back to article Texan TSA crew accused of nude scanner ogling scheme

An investigation into the actions of TSA staff has uncovered a series of complaints from self-described “semi-attractive” female travelers who claim they were targeted for scanning based on their figures, and not on the likelihood of them being terrorists. CBS News investigated formal complaints to Texas authorities made by …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    They should just go ahead and 'crowd source' it

    Just put the images on TSA-perv.gov and let everyone have a look. Points for catching a "terrist"; just click.

    1. Sir Runcible Spoon

      Sir

      I would rather that there were a webcam pointed at the TSA employees who are viewing these images that is publicly accessible.

      Turn-about is fair play, and it would be obvious to anyone watching if the TSA bods were enjoying themselves a little too much.

      Who watches the watchers indeed.

      1. Mephistro
        Joke

        Re: Sir

        I totally agree with your feelings, Sir Runcible, but somehow I feel it would go wrong, some way or another. You know, intermittent connection problems in the camera, wires chewed by rats, nobody remembering to report anomalies in it's working or some guy accidentally knocking the camera over.

        You all know that The Guardians of Freedom (TM) can't pry their eyes from their screens, to make sure they catch every terrorist trying to smuggle liquids in the planes, endangering the lives of the passengers. Making sure the camera is always working, even when 'semi-attractive females' -a group collectively known for their eagerness to become terrorists- are crossing the scanner, would imply expenses the USA can't afford, as they are using most of their resources in fighting terrorism everywhere.

        The software upgrade solution seems better, but, given the level of security that Government's security contractors usually put in their hardware and software, some thirteen years old hacker would probably find a way to revert the scanners to their older state, and doing so he would win that 200 dollars prize offered by the TSA Employees Syndicate.

        The system is broken, and trying to fix it without totally redesigning it is a lost cause.

        But, wait! There is still hope!

        Please, hear my proposal:

        All the scanner's control rooms should be fitted with another scanner, continuously scanning the TSA agents while they fight terrorism. Any time the new secondary scanner detects that one of the agents shows symptoms of improper sexual arousal, an electrical discharge would be dealt to the offending agent in his/her/its private parts through a pair of suitably placed wires. The intensity of the discharge should be graded as to not to cause a risk of death, while at the same time ensuring that the culprit is definitely removed from the human gene pool, or whatever other gene pool they happen to belong to.

        Thanks for your attention.

        1. Mephistro
          Devil

          Re: Re: Sir (Addendum)

          The advantages of my plan should be obvious to anyone. If culling the human gene pool -that really needs some culling!- and protecting citizen's privacy is not enough to convince you, please consider the long term savings and the expected pay rise for the surviving TSA agents, as they become scarcer.

          If you find my plan has merit, please show me your support by proposing me for a Nobel Prize. Any of them will do.

          Thanks, again, for your attention.

          Postdata: Damn the 2.000 letter limit!!!

          1. Craig Chambers

            God damn these electric sex pants

            Your plan for electric sex pants was envisioned in the IT Crowd already...

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfq3B9JvIcQ

  2. kain preacher

    I'm shocked . I mean who would expect HS bullies that could not become cops to do such things .

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yep, TSA@DFW has a bit of a reputation...

    Happened to my rather buxom sister two weeks ago at DFW. She refused to go through the nude scanner a second time, after becoming suspicious about the chuckling she heard; then was forced to wait 10 minutes for a female screener to "become available" to pat her down.

    Not everyone in the TSA is a high-school bully; but according to acquaintances in the agency and friends in airport security, the atmosphere is poisonous enough to encourage those who aren't to look for new jobs.

    1. kain preacher

      Re: Yep, TSA@DFW has a bit of a reputation...

      I'm not saying every one at the TSA is a HS bully just the ones that do this kind of crap. The kind that would make a cancer patient remove her breast forms. The kind that decides every one brown is a threat .

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Who knows *how* the TSA decides who is a threat?

        Three weeks ago I was flying with my four-year-old, and they ran him through the scanner twice, patted him down, and disemboweled the two teddies he was carrying before returning them with half their stuffing missing. No explanation, no apology. I'm a clean-shaven white American businessman, so I'm not sure what threat profile my son was supposed to fit...

