[Pesqueeb]

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Tennessee pilot who says he's tired of being manhandled by security agents is waiting to see if he will lose his job because he refused a full body scan.

ExpressJet Airlines first officer Michael Roberts was chosen for the X-ray scan Friday at Memphis International Airport. The Houston-based pilot says he also refused a pat-down and went home.

The 35-year-old Roberts told The Commercial Appeal newspaper he wants to go to work and not be "harassed or molested without cause."

Transportation Safety Administration spokesman Jon Allen says a person was turned away after refusing to follow federal security procedures but declined to say if it was Roberts, citing privacy considerations.

Roberts says he has safety concerns, but called TSA a "make-work" program that doesn't make travel safer.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/7255310.html

As someone who spends a majority of his time at airports, I couldn't agree more. The only thing TSA provides is the illusion of safety. Where is the Tea bagger rage about this government waste?

 

[MikeD]

Where is the Tea bagger rage about this government waste?

There's quite a lot of that, actually. Most of the nationalist-libertarian types wish we had El-Al style security which profiles personalities and behavior (and ethnicity) rather than relying entirely on a physical screening... They like this because, as mostly white people, they wouldn't be affected by security anymore.

Although with the emerging profiles of more Western and Westernized terrorists, their panacea wouldn't last long.

 

[stevew]

As someone who spends a majority of his time at airports, I couldn't agree more. The only thing TSA provides is the illusion of safety. Where is the Tea bagger rage about this government waste?

government jobs just don't disappear..

 

[MikeD]

Most of the TSA drones you see, as far as I know, work for a subcontractor. Government can discontinue those contracts any fiscal year it chooses to...they simply don't renew for the extra option year.

Not to say that there aren't many actual .gov civil servants for TSA higher-up.

 

[Nick]

they need a few of these...