Interesting People mailing list archives

more on DO READ THIS DJF -- Aggressive Searches Pat-down Searches/Sexual Harassment at the Airport


From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sat, 01 Jan 2005 21:11:34 -0500

Same thing happens to me at National and ONLY at National. No explanation
and to top it all off, the floors are filthy there.

Dave


------ Forwarded Message
From: Serge Egelman <egelman () cs cmu edu>
Date: Sat, 01 Jan 2005 20:56:51 -0500
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: Re: [IP] more on DO READ THIS DJF -- Aggressive Searches Pat-down
Searches/Sexual Harassment at the Airport

For IP if you wish:

I just flew to Costa Rica for break (here now).  At National going through
security they didn't say it was required that I take my shoes off, so I
wasn't
going to (I don't usually have to do that, and I know that this particular
pair
of shoes has no metal in them).  As I was about to walk through the metal
detector, the TSA goon said, "are you going to take your shoes off?"  "not
if it
isn't required"  "well if you don't you will fit the profile for secondary
screening."  Off they came.

serge

On Sat, Jan 01, 2005 at 03:21:32PM -0500, David Farber wrote:

------ Forwarded Message
From: Rob McMillin <rlm () pricegrabber com>
Date: Sat, 01 Jan 2005 07:33:01 -0800
To: <dave () farber net>
Cc: Barry Steinhardt <bsteinhardt () aclu org>, Esther Dyson
<edyson () edventure com>
Subject: Re: [IP] more on DO READ THIS DJF -- Aggressive Searches Pat-down
Searches/Sexual Harassment at the Airport

David Farber wrote:


------ Forwarded Message
*From: *Barry Steinhardt <bsteinhardt () aclu org>
*Date: *Sat, 25 Dec 2004 12:09:01 -0500
*To: *Esther Dyson <edyson () edventure com>
*Cc: *<dave () farber net>
*Subject: *Re: [IP] DO READ THIS DJF -- Aggressive Searches Pat-down
Searches/Sexual Harassment at the Airport

Esther,

Happy New Year!

We met with the TSA last week and astoundingly they have no statistics
on how many searches have been conducted at each airport or what the
ratio is between men and women.

They did tell us that the TSA screeners had been told to pick out
passengers with an "unnatural physical form" -- a judgement that seems
to be entirely idiosyncratic, albeit  skewed to women as the screeners
seem particularly focused on breasts.

We have logged a hundred + complaints from flyers around the country.
The TSA admitted last week that they have received 400.  All of ours,
so far, have been from women, who range in age from 23 to 93. Many of
them are business travellers, who report repeated instances of
"groping" --the most frequent word we hear.

My 16 year daughter having read all the news accounts is now refusing
to fly anywhere for vacation. Apparently she is not the only woman to
have made that judgement and the airlines are not happy either.

Please do let me know if you have any troubling experiences.

Nothing nearly this bad, but returning home from Arkansas yesterday, I
had a TSA officer complain -- with great hostility -- at the way I took
my boarding pass back from me! Good lord, they ask us to take our shoes
off, take off our coats, and now they think they're tin gods? No wonder...

Still waiting for an explanation how any of this is improving actual
security...

------ End of Forwarded Message


-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as serge () guanotronic com
To manage your subscription, go to
  http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/

-- 
/*
Serge Egelman

"Those who have had a chance for four years and could not produce peace
should
not be given another chance." --Richard Nixon, October 9, 1968
*/

------ End of Forwarded Message


-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com
To manage your subscription, go to
  http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/


Current thread: