GET READY FOR TSA ‘CHAT-DOWNS’ — AUTHOR TELLS THEBLAZE ABOUT A NEW AIRPORT SECURITY PROCEDURE YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT
Can the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) pull you out of line without any rational reason, quiz you on where you are going and why? And if you choose not to answer, does that make you “hostile?” One newspaper writer from the Midwest found out the answers to those questions on Monday when he experienced the TSA’s new “chat-down” while waiting in line at airport security.
Photo credit: AP
Muskeegon Chronical writer Steve Gunn was returning home after a few days at a music festival in Colorado. Steve’s travel agent had him flying from Denver to Detroit and then connecting to a flight from Detroit to Grand Rapids. This is a common pattern in air travel. Customers fly from one big city to another and then catch a short flight to their regional airport. It happens hundreds of times each day in Detroit alone.
As Gunn was standing in security line at the Detroit airport when a young woman in a uniform approached him. Gunn reports:
(Big Brother) actually presented himself in the deceptive form of a young, attractive female officer, working for the Transportation Security Administration at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.At first she simply seemed chatty and friendly. She looked at my airline boarding pass and noted that I was coming from Denver. Then she mentioned that I was headed from Detroit to Grand Rapids.
After explaining that he was just returning home, the TSA agent’s question started getting a bit more invasive. She wanted to know “where home was” — and that’s when Gunn realized that something was not right about this questioning and he asked why the agent needed to know all of this. Her response was that this was part of a new security “pilot program.”
That answer was not good enough for Mr. Gunn. He made it quite clear to the woman performing the TSA “Chat-Down.”
- He was an American citizen
- He was traveling within his own country
- He was not breaking any laws
- That was all the government needed to know and he was not going to share any information
And that’s when the agent loudly announced to her superiors (and everyone else standing in line): “We have another refusal here!”
By shouting that line, the woman triggered a response from supervisors and other agents in the area.
Another TSA staffer detained Mr. Gunn and took his carry-on bag. When he asked why he was being “detained,” the TSA rep denied detaining Gunn. In an interview with TheBlaze, Steve Gunn did say that his detention lasted all of two minutes, but it was a detention. He was stopped, held against his will and checked quite differently than all of the other passengers in line.
The manner in which he was treated by TSA agents bothered Mr. Gunn and he told TheBlaze that he felt like a suspect and decided to speak loudly so the people in line could hear him. As his bag was being examined and his hands swabbed by the agent, Gun said, “This is America, not Russia… we shouldn’t have to answer these questions!”
Gunn said that another TSA agent stopped his work and replied: “It’s no different than customs.”
Gunn told the interjecting TSA agent that his Customs comparison is wrong. People coming into the country should be screened in a more serious manner than citizens moving about inside our borders.
After he landed in Grand Rapids and arrived at his home (I did not ask him exactly where he lived), Gunn researched the TSA’s “pilot program” that involves quizzing passengers as they stand in line. He discovered a USA Today opinion piece that details the program. It’s not exactly a new thing and the results are also less than spectacular. Gunn’s article recapped the USA Today story:
TSA officials interviewed about 725,000 travelers at Logan International Airport in Boston over the course of one year, and none of them turned out to be terrorists. A small percentage were arrested on outstanding warrants for other crimes.
Steve Gunn believes that he may have been singled out for the questioning because he suffers from a partial and temporary facial paralysis due to a recent bought with Bell’s palsy. Gunn wonders if all stroke victims and people with facial tics will be pulled aside and quizzed.
During our interview, Gunn stressed that he understands the need to make certain air travel is safe. However, his objection was raised over the curious and invasive search tactics used in this new “chat-down” program.
“They can make us all take off our shoes and our belts and treat us as suspects,” he said. “But at least in that case, they treat everyone equally.”
12 comments:
When asked where are you going EVERY AMERICAN needs to give the same answer "IT IS NONE OF YOUR F-IN BUSINESS" .. pardon the French.
EVERY AMERICAN needs to give the same answer.
NOBODY gets on the plane and EVERYONE gets a refund.
So what if we had state or local security forces doing pat downs and screenings when these TSA officials do their normal shopping and they claim they are EXEMPT?
But the day will be coming when TSA officials can grab you in a parking lot and take you down to the ground and strip search you Just Because they are TSA officials!
