Cancer surviving flight attendant forced to remove prosthetic breast during pat-down

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http://www.wbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=13534628
Cancer surviving flight attendant forced to remove prosthetic breast during pat-down


Posted: Nov 19, 2010 12:01 AM EST Updated: Nov 19, 2010 12:57 PM EST
By Molly Grantham - bio l email
CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - A Charlotte-area flight attendant and cancer survivor contacted WBTV after she says she was forced to show her prosthetic breast during a pat-down.
Cathy Bossi lives in south Charlotte and has been a flight attendant for the past 32 years, working the past 28 for U.S. Airways.
In early August Bossie was walking through security when she says she was asked to go through the new full body-scanners at Concourse "D" at Charlotte Douglas International.
She reluctantly agreed. As a 3-year breast cancer survivor she says she didn't want the added radiation through her body. But, Bossi says she did agree.
"The T.S.A. Agent told me to put my I.D. on my back," she said. "When I got out of there she said because my I.D. was on my back, I had to go to a personal screening area."
She says two female Charlotte T.S.A. agents took her to a private room and began what she calls an aggressive pat down. She says they stopped when they got around to feeling her right breast… the one where she'd had surgery.
Pat-down Backlash: Child groped during pat-down? What are the rules?
"She put her full hand on my breast and said, 'What is this?'. And I said, 'It's my prosthesis because I've had breast cancer.' And she said, 'Well, you'll need to show me that'."
Cathy was asked to show her prosthetic breast, removing it from her bra.
"I did not take the name of the person at the time because it was just so horrific of an experience, I couldn't believe someone had done that to me. I'm a flight attendant. I was just trying to get to work."
Since then, Cathy has contacted the Legislative Affairs Team, a group through the flight attendant union. She says she wants to see a crackdown on these personal pat downs.
"There are blowers and there are dogs out there that can sniff out bombs," she says. "There's no reason to have somebody's hands touching your body parts."
A T.S.A. representative says agents aren't supposed to remove any prosthetics, but are allowed to ask to see and touch any passenger's prosthetic.
T.S.A. says it will review this matter.
 

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Our country is such a fucking joke.

No one had the good sense to realize she's been coming through the same airport for 32 years.

Frankly, I think after you are a flight attendant for 10 years you should skip security.

I once flew back from Paris next to a US Air pilot. He told me that in the US security makes him throw away his coffee. He almost got arrested once for telling security, but I'm the pilot, I fly the plane and I'm allowed to carry a gun.
 

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Handicapper
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Those who give up liberty for security end up with neither.
 

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http://www.heraldonline.com/2010/11/20/2630964/as-holiday-nears-anger-over-airport.html

Published: Saturday, Nov. 20, 2010 / Updated: Saturday, Nov. 20, 2010 05:56 AM

As holiday nears, anger over airport pat-downs grows

By Bruce Henderson - bhenderson@charlotteobserver.com


CHARLOTTE --
Air passengers testy over increasingly aggressive security searches are on a collision course with one of Charlotte/Douglas International Airport's busiest travel weeks of the year.
Thanksgiving travel, at best, means packed airports and long lines. Compounding this holiday's travails will be security procedures, some introduced just this month, that some passengers have likened to sexual assault.
"I've seen people get arrested, and they were not subjected to this type of search," said Charlotte sales representative Jackie Robinson. An agent at Charlotte's airport last Friday, he said, repeatedly touched his chest, back and inner legs after Robinson told security he was wearing a plastic knee brace.




Read more: http://www.heraldonline.com/2010/11...y-nears-anger-over-airport.html#ixzz15p3bh0rV

"It goes way beyond what is needed. It wasn't focused on the knee. If they would do it just one good time and get it over with - but they felt compelled to do the same area over and over."
The Transportation Security Administration says the new measures are needed to ensure that flying is safe. The TSA installed full-body scanners, among hundreds in use nationwide, at Charlotte/Douglas this spring.
On Nov. 1, TSA began enhanced pat-downs of passengers who don't want to be scanned. The method lets screeners use the front of their hands to touch passengers' inner thighs, buttocks and breasts.
Civil liberties groups and angry passengers say both methods unnecessarily invade personal space. They've questioned the radiation from the scanners, the security of the images they capture and the need for vigorous pat-downs.
"Don't touch my junk" became a national catchphrase this week when online video of a California software engineer's confrontation with TSA went viral. Some groups are calling for a boycott of scanners Wednesday.
A Charlotte flight attendant and cancer survivor told WBTV that TSA agents made her show her prosthetic breast in August. The TSA said it would review the incident, the station reported.
As criticism mounted, the TSA fired back. More than 99 percent of passengers choose to be scanned, it says. TSA cites a CBS News poll that found 4 out of 5 Americans support use of full-body scanners.
Agency chief John Pistole told a congressional panel Tuesday that while "reasonable people can disagree as to what that proper balance or blend is between privacy and security safety, everybody who gets on a flight wants to be reassured that everybody else around them has been properly screened," the New York Times reported.
Pistole told senators that the pat-down techniques would have caught the suspect who tried to blow up a Detroit-bound flight last Christmas with explosives sewn into his underwear. The Government Accountability Office has said it's unclear whether the new scanners would have nabbed him.
TSA spokesman Jon Allen said Friday that fewer than 700 of the 34 million people who have gone through airport security checkpoints have filed complaints since the new pat-down procedures took effect. Figures for Charlotte weren't available.
Many passengers at Charlotte/Douglas on Friday accepted the security measures as part of the price of safe flying.
"Gotcha! Told ya!" Denise Oliva laughed as TSA agents confiscated a bottle of Pierre Cardin cologne from her departing brother. Carry-on liquids are limited to 3 ounces.
"I'm glad they stopped him because they're doing their job," she said. "I like to feel secure."
Oliva, who flies regularly between Charlotte and New York, said the pat-downs she's seen do seem like violations of privacy. But complaints about body scanners, she said, are absurd. "It's lift your arms and 1-2-3, you're done," she said.
Three full-body scanners, called Advanced Imaging Technology, were installed at Charlotte/Douglas between April and July. Among U.S. airports, Charlotte ranked 11th largest in passengers in 2009, with 34 million.
The number of holiday flyers this Thanksgiving is expected to jump 3.5 percent over last year, AAA says, to 1.6 million people nationwide.
Munich resident Manfred Schmitt, on a layover on the way to Florida, called the security measures appropriate if agents are trained carefully. Measures vary among European countries, he said - some don't make passengers doff their shoes - but body scanners are being tested in several.
"We take it a little more calmly," he said.
Eight out of 10 calls to the American Civil Liberties Union's Raleigh office in the past two weeks have been from people who are "absolutely furious about these new measures and really believe these go too far," said executive director Jennifer Rudinger.
The approach of holiday travel is focusing the flying public's attention on the issue, Rudinger said. The ACLU's national office is compiling complaints but has not filed legal action.
"It's putting people in a really awful position of going through this virtual strip search or this groping, and it's not at all clear that this is keeping us safer," she said.
Former Mecklenburg County commissioner Lloyd Scher, a liberal Democrat who has two artificial knees, said he's taken to stripping down to only shorts and socks before being screened. At New York's JFK Airport in June, he said, a TSA agent probed his bare underarms when his metal joints made the scanner beep.
"We have the freedom to fly across this country without being searched, harassed or asked where we're going," he said. "That's not a conservative or a liberal issue. To be manhandled when you're half-naked is just not fun."



Read more: http://www.heraldonline.com/2010/11...y-nears-anger-over-airport.html#ixzz15p3WczSQ
 

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX.
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Yet another little feeler out there to see if they can keep slowly robbing us of our freedoms, like they have done for the past 10 years. This has to end. Hopefully the new politicians getting into office will work to restore the constitution & pull back some of this idiotic legislation that has been passed since 9/11 all under the guise of our "safety" and "National Security".
 

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This one doesn't bother me.

You have a right to privacy in your home and you have a right to privacy if you walk down the Street.

You do not have a God given right to fly.

