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It's rare that we actually get to hear from one. But Jason Edward Harrington, a five-year TSA veteran, has changed all that, after launching an anonymous blog that offered a behind-the-scenes look at the airport security process and the sometimes twisted logic that dictated it. Long story short: the last line of defense we have to prevent another 9/11 is a total #show. And, yes, the TSA officers were laughing their asses off at those revealing body scans.
It was a job that had me patting down the crotches of children, the elderly and even infants as part of the post-9/11 airport security show. I confiscated jars of homemade apple butter on the pretense that they could pose threats to national security. I was even required to confiscate nail clippers from airline pilots—the implied logic being that pilots could use the nail clippers to hijack the very planes they were flying.
Once, in 2008, I had to confiscate a bottle of alcohol from a group of Marines coming home from Afghanistan. It was celebration champagne intended for one of the men in the group—a young, decorated soldier. He was in a wheelchair, both legs lost to an I.E.D., and it fell to me to tell this kid who would never walk again that his homecoming champagne had to be taken away in the name of national security.
Most of my co-workers found humor in the I.O. room on a cruder level. Just as the long-suffering American public waiting on those security lines suspected, jokes about the passengers ran rampant among my TSA colleagues: Many of the images we gawked at were of overweight people, their every fold and dimple on full awful display. Piercings of every kind were visible. Women who’d had mastectomies were easy to discern—their chests showed up on our screens as dull, pixelated regions. Hernias appeared as bulging, blistery growths in the crotch area. Passengers were often caught off-guard by the X-Ray scan and so materialized on-screen in ridiculous, blurred poses—mouths agape, à la Edvard Munch. One of us in the I.O. room would occasionally identify a passenger as female, only to have the officers out on the checkpoint floor radio back that it was actually a man. All the old, crass stereotypes about race and genitalia size thrived on our secure government radio channels.
But the only people who hated the body-scanners more than the public were TSA employees themselves. Many of my co-workers felt uncomfortable even standing next to the radiation-emitting machines we were forcing members of the public to stand inside. Several told me they submitted formal requests for dosimeters, to measure their exposure to radiation. The agency’s stance was that dosimeters were not necessary—the radiation doses from the machines were perfectly acceptable, they told us. We would just have to take their word for it. When concerned passengers—usually pregnant women—asked how much radiation the machines emitted and whether they were safe, we were instructed by our superiors to assure them everything was fine.
A fellow officer once returned to O'Hare from a trip to TSA headquarters and confessed that he had run into some complications: Someone realized that his background check had never been processed in the four years he had been an employee. He could have been anyone, for all TSA knew—a murderer, terrorist, rapist.
signalfire
So the people assuring the public including pregnant women they were in no danger, didn't know the extent of the danger themselves?
It's just getting worse all the time. At what point is this going to be treated as the treason against the people like it is?
And when are the people who profited off this obscenity going to be charged with a couple million counts of pornography, inflicting intentional harm, assault and battery?
Where's an actual DA willing to go up against the Dick Cheney's of the world?
but how many perverts enjoy being groped by a stranger and most of the tsa are just that 4 years and no check for some staff but go try get a driving licence
HanzHenry
America is a nation MOSTLY of PUNKS for even flying once the TSA showed up.
I flew once since TSA back in 2005. NEVER AGAIN!
if ALL THE PUNKS who fly would refuse to fly for 1 week, leave the planes all grounded. This whole mess would have ended.
NO ONE not a god damn one of you does anything about it. You preach about treason, charges and the lark but nothing is ever done - it baffles me.
In Ukraine they are protesting/rioting, in many countries they protest en masse till something happens.
However, americans with their gun (for this F****** very purpose) do NOTHING.
What is the point in the SERVICEMEN and WOMEN fighting abroad for freedom and sacrificing their lives for the people at home when the people at home just suck!! And are celebrity fed, consumer orientated worthless job shy nobodies who WILL NOT even defend their rights in their own soil!!!?? Answer that.
You all moan and give your two cents of highly boring over indulgent monotony but the underlying factor with AMERICANS is you are all the same. To scared and too cowardly to actually make a change!!
Thanks to all serving members of the US military, even though the people you fight for are not worth it!!
Nude Bodies, Free Booze, Endless Radiation