        1. kain preacher

          Re: Who knows *how* the TSA decides who is a threat?

          It was to show that they are even handed and will rectally probe a white person the same.

          1. This post has been deleted by its author

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Re: Who knows *how* the TSA decides who is a threat?

            Ah... but the only ones who got the rectal probing were the teddy bears, and to a lesser extent my four-year-old. The TSA inspectors showed no overt interest in me. Hence my puzzlement...

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    it woudlnt be long before somebody files a case against them..

    .. for reverse discrimination.. "excuse me ma'am.. you go right here.. you miss..hmm.. move along.."

  5. T J
    Mushroom

    Metallic body paint

    Has anybody stood in one yet with "F******ING BITE ME" painted on under their clothes in metallic paint? If the TSA idiots complained the response is simple "Not your job, son."

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Metallic body paint

      You're forgetting that they made the mistake of making those buffoons a law onto themselves. They know full well that you have a choice between being cooperative or miss your plane - that's why you also have the delay before the patdown alternative to scanning is available.

      The TSA *URGENTLY* needs a large team of undercover inspectors to randomyl visit their locations and shake this crap out. It's already doubtful if they are not simple a huge money drain on the USA without delivering any decent security (I'd set up a couple of dogs with handlers myself - much more effective) - this sort of shit is not exactly helping.

      1. Ken Hagan Gold badge
        WTF?

        Re: doubtful

        "It's already doubtful if they are not simple a huge money drain on the USA without delivering any decent security"

        Doubtful? Doubtful?! What are you smoking, dude? The TSA's own annual reports make it perfectly clear that they contribute nothing to security. It is an established fact that it is simply a job creation scheme. (I have to say, mind, that putting your hard-to-employ people in a customer-facing position probably wouldn't be what a private corporation would do. Still, government is as government does.)

    2. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      Re: Metallic body paint

      Ask Ryan "Kip Hawley is an idiot" Bird if that's a good idea.

      The TSA, and the local LEOs who back them up, have been more than happy to violate your civil rights if they feel you're giving them grief. You might sue them afterward, and you might even win; but it's likely to be a Pyrrhic victory.

  6. David Kelly 2

    Put everyone through the scanner!

    I think they should put everyone through the scanners and put the pictures on big screens overhead for everyone else flying with you to see. Don't discriminate against anyone, discriminate against everyone. The Radical Fundamentalists we are protecting ourselves from would not want to sully their purity before suicide so they'd go and do it somewhere other than an airplane.

    1. Old Handle
      Thumb Down

      Re: Put everyone through the scanner!

      Or better yet, no one. No discrimination that way either.

    2. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      Re: Put everyone through the scanner!

      Nah. Make everyone fly naked. That would make air travel that much more horrible, and with any luck enough people would give it up that the airlines would finally start fighting back against the security state. (Until now it's been mostly to their economic advantage to go along with it.)

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Big Brother

    Just fire them!

    I bet the DHS sends a few of these guys to sensitivity training or something like that, and nothing more comes of it. If DHS agents who were very disproportionate in screening attractive members of the opposite sex were fired, then it might actually make a difference.

    Big Brother is ogling you.....

  8. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

    Missing the point

    The machines are expensive and easy to deceive. Why have them at all?

    1. Velv
      Big Brother

      Re: Missing the point

      Depends on the point - are they there to catch terrorists, or are they there to make the public think the authorities are trying to catch terrorists.

    2. John Bailey

      Re: Missing the point

      Because they are expensive and reassure stupid people.

      People want to FEEL safe, much cheaper and easier than actually being safe.

      1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

        Re: Re: Missing the point

        Because they are expensive and thus lucrative for the well-connected firms that produce them.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yep

    It's time to turn off those machines.

    A month or two ago I had a delayed flight out of one of the Dallas airports. While there I lost count of the number of good looking women who received pat downs at the entrance I was close to. However I know exactly how many guys got the treatment: zero.

    TSA is a joke.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Yep

      So, as pat downs are to be given by a member of the same sex what you are saying is that the TSA is staffed by lesbians. Either that or you are merely voicing what you think you are expected to say.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Re: Yep

        Because no man has ever paid to watch one woman grope another.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Re: Yep

        Or... the women were refusing to go through the perv scanners and so had to queue up for the pat downs.

