TSA assaults 8-year-old boy at PDX

On the heels of yesterday’s story that TSA assaulted a 6-year-old girl in New Orleans comes a reports from a mother from Clackamas, Oregon, that a similar thing happened to 8-year-old son. Spencer Sheahan and his family were on their way to Disneyland at the time.

“It didn’t buzz like a normal buzz,” said Heather.  “It beeped like a beep you normally don’t hear.”

Just like that little 8-year-old Spencer found himself in the company of a TSA agent.  Heather snapped photos to show Spencer going through a full pat-down.

“They went up his leg, into that area, down the next leg, up here (chest), felt all over,” she explained.

Heather thought it crossed the line.  Spencer did, too.

“I was confused,” he said.  “I did not know what they were going to do to me.”

Source: Clackamas mother outraged over TSA screening at PDX

TSA aggressively pats down 6-year-old girl

TSA screeners in New Orleans patted down 6-year-old Anna Drexel.

Mother Selena Drexel says most other passengers near them in the queue were able to pass through security normally.

“For some reason Anna was selected for a pat-down, I can only speculate as to why,” Selena told ABC’s “Good Morning America” this morning.

“I did ask for alternatives. I did ask for her to be rescanned,” Selena adds. “They just refused and said they were going to do what they were going to do.”

The girl says “I don’t want to,” the same reaction I have when dealing with TSA.

TSA, as usual, defended the unquestionable powers of its agents:

Yes. TSA has reviewed the incident and the security officer in the video followed the current standard operating procedures.

Source: TSA under fire for enhanced patdown of 6-year-old girl

TSA misses knife on flight from Puerto Rico to Newark

Victor Torres-Rivera went through security screening with a 5-inch ceramic knife. It was detected on his flight home from Newark.

Sources said Torres-Rivera told them that he carried the knife for protection and simply forgot that it was in a day planner.

The Pfizer employee was not believed to be a terror threat, but he was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor weapon possession, sources said.

The TSA did not immediately comment.

“Mr. Torres-Rivera, who was released … is cooperating fully with law enforcement,” a Pfizer spokesman said.

http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/tsa-misses-knife-on-newark-bound-flight-20110327-lgf

TSA conducts random full body pat down at the gate

Nancy Campbell was selected for a full on groping at the gate at LaGuardia.

“If I had been physically attacked, this would have been a very, very similar experience,” said Nancy Campbell, 33, an urban planner who said she was traumatized by a touchy-feely female TSA agent before her flight to Washington Tuesday.

Campbell had already cleared security and was approaching the gate when the young agent stopped her, told her to drop her stuff and demanded she stand spread-eagled.

As passers-by gawked, the TSA agent patted Campbell down, touching her breasts, inner thighs and crotch, the freaked-out flier told The Post.

This is a new one. Passengers are subject to screening and have a choice of a body scanner or a enhanced pat down at the security checkpoint, but I haven’t heard of pat downs at the gate before.

This is one of the other significant problems with the TSA: you don’t know what is legitimate and what is not. Asking the TSA about it only gets you vague answers:

Davis would not say if the pat-down described by Campbell broke agency protocols or was overly intrusive. When asked about the rules, Davis said she could not discuss them because of security concerns.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/queens/flier_tsa_grope_nightmare_5EsDbrQPc99DADfZNBjI4J?CMP=OTC-rss&FEEDNAME=

Newark passenger goes through TSA screening with a steak knife

Evelyn Freay went through security screening at Newark and later discovered she had a steak knife in her bag.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/17/evelyn-freay-newark-passe_n_836966.html

Hawaii TSA worker arrested for stealing cash from travelers

Dawn Nikole Keka, a TSA screener in Kona, was arrested after a sting in which she was caught stealing cash from an undercover agent.

After the backpack went through the X-ray machine, the TSA said, Keka searched it with her back to the agent, discarded a bottle of liquid from the backpack and asked the “tourist” whether she is Japanese. The undercover agent nodded yes.

Keka then put the backpack through the X-ray machine a second time. A special agent with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General said he saw Keka walk to the middle of the screening area and lean against a wall near the X-ray machine.
When the undercover agent got the backpack, she discovered two $100 bills missing from the wallet.

TSA agents arrested Keka and found the two missing bills crumpled in her right back pocket. They also found four other crumpled bills in her front pocket: two $100s, a $20 and a $10.

http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/20110316_Isle_TSA_worker_arrested_in_theft_of_cash_from_travelers.html

TSA can’t keep accurate records on radiation emitted by whole body scanners

TSA officials admitted that TSA contractors kept incorrect records of radiation emitted by the $180,000 whole body scanners being deployed at airports.

More than one in four reports — randomly selected from thousands of reports over two years and covering 15 airports — included gross errors about radiation emissions. That is completely unacceptable when it comes to monitoring radiation.

— Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine)

Unlike other places where employees are subjected to radiation, the TSA doesn’t allow screeners to wear radiation-sensitive badges to monitor for excessive exposure.

http://thehill.com/blogs/transportation-report/tsa/149065-inaccurate-tsa-radiation-data-unacceptable-senator-says

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/03/tsa-radiation-test-bungling/

Justice Department lawyer claims no public input required for actual strip searches

In discussing legal arguments about airport body scanners, Justice Department lawyer Beth Brinkmann told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that if the TSA wanted to literally strip search passengers, it would not have to request public comment.

[Judge David] Tatel wondered aloud whether the government would have to seek public input if the TSA began literally strip searching fliers because a “terrorist gets through and blows up the airport.”

“No,” Brinkmann answered.

Congress, she added, required transportation officials to use the scanners or “effective technology” to protect the airlines, so no public input was necessary.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/03/court-unlikely-to-halt-airport-scanners/

TSA lets passenger through security without checking ID

Richard Wong made it through TSA screening with someone else’s boarding pass.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/09/ronald-wong-delta-passeng_n_833834.html

TSA supervisor arrested for impersonating a police officer to get out of traffic ticket

Despite the blue uniforms, TSA screeners are not law enforcement officers. (The blue uniforms with the shield patches were added to give the screeners credibility.) They do not carry weapons and cannot make arrests.

Or claim to be law enforcement officers. Michael Mazzone was arrested for pretending to be a sworn law enforcement officer.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/03/tsa_officer_charged_with_imper.html