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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??
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!
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.”
What is unclear is why the TSA still exist.
Because, in the unlikely event of another terrorist attack on a plane, any politicians voted to eliminate the TSA will be blamed. Modern politicians spend all this time and effort trying to get elected, then they're too scared to do anything where they can't pass the buck.
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?
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...
You'd think that... but it doesn't explain why I still get molested every time I fly.
Help Brendan pay off his student loans
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.
"After controlling for time trends, weather, road conditions, and other factors, we attribute an increase of 242 driving fatalities per month to additional road travel undertaken in response to 9/11."
It's highly likely that more people have died due to the response to terrorism than from actual terrorism in the US.
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.
Oh, you can find someone with a "thing" for anyone.
Just Google chubby chaser sometime.
Or because as long as people are OK with that bit of intrusiveness every time they travel, they'll be more accepting of other restrictions on their freedom as well.
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.
Err, health care insurance. In fact, they are already for a group of people through medicare, and that seems to work well.
Sorry, honey, I had to take a later flight because there was an anomaly in my genital area.
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
If you count Americans who died in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is multiples more. And who, after all, is counting the Iraqis?
On the bright side, heroin production is way up.
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.
Oh, you can find someone with a "thing" for anyone.
Just Google chubby chaser sometime.
I know better than to do that these days :)
"After 9-11, government created TSA, supposedly to protect us all."
The real reason was to create yet another welfare/jobs program.
You putting bullshit in bold doesn't magically make it not bullshit. You are right about one thing, though - it's not racism, but xenophobia - another bullshit phobia found in the minds of the petty and scared, whose ability to understand the world stopped developing shortly after they discovered the notions of "them" and "us", and all the luxurious lazy thinking that comes with it. Aaaah lazy hatred.
Because white women between 50 and 70 are equally likely to perpetrate a terrorist attack or hijacking as dark skinned men between 20 and 40?
I wouldn't argue that we ban anyone from air travel based on skin color, religion, clothing, hair style or whatever, but we should sure as hell use profiling and subject people who fit the profile to extra scrutiny.
It isn't "lazy hatred", it's using what we know about past hijackings to prevent future ones.
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.
The thing is the 'government' knew about 9/11 well before the attack as well. They might have gotten a little trigger-happy afterwards but actually acting upon their information has never been the strong point. There have been terrorist attacks since 9/11, in every case the people executing the plans were on some type of watch list or intelligence had advance warning of an impending attack. TSA/NSA/... has not been very effective regardless of the measures they've taken.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
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..
Yes this. I only fly when I have to for work, which is a couple times a year maybe. I always opt-out of the scanners (figuring if they're going to do something pervasive, they should be embarrassed and uncomfortable about it as well). It also makes a point, as it always seems like your "putting them out" when they have to do a manual pat down (I wish more people would opt for this reason). Funny how they don't see themselves as the 'PERVS' in this situation, as they are giving you the option of seeing and photographing you naked, or getting sexually assaulted. Just because you pick the one least convenient for them, doesn't make you the 'perv', as most people would rather not get either if given the choice.
But it never fails, that when you inform them that your not going through the naked scanner like the other lemmings, that they subtly make you pay for it.
-First, they always try to talk you out of the 'opt-out' by regurgitating TSA info on the safety of the scanners.
-Then when you don't change your mind, they make a very loud and public announcement for "OPT-OUT, WE HAVE AN OPT-OUT!!!" while they point to you. As an attempt to publicly shame you in front of everyone.
-Then they tell you to go stand aside so they can continue to scan people while you are 'waiting' for another agent to let you through the by-pass door, meanwhile, your stuff has gone through the X-Ray and you can't see it anymore (violation of airport rules to loose sight of your luggage/carry-ons btw).
-You sit there for several minutes (or more) hoping that the dozen or two-dozen people that go past you don't take your cell phone, laptop, bag, or your wallet while your stuff is sitting down at the end of the XRay machine out of your sight.
-Finally someone will come get you and let you through and pickup your stuff and take you over to the exam counter where the real 'fun' (and rights violations) begin.
All the while, you aren't allowed to touch your belongings until after they clear you, so you have no idea if someone has taken anything from your bins of stuff until several minutes have passed (and at which point, getting your stuff back would be near impossible).
Or because as long as people are OK with that bit of intrusiveness every time they travel, they'll be more accepting of other restrictions on their freedom as well.
I think the other theory is more plausible. I don't think there is some massive conspiracy to increase government intrusion for its own sake, such that there are deliberate attempts to desensitize people to it. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of intrusion all the same, but the motive tends to be more directly tied to somebody with a stake. They don't want to monitor what you download just to do it - they want to monitor it because they get bribes from Hollywood and Hollywood wants to stop movie downloading, etc.
Whenever something bad happens there is ALWAYS a blame game. Actions that were perfectly reasonable get questioned if they were somehow tied to the chain of events. If somebody blows up a bus full of kids while it is stopped at a traffic light, some idiot is going to propose that school buses should have flashing lights and be able to drive through red lights to reduce the opportunity to attack them with RPGs.
It seems like a 100% certainty that at some point in time terrorists will attack another US airliner. Security can make that very difficult, and maybe it will happen in 10 years, or maybe it will happen in 50 years, but sooner or later somebody will figure out a way to do it. At that point, everybody is going to be pointing fingers at anybody who voted no when the bill came up that would have instituted some control that would have prevented that particular incident. Never mind that there are countless areas where you could tighten security and if you tightened them all we'd be flying naked on planes with our baggage in separate planes after having all gone through full body cavity searches.
You don't need a massive conspiracy. You don't even really need a conspiracy.
All that's needed is for people - politicians and the populace - to accept just a little more incursion every time the investigation and enforcement people claim that their job is being made "too hard".
Inch by inch, until one day, it's no longer "We're free to do travel about and do things", but "Your papers, please!"
>> 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.