TSA Backlash Prompts Move Away From Pat Downs

Federal agency looking to develop new wanding-style device for searches

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Following a massive nationwide backlash, the TSA looks set to move away from invasive pat downs and return to wanding-style searches of travelers.

Although the change will initially apply only to travelers who pass through a body scanner, the fact that the federal agency is actively attempting to reduce the number of physical pat downs, the most controversial of which involve TSA screeners literally touching people’s genitals, represents a victory of sorts for anti-TSA campaigners.

“In an effort to minimize the number of physical pat-downs that screeners must conduct at U.S. airports, DHS is inviting R&D proposals from companies and organizations that can develop handheld devices that weigh less than five pounds and which could resolve “anomalies” detected when passengers are sent through Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) equipment,” reports Government Security News.

Under the TSA’s current policy, when an anomaly is detected by a body scanner, the traveler is forced to undergo “secondary screening,” which involves the exact same invasive pat down to which those who refuse to go through the body scanner are subjected.

The TSA has put out an invitation to vendors to develop a prototype handheld device that would be “capable of screening all areas of the body without removal of clothing beyond outwear.”

However, given that the handheld device must be able to detect explosives as well as metal, concerns about the safety of such devices will inevitably be raised if they rely on any form of radiation technology.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t

Despite the TSA’s effort to reduce secondary screenings, it has still failed to adequately respond to an exposé by engineer Jon Corbett which proved that the federal agency’s $1 billion dollar plus fleet of body scanners is completely useless in that the machines routinely fail to pick up prohibited items such as knives, guns and powder designed to resemble explosive material.

In a video that went viral on You Tube, Corbett revealed how the scanners could be fooled by simply securing an object inside an external pocket sewn on to an item of clothing.

Despite the reputation of the TSA being continually dragged through the mud by outrage after outrage, from strip-searching 85-year-old grandmothers over their colostomy bags to harassing young children with cerebral palsy, its advocates have recently called for the federal agency to be given even more power.

Last week, Congressman Mike Rogers called for the TSA to become “smarter, leaner and tougher.”

His call was echoed by Democrat Senator from California Diane Feinstein, who addressed increasing widespread condemnation of the TSA in noting that the “public has not been terribly sympathetic” to the federal agency’s behavior, adding “it’s very important that TSA keeps up its efforts.”

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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show and Infowars Nightly News.

This article was posted: Tuesday, May 22, 2012 at 3:37 am

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