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European air officials say US security goes overboard; British Airways calls demands excessive

Related, from Sept: Italy To Abandon Airport Strip-Scanners…

Related, from July: Dubai rejects full-body scanners “out of respect for privacy of individuals and personal freedom”…

From Dateline Zero – European air officials are getting fed up with what they consider to be unnecessarily cumbersome, altogether invasive, and utterly “useless” airport security. Couldn’t agree more. Government has a tenancy to be more interested in the appearance of security than in actual security.

According to ABC News:

European air officials accused the United States of imposing useless and overly intrusive travel security measures, calling Wednesday for the Obama administration to reexamine policies ranging from online security checks to X-raying shoes. British Airways’ chairman made the first in a wave of complaints, saying in a speech to airport operators that removing shoes and taking laptops out of bags were “completely redundant” measures demanded by the U.S.

This news comes about a week after a US pilot made news for publicly saying enough is enough — and he refused both the TSA’s strip-scanning and the invasive so-called “pat down.”

Despite what they call it, it’s not a “pat-down” anymore; rather, it’s a humiliating grope session. The TSA states that you can opt of of the strip-scanning, but those who do are subjected to a humiliating “more aggressive” full body search. The TSA is actually making sure that the strip-scanning is the preferable choice.

Related, from August: Now for a more aggressive airport search…

“Not all the passengers will need to go through the machines, and you can refuse to go through it if you’re selected. However, if you do, you’ll be screened in a variety of different, manual ways.”

Last week Michael Roberts, a pilot for ExpressJet Airlines, refused a full-body scan last week at a TSA check point at Memphis International Airport in Memphis, Tennessee. He also refused the “enhanced pat down.”

“Pat down is misleading,” Roberts said. “They concentrate on the area between … the upper thighs and torso, and they’re not just patting people’s arms and legs, they’re grabbing and groping and prodding pretty aggressively.”

“I was trying to avoid this assault on my person, and I’m not willing to have images of my nude body produced for some stranger in another room to look at either,” he added.

The TSA said in a statement that “security is not optional.” The scanners are in use in 58 airports, with more units being deployed to additional airports this year, according to the TSA website.

As Benjamin Franklin warned, when we begin to exchange liberty for security, we end up with neither. And we’ve been trading liberty for security for a while now — but I think we are finally seeing what the result is. But is it too late?

Related, from July: Children being strip-scanned by TSA…

Michael Roberts says he refused to go through, not because he’s a pilot, but instead because he believes nobody should have to be subjected to “a virtual strip search.”

He says a TSA agent asked him to take off his shoes and enter one of the new machines. He told the agent he wasn’t willing. “I’m not going to do it. Not once am I going to show them my naked body.” Roberts was not willing to go with the second option either. “I’m not on board with Federal Agents putting their hands on me every time I go to work,” he says.

He didn’t make it to work. He wasn’t let through security, so he went home. He knows this could put his job in jeopardy. “Better people than I have sacrificed more than their careers, their livelihood, for the cause of freedom,” he says. “Americans need to wake up and stand up.”

A detailed account of the incident, in his own words, is available in a Chicago Tribune article HERE, after a 6-paragraph summary of the story.

Now the UK is more openly voicing opposition to the TSA. British Airways Chairman Martin Broughton accused the U.S. of demanding “completely redundant security checks at airports, such as removing shoes and separate examinations of laptop computers.” The owner of Heathrow agreed with Broughton, as did the British pilots’ union and several European airlines.

“Europe should not have to kowtow to the Americans every time they want something done to beef up security on U.S.-bound flights,” Broughton said.

The New American makes an interesting observation:

That says a lot coming from a continent with the ubiquitous security camera, but, hey, it seems even Brits have a limit. AP continued with Europeans’ complaints that the U.S. imposed unnecessary and overly intrusive air travel security measures, calling on the Obama administration Wednesday to re-examine policies ranging from X-raying shoes to online security checks for Europeans.

The AP is reporting that European officials have accused the United States of imposing unnecessary and overly intrusive air travel security measures, calling on the Obama administration Wednesday to re-examine policies ranging from X-raying shoes to online security checks for Europeans.

Thus, the growing US police state is not only aggravating Americans, it’s upsetting the Europeans as well.