My TSA Pat Down Experience
“Those that would give up their liberty for security deserve neither and lose both.”
- Benjamin Franklin
Dear Friends,
To be quite honest, I almost didn't post this video and blog because I kept asking myself, "Am I just being a baby?" I’m also not one to stir up controversy. In fact, I do my best to live a very positive and healthy life. However, in the situation I’m about to describe, I felt truly violated and believe I should let my voice be heard. Ultimately, I hope others will do the same. Mahatma Gandhi famously said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” So, that’s what I’m doing by sharing this experience:
On my overnight, 11-hour flight back to Los Angeles last week after hosting the red carpet premiere for “Fast Five” in Rio De Janeiro, I connected in Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) where I had the misfortune of being selected to go through one of those full body scanners that emits radiation. Now, if you don’t fly very often, you might not worry about it. But I’m a frequent flyer and don’t wish to be irradiated more than I already am on flights (we get a pretty large dose of radiation while flying due to our proximity to the sun; the longer your flight, the more your radiation exposure) and in life in general (we’re exposed to radiation all day every day; it’s called “background radiation”). So I will always “opt out” of going through these body scanners, especially since the long-term effects of radiation are quite well documented: it mutates our cells, often in irreversible ways, and causes cancer. I’m all set with that!
Anyway, after “opting out,” I proceeded to follow a very nice older female TSA employee to the “pat down” area. It was an inconvenience, but I thought, “No biggie. I just went through this at LAX for the first time and it wasn’t too bad, so let’s just get it over with.”
Well, this pat down was completely different. It was MUCH MORE invasive than my first one at LAX, just a week before. To say that I felt invaded is an understatement. What bothered me most was when she ran the back of her hands down my behind, felt around my breasts, and even came in contact with my vagina! Honestly, I was in shock, especially since the woman at LAX never actually touched me there. The TSA employee at DFW touched my private area 4 times, going up both legs from behind and from the front, each time touching me there. Was I at my gynecologist’s office? No! This was crazy!
I felt completely helpless and violated during the entire process (in fact, I still do), so I became extremely upset. If I wanted to get back to Los Angeles, I had no choice but to be violated, whether by radiation or a stranger. I just kept thinking, “What have I done to deserve this treatment as an upstanding, law-abiding American citizen?” Am I a threat to US security? I was Miss USA, for Pete’s sake!
Besides, is this procedure really protecting us? I remember hearing about an Al Qaeda terrorist successfully evading security detection by placing a bomb in his rectum. All in an attempt to assassinate Saudi Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef. So what if that happened in the US? Would we then be subjected to random rectal exams in addition to x-rays and being groped by strangers? How far is this going to go? More specifically, how far will WE let this go? As they say, if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything. I think it’s time to stand up for our personal liberty.
As a frequent flyer, I knew getting a “pat down” was inevitable, but I never expected it to make me so upset. When it was over, I grabbed my things, walked over to my husband who was waiting for me, and was completely overcome with emotion.
I have never felt more violated in my life than I did that morning at DFW, and I’ve heard of others feeling the same way after these “pat downs.” Just a couple weeks ago, a video of a six-year-old girl being patted down by TSA made headlines. Talk about unjust and unacceptable. So I decided to speak to a TSA supervisor about how I felt, and make a video about what happened to post on my blog.
This “pat down” is a total violation of our rights (we shouldn’t be searched this way without probable cause or a search warrant), therefore I will be filing a complaint via phone, online and also in writing with the TSA to complain each and every time for as long as the TSA is violating my rights. I’m 100% against it, and if you care about your freedom, you should be too. This is precisely the kind of unjust search and seizure our Constitution was created to protect us from.
In my conversation with the TSA supervisor, I expressed to her how physically violated I felt. She was kind and understanding, but was nonetheless in charge of a department that was violating the rights of countless Americans every day. At one point during our conversation, I told her, “the fact is, if someone wanted to harm us, they simply would.”