        I do wonder, however, if we'll hear of a woman deciding she'd rather strip in public so she can see if the attendant gets excited rather than let some faceless letch drool over her scanned form.

        And no, I don't believe the stick figure story is true, either: That would require an image recognition system to identify objects and indicate relative positions on a mannequin. That's a totally different system to a millimeter scanner that just renders an image so an operator can use Mk1 eyeball to identify objects.

        Anon for the obvious reason.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Re: Re: Yep

          It happenned. More or less.

          http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/08/25/bermuda_customs/

  10. Gabor Laszlo
    Stop

    Opt for the patdown

    when enough people start doing it and the line grows out of control, the outrage will draw enough publicity to change policy.

    1. DanceMan
      FAIL

      Re: Opt for the patdown

      You/re making the mistake of thinking that someone in a position of authority in this bloated misuse of public funds will display common sense. Not going to happen.

  11. seven of five
    Meh

    On the upside

    At least, as long as TSA have the scanners, they are too busy drooling at the girls to steal from your luggage...

    1. Aaron Em

      Re: On the upside

      Nah -- they have a whole different department for stealing shit out of your bags.

      1. Ian Yates
        Flame

        Re: Re: On the upside

        Not just what's in the bag, they stole our padlocks! We even had the ones with the special (highly secure, obv) bypass key for the TSA to use.

        When I completed I was basically told that I must have put the wrong locks on. Since they took the locks, what proof would I have?

        I avoid travelling through the USA now, preferring to do UK to Aus/NZ through Asia. Nicer people, nicer food, and they don't force my luggage open.

        1. nichomach

          Re: Re: Re: On the upside

          Same happened to my wife - she had TSA-friendly locks on her luggage as well.

        2. Scott 1
          Big Brother

          Re: Re: Re: On the upside

          "I avoid travelling through the USA now, preferring to do UK to Aus/NZ through Asia. Nicer people, nicer food, and they don't force my luggage open."

          A wise decision. I live in the U.S. and have had things stolen from my luggage, too, including, of all things, the guest book from my wedding (we got married about 1,800 miles from home so my wife's grandmother could attend the wedding). On top of this, several other expensive, fragile gifts were broken because of them. They were originally wrapped and placed in the center of the suitcase, surrounded by padding, but after the TSA thieves rummaged about in my bag, they tossed the fragile stuff on top -- practically guaranteeing that they'd be broken.

        3. Donn Bly

          @Ian Yates

          I was just on a US domestic flight last weekend between two "international" airports, checked two bags, both with identical TSA-approved locks. Only one bag still had a lock on it when I picked them up at baggage claim.

          The locks are a joke.

  12. John Riddoch
    Joke

    Obviously they wouldn't pick guys for this... http://xkcd.com/779/

    1. AdamT

      Or, slightly more NSFW : http://www.explosm.net/comics/2708/

      1. Aaron Em

        Huh

        That Cyanide and Happiness strip is actually sort of funny -- he must be slipping, to include actual humor anywhere.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Huh

          I think you're wrong. They've always been funny, to me.

  13. Richard Wharram
    Facepalm

    It was pretty obvious this would happen.

    It's a boring job. 90% of straight men are going to be a little bit tempted, just occasionally, to select one of the more attractive females. It's human nature. If they want truly random selection then roll a dice or something.

    Obviously I'm in the minority of men who can control their hormones. Everyone else is a perv but I'm caring and sensitive.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: It was pretty obvious this would happen.

      Thing is the image is not that good and a 5 second search will fidn you better pictures online.

      So why bother ?

      It is a power thing. If they were looking through a window to peep on someone it is a crime why is it not a crime now ?

      If they must have these scanners they should have 2 lanes. one for women, one for men.

      1. Dr. Mouse

        Re: Re: It was pretty obvious this would happen.

        Unless I am mistaken they have these at Manchester Airport. At least that's what I assumed they were.

        It was on my last holiday, and there were electronically controlled gates. AFAIK they were randomly controlled, or chose every nth person or some such, sending people either through the scanner or straight past.

