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Denver TSA Screeners Manipulated System In Order To Grope Men's Genitals
McGruber writes: The CBS affiliate in Denver reports: "Two Transportation Security Administration screeners at Denver International Airport have been fired after they were discovered manipulating passenger screening systems to allow a male TSA employee to fondle the genital areas of attractive male passengers." According to law enforcement reports obtained during the CBS4 investigation, a male TSA screener told a female colleague in 2014 that he "gropes" male passengers who come through the screening area at DIA. "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. 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." Although the TSA learned of the accusation on Nov. 18, 2014 via an anonymous tip from one of the agency's own employees, reports show that it would be nearly three months before anything was done."
Honestly, I wouldn't have any problem with the TSA if I knew for certain that I would have my penis vigorously groped every time I travel...
It's the uncertainty that kills me.. Will I have to rub one out in the bathroom, or can I get a head start as I pass through security??
NOT being an "Attractive" male has benefits!
If we spin this as the TSA allowing for homosexual acts (especially on God-fearing straight folk!), could we use this to convince the GOP to support shutting it down? Toss in some terms like "limited government" if necessary.
I'm not at all comfortable with the current screening procedure madness, but I'm far more comfortable when the TSA agent groping me is just as uncomfortable with the situation as I am. When they're taking pleasure in it, it's a good indication that the system has let us down.
That strikes me as pretty fast for an organization that size.
This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
And I've never been groped. Guess I'm not attractive enough. :-(
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
I wonder if anyone tried designating attractive female passengers as male...
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but you'll please need to step behind this screen and remove your blouse..."
I can see the fnords!
It is unclear why it took 3 month for the TSA to look into the information. Um... because it is a ship of fools. What is unclear is why the TSA still exist.
The software doesn't know by itself which gender it is scanning, so someone has to enter either male or female? What if an on-process trans-gender is walking though, what would happen? Doesn't sound like a good system in general...
“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. 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.”
Giving people legal authority to see and touch both men and women's private areas attracts creeps to the job? Never would have guessed.
Many years ago (199o's) I had a lay over in Warsaw, Poland. That would be my first flights. I still remember some American dude who quarrelled with the staff about some trivial security procedures (like asking a question). Why are they interviewing on us - he would yell. And now, my gosh, they grope him in his own country. What a disgrace.
Seems like it is sexual assault.
If I am hired to set up a security checkpoint in front of a bar, I could do security pat downs without it being sexual. If, on the other hand, I intentionally manipulated the system to pat down attractive bar patrons for my own gratification, I'm pretty sure I would be arrested and end up on some sort of sex offender list.
Why didn't the TSA refer this to law enforcement?
"Enough anomaly horseshit!"
nothing to see here, move along.
Nothing about this group of idiots surprises me. Typical federal government cluster-fuck.
So now that the ball gropers have been let go (3 months later, but probably pretty fast by Fed standards) I would presume that the "gropees" are lining up the lawsuits. This is going to be hilarious. Watch how the surveillance tapes and emails disappear when asked to produce them.
We've seen a number of stories involving TSA agents being arrested for any number of crimes. Everything from assault, to child pornography, to murder. This shouldn't be a surprise at all. Which is not to say that all TSA agents ARE the scum that they tend to be made out to be. But it's a worrying program.
In terms of this kind of activities detailed in this story... well hell. I know from talking with a former TSA employee that this sort of thing is VERY common. I've even meet a former TSA agent that not only admits doing this at an airport in California. But he did it aallll the time. And he wasn't the only one doing it.
At least they never bust anybody trying to bring back pot.
http://www.denverpost.com/news...
Nope.
So any transgendered person will get felt up, because they appear to be male/female, but the machine detects an anomaly? That's harassment worthy of a lawsuit.
Although, this seems like a very small problem within the scope of the whole terrorism overreaction since Sept 11th, 2001.
Yep, this is the same government people some people feel should be in charge of your health care.
If the groping and other sexually charged activities were not why TSA was brought into life for then I do not know why this agency exists in the first place. They should not discriminate against females tho.
This is why we can't ignore male sexual violence, it's a real issue and we need to look at just as hard as female assaults.
Rights violated - millions. Terrorists thwarted - 0. Keep up the good work TSA. You have a great track record.
I get this comment a lot at the airport... now I know why.
I wouldn't mind if the agent doing the pat down was Kate Upton.
This is probably more common than people realize. I was groped by a TSA screener at EWR a few months ago.
I usually get TSA Pre and don't have to go through the nude-o-scope, but occasionally when TSA Pre does not work - I opt out of the machine and choose the "pat down". Usually it's a fairly benign experience - screeners make a point to say that they will "stop just short of the private areas" and "use the back of their hand", and normally do so. I go through a dozen of these a year and it's normally a non-event.
On this particular occasion, however, the TSA guy didn't say any of those things, and made sure to run palm of his hand up the inside of my leg on both sides, firmly groping my privates. The action was pretty obvious, and I even considered complaining - but I was running short on time, and (to be completely honest) I am not terribly shy about being touched and don't really care, though I think he is not supposed to be doing this and it would be good to "make a point". After many searches I know how they are supposed to be properly conducted, but many others may be subject to search only rarely and would not know what is "legal".
Also - I'd take it as more a compliment if *he* was more attractive, but the TSA guy was really not my type. Posting anonymous, don't want TSA to get upset with me or anything, that's our life in the Land of The Free :)
Seems like it is sexual assault.
It is. Unambiguously.
Why didn't the TSA refer this to law enforcement?
Because TSA is law enforcement or at least thinks they are.
... back sweat. I'm not kidding. I travel frequently out of DIA. I wear a backpack over a light jacket, and the middle of my back (right between my shoulder blades) always gets identified as a pat-down area for investigation. My shirt is inevitably damp in that area. The nice TSA people gently rub my back as I wait for my bag to roll out of the X-ray machine. If it wasn't such a stupid process in its entirety, I might think it was actually kind of nice... like a spa or something, only with blue rubber gloves and more ick.
.. pa-ra-bo-la, pa-ra-bo-la, 2 pi R, 2 pi R, where's your latus rectum, where's your latus rectum, 2 pi R
But you don't have to worry if you've done nothing wrong, right?
Every single GOP person I know were either anti-TSA from the beginning or turned anti-TSA when they were groping nuns and little children while waiving muslims in full Haaj regalia through (so as not to be accused of racism). It was only the big-government whacko GOPers in Washington who were big supporters of yet another centralized government agency. TSA should NEVER have been created; In a true free-market system, American Airlines and Boeing would have been sued into the dirt after 9-11 for allowing their planes to be used as weapons - The taxpayers were the injured party, NOT the irresponsible airlines who got a multi-billion dollar bail-out. By making TSA governmental, it was guaranteed to be political (and therefore politically-correct) by virtue of being controlled by gutless politicians. Had the airlines been forced to be accountable, they'd each be forced to come up with their own programs to produce ACTUAL safety.
The TSA is NOT about security at all; it's "Security Theater". The agency exists to simultaneously fool the public into thinking they are safe, shift blame for any future failures off of the giant corporations who build and operate the planes (and bribe, errr contribut to the campaigns of, politicians) and bulk-up the number of unionized government employees who will vote Democrat in all elections. Note: When the Bush admin pushed to create the TSA they wanted it no be non-government, but the Democrats wanted it to be governmental - they compromised Bush agreed to make it government and Senate Leader Reid (D-NV) and House Speaker Pelosi (D-CA) agreed it could never unionize. As soon as Obama became President, Reid, Pelosi, and Obama Unionized the TSA. Yet another reason so many GOP-ers do not trust any deals with Democrats.
It it's a typical government agency, the "punishment" will be a paid suspension (aka "paid vacation") to reward him - it worked that was with Lois Lerner who captained the IRS suppression of the TEA Party, as well as for the administrators of the VA who let veterans die waiting for care.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/top-20-airports-tsa-theft/story?id=17537887
October, 2012
1. Miami International Airport (29)
2. JFK International Airport (27)
3. Los Angeles International Airport (24)
4. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (17)
5. Las Vegas-McCarren International Airport (15)
6. Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and New York-Laguardia Airport (14 each)
8. Newark Liberty, Philadelphia International, and Seattle-Tacoma International airports (12 each)
11. Orlando International Airport (11)
12. Houston-George Bush Intercontinental Airport and Salt Lake City International Airport (10 each)
14. Washington Dulles International Airport (9)
15. Detroit Metro Airport and Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (7)
17. Boston-Logan International, Denver International and San Diego International airports (6)
20. Chicago O'Hare International Airport (5)
Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon what's the difference? All steal money from devs and control with walled gardens.
that just about sums it up.
Every time I fly through Denver...more ball handling than Larry Bird! They should also check out Minneapolis-St. Paul. That place is turning into a real fondle-fest, too.
Err, health care insurance. In fact, they are already for a group of people through medicare, and that seems to work well.
how Americans are so selflessly willing to go beyond the line of duty, to keep the country safe from the terrorists who wish to take away their freedom and democracy. It truly is a great country.
Passenger Religious Freedom Restoration Act. My religion says that it's wrong for a man to grope another man's genitals. Where's my PRFRA so I can refuse being serviced?