Guess what. She agreed! She even went so far as to say, “We’re not allowed to touch children like we do adults. If someone really wanted to hide something, they could use a child. I know. There’re definitely loop holes with this.” So apparently, not even TSA employees believe this unconstitutional invasion of privacy works!
Here’s the video I made right after going through the invasive, unjust, unconstitutional and ineffective “pat down.” Honestly, I don’t like that I’m putting myself out there like this, but I wanted you to know what happened, what I was feeling, and that I hope you, too, will speak up if and when this happens to you. We shouldn’t be giving up our liberties as Americans because of our fears. The government can’t keep us safe. No matter how much they promise us they can, it’s a false promise.
And here’s the TSA compliment/complaint card that I filled out and mailed to the DFW TSA. I’ll be filling one out each time I get “patted down” at an airport. Hopefully tears won’t be involved every time:
;)
CLICK TO ENLARGE
Like I say in the video, we as individuals have to speak up and protect our liberty. If you feel like your Constitutional rights have been violated by the TSA, please follow my lead and contact your Congressional representatives. Let them know that if they want your vote they must stand up for our rights.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this so feel free to post a comment below.
Lots of love,
SusieCastillo.net
Hello Friends,
First of all, thank you all for your tremendous support and kind words on what I (and countless others, including children and elderly) went through. My work requires me to travel often, and I don't want to be degraded and driven to tears (or go through those dangerous body scanners) everytime I fly. If I could, I would boycott airline travel altogether, but that would mean that I, and MANY others, wouldn't work.
I just started a petition on Twitter demanding the TSA stop these invasive "enhanced pat downs". Please help me spread the word and retweet!
Also, please sign the following petition to Congress. I will be personally handing it to them in hopes of finding a better way to screen passengers that is more effective, less invasive, and doesn't violate our rights: www.susiecastillo.net.
Finally, please be intelligent and do your research before commenting on this subject. I welcome opposing opinions to mine, but only if you are respectful to everyone else. Comments that are slanderous, disrespectful, contain inapropriate language, are rude (you get the point) will be deleted. Be constructive, polite and smart adults when you post no matter where your feelings lie or don't bother commenting.
Thanks and blessings to you all,
Susie
Reader Comments (643)
SUSIE, Since I sent this to Alex Jones on www.infowars.com
This has gone so viral you are seen in JAPAN here
http://v-tube.ebb.jp/video/LmADZpqhKhQ/SusieCastillo-Sexually-Assaulted-TSA-Style.html
and UK here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1381317/Former-Miss-USA-Susie-Castillo-describes-sexually-assaulted-TSA.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
Susie - just saw your video (posted on Drudge). I am very sorry for what you went through. I travel every week (commute weekly to work) and always opt for the pat down vs. the scanner due to frequency of travel.
I agree with you, sometimes a professional pat down is conducted, and other times, I too feel like I am violated - and I am a guy.
Know that there are many others like you that believe our civil rights are being violated (Article 4), but unfortunately, we are moving into a Police State.
I really appreciate your courage in posting this video.
All the best from a fellow frequent traveler,
Carroll
Hi, I'm a politicly aware older guy up here in MT. It gave me renewed faith in your generation to see you stand up to this. Hopefully more your age will use you as a model to get more involved and find the courage (I could tell it wasn't easy for you) to fight these horrible things happening to our country from our own government. I'm sorry that you had to go through this. It shouldn't have happened and I'm glad you're standing up to it. Don
Thank you for having the courage to speak up. I just flew back from Italy who have none of this and felt just as safe on the plane. It's our out of control government doing this to make us feel safe and not tackle the real problem.
Susie,
You're a courageous woman for coming out publicly regarding this government-sponsored sexual harrassment that occurs daily at US airports.
Also, the radiation from these scanners is much worse than your standard radiation one experiences in daily life. It can shred your DNA - so you're right to refuse to go through these things. Here's a little something to read if you haven't already done so.
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/12/17/los-alamos-scientist-tsa-scanners-shred-human-dna/
Listen up.
Do you even know ANYTHING about backscatter X-ray scanners?
Here, let me highlight a few points from our dear friend Wikipedia
"Ionizing radiation is considered carcinogenic even in very small doses but at the doses used in airport scanners this effect is NEGLIGIBLE. If 1 million people were exposed to 520 scans in one year, 4 additional cancers would occur due to the scanner, in contrast to the 600 additional cancers that would occur from the higher levels of radiation during flight.
Naturally occurring ionizing radiation is all around us. We are continuously exposed to this background radiation during ordinary living. In 42 minutes of ordinary living, a person receives more radiation from naturally occurring sources than from screening with any general-use x-ray security system."
In short, these scanners couldn't even hurt a fly even if they wanted to.
And besides what did you mean about how you hate having to go through this as an AMERICAN?
Does 'being American' exclude you from such scanners or pat downs? Do you think you Americans are too good for such things?
Susie, you are a hero for speaking out about how this absolutely unjustifiable and unacceptable violence against your body affected you. Thank you, thank you so much for using your experience to help others by working to end airport sexual abuse. I want you to know that your reaction was entirely normal and understandable, and indeed, morally correct and courageous. I have personally spoken with at least a dozen other women who related stories exactly like yours, including the extreme emotional impact and the tears. You did everything right, including following every conceivable channel to complain and fight back after you were violated. You did not deserve to be degraded and abused like this, and no innocent traveler does.
Invasive searches are forbidden by the fourth amendment unless done under an articulable suspicion of wrongdoing. These screeners are not "just doing their job", they are choosing to trample our Constitutional rights. These people take money to pornographically image children and to force non-consensual sexual contact on unwilling victims; they do not deserve our respect or sympathy.
I am a frequent flyer who has been boycotting flying for the past six months, cancelling trip after trip, or driving or taking the train even when this means 24 hours on the road. Even after making my decision never to line up and let government agents inspect my genitals, I am still plagued with disgust, nightmares, and recurrent disturbing thoughts about all the sexual assaults being inflicted on innocent people for no reason at all. This violence affects me every day, even though I refuse to go anywhere near an airport. I will never stop fighting. Thank you for standing with me.
Susie, you need to sue. You have the notoriety which will help the cause tremendously. The DA in San Mateo county said on the Alex Jones radio show that he would prosecute TSA agents who performed intrusive pat downs against passengers' wills regarding SFO airport. Other DAs have said the same. The pat down you received was illegal. The TSA has been given a pass by the feds for now but federal law does not supersede your constitutional rights or the state laws. The airports are under state law first, federal law second. You have a a meritorious claim and you need to SUE TSA and possibly the agents in the individual capacities, depending on the situation. Alex Jones is a very loud and effective talk show host and you really should tell your story on his show. He posted your video on his website. He can help you network so that you can get specialized legal assistance. There are a number of suits already in the works around the country, some by prominent individuals and you need to add yours to the list. Its extremely important that you take legal action.
Dear Susie,
Brava to you dear Susie for standing up to this security theatre aka TSA.
Texas Rep. Ron Paul would love to hear from you after the courageous stand you have taken. He was the first in the House of Representatives to stand up agaisnt this thuggery against the American people, and has created a bill that received many House co-sponsers but has not been brought to the House floor.
Please contact his office: http://www.paul.house.gov/
So, rather than file a complaint with the people who violated you... have you contacted a lawyer or law enforcement officials?
That would be my first step.
Telling a home burglar that you feel he violated you by stealing your TV doesn't do much good.
We need to see ACTION and LAWSUITS.
Susie, sorry to hear that TSA gave you the "enhanced" pat-down the reason for it is to GET YOU IN THE SCANNER. TSA for the most part does not want to pat people down with perhaps the exception of good looking people. The search, privacy and groping are side issues. Radiation is the quiet issue.