        I could be wrong, but if I am correct I think this is the right way to do it. No human interference (if someone is already flagged as a threat or security officials think they are acting sus, they have other procedures they can follow), just "random" selection.

        1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          Re: Re: Re: It was pretty obvious this would happen.

          "just "random" selection"

          It should be all or none.

          Random selection probably means 1 in 5, or 1 in 6 or some other calculated ratio (ie guessed). So the terrists send a team of 3 through. One might get caught. Will security be clever enough to then scan everyone getting on that plane or do the other team members get through?

          1. teebie

            Re: Re: Re: Re: It was pretty obvious this would happen.

            If the security team finds someone smuggling bomb parts on to a plane I'm pretty sure they would stop the flight.

            (And all the other flights)

    2. Field Marshal Von Krakenfart
      Childcatcher

      Re: It was pretty obvious this would happen.

      Well of course it is; It's a proven fact that perverts will target jobs that will allow therm access to prospective victims, paedos will look for jobs in orphanages where they can have access to vulnerable children. The TSA would be targeted in the same way by the pervs.

      http://www.google.com/search?q=tsa+strip+searching+children

      Won’t somebody think of the children… really.

    3. ElReg!comments!Pierre

      Re: It was pretty obvious this would happen.

      > If they want truly random selection then roll a dice or something.

      Up here they have "randomizers": you step on it, it displays an arrow showing which lane you go to (scan or non-scan). Recently I noticed that the machine actually waits for the nearby operator to scan your boarding pass and validate something before it made a decision about the lane. Random indeed.

  14. Crisp
    Flame

    Well duh!

    Give a bunch of officious "security staff" with a make-work job, too much time on their hands, and x-ray specs; and this is what happens.

    Even the best intentioned scanner operator is going to succumb to the temptation to perv eventually.

  15. Jonathon Green
    Boffin

    The answer is obvious...

    ...arrange for all perv-scanner operators to be provided with a feed of high quality porn, carefully selected to match the individual workers tastes (including a blurry momochrome option for those who just prefer that sort of thing).

    They'll either get bored silly with it or simply no longer feel the need to pick on the punters :-)

  16. Tim #3

    The behaviour reported in this article is entirely inevitable as the scanner staff are human, let alone when you consider how jobs in the CCTV monitoring field have always attracted the perverts. What's more surprising is that afaik these type of images haven't turned up on the web yet, there must be numerous specialist grumpleflick sites that would be interested in buying them.

    1. TheOtherHobbes

      How is it inevitable?

      It's only inevitable if you accept that public servants have a right to humiliate the public just because - er - what was your reason, again?

      I suppose if you live in a police state like the US it all seems normal to you.

      1. NogginTheNog
        WTF?

        Re: How is it inevitable?

        Sorry, but I just wet myself when you described America as a 'police state'! Far from Land Of The Free maybe, but when you hear about the shit going down in places like North Korea (a birthday celebration venerating a DEAD dictator whilst a quarter of the population starve?!) then you really have to take a reality check I think my friend ;-)

        1. Intractable Potsherd

          Re: Re: How is it inevitable?

          @NogginThe Nog: don't confuse quantity with quality. Just because there is somewhere that does something to a greater extent than any given example doesn't mean that the given example doesn't have the same problems.

          A good definition of a police state involves: a police force that regards itself as separate from the community; many branches of police with different heads/objectives; police powers granted to non-police personnel; little effective control of the police/pseudo-police by anyone, including the judiciary and [elected] members of the legislature. Both the US and the UK score very poorly on many of those counts. Stating that we have not developed police states because we aren't as bad as the extreme helps no-one.

          By the way - used to love your adventures when I was a child! :-) (http://www.nogginthenog.co.uk/welcome.htm for those who don't understand the reference!)

    2. BristolBachelor Gold badge
      Joke

      @Tim #3

      That's only because you haven't been to www.airportscanner.xxx

      1. Mephistro
        Joke

        Re: @Tim #3

        When I tried to follow your link, to find out whether someone had been fast enough to register that domain or similar ones after reading your post, I found the following link:

        http://www.airport-scanner.com/

        Obviously someone expects to earn lots of cash with the TSA in a near future.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Porky pies?

