My name is Michael Roberts, and I am a pilot for ExpressJet Airlines,
Inc., based in Houston (that is, I still am for the time being). This
morning as I attempted to pass through the security line for my commute
to work I was denied access to the secured area of the terminal building
at Memphis International Airport. I have passed through the same line
roughly once per week for the past four and a half years without
incident. Today, however, the Transportation Security Administration
(TSA) agents at this checkpoint were using one of the new Advanced
Imaging Technology (AIT) systems that are currently being deployed at
airports across the nation. These are the controversial devices featured
by the media in recent months, albeit sparingly, which enable screeners
to see beneath people’s clothing to an extremely graphic and intrusive
level of detail (virtual strip searching). Travelers refusing this
indignity may instead be physically frisked by a government security
agent until the agent is satisfied to release them on their way in what
is being touted as an "alternative option” to AIT. The following is a
somewhat hastily drafted account of my experience this morning.




 




 As I loaded my bags onto the X-ray scanner belt, an agent told me to
remove my shoes and send them through as well, which I’ve not normally
been required to do when passing through the standard metal detectors in
uniform. When I questioned her, she said it was necessary to remove my
shoes for the AIT scanner. I explained that I did not wish to
participate in the AIT program, so she told me I could keep my shoes and
directed me through the metal detector that had been roped off. She
then called somewhat urgently to the agents on the other side: "We got
an opt-out!” and also reported the "opt-out” into her handheld radio. On
the other side I was stopped by another agent and informed that because
I had "opted out” of AIT screening, I would have to go through
secondary screening. I asked for clarification to be sure he was talking
about frisking me, which he confirmed, and I declined. At this point he
and another agent explained the TSA’s latest decree, saying I would not
be permitted to pass without showing them my naked body, and how my
refusal to do so had now given them cause to put their hands on me as I
evidently posed a threat to air transportation security (this, of
course, is my nutshell synopsis of the exchange). I asked whether they
did in fact suspect I was concealing something after I had passed
through the metal detector, or whether they believed that I had made any
threats or given other indications of malicious designs to warrant
treating me, a law-abiding fellow citizen, so rudely. None of that was
relevant, I was told. They were just doing their job.




  Edited...VA-gunnut

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Cool way to quit your job..


Need to read when I am not driving for more witty comments later


TSA can not detain a person if I am wrong then please post the TSA policy of UOF and their UOF continum

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you are going to want to cut the article down before the mods arrive.

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Maybe he has a fetish of wearing womens panties and he didn't want them to see them?

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The terrorists are winning. Enough of the PC bullshit, we need to start profiling.

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Man I hate flying.

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I actually read the whole thing.  That guy is a loon and I'm glad he will no longer be flying aircraft that I may be traveling on.  He must have one teeny tiny pecker to be such a douche about refusing not only the scanner but the pat down as well.

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The terrorists are winning. won.  Enough of the PC bullshit, we need to start profiling.

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http://www.expressjetpilots.com/the-pipe/showthread.php?39523-Well-today-was-the-day&s=fa4b43b8bf827740d0e4181293394570

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I, unfortunately, am scheduled to fly in a couple months.  The first time in years.



So I can tell these morons I don't want to go through the body scanner?  Which they label as an opt-out?  What do they do instead?  Just the wanding or will they put their hands on me patting me down as if I were under arrest?

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The terrorists are winning.  Enough of the PC bullshit, we need to start profiling.

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I'm not really sure how you would draw that conclusion...



Those scans are a rights violation. If the public uproar gets louder, the TSAs ability to explain things away gets muffled.



I have to commend him for his decision... you may be OK, with having your rights trampled and privacy invaded - I'm not.

 

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If you read the whole thing and can't find the logical inconsistencies then I can't help.  He refuses the scanner (so what, I don't care).  Then he refuses a pat down (why?).  Later on he claims that TSA just wouldn't be happy until they saw him naked.  Is he such a moron that he doesn't understand that a pat down is not a strip search?    I get patted down going into nightclubs in most cities, it's not a big deal.  I'm not embarrassed about my body, so I don't have one iota of problem standing in the scanner, as I've done many times.
 

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Should I have to make that decision, I will opt out of the scanner and let someone fondle my junk, just on principle.  


CJ

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If you read the whole thing and can't find the logical inconsistencies then I can't help.  He refuses the scanner (so what, I don't care).  Then he refuses a pat down (why?).  Later on he claims that TSA just wouldn't be happy until they saw him naked.  Is he such a moron that he doesn't understand that a pat down is not a strip search?    I get patted down going into nightclubs in most cities, it's not a big deal.  I'm not embarrassed about my body, so I don't have one iota of problem standing in the scanner, as I've done many times.


 

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Your willingness to submit to such intrusions is not grounds to force others to do the same.

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I actually read the whole thing. That guy is a loon and I'm glad he will no longer be flying aircraft that I may be traveling on. He must have one teeny tiny pecker to be such a douche about refusing not only the scanner but the pat down as well.

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Yes. You get the hand-wand and a pat down.

 

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If I am getting a pat down, it means I am in handcuffs and about to go for a ride in some form of law enforcement vehicle, having been accused of a crime or am being detained by a certified LEO with those powers. That is the only time that treatment is legal.
 

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Good for you.  I hope you get to keep your job.  Someone has to stand up for our Civil Liberties.

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fess up arfcom whom has walked through one of these with a high hard one

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Maybe they offer junk-fondling WHILE you are in the body scanner. That would be neat to see.

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I have a pacemaker, I get patted down every time I fly.

It is no big deal and the procedure is really non invasive to a normal person.

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My issue with this procedure doesn't even get that far... it's the principle to me. Being a law-abiding citizen and having committed no crime...

What is the difference between the physical treatment a drug-dealer that just got busted received... and of you, on your way to Pebble Beach to play golf? I don't see any... hands on your body, looking for tools of criminal behavior and bad intentions.
 

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The whole joke of matter is that the reason for have these scanners is bullshit.  They will not detect the type of bomb the underwear bomber had but they seem to be halfway decent at detecting some drug smugglers and in any case have found about 80 prohibited items nationwide in the past year.
Further Reading
Some more Reading

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Ask yourself this... would you let your wife go through that machine?  Knowing that dudes would be looking at her butt naked?