A 4-year-old girl was patted down recently by Transportation Security Officers (TSO) at a Wichita, Kan., airport after she embraced her grandmother at the security checkpoint.

Michelle Brademeyer, the girl’s mother, wrote about the incident on her Facebook page last week. She said the trouble began when her daughter, Isabel, successfully passed through security, but then ran to hug her grandmother, who had triggered an alarm and had been asked to sit and await a pat-down.

“The Transportation Security Officers who were present responded to this very simple action in the worst way imaginable,” Brademeyer wrote.

read more

http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/24/11371144-tsa-pats-down-4-year-old-after-she-hugs-grandmother?lite

By Rob Lovitt, msnbc.com contributor

As head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) from 2005 to 2009, Kip Hawley was the public face of an agency despised by millions of Americans. Today, he says that hatred is understandable because the agency’s approach to airport security is “broken,” arguing that it should forgo standardized procedures and a focus on prohibited items in favor of increased flexibility and mitigating risk.

Hawley elaborates on the concept in a new book, out today, called “Permanent Emergency: Inside the TSA and the Fight for the Future of American Security” (Palgrave Macmillan, $27), co-written with Nathan Means. In it, he reveals the thinking behind the agency’s actions, the problems they’ve caused — in terms of cost, wasted effort and an angry public — and the possibility that someday we may be able to travel with our liquids, lacrosse sticks and large jars of peanut butter.

http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/24/11372503-former-tsa-chief-airport-security-in-america-is-broken?lite

In this video, I interviewed an actual TSA screener to hear more about how these machines are an epic fail. “Jennifer,” who asked me not to use her real name or face, has been on the front lines of the TSA’s checkpoints for the last 4 years.

Please share this video with your family, friends, and most importantly, elected officials in federal government. Make sure they understand that your vote is contingent on them fixing the abuse that 200,000 passengers face from the TSA on a daily basis. If you are (or know) a TSA screener who has seen abuse in the TSA, please contact me (below)!

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http://tsaoutofourpants.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/tsa-admits-1b-nude-body-scanner-fleet-worthless/

Posted by Alexander Higgins

A screener employed by the US Transportation Security Administration from New York city has attacked an airline pilot with a cup of hot coffee.

RT – Screeners employed by the US Transportation Security Administration have gotten a bad rap as of late for a series of scandals mostly stemming from their invasive pat-downs, but now a TSA agent from New York City is in some trouble.

TSA staffer Lateisha El isn’t the only one that’s in hot water, either.

El, 30, was arrested this week following reports that she hurled a cup of piping hot coffee at a pilot for American Airlines who had asked the agent to act accordingly after he spotted her screwing around at New York’s JFK Airport.

Steven Trivett, a 54-year-old pilot that was strolling through JFK Terminal 8 last month, says El accosted him with a cup of coffee after he tried to tell her to behave while on duty. Trivett says El was engaged in horseplay while on the clock in the early hours of March 28 when he approached her and other TSA screeners at the Big Apple airport. The New York Post reports that Trivett told the TSA agents they should “conduct themselves more professionally in uniform and not use profanity or the n-word” after witnessing a few workers acting amateurish while on the job. To say they responded unwelcomingly would be an understatement.

According to the Post’s report, one screener told Trivett to “mind his own business,” to which the pilot identified himself as a fellow TSA staffer. When he tried to find out El’s identity, however, the agent became agitated. Allegations suggest that after Trivett reached out to see El’s ID badge, she tossed a full cup of hot coffee at him.

A week after the incident occurred, El has been ticketed for harassment and misdemeanor-assault charges. She will have to go before a judge to explain herself at a later date in a New York courthouse.

If convicted of the crime, which is considered a third degree assault in New York, El could spent up to a year in jail and additionally be fined by the court. Unless, of course, the judge determines that being a TSA screener is punishment enough already.

read more

http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2012/04/04/tsa-agent-attackspilot-cup-hot-coffee-113501/

COLUMBIA, Tenn. -

A Transportation Security Agent at Nashville International Airport remains behind bars Wednesday in connection to a Maury County meth operation.

Members of the Maury County drug task force made the discovery at an apartment Tuesday night in Columbia, during a normal probation and parole check on one of the residents.

However, what the officers discovered was the pungent smell of an alleged “cook” in progress.

Police said two people were taken into custody, including Erin Barger, a 29-year-old TSA screener.

Nashville’s News 2 Investigates obtained photographs that show the woman being lead to the Maury county jail wearing a decontamination suit.

Drug agents said the suit was necessary because everything in her apartment was possibly exposed to chemicals associated with methamphetamines.

