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"We are not criminals. We are your customers. We will not beg the government anymore. We will simply stop flying until the porno-scanners are history." – We Won't Fly.
Been groped, fondled, cavity searched or scanned by an x-rated x-ray at the airport lately?
The grassroots libertarian We Won't Fly campaign wants to put a stop to the full body "porno-scanners" and the crude pat-downs and they think you want it stopped too.
The anti scan-and-grope group is proposing several ways to put pressure on the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to back off from their use of the back-scatter see-through-clothing scanners and their abusive mauling option.
"We will simply stop flying until the porno-scanners are history," the website promises.
Another way is for everyone to avoid the scanners by "opting out" and lining up for the person-on-person pat-down procedure, thereby jamming the TSA checkpoints.
Yet another protest method is to pressure the airlines to lobby the government "in support of our, your customers’, rights and liberties."
And then there's the legal remedy. We Won't Fly clearly backs the Electronic Privacy Information Center's lawsuit to suspend the deployment of body scanners at US airports.
George Donnelly and Jim Babb, the anti-scanners behind the "We Won't Fly" website and same-named Facebook space should be familiar names to Libertarian News Examiner readers. Donnelly and Babb frequently joined legendary libertarian activist Julian Heicklen on his US courthouse tours of mid-Atlantic cities where they distributed Fully Informed Jury Association flyers.
And when Donnelly was arrested and jailed for attempting to film one of their efforts it was Babb who organized the Free Donnelly protest rally on his behalf.
Now the pair has teamed up again and launched We Won't Fly late last week to protest the forced-nudity airport scanners.
Beyond the risk of cancerous x-rays is the excessively aggressive groping, Donnelly wrote on Arm Your Mind for Liberty today, which he insists will "freak out my son and rankle me something serious."
"Airlines need security," Donnelly concedes, but not one-size-fits-all coercive state monopoly security. "Let the airlines handle their own security, instead of foisting this cost on the taxpayers."
For a more in-your-face guerilla protest staged by the Pirate Party in Germany see the video on this page.
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Comments
I wish I could join this group, but my job depends on being able to fly. I do, however, refuse to use these machines and, on one occasion, I *cough* inadvertently left a copy of the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution (the Cato edition) in my back pocket. When the TSA agent found it I told him he could keep it.
I have toyed with the idea of getting the bill of rights printed on a business card and distributing it, but have not done it yet.
About 10 years ago, a fellow had copies of the bill of rights printed on little pieces of metal with the idea you'd put one in your pocket when going through airport security. The metal detector would go off and then you could opt to "throw away your rights", or let the security folks wand you and pull it out.
I didn't realize there was a new Cato edition of the Constitution. I still have the old Jefferson edition.
The only security airlines need is armed passengers.
EdK- Have you seen the Bill of Rights printed on the metal cards for just such an opportunity?
And don't forget the Facebook "Boycott Flying" page as well: facebook.com/#!/pages/Boycott-Flying/126801010710392
Amen, Kent. I've set foot in an airport just once since 9-11, in 2009. I won't do so again for any reason until I am able to fly as a free (and armed) human being.
This isn't merely a matter of the degree of assault, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with "security" for anyone. It is simply control of the cattle by the power damaged minds who think they own the world and everyone in it.
There is a problem with your picture.
All constitutional and moral problems aside (and they should never really be put aside) there are two Advanced Imaging Technologies in use. (Advanced Imaging Technology is the new name for Whole Body Imaging due to people figuring out that Whole Body Imaging means they can see your whole body.)
The first is millimeter wave technology, and the second is backscatter x-ray. Your picture is of the mmw.
The difference is profound. MMW uses safe, non-ionizing radio wave technology, and was what the TSA initially introduced when they first tried to implement this a long time ago. They argued over and over that it was medically safe, and they were actually right.
Now that said argument is over, they're switching to backscatter x-ray which uses unsafe ionizing radiation, the stuff that causes cancer. They're even replacing mmw units with bxr units.
I've been posting about this in the comments of the TSA blog, but they refuse to explain why the switch. After all, Chertoff is connected to the company that manufactures BXR, so there's no conflict of interest.
We ask for cost-benefit analysis of their technologies, but the TSA figures that as long as the cost is being paid by the passenger (suspected terrorist) then there is no cost.
I hope when the Gestapo is stripping you of your constitutional rights they use a save machine.
Sorry - hope they use a safe machine. (Can't type either)
Simply another step to strip our civil rights and usher in a totalitarian government. The so-called "Progressives" were of the opinion that the "Conservatives" under Bush were to blame and yet, Obama has done nothing to quell this spate of creeping totalitarianism - this should be a hint to even the denser minded among us that BOTH of the biggest political parties on the American scene are working towards the very same ends, perhaps in concert with other governments to plague the whole world with their evil designs against freedom! Vote the Encumbent Bastards OUT OF OFFICE! If you have a brain, this should be quite obvious.