    TSA says the software has been updated to display stick figures. All within a few months since the complaints? Yeah right. Unless the option was already there (shades of IBM big iron upgrades), configurable with a registry setting.

    1. Field Marshal Von Krakenfart
      Joke

      Re: Porky pies?

      How are they going to disguise Mrs Beckenham-posh-spice when she has to be put though a scanner?

    2. Why Not?

      Re: Porky pies?

      why difficult? plenty of software to take images and obscure intelligently. There have been years of development on stick images for sport purposes. Even open source options.

      I suspect someone did suggest this years ago during development by the geeks who could see the obvious. But it wasn't included because of cost or because customers insisted the unspoilt image was shown.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Mushroom

    Seems the Americans are sexual deviants! Insisting on body scanners in the name of security. No one believes you!

    Flame away.

  19. Winkypop Silver badge
    Thumb Down

    All your millimeter wave technology units are belong to us

    Failed mall-cops with too much technology.

  20. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Risky
      Paris Hilton

      Re: Doesn't this technology just...

      Nope, just mail back to the cave for more funds to hire a dozen escorts to fly with them. the TSA will be too busy with the tissues box to worry about what the tall beardy bloke is carrying.

  21. Boris the Cockroach Silver badge
    FAIL

    the TSA

    is staffed by morons to put it bluntly

    The sort that have to open you backpack by cutting through the straps because they could'nt operate the squeeze together plastic clips holding the strap together...

    US immigration was bad enough... now I know where the people who failed the entrance exam for them went

    1. Intractable Potsherd
      Unhappy

      Re: the TSA

      "The sort that have to open you backpack by cutting through the straps because they could'nt operate the squeeze together plastic clips holding the strap together..." I hate to sully myself by thinking like one of these people (my excuse is that I've not been well!), but, if you take the paranoia far enough, those clips could be switches that would set off the bomb ...

      I'm so ashamed ... :-(

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @ Intractable Potsherd

        Utter tosh!

        If they had the faintest reason to believe there was an actual explosive device inside a given piece of luggage then it simply wouldn't be opened at all.

        When they open them they're looking for contraband, and they cut them open because it's fast and there appears to be no consequences whatsoever for them destroying peoples' property.

        I saw a recent TV documentary about US customs. The staff shown in that one seemed to take pride in wanton destruction - and had a rather worrying habit of waving sharp knives around.

        If anybody else did that it would be (possibly malicious) criminal damage.

        The result? Travel insurance via and to the US is considerably higher than going anywhere else in the world, and people avoid the US whenever possible.

        BTW, American Airlines in is Chapter 11 (administration). This may be related...

        Anon because I do occasionally have to travel there.

  22. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Ian Yates
      Black Helicopters

      Re: All pointless

      I hope that's not your real name ;)

    2. deadlockvictim

      Re: All pointless

      To be fair to the US authorities, if this were to happen, 19 muslims would be found and sent to Guantanamo Bay or back to Saudi Arabia, PATRIOT ACT III "You ain't seen nothin yet!" would be passed within weeks and some random Middle Eastern country would be invaded.

      Sigh.

      I'm sure that I'll be asked to explain this post to the U.S. Customs' officers should I ever enter the U.S.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Re: All pointless

        "I'm sure that I'll be asked to explain this post to the U.S. Customs' officers should I ever enter the U.S."

        Why would they wait? You see that anonymous transit in your street? Well...

  23. taxman
    Paris Hilton

    It's Friday

    So the pics from the static scanners are being analysed by pervects. What about the mobile millimeter wave length scanners that are popping up everywhere?

    Who else but?

  24. Atonnis

    Oh dear...

    Come on...if you are really that desperate to look at images of naked women on a screen there is a huge big wide internet full of free porn.

    Fine, some real sad bastards might've been perv'ing - but you've got to wonder why...

  25. asdf
    FAIL

    think of the children

    Guess we can thank pity for the survivors of 9/11 for pushing for the creation of the worst government department in US history Homeland Security. They make ATF look competent and needed.

