Originally published January 2 2012
Alaska lawmaker blasts TSA in new PSA, warning travelers about revealing full body scanners
by J. D. Heyes
(NaturalNews) Regular readers of NaturalNews.com already know that the expectation of privacy in America has slowly been eroded through a series of laws and court rulings. In the modern era, one of the most egregious and serial violators of privacy has been the Transportation Security Administration.
The only good news in the sorry state of affairs regarding constitutional violations and privacy abuses by the TSA is that with each new indignity the public - and official - outcry has gotten louder. Enter Alaska state Rep. Chris Tuck-D, who has produced a new public service announcement railing against the TSA's full-body scanners and informing constituents and prospective travelers that they can be mad as hell and don't have to take it anymore.
"The TSA installed new body scanners at [Alaska] airports. These machines still allow TSA screeners to see through your clothes," he says in his video, which was posted online at TheHill.com, a daily politics newspaper that covers Congress.
"Air travel safety is appreciated but no one should be humiliated or degraded," Tuck says in the 30-second spot. "If you don't want inappropriate pictures of you or your children taken and stored, or if you're concerned about the possible health affects [of radiation], then all you have to do is ask to opt out."
"It is your right," Tuck said. "Instead, they will pat you down, and if they touch you inappropriately, call the airport police. This is still a free country."
Tuck is only the latest critic of the TSA's procedures, but he joins a growing cadre of critics who have railed against the widespread use of body scanners as an invasion of privacy and a legitimate health concern. The TSA says the machines are safe and that its newest machines will only show generic outlines of human bodies in order to reveal potential terror threats.
The agency also says it will begin relying more on a so-called "risk-based" system, in which travelers are pre-screened and known travelers have an opportunity to receive expedited screening.
But even that will involve providing personal background information to the TSA or some other federal agency. All for exercising your right to freedom of movement and travel.
Tuck, in his video, asserts that "this is still a free country." But is it, as long as one agency can become so powerful as to violate rights and liberties that are supposedly protected by the Constitution?
Sources:
http://thehill.com/blogs/transportation-repo...
http://thehill.com/video/in-the-news/200533-...
http://www.naturalnews.com/TSA.html
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