Conservative Heritage Times

That’s what NaturalNews.com is reporting. I haven’t seen this reported in the MSM. Can anyone confirm this?

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7 Responses to “TSA Turns Off Nude Body Scanners for National Opt-Out Day”

1. Brock Townsend on 26 Nov 2010 at 8:57 pm #

   Don’t know, but I received this email this morning.
   ========
   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 26, 2010

   For more information, please contact: James Babb (610-574-1222 or jamesbabb@mac.com) or George Donnelly (941-538-6399 or george.donnelly@gmail.com).

   TSA Blinks in Face of We Won’t Fly and Opt Out Day Campaigns
   TSA Opts Out of Opt Out Day by Turning off Scanners

   Philadelphia, PA – Thanksgiving travelers opted out of commercial air travel in large numbers across the country on Opt Out Day as reports came in of eerily quiet airports, shorter than usual security lines, swamped bus and train stations and 94 per cent of travelers opting to drive instead of fly.

   We Won’t Fly has received multiple reports of the federal government’s Transportation Security Administration (TSA) shutting down full body scanners, selecting fewer people for secondary screening, using less invasive patdowns and being unusually friendly and helpful to flyers.

   “Almost everyone is being sent through the metal detectors,” commented flyer and We Won’t Fly fan Stephanie H. on Facebook. “Also, a huge bank of cameras that wasn’t there 2 weeks ago (also last week, everyone went through the scanners).”

   We Won’t Fly achieved its primary goal for Opt Out Day. Millions of travelers opted out of flying entirely, exactly as our campaign urges them to do. The TSA rolled back its security theater, if only for a day. Working in tandem with allies across the nation in a fledgling grassroots movement, We Won’t Fly has, in just over two weeks, achieved the following victories:

   (1) Travelers voted en masse with their feet on Opt Out Day. The American Automobile Association (AAA) reports that 94 per cent of Thanksgiving travelers opted out of flying altogether in favor of driving. That’s a significant increase over last year. Roads and train and bus stations were swamped while airports were eerily quiet.

   (2) The TSA dialed back its security theater at airports around the country on Opt Out Day, November 24. Reports are that TSA checkpoints reduced their exposure to public backlash with local changes such as: (1) turning off scanners; (2) diverting travelers to traditional non-invasive screening; (3) selecting fewer people for secondary screening; and (4) using less invasive patdowns. Of those who flew and were selected for the scanners, many opted out.

   (3) The TSA retreated on “enhanced” patdowns for children with a vague statement that they could get “modified” patdowns in certain cases. They also agreed to exempt pilots from the new “enhanced” patdowns and full body scanners.

   (4) TSA Administrator John Pistole was forced to justify the scanning and groping on national television over and over again. He toned down Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary Janet Napolitano’s initial statement telling concerned individuals to not fly if they didn’t like the new security theater.

   (5) Pistole admitted that passenger dignity is an important consideration, echoing one of We Won’t Fly’s most basic objections.

   (6) With little time and a shoestring budget, We Won’t Fly organized educational outreaches at 27 airports around the country where members of our network distributed flyers about the new TSA security theater. We appeared in print, on the radio and on camera around the nation and in 12 international markets as necessary to tell the traveling public that they are not alone in their repulsion to invasive TSA procedures.

   (7) In just 8 days, public opinion moved from 81 per cent support of the new TSA security theater to 61 per cent disapproval. Zogby’s latest poll reports 48 per cent seeking alternatives to flying in support of We Won’t Fly’s boycott.

   “For weeks we’ve been telling people to avoid air travel altogether.” said We Won’t Fly co-founder Jim Babb in a CNN interview. “Clearly, many heeded our warning to avoid both the nude scan and the groping.”

   We Won’t Fly, and indeed many allies across the nation, have made enormous progress in educating the public. The TSA has changed its tone. It stepped back from its new security theater, raising the question of whether it is necessary at all. Millions joined our boycott. The TSA blinked on Opt Out Day. Our efforts continue.

   ###

   We Won’t Fly is a consumer grassroots effort to encourage travelers to stop flying until the new TSA security theater has been replaced with real passenger security, and to demand that airlines join with concerned consumers so that, together, we can develop effective solutions that don’t trample our basic human dignity and privacy. For more information, visit WeWontFly.com.

2. Kirt Higdon on 26 Nov 2010 at 11:18 pm #

   I’ve spot checked reports on national opt out day in various cities with major airports and it really takes some spin to call this a success. At a few airports, LA and Seattle most prominently named, most of the porno-scanners were not used, but even at these airports there were some in use. Most major airports used them and hardly anyone opted out of the scans in favor of groping.

   To claim astounding success, the opt-outers are including in their “successful” protest anyone who travelled by car, bus or rail along with vague assertions that these numbers were greatly increased over prior years. I’d have to see the stats on the numbers for all modes of transportation, but if travelling by car on Thanksgiving weekend makes you an opt-outer, I guess I’ve been one all my life and just didn’t know it. I’ve flown only once over that weekend that I remember and that was when I was visiting a seriously ill family member.

3. paulie on 30 Nov 2010 at 11:27 pm #

   According to AAA, the number of travellers who avoided airlines went up quite a bit over the previous years. See discussion in the comments:

   http://www.independentpoliticalreport.com/2010/11/22179/

4. Kirt Higdon on 01 Dec 2010 at 1:48 am #

   “quite a bit” – now there’s a nice hard number for you. I guess it’s my years spent in the actuarial department of an insurance company, but we usually tried to be a bit more statistically accurate. Anybody have any stats for all modes of travel over the holiday weekend this year and a few prior years that involve actual numbers? Granted anything will be an estimate and it partially depends on how you define travel. No one will take a plane to drive across town and few will do so even to go 100 miles. It would take a good deal of spin to construe that as avoiding airlines. It may well be too soon to get estimates on the just completed holiday weekend, but we really need to know more than “quite a bit” and an equally undefined “previous years”.

5. paulie on 01 Dec 2010 at 11:11 pm #

   The link is there for a reason. Follow the link, read the discussion, and the numbers are discussed in the articles linked there.

   The link again is http://www.independentpoliticalreport.com/2010/11/22179/

   Read the entire discussion and the links therein – your question is more than adequately addressed there.

6. Kirt Higdon on 02 Dec 2010 at 1:35 am #

   This is a link that simply leads to more links and still no hard numbers, although as I said, it may be too soon for the weekend just past. One number (just an estimate) posted by wewontfly.com says that the number of air travellers is expected to increase from 1.57 million over last year’s Thanksgiving weekend to 1.62 million this year. This pro opt-out site is still claiming that an INCREASE of more than 100,000 air travellers is a success because the vast majority of holiday travellers do not travel by air. Of course, the vast majority have never travelled by air on the Thanksgiving weekend, but if you’re claiming that an increase in air travel despite the obnoxious new regs is a success for opting out, I guess there is pretty much nothing that would be construed as a failure.

7. paulie on 03 Dec 2010 at 7:49 pm #

   The links in the linked discussion contain hard numbers. If you can’t be bothered to follow the links, hopefully others can.

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