“We found a one pot meth cook. The [pink] stuff on the bottom is the binders from sudafedrine and ammonia nitrate and the black is burned out pieces of lithium. This liquid here is Coleman camp fuel. If this bottle explodes, this whole complex goes up in a short amount of time,” a Maury County drug agent said.

read more

http://www.wkrn.com/story/17215103/tsa-agent-arrested-for-involvement-in-meth-operation

Posted by Alexander Higgins

It is time for the public to #OccupyTheTSA and demand in a voice of solidarity that they end their tyrannical obtrusive campaign of beta-testing the public.

I just reported on the TSA harassing a 3 year old boy who was in a wheelchair.

Of course that is only the latest incident. Just a few days ago they were exposed for harassing and groping a quadruple amputee.

Then the shakedown of that poor innocent baby as a “possible terrorist”

And who can forget when the TSA police beat an unsuspecting girl at Reagan International Airport causing her brain damage, a crime which they got away with Scott free.

While the list goes on and on, here is another TSA video to make your blood boil. It appears the Gestapo hates mothers who breast feed their babies.

All of this TSA garbage are beta testing cases to figure out just how far they can push the public before they react.

And we can’t forget the fact the their $1 Billion nude body scanners can easily be beat while the public is subjected to their full body scanners that have never been properly tested for cancer causing radiation they emit.

The longer we allow them to get away with this the more they will escalate their tyranny.

Its time forming massive protests over this unconstitutional garbage.

Until the people stand against this tyranny, it will get worse!.

http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2012/03/20/tsa-tyranny-time-occupythetsa-101211/

Paul Joseph Watson

One of America’s busiest airports, Orlando Sanford International, has announced it will opt out of using TSA workers to screen passengers, a move which threatens the highly unpopular federal agency’s role in other airports across the nation.

“The president of the airport said Tuesday that he would apply again to use private operators to screen passengers, using federal standards and oversight,” reports the Miami Herald.

With Sanford International having originally been prevented by the TSA from opting out back in November 2010 when the federal agency froze the ability for airports to use their own private screeners, a law passed by the Senate last month forces the TSA to reconsider applications.

Larry Dale hinted that the move was motivated by the innumerable horror stories passengers have told of their encounters with the TSA, noting that the change was designed to provide a more “customer friendly” operation.

The agency has been slow to reissue the guidelines on the the rule change, prompting Republican Representatives John Mica of Florida, Darrell Issa of California and Jason Chaffetz of Utah to press TSA head John Pistole to implement the mandate.

Appearing at Orlando Sanford International yesterday, Mica said he had written to 200 airports advising them of the opportunity to op out of using TSA screeners.

Orlando Sanford is in the top 30 busiest airports in the world, with large numbers of takeoffs and landings.

The TSA has been keen to downplay the opportunity for airports to dispense with their screeners, fearing a mass exodus that could undermine the justification for the agency’s continued existence, especially given the fact that its reputation has been repeatedly savaged by a number of scandals.

read more

http://www.infowars.com/major-us-airport-to-evict-tsa-screeners/

Outrageous: TSA shake-down quadruple amputee at Phoenix airport

Patrick Henningsen
Infowars.com
March 12, 2012

Seeing is believing.

If this reporter had any doubts regarding the validity of all those outrageous tales of the TSA groping and abusing everyday American travellers, those doubts were crushed this past weekend.

Whilst entering security at Phoenix’sSky Harbor International Airport, I opted out of the TSA’s naked body scanner, requesting instead to have an ‘enhanced pat-down’ at which time I was summarily escorted to a side area where one other traveller was sitting, both of us waiting for a full security check-out by TSA agents. This other traveller was none other than math teacher, motivational speaker and Phoenix resident Jeff Lewis.

read more

http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2012/03/14/tsa-harasses-gropes-quadruple-amputee-jeff-lewis-95792/

This video is here to demonstrate that the TSA’s insistence that the nude body scanner program is effective and necessary is nothing but a fraud, just like their claims that the program is safe (radiation what?) and non-invasive (nude pictures who?). The scanners are now effectively worthless, as anyone can beat them with virtually no effort. The TSA has been provided this video in advance of it being made public to give them an opportunity to turn off the scanners and revert to the metal detectors. I personally believe they now have no choice but to turn them off.

Please share this video with your family, friends, and most importantly, elected officials in federal government. Make sure they understand that your vote is contingent on them fixing the abuse that 200,000 passengers face from the TSA on a daily basis.

Andrea Fornella Abbott was arrested when she refused to allow her daughter (age withheld) to be sexually touched by TSA agents.

NewYorkDailyNews.com reports that Abbott was arrested at Nashville airport when she “shouted and swore” at TSA agents, telling them she wouldn’t allow her young daughter to have her “crotch grabbed”.

Abbott’s daughter was singled-out for a pat-down after Abbott refused to go through the airports body scanners.

