On Wednesday, the TSA denied asking a wounded Marine to remove his prosthetic legs in Phoenix, saying on its blog that "there has been a lot of misreporting" about the incident.
On Tuesday, the Washington Times said that inspectors with the TSA "forced a wounded Marine who lost both of his legs in an IED blast and who was in a wheelchair to remove his prosthetic legs at one point, and at another point to stand painfully on his legs while his wheelchair was examined," citing a complaint filed by Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California Republican.
“A TSA office asked the Marine to stand and walk to an alternate area, despite the fact that he physically could not stand or walk on his own. With numerous TSA officers sitting and unwilling to assist, an officer then made him remove his legs, then put them back on, only to advance to a secondary screening location where he was asked again to stand, with extraordinary difficult, while his wheelchair was examined for explosives,” Hunter said.
But the TSA said that after reviewing video and interviewing officers, the Marine was "not asked and did not remove his prosthetic legs."
"The screening was done by the book and lasted a total of 8 minutes from beginning to end," the TSA said, adding that the screening was conducted by two veterans.
The TSA also released video footage of the screening, but Twitchy said it has done little to help the agency's reputation.
According to azfamily.com, the video shows the Marine struggling to stand in the full-body scanner, but eventually giving up. TSA officials said it was his choice to make the attempt.
TSA Assistant Screening Director Jeff Perez said that no footage is available showing the area in which the Marine claims to have taken his prosthetic legs off, azfamily.com added.
"We did our own fact finding and spoke to the officers who were there. Not one said he was asked to take his prosthetics off," he said.
"TSA officials remind traveling disabled veterans to plan ahead and use their Wounded Warrior program, which is supposed to expedite the security process," azfamily.com said.
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