Background and cosmic rays are not the same as soft x-rays directed to the whole body. Links below may help explain. I sent you a gift certificate for some of our TSA proof radiation protective undergarments. Jeff
http://www.rockyflatsgear.com/Airport-Back-scatter-Scanner-Dose-Explained.html
http://www.rockyflatsgear.com/How-penetrating-are-airport-back-scatter-x-rays.html
http://www.rockyflatsgear.com/TERRORIZE-PUBLIC-DHS-Drops-Color-Coded-Threat-Level-System.html
Sorry you went through that Susie. The purpose of those machines and evil TSA agents is to lessen our humanity and not to protect us from "fake" dangers!
Jeff you hit it right on the head! Most people don't know how horribly dangerous those machines are especially to frequent flyers!!!
Thanks Susie for your courage to speak out on your experience.
We need more public figures to bring attention to out-of-control TSA practices.
As you rightly suggest, the solution is to contact our representatives and pressure them to defund the TSA. Security should be handled by the airlines through private security firms that are subject to Constitutional limitations as applies to all citizens and organizations as outlined in the 4th Amendment: to be free from unreasonable search and seizure.
Hopefully more and more people will speak out.
Please consider supporting Congressman Ron Paul (Texas) and his son Senator Rand Paul (Kentucky), who also believe the TSA is out of control, and are doing everything they can to curtail their power.
Hi Susie!
I'm from Australia and I just saw your video. I was very upset, as it was clear you have been a victim of sexual assault. That's what it clearly is. I think this is totally unnecessary and stupid. If we are ever to live on this planet and respect our fellow humans, then we need to treat everyone with the human dignity they deserve.
My positive thoughts go out to you and I hope thing will improve in the future.
Thanks
Dave from Australia
Hi Susie,
Thank you for having the courage to speak out on this issue and take a stand for your health and your civil rights. Your intelligence and ability to think for yourself and challenge authority is in itself a powerful form of beauty, which makes you a true "Miss USA" in my eyes!
I am so sorry about what you went through at the hands of the TSA. The scanners and TSA grope-downs are more about maintaining a level of fear and control than public safety, and you make an excellent point in raising the question about potential TSA rectal exams if someone tries to bring explosives on a plane in their butt! It just shows how asinine this whole illusion of safety really is. The people who say the exposure is negligible have not done their homework, and I wouldn't call reading something on Wikipedia to be extensive research. For those who say they'd rather have their rights violated and be molested by a gov't agent than be blown up, they only show their complete ignorance on so many levels. Democracy Now (Amy Goodman) reported several months ago that the head of security of Tel Aviv airport rejected the body scanners as ineffective, and said he was able to get enough explosives through a scanner to blow up a jumbo jet! And Ben Gurion Airport (Tel Aviv) is considered the most secure airport in the world.
I have done a lot of research on this issue, and compiled a lot of info on it. Below are some highlights, with links to the sources.
STAY STRONG SISTER!!! THERE A MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WHO STAND WITH YOU ON THIS ISSUE!!!
From the article: Pilots boycott full-body scanners over health fears
US scientists warned earlier this year of the potential health dangers of the devices, saying that the radiation levels have been dangerously underestimated and could lead to an increased risk of skin cancer.
University of California biochemist David Agard warned that unlike other scanners, the radiation from these devices is delivered at low energy beam levels, with most of the dose concentrated in the skin and underlying tissue.
“While the dose would be safe if it were distributed throughout the volume of the entire body, the dose to the skin may be dangerously high,” Dr Agard said.
"Ionizing radiation such as the X-rays used in these scanners have the potential to induce chromosome damage, and that can lead to cancer."
David Brenner, the head of Columbia University’s Centre for Radiological Research, says the concentration on the skin – one of the most radiation-sensitive organs of the body – means the radiation dose is actually 20 times higher than the official estimate.
The researcher was consulted to write guidelines for the security scanners in 2002 but said he would not have signed the report had he known the devices were going to be used so widely.
