed to cancer causing rays so the TSA rapists can enjoy lots of porno they can masturbate to or strangers whose gonads they can fondle.

FACT: they dig doing this to women while their husbands are watching.

FACT: it is rape.

The choice the TSA subhumans hold out is the same as the choice between being shot or sodomized at gun point.

All TSA agents must be indicted for RAPE or for aiding and abetting a rapist.

You know what these guys at TSA do when they’re done sexually assaulting women they feel up?

They keep the gloves they use and trade them for each other to sniff, catching scent from the women whose crotches they fondle.

They stand around during breaks, sniffing them and laughing. Don’t ask how I know but it is NOT heresay. This is FACT.

Congressmen have to know this WILL happen to their wives! Their daughters! Their granddaughters. The TSA monsters are psychopathic sexual sadists.

On the day of the protest against TOTAL SEXUAL ASSAULT, go through the pat down with a full bladder and bowels and let them both go the second the TSA maggot touches your gonads. By the 20th time this happens, they’ll get the message.

Reply

DP November 13, 2010 at 10:11 pm

You have got to be one of the most idiotic posts on here. Your imagination is just amazing on how you can make stupid shit up. Damn you are just stupid.

Reply

swami November 15, 2010 at 10:50 am

I agree with DP

Reply

Jo November 14, 2010 at 1:07 am

The “cuffs” they point out in the second video are a bracelet and a tissue. Her hands are up like that because she’s twisting the tissue that a Nice lady from the TSA gave her in the first video. Around the one minute mark in the first video you can see these large bracelets that she didn’t take off when she came through security. I don’t agree with being groped, but you don’t see anyone being groped in this video. You DO see other people going through the scanner that they made such a big deal about, including all types of people, an African American, a larger Male, and a few other ladies. They made a huge deal out of her being “the only one” to go through, because she’s hot. Didn’t happen.

Reply

Colin Smith November 14, 2010 at 3:11 am

I am an Australian and we have similar security but we do not have “wannabe high flying journos” create situations such as this.

When you guys start to recognise the important issues in the world today you would not waste time on this inconsequential issue.

If you all put your shoulders to the wheel and stop whinging like the Poms we used to have in Australia then you may climb out of the mess created by Carter, Freddie Mac, Fannie May, Dodd & Frankey et al.

Get real – find someting better to do than rubbish people doing their jobs on YOUR behalf.

Reply

mikehell November 14, 2010 at 10:51 am

Hear, hear, Colin! This sorry stunt by Ms. McLain and other so-called “voluntaryists” underscores the pressing need for even more invasive controls over personal freedom. These knaves do not realize that as the US and its subservient allies like Australia prosecute the War of Terror, that steely resolve will be demanded from all citizens as we travel the path to glorious victory. This is why I am directing all supporters of invasive state control to go to tsacavityprobe.com and voice your support of our Boys in Blue as they lay the groundwork for eventual anal cavity searches that will no doubt be soon instituted for our own good.

Bless you.

Reply

paul revere November 14, 2010 at 8:47 am

I’d like to hear back from all of you commenters (TSA shills?) who are posting these ridiculous sheeple comments in here after you’ve seen your wife/girlfriend/daughter molested by these minimum wage, power freak scumbags.

Are you all really such a village idiot that you actually think you are being made safer by this? Why don’t your TSA protectors, and the government, shut down the 1 million illegal aliens from entering the U.S. every year? I guess all those illegals pouring across the border are for your safety, just like cavity searches you are so willing to endure.

Think about one thing – are these things *ever* going to be taken away? Every 6 months/1 year, the government hypes another fake terror threat, institutes a new TSA “safety” procedure, but when the threats are 5, 6, 7 years old, the procedures never go away…and they never will.

Don’t put up with this nonsense from the TSA, or any other governmental body that tries to control you and train you to be a slave, as history has shown it will always get worse, if you do nothing and allow the cancer to grow unchecked.

Reply

mikehell November 14, 2010 at 10:31 am

Following up on my comments above, I suggest that everyone here voicing support for the TSA’s efforts to keep us safe needs to go to tsacavityprobe.com and sign the petition _demanding_ an apology from Ms. McLain. It’s only a matter of time before the TSA implements cavity examination and does so for our own good. The sooner we can put Ms. McLain’s shameful demonstration of “individual sovereignty” behind us, the sooner we can get on with flying safely again.

Reply

Jeff November 14, 2010 at 2:45 pm

My favorite part is when the TSA officer comes over and gives her a paper towel to wipe her face and does her best to console what is obviously a distraught passenger.

VINDICATION! Amirite?

Also, at several points in the first video you can see female passengers getting patted down. At no point are their breasts “twisted”.

As for time stamps..yeah, they’re not there, however at the very end of the first video a man with light brown hair parted on the right walks under the camera wearing a light blue dress shirt with a blue blazer in a bin. Approximately 1 minute into the second video, another very similar looking man walks by, wearing a blue blazer and a light blue dress shirt..

Draw whatever conclusions you might from that one.

Reply

Jeff November 14, 2010 at 2:47 pm

Also, it is fairly obvious from the second video, at ~10:35, that the item on her right wrist is the braclet she is wearing throughout the first video (where her hands are obviously not cuffed).

Reply

Brandon November 14, 2010 at 3:30 pm

TSA does not generally control placement or recording of CCTV security cameras. That is the responsibility of the port authority that runs the airport (the same group that provides law enforcement for the airport). If TSA needs footage from these cameras, they get it from the port.

Reply

CH November 14, 2010 at 8:09 pm

This video show me someone who is afraid of the security process and is refusing to cooperate with the TSA officers. I do not see any of her claims of being grabbed gropes or hand cuffed. For those people who thought this video vindicates Meg you are misstaken, The video vindicates TSA and shows that Meg was only treated with respect and patience for over 13 minutes. Meg was obviously scared but she seems to have made up alot of her claims of being mistreated. Sometimes people embelish stories and that seems to be what has happened here. Unfortunalty for Meg the video clearly shows that most if not all of her claims of mistreatment are unfounded.

Reply

Nunya November 14, 2010 at 9:39 pm

I think you all care too much about nothing.

Reply

swami November 15, 2010 at 10:53 am

Like I said before; This is turining into one of the best comedy sites on the internet… I love the fact that you have people all wound up about this liar.. Good for your ad dollars I’ll bet.. Ohhh let me guess what you folks have in mind next to generate $$ …. Ummm oh yeah TSA “agents” are really aliens looking for food!!!!!

Reply

Leave a Comment

Comment moderation is enabled. Your comment may take some time to appear.

Comments must be polite. NO personal attacks. Keep the debate lively but respectful. Comments that violate this rule will be deleted.

Previous post:

Next post: