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Most Despicable: Woman Says TSA Forced Piercings Removal
From: "Paul Ferguson" <fergdawg () netzero net>
Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2008 06:24:03 GMT
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Via CBS5.com (AP). [snip] A Texas woman who claims she was forced to remove a nipple ring with pliers in order to board an airplane called Thursday for an apology by federal security agents and a civil rights investigation. "I wouldn't wish this experience upon anyone," Mandi Hamlin, 37, said at a news conference in Los Angeles. "My experience with TSA was a nightmare I had to endure. No one deserves to be treated this way." Hamlin said she was trying to board a flight from Lubbock to Dallas on Feb. 24 when she was scanned by a Transportation Security Administration agent after passing through a larger metal detector without problems. The female TSA agent used a handheld detector that beeped when it passed in front of Hamlin's chest, the Dallas-area resident said. Hamlin said she told the woman that she was wearing nipple piercings. The female agent then called over her male colleagues, one of whom said she would have to remove the body piercings, Hamlin claimed. Hamlin said she could not remove them and asked if she could instead display her pierced breasts in private to the female agent. But several other male officers told her she could not board her flight until the jewelry was removed, she said. She was taken behind a curtain and managed to remove one bar-shaped nipple piercing but had trouble with the second, a ring. "Still crying, she informed the TSA officer that she could not remove it without the help of pliers, and the officer gave a pair to her," said Hamlin's attorney, Gloria Allred, reading from a letter she sent Thursday to the director of the TSA's Office of Civil Rights and Liberties. Allred is a well-known Los Angeles lawyer who often represents high-profile claims. Hamlin showed reporters at the news conference how she took off the second ring by applying pliers to the torso of a mannequin that had a peach-colored bra with the rings on it. She said she heard male TSA agents snickering as she took out the ring. She was scanned again and was allowed to board even though she still was wearing a belly button ring. [snip] More: http://cbs5.com/local/nipple.rings.flight.2.686288.html This is simply inexcusable. The ability for the TSA to continue to humiliate and defile American travelers is completely despicable. These practices must be stopped, and the offenders severely punished to the ultimate extent of the applicable laws. These Gestapo-style tactics are unacceptable, and can no longer be tolerated. I hope she sues their collective asses. I'm so embarrassed by the actions of my government, and I utterly and completely and ultimately reject this jackbooted thuggery. - - ferg -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP Desktop 9.6.3 (Build 3017) wj8DBQFH7I7+q1pz9mNUZTMRAuvoAJ9KvymVMqK1kKrMXQmGkanlfzf2aQCcD+pM Yq2gcbKyWQVIGo/wjriJnGw= =0AWE -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- "Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson Engineering Architecture for the Internet fergdawg(at)netzero.net ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/ _______________________________________________ Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts. https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list.
Current thread:
- Most Despicable: Woman Says TSA Forced Piercings Removal Paul Ferguson (Mar 27)
- Re: Most Despicable: Woman Says TSA Forced Piercings Removal Larry Seltzer (Mar 28)