From: http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/pilots-boycott-naked-airport-scanners-over-health-fears/story-e6frfq80-1225947834443
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/pilots-boycott-naked-airport-scanners-over-health-fears/story-e6frfq80-1225947834443#ixzz1JGm9P0V2
____________________________
from the ACLU website:
Getting Naked with Strangers May Be More Dangerous Than Suspected
http://www.aclu.org/blog/technology-and-liberty/getting-naked-strangers-may-be-more-dangerous-suspected
http://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security-technology-and-liberty/body-scanners-known-unknowns
In a post about body scanners last month, I noted that the health effects of these machines has been a "muted part of the debate." The issue just got less muted. NPR is reporting that a group of scientists at the University of California, San Francisco, has raised concerns over the health effects of backscatter X-ray body scanners, which is one of the two types being deployed (the other being millimeter wave). The scientists' concerns over backscatter are disputed by the TSA and others, and we at the ACLU do not pretend to be scientists. But, the scientists' brief letter (PDF), which they sent on April 6 to President Obama's science advisor John P. Holdren, is worth looking at.
The scientists' concerns are:
The majority of the energy directed by these scanners "is delivered to the skin and the underlying tissue. Thus, while the dose would be safe if it were distributed throughout the volume of the entire body, the dose to the skin may be dangerously high." For that reason it is "misleading," the scientists say, to compare these scanners' radiation dose to those of airplane travel or a chest X-ray.
The fact that "real independent safety data do not exist" — particularly what the scientists describe as the "key data": the volume of photons delivered per skin area and time.
A certain proportion of individuals (5 percent, or one in 20 people) are particularly susceptible to genetic damage from X-rays.
"Because this device can scan a human in a few seconds, the X-ray beam is very intense," the scientists write, and warn that a hardware glitch with one of these scanners could shower a traveler with "an intense radiation dose to a single spot on the skin."
Ultimately, the scientists conclude that "there is good reason to believe that these scanners will increase the risk of cancer to children and other vulnerable populations," and that the "potential health consequences need to be rigorously studied before these scanners are adopted."
The scientists conclude their letter:
We urge you to empower an impartial panel of experts to reevaluate the potential health issues we have raised before there are irrevocable long-term consequences to the health of our country. These negative effects may on balance far outweigh the potential benefit of increased detection of terrorists.
___________________________________________
Medical doctors speak out about why they avoid naked body scanners at airports
For those still contemplating whether or not the radiation emitted from airport naked body scanners is serious enough to avoid, you may be interested to know that many doctors routinely "opt out" and choose the full-body pat down instead because they recognize the inherent dangers associated with any level of radiation exposure. A recent CNN piece explains that for many doctors, avoiding all sources of radiation whenever possible is just the smart thing to do.
Even Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society (ACS) expressed concern about whether the safety of the machines, and whether or not TSA is properly maintaining and testing them for safety. After all, TSA refused to release safety reports for quite some time, and when they did, the bungled reports explained nothing more than TSA's high level of incompetence
(http://www.naturalnews.com/031792_a...).
Back in December, radiation scientists admitted that naked body scanners are fully capable of causing both sperm mutations and cancer, despite insistence by authorities to the contrary
(http://www.naturalnews.com/030607_n...). Other reports suggest that nobody really knows how much radiation is actually emitted from naked body scanners due to flawed and inconclusive safety tests
(http://www.naturalnews.com/031792_a...)
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/031938_naked_body_scanners_doctors.html#ixzz1JHc3UUIu
________________________________________________
From Democracy Now (www.democracynow.org )- 11/23/10:
Manufacturers of Full Body Scanners Increase Lobbying Effort
As the national debate over airport screening practices intensifies, little attention has paid to the increasing lobbying power the manufacturers of full body scanning machines have in Washington. USA Today reports L3 Communications has spent $4.3 million on lobbying, up from $2.1 million in 2005. L3 has sold nearly $40 million worth of machines to the federal government. Lobbyists for L3 have included Linda Daschle, the wife of former U.S. Senate majority leader Tom Daschle. Meanwhile Rapiscan Systems has spent more than $270,000 on lobbying so far this year, compared with $80,000 five years earlier. The company made headlines last year when it hired former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff who has become a prominent proponent of body scanners.