According to The Tennessean, security officer Sabrina Birge told police that Abbott said “in a very stern voice with quite a bit of attitude” that Abbott and her young daughter would not go through the Rapiscan X-ray machine. The officer tried telling Abbott that the X-ray was “safer than her cell phone” but Abbott responded, “I still don’t want someone to see our bodies naked.”

Next, Abbott tried to take a video of the TSA agents with her cell phone—and that’s when police swooped in, handcuffed her and carted her off to jail. There were no reports on what happened to the young daughter during the ruckus.

On the one hand, it’s enlightening that, finally, more and more people are waking up to the fact that our rights as citizens are being trampled by power-hungry TSA agents. Unfortunately, if you do decide to defend yourself in a public airport there’s a chance you will either be threatened or, in the case of Andrea Abbott, taken to jail in handcuffs. Even talking in a “stern voice” to TSA agents regarding what you are and aren’t comfortable with can result in TSA agents calling the police.

Also, airports are starting to ban people from videotaping their experiences in security lines. This is probably due to the many viral videos of TSA agents inappropriately touching little children and the elderly. (No need for all that pesky “evidence” regarding your 4th Amendment rights being violated, I suppose….)

read more

http://www.federaljack.com/?p=173512

A nursing mother was forced to show security her freshly pumped breast milk before she was allowed to board a plane with her breast pump.

Amy Strand, was traveling with her nine-month-old daughter Eva, on Wednesday when a TSA agent at Hawaii airport insisted she show him the full bottles of milk before she could board her plane home to Maui.

The high school vice principal said the agent insisted that security rules required that the device could be brought on-board only if it contained milk.

The Transportation Security Administration has said that the agent was wrong to insist this.

‘I asked him if there was a private place I could pump and he said, no you can go in the women’s bathroom,’ said Strand.

The only electrical outlet in the bathroom was next to a sink facing a wall of mirrors, she said, forcing her to pump while standing in front of other women.

‘I had to stand in front of the mirrors and the sinks and pump my breast, in front of every tourist that walked into that bathroom,’ she said.

read more

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2109523/TSA-forces-woman-fresh-pumped-milk-order-breast-pump-plane.html

By Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)

One of the great honors of my service to Tennessee is having the opportunity to represent Ft. Campbell which is home to the storied 101st Airborne, the 5th Special Forces Group and the Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment which piloted Navy SEAL Team Six during the raid on Osama Bin Laden.

Each soldier who calls Ft. Campbell home has gone through some of the most intensive training on the planet which pushed their minds and bodies to their physical limits. In the end, those who make the cut have earned the right to be part of our United States military, are honored to wear its uniform, and are serving on the frontlines in the fight against global terrorism.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for our nation’s Transportation Security Officers (TSO’s) who Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano contends are our nation’s last line of defense in fighting domestic terrorism. Unlike “hell week” which faces potential Navy SEALs, becoming a TSO requires a basic level of classroom and on the job training. In many cases this rigorous training is less severe than the requirements of becoming a security guard in most states.

Believe it or not, only 7 years ago, TSO’s went by a more deserving title, “airport security screeners.” At the time, their title and on the job appearance consisted of a white shirt and black pants. This was fitting because airport security screening is exactly what’s required of the position. However, this is no longer the case.

In the dead of night, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) administratively reclassified airport security screeners as Transportation Security Officers. The TSA then moved to administratively upgrade TSO’s uniforms to resemble those of a federal law enforcement officer. They further completed the makeover with metal law enforcement badges. Not surprisingly, government bureaucrats at the TSA left out one crucial component during the artificial makeover – actual federal law enforcement training as is required of Federal Air Marshalls.

read more

http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2012/02/29/the-tsa-is-coming-to-a-highway-near-you/

By Mary Beth Quirk

Some things are just fine if you leave them unattended for less than a minute. Like, an apple, or a cat, or even a hammer. But a metal detector at an airport security checkpoint? Nope, you shouldn’t leave that alone when people are walking through it. Tell that to the TSA agents at the Sacramento International Airport.

The Transportation Security Administration had to shut down a terminal at the airport over the weekend, citing a security breach, says KCRA News. Flights were grounded for an hour, because four ticketed passengers and one airport employee waltzed through the abandoned metal detector.

Officials say “a walk-through metal detector was left unattended for less than one minute.” Less than a minute is again, okay when leaving a piece of paper on the table. But not okay here, TSA.

Once the TSA got wise to what had happened, they put the airport on lockdown and found the five people, who weren’t up to anything mischievous when they went through the checkpoint.

