A U.S. Army sergeant heading back to Afghanistan writes about the new TSA groping protocol. Afghan citizens get more respectful treatment from the U.S. Army than U.S. citizens get from the TSA. The title of the article in which is comments appear: Body searching children: No for the US Army, Yes for the TSA.”
He adds, “it seems as if the bureaucracy has become so obsessed with safety that we have forgotten that war entails risks beyond those of physical combat.”
He concludes, “Apparently FDR’s idea about ‘the only thing to fear” is lost on TSA and the current administration.'”
UPDATE: I had no idea the “get naked or get groped” policy had been in effect so long. Here’s an account from a pilot who had trouble with security in mid-October. It sounds like a case of bureaucrats browbeating the citizens into submission (civil liberties? “Irrelevant,” said one official) simply so they can fill out their reports.
Don’t wear sweats to the airport, or you may find a federal employees hands IN your pants.
The GAO says it’s not clear that the visual-strip-search machines would worked as advertised to avert a terrorist plot.
Jim Harper of the Cato Institute says the TSA effort is going after a vulnerability-of that there is no doubt-but “it is arguable whether or not it is addressing a significant risk.”
Remember how those images were going to disappear in a flash? Not quite. One hundred leaked body scans.
The Republican father of the TSA is having second thoughts. better late than never.
Are convicted rapists conducting grope searches? Questions remain about the integrity of background checks.
Ann Althouse says the uproar has the potential to affect the political orientation of many individuals.
From The Detroit News: http://apps.detnews.com/apps/blogs/watercooler/index.php?blogid=1092