___________________________
Washington Post article on why TSA patdowns are unconstitutional:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/24/AR2010112404510.html?tid=nn_twitter
In the Netherlands, there's another crucial privacy protection: Images captured by the body scanners are neither stored nor transmitted. Unfortunately, the TSA required that the machines deployed in U.S. airports be capable of recording, storing and transmitting images when in "test" mode. The agency promised, after this capability was revealed by a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, that the test mode isn't being used in airports. But other agencies have abused the storage capability of the machines. The U.S. Marshals Service admitted in August that it had saved more than 35,000 images from body scanners at the Orlando federal courthouse.
…as European regulators have recognized, they could be much less intrusive without sacrificing effectiveness. For example, Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, the European airport that employs body-scanning machines most extensively, has incorporated crucial privacy and safety protections. Rejecting the "backscatter" machines used in the United States, which produce revealing images of the body and have raised concerns about radiation, the Dutch use scanners known as ProVision ATD, which employ radio waves with far lower frequencies than those used in common hand-held devices. If the software detects contraband or suspicious material under a passenger's clothing, it projects an outline of that area of the body onto a gender-neutral, blob-like human image, instead of generating a virtually naked image of the passenger. The passenger can then be taken aside for secondary screening.
In January, the European Commission's information commissioner criticized the scanners' "privacy-invasive potential" and their unproven effectiveness. And tests have shown that the machines are not good at detecting low-density powder explosives: A member of Britain's Parliament who evaluated the scanners in his former capacity as a defense technology company director concluded that they wouldn't have stopped the bomber who concealed the chemical powder PETN in his underwear last Christmas.
____________________________________________
From the ACLU:
http://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security-technology-and-liberty/body-scanners-known-unknowns
At London’s Heathrow airport, a four-year test of the scanners resulted in a decision to discontinue their use, according to the London-based group Privacy International. The UK Telegraph reports:
the Government is likely to call for the reactivation of four full body scanners which have been in storage at Heathrow for some time. The machines, which are now six years old, will have to be updated...
It kind of speaks for itself if the security people at Heathrow played with the scanners for several years and then just put them in storage.
__________________________________
From the Mail Online (UK):
'Humiliated': Female passenger subjected to patdown 'because her sanitary towel showed up on body scanner'
Ordeal brought back memories of previous sex assault
Doctor warns agents' gloves could spread infections
***Doctors are also now questioning the hygiene of TSA agents who conduct hundreds of patdowns daily. Although they wear gloves, it is being reported that viruses like syphilis, lice, gonorrhea, chlamydia, strep and papilloma viruses can be transferred from passenger to passenger during the body searches.
Alarmed travellers have noted that the TSA agents do not change gloves in between patdowns and were actually patting down dozens of passengers or more wearing the same gloves.
The TSA nor federal agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control have yet commented on the possibility that infections and other afflictions could be spread.
Dr Thomas Warner from Wisconsin told WND: 'There is no doubt that bacteria (staph, strep, v.cholerae etc.) and viruses (noro, enteroviruses, herpes, hepatitis A and papilloma viruses) can be spread by contaminated vinyl or latex gloves'.
'If a traveller has diarrhea and is soiled, as can and does happen, the causative agent can be spread by this method since bacteria and viruses in moist environments have greater viability', he added.
'The traveler readjusting clothes can easily get the infectious agents on their hands and therefore into their mouth, nose and eyes.'
'How come if we as doctors have guidelines, we must wear gloves and have oversight, it's very different [for the TSA]
Dr Warner said that at the very minimum, gloves should be changed between patdowns, 'especially if the gloved hand is inside clothes or in the genital area... even if clothed. Travelers should be advised of this and hand-wash and change clothes ASAP after these intimate examinations.'
The CDC have said that passengers should request the TSA agent use fresh gloves before conducting their body search. 'If you are traveling and are going to be searched, you can request that the TSA agent change his or her gloves,' their statement read.
Privacy-invasion claims like Eliana Sutherland's have become increasingly common since the TSA introduced the full body scan.
She complained that she was singled out by agents because of her large breasts.
