TSA Responds to "Strip Search" Video of Boy

Fueled by blogs and the conservative news aggregator The Drudge Report, a video entitled "Young Boy strip searched by TSA" went viral over the weekend, garnering more than 715,000 views on YouTube.

According to the person who uploaded the video, it was shot on November 1http://blog.tsa.gov/2010/11/response-to-young-boy-strip-searched-by.html%209th at Salt Lake City International Airport. Here's how the uploader describes what happened before the video began:

"...the boy went through a metal detector and didn't set it off but was selected for a pat down. The boy was shy so the TSA couldn't complete the full pat on the young boy. The father tried several times to just hold the boys arms out for the TSA agent but i guess it didn't end up being enough for the guy. I was about 30 ft away so i couldn't hear their conversation if there was any. The enraged father pulled his son shirt off and gave it to the TSA agent to search, thats when this video begins."

The uploader writes that he tried to talk to the father and son after shooting the video but was stopped by "a man in a black suit" who asked why he was videotaping "procedures of the TSA." He writes that the man repeatedly pressured him to delete the video and was trying to "intimidate me to obey."

The video played almost perfectly into Americans' fears about new Transportation Security Administration procedures going too far, providing fodder for critics' complaints of a system that allows an unnecessary "strip search" of a shy and innocent child followed by a Big Brother-like attempt to suppress evidence of the incident.

The TSA apparently realized it had a problem, which is why today it posted a blog post responding to the video.

YouTube.com

"Many are coming to their own conclusions about what's happening in the video which is now perched at the top of the Drudge report and being linked to in many other blogs and tweets," writes the TSA blogger. "We looked into this to find out what happened."

The blogger, "Blogger Bob" of the "TSA Blog Team," confirms that the incident took place November 19th in Salt Lake City. But the TSA's interpretation of what happened to the family is very different than that of the uploader.

"Their son alarmed the walk through metal detector and needed to undergo secondary screening," the TSA blogger writes. "The boy's father removed his son's shirt in an effort to expedite the screening. After our TSO completed the screening, he helped the boy put his shirt back on. That's it. No complaints were filed and the father was standing by his son for the entire procedure."

The blogger adds that "you will not be asked to and you should not remove clothing (other than shoes, coats and jackets) at a TSA checkpoint."

"If you're asked to remove your clothing, you should ask for a supervisor or manager," he concludes.

News reports about what critics say are overzealous screening procedures are proliferating: Here's one story entitled "TSA Makes Cancer Victim Remove Prosthetic Breast,"  and here's a post entitled "TSA Screening Soaks Bladder Cancer Survivor with His Own Urine."  A story about a person being arrested for refusing the security procedures is entitled "TSA airport screeners gone wild in San Diego- again;" here's one called "TSA pats down a screaming toddler." 

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton probably didn't help matters when she said on CBS' "Face the Nation" that she would not submit to a pat-down "if I could avoid it," adding, "I mean, who would?"

Meanwhile, as the story at left shows, there is now "specialized underwear" being made to keep the TSA scanners from getting a clear view of what has become known in the debate over the security procedures as one's "junk."

Politicians are also criticizing the TSA: Louisiana Republican Governor Bobby Jindal said on NBC's "Meet the Press" yesterday that "the American people are worried when they see an administration worried about reading Miranda rights to the underwear bomber."

He added, as The Hill reports: "[They're] so worried about rights of the terrorists, what about the rights of innocent American travelers?"

President Obama said over the weekend that he can "understand people's frustrations" with the screenings and is looking for a less intrusive option, though he's been told that for now at least there is not one. The TSA says it is continuing to refine its procedures and may change them - but also stresses that it is trying to keep the nation's air travelers safe from terrorists. (A TSA official tells CBS News there are no imminent changes planned, which means that the current procedures will likely be in place for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. The official stressed that a very small percentage of passengers get pat downs.) 

The TSA can take at least some solace in the fact that according to CBS News polling, four in five Americans say they support the use of full-body airport scanners - a finding the TSA blog was sure to note.

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Brian Montopoli is senior political reporter for CBSNews.com. You can read more of his posts here. Follow Hotsheet on Facebook and Twitter.

[TheGrinReaper]

TSA claims it's not what it looks like, so does the player ridding your wife when you come home early.
so does the guy in the ski mask, in your living room, carrying your tv while your pointing a shotgun at him.