How about this for an idea...what's more intrusive...an airport scanner or having your ass blown apart at 30,000 feet by a bomb? And for all those worried about folks seeing an image of you on a screen...if you're an average American your image should probably be filed under science fiction or animal kingdom, so don't think too highly of yourselves.
Spoken like the conditioned sheep you are. Good job.
So you're fine with them doing a full body cavity search, spreading and probing your rectum with a flash light, since the MMW/BXR machines can't detect it if you've stuffed your orifices with C4?
You've got no problem with them sticking their fingers in your 9-year old daughter to make sure it's "safe" to fly?
Just where do you draw the line?
Garry - don't be so melodramatic. You just reinforce everyone's point that adults should make the big decisions for you. Body cavity searches with flashlights....sticking fingers into 9-year olds...what little credibility you had to make a thoughtful and educated comment just took a header off a cliff. Can searches be too intrusive...sure. But if you're going to make a case about intrusive searches, how about making a rational one.
Like wise, wake up, like wise
Was the comment titled "Garry (triptyx)" addressed to me, Garry Reed, the writer of this article? If so, my response is that it should have been incredibly obvious that I'm opposed to ALL of that, which is exactly why my wife and I will never fly again. We have already canceled our anniversary plans of flying to Hawaii. We might take a cruise ship there unless that also requires gross groping, in which case we'll only travel to mainland destination by personal car from now on.
I agree. Maybe they need to come to new york and speak to to the thousands of people who lost their family in 9-11. The bad guys are not putting up blog about what weapons they should boycott. If you think security is tight try going through security in Israel. Instead finding problem give solutions.
http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/11/04/israels-latest-airport-sec...
Joan, the Israelis have long had many of the best solutions but they can’t be used in the US because they involve psychological evaluation and racial/ethnic profiling. Americans prefer Political Correctness over real security. Other solutions like secure locked cockpit doors are good, but issuing handguns with rubber bullets (which will knock down terrorists but won’t penetrate the airplane’s skin) to any passenger who wants one is rejected because bureaucrats won’t trust anyone but themselves and besides “protecting us” is their turf so they won’t tolerate "self" defense. Also, better bet that someone with political clout is making big bucks from selling the porn scanners to the TSA. The problem with American security is political, not practical. It’s money and power that counts, not security.
Garry and Garry - some pretty wild accusations of finger- searching little girls and issuing rubber bullet firing pistols being turned down...as if that was really suggested...would be nice for you to forward the link so we can read up on this ourselves...assuming it’s true and you ain’t just whistling Dixie to add a little artificial conflict and drama to spice up your yarns...…......
I included a video with the article that showed a little girl being hand searched. I never said "finger-searching." That was the other Garry. The idea of guns with rubber bullets is mine, although I'm sure others have suggested it too because it isn't something difficult to imagine, but what is super easy to imagine is any bureaucrat ever allowing it because they would have to relinquish turf and power. If people are allowed to defend themselves those people might discover that they don't need those bureaucrats – a horrible thought to the professional lifetime bureaucrat. I never did understand what that other Garry - Garry (triptyx) – was even trying to say.
What's next? Are you going to tell us that the government actually did 9-11 so they could add all this extra stuff at the airports?
I neither reject nor accept the 9/11 theories because I haven't followed them. I do know that over the years presidents have either outright lied or cynically maneuvered us into wars we had no business getting into (Civil War, Mexican War, Spanish-American War, WWI, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.) I also know that there have been many proven conspiracies throughout history involving governments (Julius Caesar and almost certainly JFK assassinations for example, The Pope and King of France conspiring to wipe out the Knights Templar, large number of relatives killing relatives so they can become king, etc.) so the idea of rejecting 9/11 Truth out of hand is just as idiotic as accepting it out of hand. Bottom line is that history teaches us that there are no limits to what power-obsessed government thugs will do, including the American Empire's government thugs. I believe only what's been proven beyond reasonable doubt.
you guys are a bunch of hypocrites! libertarians my ass. you pick the busiest travel days of the year to make things hard on folks trying to get home for the holiday. what about their rights to get home without some jerk like you trying to purposefully slow things down for their own agenda. You have as many hidden agendas as the government has. And oh by the way, your sit-in today is a real flop so you can see how many common folk support you
Not surprising that this article has brought the government-worshipping excuse-makers out of the woodwork. It's true that many people do not support either individual freedom or the responsibility that goes with it. That was just as true at the founding of America – something like 1/3 of the people supported freedom from England, another 1/3 were against it and fled either to Canada or England, and another 1/3 were neutral about it. So it's no surprise that 2/3 of people today either don't want freedom & responsibility and/or don't care. But libertarians have no hidden agenda – our agenda is individual freedom. How can we be any more clear than that?
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