  26. RISC OS
    Joke

    Just employ lesbians and gays

    and allow the lesbians to only scan women and gay men to scan men... and maybe some she-males for the trannies

    1. Armando 123
      Joke

      Re: Just employ lesbians and gays

      Yeah, that'll work, because God knows no homosexual has ever been a pervert or untrustworthy ...

      1. kain preacher

        Re: Re: Just employ lesbians and gays

        More like the GOP would have a shit fit and say we are promoting the gay agenda .

  27. earl grey
    Mushroom

    way past time to shut down TSA

    They don't do anything but theatre; and badly at that.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: way past time to shut down TSA

      Plus which the FBI only seem to be stopping terrorist 'plots' they instigated themselves.

  28. Mike 16

    The point of scanners?

    It is neither to catch terrorists, nor to let some mouth-breather exercise power over a nicer woman than will ever speak to him, not even (fully) to get folks to reflexively obey the new Stasi.

    It is to make money for Michael Chertoff and his pals and fellow investors.

    Follow the money.

    As others have noted, the TSA folks who steal from your luggage are not (precisely) the ones that grope your kids or ogle you, although they may rotate positions.

  29. Armando 123
    Coat

    What's this?

    Reports of @$$holes in Texas? In the pay of the government? I am shocked, SHOCKED do you hear, that such rumors are being spread! "Why, you'll say Hitler was a racist, next!" (*)

    (*) - Stephen Fry, 'A Bit of Fry & Laurie'

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Stephen's joke made me cry

      boo hoo

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    anon for a reason

    Every year or so I find I need to buy a batch of new "TSA" locks because I've run out.

    My experience is that the thugs in TSA baggage screening lose, break or steal the locks on 15% of the trips I go on. So much for keeping your cases closed and secure, some times they don't even close them all the way. And I've given up on hoping they won't stir, shuffle and muck around with my stuff. At they usually put all the tools back that I carry for my work.

    Ass holes.

  31. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    When win do they go home?

    War of Terror... When we win the war on terror do we send the gate guards home?

    Can we tell if we're losing the war on terror by the increasing number of gate guards?

    If the number of gate guards goes up, is that a sign we need better gate guard managers because the current ones are losing the war on terror?

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If their boobs are popping out...

    ...they have more serious issues than body scanners.

  33. Martin 63
    Facepalm

    Who watches the watchers

    A live webcam in their viewing booth might just resolve this

  34. This Side Up
    WTF?

    Members of the same sex

    "TSA rules insist that only members of the same sex may search passengers "

    So I can be searched by two men or two women, but not one of each. I see.

  35. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    NOTHING

    is what you're going to do about the police state.

  36. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    the terrorists know they're gunna get scanned so now they're leaving their bombs at home

    there are no bombs, the whole thing is fucking pointless.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Try using that gray matter

      Do you really think suicide bombers are opposed to killing hundreds in an airport if they can't get on the plane with their explosives? Really?

      Obviously you don't understand the mindset of a delusional suicide bomber going to meet Allah and his 27 virgins...

  37. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    dissatisfied male traveller

    lol the only problem I see here is that everytime I have to go through these checks some fat bald dude shows up and starts touching me everywhere and it is disgusting !!! Male travellers should have an option to choose who performs this check, a fat dude or maybe a good looking blonde female officer.

  38. john devoy

    its all for appearance

    This whole security system is only there to give the impression that something is being done.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      WRONG again

      Something IS actually being done. Guns and other weapons are confiscated everyday and some criminals are hauled of to jail. Fewer terrorists are likely to try to get on an airplane now. That's a good thing.

      Until someone can go to every airport, train station, bus station, etc. and point out the terrorists, this may be the best deterrent we have? No one likes the inconvenience but it's a lot better than a plane blowing up at 30,000 feet.

      1. Mr Young
        Coat

        Re: WRONG again

        Ok - planes and people sometimes have problems at 30,000ft but what are the chances? Jeez - do you never go outside just in case a meteorite lands on your head? Really - there's got to be a better way than all this security hysteria - we can fly half way round the world in 12 hours but have to shuffle about airports at 1mph for hours on end...and then get perv scanned as well! It would be nice to see some sensible improvements somehow but I give up on answers - I'll go now

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