I think the system as a whole would be better off with a matching system where if you wouldn't mind getting felt up by a TSA Tease you could enter that lane. What's the big deal? I mean it wouldn't be such a violation if the screener's actions were welcome. I think it would be pretty hot to get interrogated by Kate Upton !!
Sorry, honey, I had to take a later flight because there was an anomaly in my genital area.
A TSA screener in Detroit stated loudly and publicly to her colleagues that my wife and I were 'PERVS' for opting out of the xray machine and taking patdowns.
Ironically a different screener told me here in Portland (while politely feeling up my junk of course) that he recently had done patdowns on 'the President of the company that makes the scanners' as that person ensured his family did not go through the very machine his company made.
They still have to manually check the waistband of the Speedo, though.
xkcd
Have gnu, will travel.
...I aint working here no more
From the NSA to the TSA, it appears the tin-foil-hat-wearing nutjobs were right all along. What's next? Contrails really do contain mind-controlling chemicals? The moon landing really was...PUNCH TO FACE...nevermind...
Buy your next Linux PC at eightvirtues.com
Really?!?! It's health insurance you pick as the dangerous area? No mention of them being in charge of our military, or all the interstate bridges?
That's beyond your pay grade, guy.
It seemed like he was enjoying his job a little too much.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Actually you might want to read a news site sometime. (Comedy Central isn't actually news). GOP leaders, such as Republican senators, describe the TSA as "lost and bloated" and even "out of control". The (Democrat) Obama administration has been defending the TSA.
When people are randomly selected for groping it's ok, but when someone is actually choosing who gets groped it's not ok and that person needs to be fired? What if the groping was equal to standard gropings? Could we use a pseudorandom number generator for extra screening or must it be truly random?
Someone should teach these guys it's not the selection process that makes it sexual assault.
There's "conservative" and then there are people who call themselves that while having an interest in the vast amount of money that moves about in the name of the TSA. Financial benefit or financial benefit for their donors, or a big welfare program (that pretends to be actual work) for their voters trumps any moral indignation. File it with prison rape to get some insight on how the seemingly intolerable can be ignored instead of some attempt made to deal with the problem.
What is happening in this incident is the latest of a long series that were obviously going to happen when the TSA started moving down this path.
It would really be embarrassing for a dude if when switched to female mode it doesn't flag an anomaly.
Table-ized A.I.
Airliners and airlines faced hijacking scenarios many times over the years. Rather than put in place policies and mechanisms to deal with the issue, they simply absorbed the minor costs of landing at the wrong airport and re-booking paying passengers on a later flight; they simply never got punished for exposing their passengers to the hazard and decades of not getting spanked in the courts for reckless behaviour bred complacency. UNLIKE car makers and computer makers, operators of airliners and ocean-going vessels have long been given protection from many forms of customer lawsuits. I Hate the hyper-lawsuit culture we live in today, but it simply makes no sense to isolate only two industries from it.
Secondarily, your objection to holding Boeing to account for some fraction of the liability we hold any auto maker to, and holding the operators of those planes to the same level of scrutiny we hold the makers of Legos, or the operators of McDonalds does NOT mean that the risks and the costs of tradgedy simply disappear into the ether.... those costs were transferred onto the taxpayers to the tune of BILLIONS of dollars (taxpayers who had even LESS to do with causing the problem than Boeing or American How's THAT "fair" in your world???)
This is not a matter of going sue-happy and inventing new reasons to go after somebody's money (ala Ralph Nader type "deep pockets" lawsuits, which I consider completely unjustified) regardless of cuplability. You have spun-off your arguments into whacko crazy land of extremely indirect responsibility (lots of lwayers try to take every case there and Democrats have certainly tried to do it with guns many times in the past few years. Modern jet airliners, however, got their start with military contracts to Boeing for strategic weapons (jet-powered long-range bombers and mid-air refuelling aircraft) and their potential use as weapons (both as platforms to drop weapons AND by impacting them into things has long been known, which is why reactor containment buildings at US Nuclear plants have been required to be able to survive a direct impact by one for many decades (by YOUR reasoning apparently the reactors shuld not have such requirements)). Hijacking an airliner was not unforseen, as I pointed out it had happened many times before and was a constant threat. Hijacking and crashing an airliner was also not unanticipated - a disgruntled pilot did this with an airliner back in the 80's(or early 90's?) in LA and it happened again in the late 90s off the east coast. In addition, there was a pre-9-11 plto to do this with airliners over the Pacific which was stopped by authorities.
Only got upset when [1] their base voters got mad at them, [2] Obama let TSA unionize, thereby breaking the dirty bargain that created it and turning the agency into another block of Democrat voters with extremely secure government jobs, [3] some of THEM got groped.
