As many people have discovered from the latest news, the Department of Homeland Security has suddenly decreed publicly what anyone with reasonable observational skills knows they’ve been planning from the get-go: that the TSA will, at whim, force passengers through the strip-search scanners.
I repeat that this has been the plan from the beginning. I said so at a now-defunct group blog where I used to write called Cogitamus, long before TSA News existed. Those who made predictions to the contrary have been proven wrong.
You have highly expensive technology—never mind that it’s been proven, repeatedly, to be ineffective—combined with a determined fearmongering campaign that induces people to believe there’s a terrorist hiding around every corner, along with five years’ worth of trying to force people into scanners, and you’re going to let passengers opt out?
Nope.
It was only a matter of time, and now that time is here.
The news reports on this development quote the DHS directive (AIT stands for “advanced imaging technology”):
“While passengers may generally decline AIT screening in favor of physical screening, TSA may direct mandatory AIT screening for some passengers.”
Some passsengers. Which ones? Whichever the TSA decides. On whim, which is how they decide everything. (At least that part isn’t new.)
Run into an agent who woke up on the wrong side of the bed? Or just a power-tripper with a bad attitude? As before, they can make your life miserable. And to repeat, for the umpteenth time, just because you go through the scanner doesn’t mean you won’t also be pulled aside for a grope. The two aren’t mutually exclusive, and never have been, as the TSA itself admits. So tired of hearing people lament that they were shocked to discover this at the airport.
Who do you think will be singled out for extra scrutiny, in addition to the random unlucky, that is? Use your imagination. (But remember—we don’t live in a police state! We’re free!)
Since the TSA has already defied several court orders pertaining to the scanners, I can’t imagine that the lawsuits that are coming over this latest policy will persuade them to do anything differently.
Oh, and the incessant, tedious credulousness of the media in reporting this development is also predictable. USA Today, Time Magazine, Fox, you name it—all are reporting that the scanners are good detecting hidden objects, when this has been proven to be false time and time again. Just one example, from SlashGear:
No more detailed explanation for the change is given. However, it seems likely that the scanners’ ability to single out metallic objects hidden around the body—and that might have been missed by a physical search from a TSA agent—is seen as invaluable for whoever security services believe presents a greater-than-normal risk.
Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. The scanners have a shit “ability to single out metallic objects hidden around the body.”
Congratulations, America. You’ve been lining up like sheep for the past five years, acquiescing to anything and everything the TSA has been doing, essentially answering, when they ask you to jump, “How high?” And now they’re demanding that you jump even higher.
Merry Christmas!
Lisa Simeone is a writer, editor, political activist, Glamour Girl, and radio host. She publishes ABombazine, where this originally appeared.
I had an awful dream last night. I imagined an employee of some bloated intelligence agency overhearing a pair of drunks discussing the use of explosive suppositories as a terror weapon. Happy holidays!