It's hard for me to believe, the airlines put up with TSA. I mean, they must have lost some revenues. Personally I don't fly anymore since they started TSA. I would have to be in a bind to get somewhere fast.
We all can bring this to an end BY : 1. Rid our government of the bad guys, the best solution. 2. STOP FLYING ! I can fly anywhere in America FOR FREE and I refuse to participate in this farce. When you worked for an airline as all this crap started, you saw that this 'security' was a joke. People got past 'security' hundreds of times on my watch with loaded guns and lot's of dangerous items AFTER going through 'security.' I was ground operations (not in security) and heard MANY stories and saw others. If we accept this, it will continue. It's NOT about security, it's about CONTROL. I'd say about 3 -5 days of near zero passengers would do it. I realize some use air travel that cannot stop flying. How many started the revolutionary war? Very few. I will drive, take Am-crash, or walk. Screw TSA and the feds that put them there. TYJM frj
The SAME questions are asked at the border traveling from Mexico to the states. It is nothing new.
Anonymous 4:09PM.
Yeah, some answers can rotate like.
"That information is already on file."
"That's private and confidential."
"If I tell you am I free to go?"
"Do you have a warrant for that level of questioning?"
We can be creative according to our conscience, and recycle and repeat.
You have to be a complete utter moron to use the airlines to fly anywhere! The sooner more people just STOP flying the quicker TSA will become a memory! It IS that simple! How long would they keep TSA around if not enough people use these means to travel as the airlines go bankrupt from not enough business? Hello!!! The more you participate in this farse the more you give in and accept to be enslaved and controlled! STOP THE INSANITY. Just STOP flying!
STOP this madness go to setoffdebt.com and learn how to stop this crazyness.
It works!
What if the Nazis were never meant to win?
The majority of the population are stupid,lazy sheep. They are cowards and fools. That makes it hard for Americans to live with dignity and liberty in Amerika!!!! This is the land of the cowards and home of the slaves. So don't expect any change any time soon. After 25 yrs. of teaching and preaching I can count real Americans I know on one hand.
I don't fly because of that mess.
We are creative in staying connected to family, and we don't care about tourism in the States.
If they don't care about getting us to their destinations without all this Control, we don't care to get there either.
I'm sure businesses could grab other businesses revenue if they could get the money to flow in a particular direction.
We all need 'diplomatic immunity' status, and you won't get that by claiming to be a lower status 'US Citizen'.
Shocks me, or maybe I'm not shocked and can see the writing on the wall, of those who claim a right to be a US citizen and get mad when US citizens are treated like...well like...US citizens.
Then you get the every once in a while post of someone getting angry because we don't stoop to the level of giving our loyalty to a flag.
I haven't figured out if those people are of a particular religious sect because usually religions push following a deity and pledging loyalty to the deity and pledging loyalty to a flag would violate that religious term because they've 'placed a god before them'.
I digressed...you have to say 'no', unless you don't know how and if you think control means safety, you'll find out it doesn't when an unsafe thing happens to you while you are under their control.
They cannot continue to control everyone. It goes against Natural Law of the Creator, and the right to travel free from trespass.
about setoffdebt.com, you don't know what you are giving up by giving up the creditor status. Those solutions didn't surface until the Fed was losing control. The only reason I see the government getting ready for any type of chaos is that people will realize they were deceived even more than what they are already aware of. It may be these bankruptcy, set off, and accepted for value tactics that will shock them.
Imagine being told the national debt is what they owe us and now it's payback time. I notice there is the value that is without interest and an even higher value when you add the interest.
Imagine people get all excited about being owed something and when they find out their net worth they are told, 'yeah but you signed this Accepted for Value until lawful money was in place and now it's time to pay up with lawful money', or you signed this debt setoff and now it's time to deliver on this set off since the financial conditions have changed, or the bankrupty you filed cleared out all debts private and public, so you didn't owe us but we don't owe you a thin dime either.
Ever wonder why people are offered a 'bank'rupt'cy anyway? People aren't banks, but in some symbolic way that we don't comprehend, there is some banking aspects to the things we do when we spend private fed money over spending American coinage.
If someone in a uniform ever asks you a question, answer: "Are you acting in an official capacity?" If they respond yes, then tell them that you decline to answer their questions until you have the advice of counsel.
If they answer no, then tell them to that you'll be happy to talk to them either outside of their jurisdiction or with a drink in each person's hands.
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