Air Travelers Unite: Invasive TSA Pat-Downs and Body Scans Spark Protest

In what could be a nationwide protest at hand, air travelers across the country are engaging in open dissent and boycotting new Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screening procedures that many have likened to "virtual foreplay" and even "sexual assault." Complaints that began in late October have gone viral across the Internet, spawning protests among travelers, pilots and health care advocates, as well as protests from the ACLU and other privacy advocates.

"We're opposed to letting TSA treat us like criminals," said James Bobb of Eagleville, Pennsylvania, who is organizing the We Won't Fly campaign on WeWontFly.com. He told The Washington Post on Saturday that the site has gotten more than 70,000 hits per day since it went live a week ago.

Primarily, the group is encouraging travelers to say no to full body scans, which render virtually naked, X-ray likenesses of travelers for TSA screening. Critics have pointed to health concerns of the machines, which use backscatter technology. Health experts say even the small amounts of radiation emitted by the machines can be harmful to people, especially those who fly often, prompting the Allied Pilots Association to initiate a boycott of the scanners last week. A week earlier, an ExpressJet pilot walked out of Memphis International Airport after he refused a full body scan and a full pat-down, which he called intrusive. He has since filed a civil rights lawsuit against the TSA.

We Won't Fly is also encouraging travelers to participate in a national Opt Out Day on November 24, the day before Thanksgiving -- one of the busiest travel days of the year. In refusing the scan, however, travelers would have to endure a pat-down, and the stories and protests coming out about the new, more involved search techniques are gaining momentum. Critics say that the new pat-down procedures were instituted to force more people into the body scan machines, which are supposed to be voluntary. There are now 242 machines in use at U.S. airports as of October.

CNN employee Rosemary Fitzpatrick came forward with one of the first high-profile complaints against the new frisking tactics in October, saying she felt "helpless, I felt violated, and I felt humiliated" and reduced to tears at the checkpoint, when her underwire bra set off the metal detector and she had to go through the pat-down. She noted that there was no advanced warning about how invasive the pat-down would be.

Software engineer John Tyner was thrown out of San Diego International Airport on Nov. 13 because he refused to get screened at all, telling TSA agents, "If you touch my junk I'll have you arrested." TSA officials told him there is $10,000 fine if an individual leaves once the security process has begun, but Tyner didn't seem to care. "People generally are angry about what is going on," Tyner told reporters, "but they don't know how to assert their rights ... there is a general feeling that TSA is ineffective, out of control, over-reaching." Tyner captured the entire interaction with agents on his cell phone, including a response from an agent who said, tellingly, "by buying your ticket you gave up a lot of rights." The audio clip is available online and had 179,000 hits on YouTube as of early Monday afternoon.

Other personal stories making their way across the web include a father who said his 8-year-old son was selected for secondary screening and had to endure a pat down, with the agent allegedly running the back of his hand across the boy's genital area.

"We spend my child's whole life telling him that only mom, dad and a doctor can touch you in your private area, and now we have to add TSA agent and that's just wrong," the man, who said he worked as a lobbyist in Washington but did not want to use his name, told Reuters. "At some point the terrorists have won."

Other groups involved in bringing attention to the new security procedures include the Association for Airline Passenger Rights, Flyers Rights and the Air Line Pilots Association, which is working with federal agencies to reduce the security burdens on pilots.

TSA has said it has instituted the heightened guidelines to respond to emerging security threats. Last Christmas, Nigerian-born Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to smuggle explosives in his underwear on a plane bound for the U.S. from Amsterdam. More recently, printer cartridges carrying explosive material were smuggled into cargo on a plane that originated in Yemen.

In response to a related Change.org petition, "Stop Intrusive Crotchal Searches," TSA issued a statement, which in part said the agency was striving for consistency in its pat-down procedures and that passengers always have the right to request private screenings: "We believe these security measures are necessary and appropriate for ensuring the security and confidence of all air travelers. TSA continues to develop and deploy new technologies to address the explosives threat, and the use of pat-downs provides an additional layer of security at the checkpoint. "

However, TSA added, those passengers who refuse the security measures "will not be permitted to fly."

Websites like We Won't Fly ultimately say that alternatives to flying should be sought in order to send the message that Americans will not tolerate the encroachment on their rights as citizens. "If we don’t take action, however meager and ineffective it may seem at first, the ability to opt out may soon disappear. We may soon find these porno-scanners on our roads, in our train stations and sports stadiums. We must end this dangerous and invasive technology here and now!"

Photo Credit: Truthout.org