Breast Searches

Terrorists could do almost anything almost anywhere - so how about someone stationed outside your door 24 hours to "pat you down" just in case you're "one of them"?  Or so you can feel pseudo-safe that *everyone else* has had to go through it so the world MUST be safe now?

But then again, they HAVE successfully prevented a few terrorist attempts because of increased security. That alone is good enough reason for me to feel *slightly* safer.

Which I imagine makes returning to the country of your birth as wonderful an experience as a meaningless shag...

Come on.  It may not be fun, but it's only a temporary inconvenience at the most, really. And they don't ALWAYS search you or make you take anything off... I've never had that experience when I've arrived in the States. Once you're out of the airport and back where things are familiar, seeing your family and friends again, I think a slight delay is worth it.

i agree.  if it makes me safer than freaking do whatever, within reason.

I flew into Raleigh/Durham for Thanksgiving and the arrival was painfully slow. The security guard as we were leaving asked me to step aside and I was very thoroughly patted down by a female officer. She asked if I wanted to go to a private room but I just said search away. Then I blushed 10 shades of red because she really rubbed me down. Serves me right :p

Well, I'm glad all this privacy invasion makes some of you all feel so much safer.

Because we KNOW if they'd been doing this before 9/11 the hijackers would have been caught out?  Right?

Wrong.

Come on.  It may not be fun, but it's only a temporary inconvenience at the most, really. And they don't ALWAYS search you or make you take anything off... I've never had that experience when I've arrived in the States. Once you're out of the airport and back where things are familiar, seeing your family and friends again, I think a slight delay is worth it.

For some of us, it really isn't.

Well, I'm glad all this privacy invasion makes some of you all feel so much safer.

Because we KNOW if they'd been doing this before 9/11 the hijackers would have been caught out? Right?

Wrong.

Exactly.

I think that some of the security measures are ludicrous.  I had a light chenille jumper draped over my shoulders and the officer made me put that through the x-ray machine.

All the extra security does is make the lines longer and my children grumpy.

I think that some of the security measures are ludicrous. ....

Oh - I'm sure that some of the measures are more aimed at making the passengers feel safer 

For some of us, it really isn't.

Well, I would have thought a slight delay wouldn't ruin your *whole* time if you really wanted to be back home for a visit. 

But I have to agree that some of the stuff they do IS pretty ridiculous. When I was travelling through Ireland, I had a the tiniest nailclipper in my hand bag, and the security officer actually took it out and said "you can't have this on the plane unless I break the nailfile off." So she actually snapped my nailclipper in two. Yeah, as if I was going to use my nailfile to hijack the plane! 

Well, I would have thought a slight delay wouldn't ruin your *whole* time if you really wanted to be back home for a visit. 

As someone who was once almost date-raped, being forcibly groped by a stranger - ANY stranger, male or female - would ruin more than just my trip.  Delays, no, those don't bother me.  Living what I have left of my life in fear of s/thing that may or may not happen to me, and is pretty much unavoidable if it does, is s/thing that bothers me.  So I don't do it and prefer not to travel to places where they frighten and intimidate people en masse into believing it's necessary to surrender their bodies for a false sense of security.  What next, random strip searches?  Hey, if others are fine with the potential for having their bodies molested in the name of 'security', bon voyage to whichever state you're traveling to!  I'm not so I choose not to go there. 

My older daughter had to remove a metal studded belt and her huge combat boots before  when just going on a domestic flight. 

They make you take off your shoes, coat, belts, jewelry, etc. and then they rush ya through like cattle so you are stuck at the end of the security belt "dressing" with the guy that was standing in front of you.

LOL. I've felt like this for at least a year now whenever I fly out of SFO. It's SO annoying - leaving the x-ray area carrying all of your bags, your coat, your sweater, your shoes, your belt, your jewelry and hobbling a few steps to essentially dress yourself again.  I HATE it. And I feel no safer, personally.

The breast search policy was initiated because Russia caught some Chechen women carrying plastic explosives on board. So, let's put this in context. An event that happened elsewhere in a place that has a fraction of our domestic security provisions and for a social disturbance that has no relation to us now dictates homeland security. In essence, this means that the entire world is now determining our domestic policies. Bush might say that he'll never ask France for permission to protect Americans, but he's essentially letting the world do it anyway. It's the paradox of our government: they make us feel less secure by increasing the police presence in our everyday lives.

Can one concretely say that the increased security measures are any more effective in stopping terrorism?  I think that the jury is out on that one. Sure more potential hijackers have been reported to be stopped, but that could be media hype, a larger definition of what is considered a terrorist act or previous suppression of figures by the government or airlines...all plausible explainations of increased numbers of people being stopped under new procedures, but not related to the procedures themselves.

Also, couldn't  the fear-mongering, xenophobia and arrogance that these new measures stem from and that charecterises post-9/11 america also cause an increase in the number of potential terrorists?  So there would be a higher number of terrorists being caught with or with-out the new procedures.

I think most people want to feel safe on a flight, but I also want to feel safe in my own skin and everyday life and I want that for everyone.  I see these procedures as just another example of the errosion of personal freedoms and dealing with the symptoms of terrorism and not the causes. 

As someone who was once almost date-raped, being forcibly groped by a stranger - ANY stranger, male or female - would ruin more than just my trip.  Delays, no, those don't bother me.  Living what I have left of my life in fear of s/thing that may or may not happen to me, and is pretty much unavoidable if it does, is s/thing that bothers me.  So I don't do it and prefer not to travel to places where they frighten and intimidate people en masse into believing it's necessary to surrender their bodies for a false sense of security.  What next, random strip searches?  Hey, if others are fine with the potential for having their bodies molested in the name of 'security', bon voyage to whichever state you're traveling to!  I'm not so I choose not to go there. 

I'm sorry about your ordeal, that must have been horrible for you and I can see why you wouldn't trust people to invade your personal space.  But it's really not always as bad as people on this thread have mentioned... I've travelled many times to the US and have never had anything out of the ordinary done to me, except having to remove my shoes once or twice. Maybe it's just the airports I've used?