Two TSA officers have been removed from their screening duties while officials look into how everything went down. Pretty sure it involves legs, and walking away from the job.

read more

http://consumerist.com/2012/02/tsa-agents-leave-post-figure-metal-detector-can-monitor-itself.html

Terminal B at Sacramento International Airport was shut down temporarily after five people got past an unattended security checkpoint.

The security breach happened Saturday when a walk-through metal detector was left unattended for less than a minute, officials said.

After noticing it was unattended, Transportation Security Administration officials closed the checkpoint and went to search for the five individuals that got by. Police were called to help.

“All five individuals were located and were brought back to the checkpoint and rescreened as a precaution,” according to a statement from the TSA.

According to TSA spokesperson Ann Davis, the terminal was closed for an hour starting at around 9 a.m.

As a result of the incident, officials said, two TSA officers have been removed from screening duties and are to undergo additional training.

read more

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/02/tsa-airport-checkpoint-unattended-terminal-shutdown-sacramento.html

Michael Hinkelman

A TRAINING instructor with the Transportation Security Administration at Philadelphia International Airport pleaded guilty yesterday to taking a bribe from a transportation security officer.

Shannon Gilliam, 29, of Sharon Hill, potentially faces four to 27 months in prison under advisory sentencing guidelines.

Gilliam has been suspended pending outcome of the investigation, a TSA official said.

Prosecutors said Gilliam was responsible for training transportation security officers and administering mandatory certification exams to officers who handle passenger and baggage screening at the airport.

read more

http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/140802943.html

By Amanda Peterson Beadle

In November of 2010, Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA) joined the public outcry against the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) security precautions in airports by describing body scans and mandatory pat downs as crossing “the line” in regard “to people’s concerns about privacy” and “beneath the dignity” of air travelers. But just two months later, the anti-abortion McDonnell had no problem violating women’s privacy and freedom to make medical decisions by throwing his support behind a measure that originally required women seeking abortions to undergo ultrasounds in which a wand is inserted into the vagina.

Following a public outcry, McDonnell revised the measure to exempt women from the more invasive procedure, but not before encountering the wit of comedian Jon Stewart, who characterized the bill as “a TSA pat-down inside their vagina.” McDonnell addressed the contradiction between supporting mandatory ultrasounds for women and opposing “invasive” TSA pat downs during a radio interview this morning on WTOP and claimed that there is no comparison between the legislation and the enhanced security procedures:

MCDONNELL: There are things that are required in the interest of public safety, like TSA procedures. There are ways to accomplish the same result without an invasive patdown. [...]

I believe this is something that respects the dignity of women by making sure they have necessary information.

read more

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/02/28/433835/mcdonnell-tsa-pat-downs-are-invasive-but-ultrasound-bill-respects-the-dignity-of-women/?mobile=nc

Paul Joseph Watson

The Senate has passed legislation that includes a provision allowing airports to replace TSA screeners with private security, opening the door for the widely loathed federal agency to be marginalized from aviation security altogether.

The bill was primarily concerned with how the Federal Aviation Authority would be funded for the next four years, but also included measures that would force the TSA to reconsider applications from airports to replace TSA workers with their own privately hired screeners.
“Security companies would have an easier time winning contracts to operate airport checkpoints,” reports Businessweek.
Following a massive nationwide backlash against the TSA’s invasive groping policies and its use of radiation-firing naked body scanners, linked by many prestigious health bodies to cancer, an increasing number of airports attempted to take responsibility for their own screening procedures by replacing TSA workers with privately hired personnel.
However, in January 2011, when the number of airports attempting to opt-out of the TSA had risen to 16, TSA head John Pistole put a freeze on the process, refusing to consider new applications from airports.
The newly approved legislation “would require the TSA to reconsider applications for private screeners that it had rejected.”
Should airports choose to replace TSA screeners with their own private security, it would not only mean the screeners were better trained and more responsible for their actions, alleviating the problems of thefts and abuse by TSA workers, but it would also create tens of thousands of much needed jobs for the private sector.

read more

http://www.infowars.com/senate-passes-bill-allowing-airports-to-evict-tsa-screeners/

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

A TSA agent tasked with checking bags for security threats is accused of abusing his position by jacking iPads from luggage he was examining.
Clayton Keith Dovel, 35, of Bedford, Texas, was busted this week after he was found to have eight iPads believed to have been stolen from passengers.
Police said Dovel worked in a ‘resolution room’ at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, where checked bags are examined before they’re placed on a flight.

The TSA said in a statement to WFAA: ‘The employee has been placed on administrative leave, pending the outcome of the investigation.
‘The action of one individual in no way reflects on the outstanding job our more than 50,000 security officers do every day.’
This comes just days after eight TSA agents were suspended for misconduct at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2095254/Clayton-Keith-Dovel-TSA-agent-arrested-stealing-iPads-bags-hes-supposed-inspecting.html