Paying To Be Raped

Every single day millions of us are being subjected to the shameful processes of being searched, screened and viewed naked, patted, groped, fondled, poked and stroked by badge-wearing strangers  police under a different name. Every single day. Millions of us, Americans. Being violated. Being degraded. You know exactly what I am talking about. I am taking about me, you, your mother, her brother, his brothers wife and toddler son, their grandmothers. I am talking about the systematic degradation of our people. I am talking about being raped of our dignity, privacy, and decency. I am talking about a daily systematic rape we actually pay to be subjected to. I am talking about severe violations we elect people to bring upon us. Yes, I am talking about traveling, TSA police, and being reduced to naked and helpless subjects of government police practices.

Considering its short tenure, the motherland police force, aka Department of Homeland Security, has had a one-of-a-kind success. In less than a decade it is now the third largest cabinet police department. It has around 200,000 employees, and thats without counting contract employees  which exceed this number. Now remember, we still have the FBI, CIA, NSA, DIA plus all the other state and local police forces from before. TSA makes up over 60,000 of DHS employees. This 60,000 federal police force oversees 450 airports, so that makes it around 133 police per airport. And thats in addition to local airport police.

What do I mean by not so gradual and systematic degradation? I mean in less than ten years, they went from this:

to This then to This

And now to this, this, this, and this all together:

Next, coming soon, very soon, it will be This

and This

Last week TSA announced that airline passengers should expect to see and feel additional pat-down procedures at U.S. airports over the coming weeks to provide another layer of security. They said passengers should continue to expect an unpredictable mix of security layers that include explosives trace detection, advanced imaging technology, canine teams, among others.

The Road to Serfdom: T... F. A. Hayek, Bruce Cal... Best Price: $3.06 Buy New $1.99 (as of 03:40 EST - Details)

The following blurb comes from CNN, thanks to one of its employees who chose to speak up a little, only a little (all emphasis in bold are mine):

Rosemary Fitzpatrick, a CNN employee, said she was subjected to a pat-down at the Orlando, Florida, airport on Wednesday night after her underwire bra set off a magnetometer. She said she was taken to a private area and searched, with transportation screening officers telling her the pat-down was a new procedure.

According to Fitzpatrick, a female screener ran her hands around her breasts, over her stomach, buttocks and her inner thighs, and briefly touched her crotch. I felt helpless, I felt violated, and I felt humiliated, Fitzpatrick said, adding that she was reduced to tears at the checkpoint. She particularly objected to the fact that travelers were not warned about the new procedures.

Okay, up to this point I was pleasantly surprised to see this piece being run by a mainstream outlet, and the fact that this woman didnt take the rape in silence and go away the way most do when it comes to these government sanctioned and implemented systematic rapes, but then I reached the following:

I am appalled and disgusted at the new search procedures and the fact that passengers have not been made aware of the new invasive steps prior to entering the security area, Fitzpatrick wrote. It appears once you enter the security area, passengers forfeit their rights. There were no signs, video information, etc. at the entrance of the security area at the airport. Why?

She added: As an experienced traveler for work who was in tears for most of the search process, I have never experienced a more traumatic and invasive travel event!

A Nation of Sheep Andrew P. Napolitano Best Price: $2.52 Buy New $13.77 (as of 09:50 EST - Details)

First, let me give her due credit for saying out loud that she objected and felt: helpless, violated, humiliated, appalled and disgusted. But after that, it is my turn to be appalled. Is the process supposed to get less humiliating, appalling, traumatic, and disgusting if the violators give prior notice about the violations, the rapes, to come??!!! Please walk with me through the following reasoning:

Two rapists are brought before a judge. One had caught his victim by surprise through a blitz attack, then violently raped her. The other had stalked his victim for a while, sent her some disturbing warning notes, and then violently raped her. Victim one turns around and tells victim two: Why do you feel violated?! Your rapist gave you the courtesy of warning notes  and that makes his rape much less of an offense than my rapist!!

My question to CNNs Fitzpatrick is this: Next time, when these people squeeze your breast, poke your buttocks and stomach, and grab your crotch, will you feel okay? Far less violated? All because now you know what to expect?!

After reading the piece I quickly scanned other news sites, both mainstream and alternative. Almost all of them picked up the story and reported it per the original, and the strongest cursory comment at one site was that the story and Fitzpatricks experience was unsettling. Wow! How hard-hitting! But that was not what I found, and find, so very unsettling. Not at all.

What I find truly unsettling is that we only have a handful like Fitzpatrick who come forward screaming about the horrifying, humiliating, violating, traumatic nature of these federal police practices (abuses) in all our airports. Now that is truly unsettling, shocking, and appalling as far as I am concerned. Millions are going through these routine rape processes (Yes, RAPE: raping you of your dignity, privacy, humanity, and more. Ok?!) without a peep. What is going on here? Have their systematic humiliation and degradation practices been so successful that millions take it regularly without any protest, objection, action, counteraction?!

America Fights Back: A... Workman, Dave Best Price: $4.48 Buy New $4.45 (as of 11:40 EST - Details)

I am talking about the hard-core ACLU following liberals. Where the he are you?! I cant hear or see you. Where is the protest? Give me a holler, and let me know where and when and Ill be there to join. Here Im hollering on the record. And no, dont go file a couple of lawsuits and say that youve done your share; that lazy move hasnt worked for at least a decade!!

Zippo Sons of Anarchy ... Buy New $10.77 (as of 10:49 EST - Details)

I am talking about those on the extreme right of those mentioned above. What happened to your slogan of small government and keeping a tight rein on federal government practices? Isnt this as close and personal it gets, when your feds are squeezing your testicles while breathing inches from your face, and while you are fully paying for these squeezing and probing services?! I thought youd attributed these practices to those commies, shouldnt you be barking when it is in your own backyard?

I am talking about old fashion patriarchal guys. Where are you macho and good ole cowboy mentality testosterone walking bags when your wives and daughters are being fondled, squeezed, and intimately probed? Shouldnt you be roaring like lions and throwing punches like John Wayne when it comes to those who violate your women? Dont you feel your manliness under attack when they make you stand in front of them, with your legs apart, arms up to each side, while their hands wrap around measuring your buttocks?

I am talking about us Americans, those to the right, the ones on the left, the upper class- lower class, and those in the middle Here we are, the entire nation, being violated and raped on a daily basis by our servants whom we pay for dearly. Last time I checked we were paying them over $7 Billion  here it is with all the zeroes: $7,000,000,000. Please, dont even try to bring up that security punch line so overused and abused, because last time I checked they were not providing much in terms of security. In fact they couldnt even secure their own personnel files and records.

Soon they will be bending us over to give us a thorough cavity search. After that it will be all cavities And after that There will be one or two who may stand up and scream. And for them, one or two, even ten will be very easy to quash and eliminate. Yet, I am still here, still hoping; hoping that somehow Ill get to see that number in the tens of thousands and beyond, and thats the only hope I see to stop our expedited degradation process. They say it always starts with one. Well, here I am, willing to be one. How about you?

Reprinted with permission from BoilingFrogsPost.com.

November 13, 2010

Sibel Edmonds is the founder and president of the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC), a nonprofit organization dedicated to aiding national security whistleblowers. She has appeared on national radio and TV as a commentator on matters related to whistleblowers, national security, and excessive secrecy & classification, and has been featured on CBS 60 Minutes, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, and in the New York Times, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, The American Conservative, and others. Her book, Shooting the Messenger, co-authored with Professor William Weaver, is forthcoming from Kansas University Press in the fall of 2010.

The Best of Sibel Edmonds