She said she was flying from Orlando International Airport and felt objectified by security workers, claiming two male TSA workers had been staring at her chest and picked her out for additional screening.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1333432/Humiliated-Female-passenger-subjected-patdown-sanitary-towel-showed-body-scanner.html#ixzz16viM1HwL
_______________________________________
Feds admit storing checkpoint body scan images
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20012583-281.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/21/AR2007122102544.html
_________________________________
FBI Prepares Vast Database Of Biometrics
$1 Billion Project to Include Images of Irises and Faces
The FBI is embarking on a $1 billion effort to build the world's largest computer database of peoples' physical characteristics, a project that would give the government unprecedented abilities to identify individuals in the United States and abroad.
(That may explain why US Marshals saved over 35,000 nude body scan images from the Orlando airport and had them transferred to the county court house.)
I'm a peaceful old man, but not above becoming angry or upset. I am somewhat upset at the comments ridiculing Ms Castillo for her brave and courageous actions in posting her experience. When are you going to get it, people, that until we ALL get on the same team, we're going nowhere. Please reconsider your critique. The time is coming when we will need all the help we can get. Alienating anyone at this point in time only hurts the cause. Fighting amongst ourselves is what the opposition wants us to do; it insures we will never be strong enough to make our stand when the time comes, and believe me, it is coming.
Rise like lions after slumber In unvanquishable number. Shake your chains to earth like dew which in sleep has fallen on you. Ye are many – they are few. -Percy Shelley, The Mask of Anarchy-
Kudos, Ms Castillo!
Keep on keepin' on!
Class Warrior
Hi Susie,
I just saw your video from the TSA experience. Thank you for doing that. I totally agree with you and I am disgusted that our government thinks we will allow ourselves to be conditioned to choose between our health and our personal space. I refuse to fly because of it. Most people just allow themselves to be molested as if they are a prisoner. Well we aren't prisoners and we sure didn't vote for this kind of "change." I hope more people will follow your example and express their displeasure at this unwarranted trampling of our very personal privacy. Since when did we become the terrorists?
Homeland Security is pushing this campaign: "see something, say something." Well I think it is time for all of us to say something to this government - back off!
Again, thank you for your courage and for making a stand for for what is so obviously right. If we let this go, there will be no limit to what they will try next.
I have not read the comments here, so I do not know if anyone has recommended that you do this: File a molestation complaint against the TSA "officer"with the police department in the city/county in which you experienced the TSA patdown. You don't need to be in the city to file the complaint. Bring charges against that particular agent. The TSA will have to respond to it; so will the woman who pat you down. Include the video you posted with your complaint. If you, and everyone who is brutalised by these TSA agents, would do this (essentially, tie them up in court with molestation complaints), perhaps there might be a change for the better, especially, for those persons who must fly, such as you.
Your celebrity-status will help to shine a light on these sexual assaults that too many of us (who opt out of the scanner) must go through so that we can fly.
Clarck,
From what I've read, I thought they actually *were* in the same kVp range (about 50 to 120), but I'll trust you to correct me if I'm wrong.
Also, the current risk calculations are based on extrapolation of the relative risk at such low exposure from studies that have been done on animals at greater exposures. Of course this is flawed because one can argue either way: maybe small doses of radiation give more risk than just the relative fraction of the risk calculated from the higher dose?, or are they actually negligible and truly zero (threshold effect)? We cannot know the answer and of course no study can be done because it would be drowned in the noise of the high lifetime cancer risk. Then again, on a more cynical point of view, one might argue that we *are* doing this experiement right now, with a billion body scans per year in the not-so-far-away future. That, indeed, might be a reason to opt out. In the end, millimeter wave scanning seems to be safer and should probably be the technology used everywhere.
Though I am not in favor of body scans (or any of the TSA's misconduct for that matter), I am playing a bit of devil's advocate here : are we willing to accept a small rise in the incidence of cancer to possibly prevent thousands of deaths from terrorist attacks? Approaching the ten year anniversary, I would like people to think about what their answer would've been on september 12th, 2001.