As we saw, planes can be turned into missiles and kill thousands of people.

I fly about 3 times per week and have no problem with the imaging machines/pat downs. I do try to avoid them (You nearly always can avoid them by looking ahead and picking a different lane or wearing a suit and being nice to the TSA people). I get waived through the metal detectors probably 90% of the time.

The only problems I have are that security is now taking longer and I am not sure how safe the radiation is. If I get the imaging machine, I generally ask for a patdown and hope there are only chicks there.

I figure what's the big deal - lots of people have grabbed my junk before. Such is life!
 

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I have no problem with this either. I still remember where I was on 9/11. If getting groped increases my chances of arriving safely, then grope away. The TSA is finally doing their job, dont blame them, blame the extremists that want to kill innocent civilians.
 
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I hope Obama unionizes the TSA quickly. These dumb runts will be perfect for his re-election bid. We all know the unions will support Barry. Go Barry! Go!
 

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This is all thats needed

I hope Obama unionizes the TSA quickly. These dumb runts will be perfect for his re-election bid. We all know the unions will support Barry. Go Barry! Go!


> > > Here's a simple solution to the controversy over full-body scanners
> > > at airports.
> > >
> > > Develop an enclosed booth that passengers step into but , instead
> > > of X-raying them, when the door closes, it will detonate any
> > > explosive device they have hidden on or in their body.
> > > . The explosion will be contained within the sealed booth. This
> > > would be a win-win for everyone!
> > > . There would be no more concern about racial profiling.
> > > . The booth would eliminate long, expensive trials. . You're in the
> > > airport and you hear a muffled explosion, followed by an announcement
> > > over the PA system, "Attention standby passengers, we now have a
> > > seat
> > > available on flight number..."
> > >
> > > What's not to like?
 

Oh boy!
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Good news is on the way. When one group of people such as the TSA overstep their boundary they are removed. This is the way it should be.

Airports Consider Ousting TSA Screeners

http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/politics/5251-airports-consider-ousting-tsa-screeners

In the year’s following the 9/11 attacks, airports' "security systems" have been openly criticized for a number of reasons, ranging from their inconvenience to their failure to actually secure passengers. The addition of the intrusive naked body scanners and invasive patdown procedures to airport "security" has evoked even more anger from passengers who are now beginning to revolt in the form of lawsuits and even physical altercations.

The public outcry against the measures taken by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration has one congressman calling for TSA’s elimination.
 

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Good news is on the way. When one group of people such as the TSA overstep their boundary they are removed. This is the way it should be.

Airports Consider Ousting TSA Screeners

http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/politics/5251-airports-consider-ousting-tsa-screeners

In the year’s following the 9/11 attacks, airports' "security systems" have been openly criticized for a number of reasons, ranging from their inconvenience to their failure to actually secure passengers. The addition of the intrusive naked body scanners and invasive patdown procedures to airport "security" has evoked even more anger from passengers who are now beginning to revolt in the form of lawsuits and even physical altercations.

The public outcry against the measures taken by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration has one congressman calling for TSA’s elimination.

A private security company, Allied Barton, has already taken over almost all of TSA's overnight shifts at Miami International Airport. From what I am hearing...Mr. Mica owns a considerable amount of stock in Allied Barton and stands to make a shit load of money if TSA went away.

What people do not realize is that even if TSA screeners were replaced by a private security company, that private security company would still have to follow regulations set by the Transportation Security Administration. Same pat down procedures, same body scanners, same liquid regulations! A private company absolutely does not have the power to come in and change procedures that the government enforces. Can you think of any other situation like that? And the private company would have to spend a boat load buying all the machines that are property of DHS. Also, if a private security company took over our airports, who do you think will be the first people they will hire?? TSA SCREENERS! The people who they don't have to spend money on to train! Effectively, the only good thing about going to private security in our airports is that private companies are much much quicker to fire people than the government is, essentially weeding out the jokers working there at a much faster rate than the government. If you think a move to private security in our airports will do anything more than make a bunch of politicians richer, OPEN YOUR EYES!
 

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