November, 24 2010, 12:22pm EDT
ACLU Reports More Than 900 Complaints This Month Over "Enhanced" TSA Security Measures
NEW YORK
The American Civil Liberties Union has received over 900 complaints in the month of November from travelers who have been subjected to the Transportation Security Authority's (TSA) new "enhanced" screening procedures. The procedures include sending travelers through backscatter X-ray machines that produce naked outlines of travelers' bodies and subjecting them to thorough pat-downs that include TSA agents touching their breasts and genitals on the outside of their clothing.
Most of the complaints, which were submitted through an online form on the ACLU's website, came from travelers who reported feeling humiliated and traumatized by the procedures. Some of the excerpts include:
- "The TSA agent used her hands to feel under and between my breasts. She then rammed her hand up into my crotch until it jammed into my pubic bone."
- "I cried throughout the groping and have had intrusive thoughts since. It was humiliating."
- "The procedure was violating, degrading, invasive and humiliating."
- "It was so rough that I felt the effects of it throughout the day."
- "I do not feel safer. I feel violated."
Additional excerpts can be read online at: www.aclu.org/passengers-stories-recent-travel
The following can be attributed to Laura W. Murphy, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office:
"The government must keep us safe, but it must do so in a way that is sensible, effective and constitutional. The new 'enhanced' security methods are far more intrusive than other methods but have not been shown to be any more effective. Nobody should be forced to choose between 'naked scans' and intrusive groping by strangers to keep our airplanes safe."
The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
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While applauding the U.S. House of Representatives' bipartisan passage of a bill to ensure that "law enforcement and intelligence agencies can't do an end-run around the Constitution by buying information from data brokers" on Wednesday, privacy advocates highlighted that Congress is trying to extend and expand a long-abused government spying program.
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Noting those decisions on the FISA reauthorization legislation, Ruddock stressed that "today's vote is a victory but follows a recent loss and ongoing threat as that Section 702 bill moves to the Senate this week too."
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Jeramie Scott, senior counsel and director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center's Project on Surveillance Oversight, also praised the House's FANFSA passage on Wednesday.
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Kia Hamadanchy, senior policy counsel at ACLU, similarly said Wednesday that "the bipartisan passage of this bill is a flashing warning sign to the government that if it wants our data, it must get a warrant."
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Since 2011, the U.N. Security Council has rejected the Palestinian Authority's request for full member status. On April 2, the Palestinian Observer Mission to the U.N. requested that the council once again take up consideration of its membership application. According to the first State Department cable, U.N. meetings since the beginning of April suggest that Algeria, China, Guyana, Mozambique, Russia, Slovenia, Sierra Leone, and Malta support granting Palestine full membership to the U.N. It also says that France, Japan, and Korea are undecided, while the United Kingdom will likely abstain from a vote.
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