TSA Screening Just Got Less Optional... Sort Of

If I have enough time before a flight, I always opt out. Something about watching TSA usher all those small children / pregnant mothers away from the AIT while insisting to me that it's perfectly safe for everyone else always seemed a little suspicious. To my knowledge, the technology is too new & we don't have long-term studies on the health consequences of extended use (for those of us who fly a lot). Also the Europeans don't use them. And they're generally right about everything. I'm with you, Ben, on opting out as a good form of protest, but surely there's, like, a more vehement form of protest to draw attention to TSA cooking my tissues with unknown pieces of the electromagnetic spectrum. End rant.

I've opted out for protest reasons as well in the past.

The manual pat downs do not touch every part of the body that you could be hiding something. The bad guys know this and could try to take advantage of strategically placed items. In theory AIT will see these items.

TSA is just opening themselves up to profiling/stereotyping claims with this change.

Sounds about right for our out-of-control government. You are welcome to opt out of the machines that the TSA is illegally using unless they really want you to use them, in which case you still have to use them. If you refuse, you might get put on a super-secret watch list, or no-fly list, which will be based on unknown criteria and for which you will have zero due process. Welcome to the Land of the (formerly) Free.

I opt out of the backscatter x-ray machines but will step in to the millimeter wave systems because the only concern I ever had about the new scanning technologies was about the harm caused by ionizing radiation.

I know the amount of ionizing radiation is almost negligible, but still, it seems unforgivably stupid to use it at all if they have a non-ionizing solution that works. If each scan increases your risk of a fatal cancer by 0.000001%, and 300,000,000 people fly through the U.S. every year, that's still three people who die and didn't need to.

I read this as TSA answering the mail on what I've seen as a disconnect between their policy and the actual implementation. I fly in/out of SNA fairly frequently, and sometimes they don't have a true TSA Pre-check line open - generally at the less busy times of the day. During those instances, they give Pre-check passengers a little card that indicates no need to remove shoes and whatnot, but you're still directed to the AIT machine because the metal detector isn't on, or is at another security lane, or isn't manned, or some variation thereof.

I see it as them saying, "If you have a legitimate need to HAVE to use the metal detector, we'll fire it up. But if you're doing so because you just don't like the AIT machine itself, the technology, or you're opting out in protest, well, we maintain the right to not cater to your whim."

Who decides "legitimate", I don't know. And I agree that this is opening themselves up to discrimination lawsuits, but I'm actually kind of glad to see this stricter enforcement. At the risk of being accused of being a "sheeple", I roll my eyes when passengers opt-out. I get it, you don't like it. But do you really think the front-line TSA person is noting your protest and reporting back to some higher authority? Nobody cares and you're just holding up the line.

I would always opt out, I would rather go into a pat down than a machine. Being a bit stubborn I think the TSA are idiots, the US do think that they are more of a target than they actually are sorry to say. The UK are just as bad! Search on Youtube for TSA and see how stupid they are.

Maybe it's to address staffing numbers to do pat downs when too many TSA staffers are on break, call in sick, etc. I guess it could be some sort of terrorism profiling, but I'd go with the former.

@Adam There is no need for them to "report back" as with anything dealing with gov't there are 12 ppl counting how many travelers opt-out and THEY report those numbers up the chain. They also report the avg. amt of time it took for each of those pat-downs, the avg amt. of time the person spend waiting for the pat-down and finally correlate all that w/ how many ppl should be manning a station at a given time of the day.

I have TSA pre-check, so typically doesn't apply, but when at an airport w/o a line or whatever, I opt-out. I recall a year or so back they spewed some garbage about the level of exposure and why I had an issue w/ it, etc...I asked him if he read the article a few weeks prior where when measured across the U.S., they had machines which were set at/emitting exposure levels 30-100+ times the level they SAY were being emitted.

I also enjoy the power trips they like to throw w/ a pat down. One threatened to get a supervisor and I may have to wait 15 minutes for him to arrive. I told him "you should have him here, I think you'll be in more hot water than I would be for wasting his time". All over raising my arms too early for his liking and answering all the pre pat-down questions before he could ask them. The supervisor was never called. I guess he washed-out of candidate school for being a cop or security guard. lol

PreCheck is great but I have found TSA is starting to "randomly" select passengers for the AIT screening. What good does your money and fingerprints do if you still have to go through that thing every once in a while?

Thanks for posting, will prepare a new suit. 🙂

I always opt out of the AIT. I used to be a federal officer and learned how to do full body searches, so I notice when they don't do a good job in the pat down/search, but I never say anything about it. I can see where the AIT machine would more reliably detect weapons, but I personally don't want to be exposed to any unnecessary radiation. My eldest child is 12, so they haven't been asked to go through yet. I hope they'll continue to let my children opt out as they get older. I would even be willing to go through the AIT myself as long as my children don't have to.

Using these machines is an excellent way to burn the etheric level of the body, which can never be restored or healed. As others have reported, opting out is often still required at airports without PreCheck or at times when the service is not offered. I've also been randomly selected for screening at two different airports this year, and they expect the person to go into that toxic machine when the bell goes off. Thanks, no. The more sheeple that don't argue or refuse, the more power the fear-mongers seem to gain.

@Carl, I hear your erythrocytes can become dephlogisticated in these machines, too. But I always pick up some 30X DHMO from my apothecary before traveling, so hopefully it's all a wash.

What MB says. Those machines are dangerous. They're in use without proper testing of the longterm effects. I ALWAYS opt out. I would be happy to miss a flight due to opting out. I won't visit Australia currently so far as I understand they don't give the right to opt out of machines I consider dangerous.

@MB: "Also the Europeans don’t use them."

Are the Netherlands not part of Europe?

AMS was the FIRST airport in the world to implement full body scanners on a large scale: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_body_scanner#Usage Also see: http://www.schiphol.nl/Travellers/AtSchiphol/CheckinControl/SecurityChecksUponDeparture/SecurityScan.htm

Just watch these stupid TSA agents getting higher prevalence of cancer in the future due to their exposure to these machines.
They're so stupid that they actually believe they're harmless.

I'm a HUGE Jonathan Corbett fan. Support his fight to protect our civil liberties!

http://professional-troublemaker.com/2015/12/22/tsa-to-make-nude-body-scanners-mandatory-no-right-to-opt-out/

[I miss the TSAOutOfOurPants URL. And Jonathan, you might want to update the years on your copyright. ;-)]

Thanks, Louis! I will update that. And, if you prefer the old domain name, it still works! 🙂