Two Transportation Security Administration workers at Denver International Airport have been fired after they were observed manipulating the security screening system so that an alarm would go off and a male agent then would “grope” the sex organs of “attractive male passengers,” according to a television station’s investigative report.
Law enforcement reports he obtained explained that a male TSA worker told a female colleague that he “gropes” male passengers who come through the airport screening process.
“He related that when a male he finds attractive comes to be screened by the scanning machine he will alert another TSA screener to indicate to the scanning computer that the party being screened is a female,” Maass reported. “When the screener does this, the scanning machine will indicate an anomaly in the genital area and this allows (the male TSA screener) to conduct a pat-down search of that area.”
The issue of the TSA’s security procedures and passengers’ privacy erupted a few years ago when it was revealed the agency was using scanners that essentially revealed the passengers’ nude bodies. Sen. Rand Paul came out in opposition to them, Texas looked at state rules that could apply, and a multitude of lawsuits were filed.
Eventually, many of the machines that had been installed either were removed, or modified to produce a less-revealing scanned image of passengers, but Americans’ sensitivity to those privacy issue remains escalated because of the agency’s original actions.
The CBS report said the TSA was alerted to the recent Denver allegations through an anonymous tip from one of its own employees on Nov. 18, 2014, but it did nothing for some three months.
Maass reported, “On Feb. 9 TSA security supervisor Chris Higgins watched the screening area, observing the employees. ‘At about 0925 he observed (the male TSA screener) appear to give a signal to another screener … (the second female screener) was responsible for the touchscreen system that controls whether or not the scanning machine alerts to gender-specific anomalies, according to a law enforcement report obtained by CBS4.
“According to the report, the TSA investigator then watched a male passenger enter the scanner at DIA ‘and observed (the female TSA agent) press the screening button for a female. The scanner alerted to an anomaly, and Higgins observed (the male TSA screener) conduct a pat down of the passenger’s front groin and buttocks area with the palm of his hands, which is contradictory to TSA searching policy,’” the report said.
Higgins said in the report that the female officer “admitted that she has done this for (the male TSA officer) at least 10 other times. She knew that doing so would allow (the male TSA officer) to perform a pat down on a male passenger that (the male TSA screener) found attractive.”
TSA did not release the names of the fired workers and declined the CBS4 request for an interview. The federal agency said in a written statement that the “alleged acts” would not be tolerated.
“TSA has removed the two officers from the agency. All allegations of misconduct are thoroughly investigated by the agency. And when substantiated, employees are held accountable,” the agency told Maass.
The specific case probably will not result in charges, authorities said, since the passenger, who was flying Southwest Airlines, was not identified.
WND carried the report several years ago when a woman, Jamelyn Steenhoek, filed a complaint of sexual assault against a woman TSA agent for being groped in ways “as extensive as an exam.”
Denver prosecutors then, too, said they would not file charges. At that time it was because they didn’t feel they could prove the TSA agent was assaulting people for sexual “gratification, arousal or abuse.”
WND reported extensively on the fight over the TSA’s “enhanced” screening, which launched in about 2009, including when judges threw out cases against the agency based on a “secret order” issued by the TSA.
That arose in procedures handled by John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute.
The cases were brought on behalf of Adrienne Durso, D. Chris Daniels, Michelle Nemphos and a minor, C.N. and Michael S. Roberts and Ann Poe. Both cases were against then-Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and John Pistole, the chief of the TSA.
They argued that since Americans do not lose their constitutional rights if they want to travel, the invasive procedures are out of line.
The Institute reported its complaints centered on “virtual strip searches” from the scanning process or physical searches “during which TSA agents may go so far as to reach inside a traveler’s pants.”
Whitehead said at the time, “No American should be forced to undergo a virtual strip search or be subjected to such excessive groping of the body as a matter of course in reporting to work or boarding an airplane when there is no suspicion of wrongdoing. To do so violates human dignity and the U.S. Constitution, and goes against every good and decent principle this country was founded upon.”
But District Court Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr cited a “secret order” issued by the TSA as the basis for dismissing the cases.
At one point, officials with the Libertarian Party of Florida formally asked sheriffs across the state to start arresting TSA agents in the 67 counties for sexual battery.
“As sheriff, you have the absolute duty to enforce the law uniformly and without prejudice. You are, at best, engaged in selective enforcement by choosing to further ignore these flagrant violations of federal and state law. At worst, you are complicit,” a message to the 67 sheriffs from the party, signed by chairman Adrian Wyllie, said.
Paul’s criticism of the process was blunt. He wrote, “The press reports are horrifying: 95 year-old women humiliated; children molested; disabled people abused; men and women subjected to unwarranted groping and touching of their most private areas; involuntary radiation exposure. If the perpetrators were a gang of criminals, their headquarters would be raided by SWAT teams and armed federal agents. Unfortunately, in this case the perpetrators are armed federal agents. This is the sorry situation 10 years after the creation of the Transportation Security Administration.”
from Propaganda Guard http://propguard.tumblr.com/post/116391015648
from Tumblr http://lisahcnease.tumblr.com/post/116391957642
No comments:
Post a Comment