Honesty test #1 is this: Which of them opposed the TSA all along ON PRINCIPLE???
and honesty test #2 is: Which of them will not just complain and hold hearings, nor even which will VOTE to get rid of it, but which will work and actually get it DONE. Those hard votes in modern congresses are ALWAYS rigged; The politicians in both parties have hyper-optimized things so they can always look good to the voters back home while actively opposeing everything those voters want. It works like this: with any vote that the politicians want to go one way but the voters want the opposite, the members (on both sides of the aisle) with the "safest" seats take the "hard" vote (vota against the wishes of the voters) until there are just enough voting that way to achieve the actual goal of the politicians in DC, and then the vulnerable members get to vote the way the voters want (but in a way that will not matter given that the majority went the other way). Then at other times they have lots of votes on symbolic things where phony conservatives cast conservative votes on things that will never pass and phony liberals cast liberal votes on things that will never pass, thereby enabling phony liberals to have "90% liberal voting reecords" and phony conservatives to have "90% conservative voting records".
I have NO USE for political hacks on either side of the aisle who have no principles and who have made an art of these games of deception, and no use for the phony journalists and bloggers who know how this works, but pretend to their readers that it's not happening.
In the 1960's and 1970's you could walk into an airport with no luggage (or a full load of luggage), but a one-way (or round-trip ticket), with cash (or a check or credit card) and walk right onto a jet. Eventually you had to walk through a metal detector, and then X-rays for luggage were added.
On 9-11 none of the precautions stopped the hijackers because they were looking for THINGS not people and their intentions.
After 9-11, government created TSA, supposedly to protect us all.
In the nearly 14 years since, EVERY attempt to takeover/destroy a plane in flight has been stopped by [1] intelligence operations on the ground that stopped it DAYS in advance of the flight and far away from the airport, or [2] by passengers on the actual aircraft. NONE of these incidents were stopped by TSA screening and groping. We have inconvenienced, delayed, embarassed, groped, and/or irradiated many MILLIONS of people - in exchange for NO benefit other than the ILLUSION of safety.
The REAL reason nobody has successfully hijacked a passenger plane in the US since 9-11 is that American passengers are now acutely aware that any hijacking will end in their deaths NO MATTER WHAT the hijackers say (the 9-11 hijackers all lied to the people on those planes). As a result, any plane load of Americans (and possibly Westerners, generally) are going to fight any hijackers, even killing them if necessary (as will the aircrews, many of whom now take martial arts classes and other such training).
If you want to stop all terrorism in the sky, and keep normal people from thinking they have to be watching every Muslim who boards their planes, just keep Muslims off of planes. Muslims come in all ethnicities; Islam is a BELIEF in a particular system of intertwined religion AND government and as such this is NOT racism. Secondly, this could be removed as soon as Islam's so-called Moderates step-up and prove they exist (we are always told THEY are the majority, though we never see them) by getting control of the crazies. I do not like this idea, but any non-Muslim who tries to figure out who the dangerous ones are gets accused of "racism" and "Islamophobia", so those supposed moderates are the only ones who CAN clean it up; banning them ALL from flying might be the prodding they finally need to get off their collective butts and prove that their religion has something to do with peace...
The TSA is simply NOT the answer
"Excuse me, madam. There seems to be an anomaly in your genital area. Is that a gun in your pocket or...?"
That isn't the case any more than me groping a woman's tits (far less naughty than her vagina or a man's cock) would gain me a slap in the face AT LEAST, along with the scorn and derision of a sex offender into the bargain indicates that women have a huge problem with their sexuality.
Sexual assault is a very personal assault.
Assaulting right back is socially justified.
for the (quite literally) TENS of thousands of my $ they've gotten over last decade thanks to you! (canaveral's only 8 hr drive from atlanta)
I know disney of all companies would never do this but they ought to emphasize "no child molestation required for boarding!" in their ads...
What a dick move.
indicate to the scanning computer that the party being screened is a female. 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.
That's odd, when I went through the screening and they mis-entered me into the scanner as female, it didn't report any anomaly.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
nt
Come on. Its a pretty terrible job being a TSA guard, cut these guys a little slack. Surely everyone should be entitled to the odd extra grope at work... :D
It seems particularly surly to fire them just for having a little fun while doing their job.... (at least it shows they are human and not Darleks)
Below the speed of light Special Relativity is one of the most accurate theories in physics - above the speed of light..
WTF "Manipulated System?" I thought this was the system working, as designed?
TSA = Touch Someone's Ass
Unless it's the genitals that are being manipulated?
>> allow a male TSA employee to fondle the genital areas of attractive male passengers."
I don't know if I'd be more offended by being groped, or by being passed over.