[cardamom1]

I cannot believe the idiocy! Know this, if you fly an airplane, you might die. The plane might fail, or who knows! That is a possibility no matter who is feeling you up. You are not safer because some dimwit just felt you up on the way through the gate. All you are is molested, then you might die in the plane anyway. Tell TSA to take a hike. This is insane!

www.stanfordprisonexp.org

[dott4]

Here is the answer!
Spread it around it will save the airline industry!

Watch this safe, fun and sexy scan technique on You Tube!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KlQaBKJftM

[cowhide--2008]

I travel a lot I want to be safe so I would like some people to be strip searched if necessary, myself included. What is 5 min compared to exploding over the ocean?

[TheGrinReaper]

you mean to tell us that a grown man touching a half naked little boy makes you feel safer on the plane?

[Richardhg]

The problem is not the regulations, but the people who implement them. The US has wonderful laws, but the implementation is often moronic, and this stupidity is compounded by bureaucratic attempts to cover up the incompetence and injustice. There are few consequences for bureaucratic bungling, even when it involves murder on a railway platform.

American law enforcement face no consequences for lying, even on a witness stand. The law may set penalties, but they do not apply to bureaucratic America.

Justice is Just Us --- US Governments, whether City, County, State, or Federal, are working under profound protections against prosecution for misconduct, and are growing in incompetence. There was a time when the US Government could put a man on the moon. Now, they can't even keep airports secure without traumatizing kids.

Pity the dad won't stand up for an interview. But then, he would never fly again without being on the "watch list". Bureaucrats hate exposure for their stupidity.

[minileaks]

I'm getting sick and tired of these main stream news agencies lying.
This is getting more and more common for these news agencies to use this tactic which is suppose to make everyone think that everyone else is agreeing with TSA police state tactics. 4 in 5 Americans agree with the tactic? Not one person I know agrees with it.

What they are doing is making this so bad that a "compromise" (which is already prepared and sitting on someone's desk) will be reluctantly agreed to by the American People.

Same is being done over Social Security. CBS and the others are already parading all those voices to cut it and make us all work until we are older (which btw is morally disgusting...how do you feel when you shop at the market and are checked out by someone that is obviously laboring to keep going because they are old and frail?...I've seen it more and more).

In the end they will get what they want (if we let them).

This is why I don't have cable TV....I cannot stand the dumbing down ridiculous mindless shows and the obvious propaganda news arm for the wealthy cartel that is running our country.

People need to start getting tough. And any parent that would allow a strip search on their child is a piece of filth. The poor child is being indoctrinated into police state tactics to ensure he will be a good and obedient citizen that never makes waves and accepts his enslavement.

Was it Ben Franklin that something like this:
"Those who would give up their liberties for security, deserve neither".

[djseavy]

There is no difference between scanners and cell phones/microwaves. THEY'LL ALL RF devices. I don't buy the cancer scare. I also don't buy the idea that these searches make our flights safer. I wonder what will happen if somebody tries to sneak something on a flight that's concealed in their anus. The TSA will cause a rubber glove shortage overnight.

[mockingbird52]

They included people in the poll that fly once a year or have never flown before or rarely fly. Figures lie and liars figure.

[LENNONROCKS]

Brian Montopoli is a ****** BAG LOSER
4 out of 5 AMericans polled .... TOTAL CRAP
FU Brian that is nothing but PURE PROPAGANDA
YOU KNOW IT and still you say it
U HAVE NO INTEGRITY or HONOR ur r nothing but an owned SLAVE

[LENNONROCKS]

CBS News polling, four in five Americans say they support the use of full-body airport scanners !!!!!!!
THIS IS BS PROPAGANDA
LETS C the POLL
and WHO was POLLED
READ THE majority of the COMMENTS CBS ----- C - BS "OWNED" MEDIA
U sir r full of IT
PLEZZE go get NAKED BODY RADIATION SCANNED multiple TIMES .... PLEEZ

[TheGrinReaper]

exactly, if i wanted i could find 4 in 5 Americans in favor of exterminating black people, or jews or women or gays. it all depends of WHO your polling.
go to a stoner party you will find 5 out of 5 people there in favor of legalizing marijuana. go to a kkk rally and 5 out of 5 will be in favor of sending african americans back to africa. go to a bdsm fetish parlor you'll find 4 out of 5 who like being whipped and tied up.
get my point.
i'd bet money the 4 out of 5 poled in this case were people who have never been subjected to the tsa's humiliating abuse, rarely if ever enter an airport and think all middle-easterners terrorists.