Passenger Refuses Groin Check, Full Body Scan

There's been a confrontation over full body scans at a U.S. airport: A California man refused a scan in San Diego Saturday; he also refused a pat down.

"We're spending inordinate amounts of money on security that isn't necessary and arguably doesn't work," John Tyner said. "I didn't intend to go through the machine or be groped."

"They told me to go through the scanner and I said, 'I don't think so,"' Joyner remembered.

He used his iPhone to record the conversation with a security agent.

When the agent told Tyner he was going to get to a groin check, he wasn't having any of it. "We can do that out here, but if you touch my junk, I am gonna have you arrested," Tyner said.

"After I was trying to leave, and the supervisor's supervisor's supervisor came over and told me that I needed to go back through security, because it was against federal law to start the security process and not finish it," Tyner recalled.

Tyner says he was then escorted back to the American Airlines ticket counter, where the airline refunded his money, but he says that wasn't the end of it: He says he was threatened with a civil lawsuit, but he left anyway.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano addressed heightened security checks at airports Monday, writing in a USA Today opinion piece that body scanners used at many airports are safe and the images viewed in private.

She wrote pat-downs have been used for years at airports and measures are in place to protect travelers' privacy.

[brerlou]

Was that an image scan of a pregnant woman with a fetus in utero? I'm not concerned with the people who don't want their junk touched. Bet he never wants to get on a bus or commuter train then. What I'm concerned with is the effect of these low radiation doses on a developing fetus. It's going to be impossible to blame the airport security up to 8 months down the line.

[ahrats]

This definatly an invasion of privacy, just to get get on a plane. For the full body scan how may RAD's is the human body exposed to, it's low level radiation but if you continue to go through it every time you fly can it build up? I see future lawsuit comming. I see future problems, the terriorist will just find a new way to get explosives on planes, and the people who fly will just have to live with it, thank GOD we still have CARs.

[Red_feather]

Invasion of privacy yes. The J-ws are creating the need for security, selling the products and buying all the stock they can when it drops because of this the airlines have lost $60 million this year. They destroying America.

[jwc6617]

Well, the next guy with a bomb in his underwear that gets on the plane better not be on my plane...
I'll give up a brief intrusion if it catches a threat to my families safety. It was not sexual assault, it was a standard patdown search. If he was wearing underwear his "junk" would not even have been touched. the only person he inconvenienced was himself.

[LIBERALS-lie]

it violated his JIHAD rights

[voxpopulus]

Don't want to go through security procedures? Simple. Don't get on the plane. I do not want to be sitting next to you.

[cbsblogger]

The Christmas Day event in Detroit was a "close call" that prompted the expenditures of many millions and incentive to install these scanners and it made Chertoff millions.

The Christmas day bomber according to the blog of a couple Michigan that were passengers on the planer said that the bomber was escorted through security at the Netherlands by some official. It was an odd thing that never was explained and the video from the airport never released. Could the whole thing have been a setup? Who knows but terrorism makes big profits and provides political cover and benefit? We need the entire 9-11 event re-investigated by requiring all officials to be under oath and publicly interrogated and the process directed by outside experts many of which should be skeptical of the existing findings rather than politicians. Have each question open to the public suggestion.

[outwestbutnotca]

No one is being compelled to fly so far as I know. Flying is not a right granted under the Constitution or Bill of Rights. If you want to fly, you have to put up with the rules. Don't like it? Drive, ride, take a train, ship, boat, walk or swim for that matter. Personally, when I do fly I want to get where I am going in one piece, and I am willing to put up with a lot in order to improve my odds. If that means an MRI or CAT scan, so be it. Hey, maybe they will find something that I need to know about.

[AverageGuy500]

Wow, outwestbutnotca you are one of the biggest cowards that I have ever seen. You would take an MRI just for the "protection"

Do you know the risk of death by terrorist in the USA?

It is so low that you are 10,000 times more likely to win a major lottery.

Do you know your change of getting cancer from long term repeated exposure to radiation?

It's a hell of a lot higher than getting killed by a terrorist.

[incog-nito]

You think the new procedures are no big deal, just wait until there's an attack attempt using stuff inserted inside the body (it's been done before, successfully). Then you might reconsider, especially when they bring out the latex gloves and the speculums.

[JavMD]

what... his girlfriend or fellow men athletes make him aware of his 'short' comings?

don't want scanned.. take the bus. Go to Greyhound get your 15 minute of fame.

can't believe people think TSA can get his rocks off looking at 'negative' style scans.... Americans continue to show their uneducated and lack of critical thinking skills.

For me... zap me baby... and ladies.. don't crowd around, there is plenty for everyone

[zibulki]

Cigarettes taste great, are good for you, make you feel wonderful, and are just plain healthy for you, too!

[mockingbird52]

I am from the government and I am here to help you.

[cbsblogger]

Why don't we have a full fledged, no holds barred, open public debate that discusses why we have terrorism? OBL stated it was about Israel and the Palestinians. But our elected officials refuse to discuss this. They try to tell us it is about our "freedoms". Guess what we are losing our freedoms and this absurd never ending security requirement is at the root of it.

Something is very wrong when we can?t have an open discussion about the policies of another country that that the terrorists themselves have said is at the root of their actions and a major cause in what has had a serious impact on our way of life.

Bring in the cameras, the sunlight and the debate and let?s see where it all leads. We must change the discussion and tactics or we are going to be going broke and living in a fascist security crazy dictatorship.

[voxpopulus]

Of course you can't have debate. Try to draw attention to early Zionist terrorism like the bombing of the King David Hotel, and see how fast someone gets your posts deleted.

[voxpopulus]

"that the once great Democratic Party is now controlled by a minority of marxist-communists !!!!!" Or that the never great Republican Party is controlled by fruitcakes!!!