“A woman who was the victim of a brutal rape underwent a “horrific” experience at the hands of TSA agents this past weekend at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport which ended up with her checking into a psychiatric ward.
Five years ago, she was violently sexually assaulted by three men and was threatened with death. She made it, and tried to bury it for three years. After nightmares, flashbacks, and cutting she told me everything two years ago, and since then has been seeing professional counseling and taking medication. ~The victim’s husband
Traveling out of Florida due to a death in the family, Dunn’s wife was asked to go through a backscatter x-ray device. When she said she would like to opt out, the TSA agent graphically described to her how “they will need to touch your privates,” a threat routinely used by TSA screeners to intimidate people into going through the body scanner.
We were back in FL due to a death in the family – whenever we’re there, she’s always on edge (understandably). The security checkpoint had a backscatter and a metal detector active. I always opt-out, and unfortunately I was chosen to go through the metal detector instead of her. My wife was sent towards the backscatter, and told the TSO she didn’t want to go through that. I then overheard the TSO graphically describing that “they will need to touch your privates…” (I know TSOs routinely scare people into going through the nude-o-scopes.) That just about did it for my wife, and she started shaking, sweating, and ended up going through the backscatter. “That just about did it for my wife, and she started shaking, sweating, and ended up going through the backscatter,” writes Dunn.
However, despite passing through the x-ray device, TSA agents claimed an “anomaly” in the woman’s bra mandated she be patted down on her breasts.
When the woman asked for the pat down to take place in a private room with her husband present, the TSA agent became visibly annoyed and aggressive.
And then they discovered an “anomaly” in her bra, so she needed to be patted down on her breasts. This freaked her out even more. She asked for a private room and for me to be there, and it was obvious that this pissed off the female assist TSO. As she started shaking and sobbing in the room as the TSO began to touch her breasts, I gently touched her arm. Big mistake – the TSO yelled that I couldn’t touch her and that I’d need to go through screening again. “As she started shaking and sobbing in the room as the TSO began to touch her breasts, I gently touched her arm. Big mistake – the TSO yelled that I couldn’t touch her and that I’d need to go through screening again,” writes Dunn.
Despite taking medication to try and forget the experience, the woman’s trauma did not subside.
“I was furious, but my wife wanted to just get out of the checkpoint and to our gate. She popped some pills and was hoping it would all go away… But it didn’t. Once we got to our home airport, she vomited in the bathroom and asked me to take her to the ER. Last night she checked into our local hospital, and they’re wanting to transfer her to a psychiatric ward for a few days until she stabilizes.”
Rape counselors have warned that women who have been sexually assaulted face treatment metered out by TSA screeners that can be “extremely re-traumatizing to someone who has already experienced an invasion of their privacy and their body.” An estimated one in six women in the United States have been the victim of an attempted or completed rape.
In December 2010, 56-year-old rape victim Claire Hirschkind was arrested for refusing to received an “enhanced” pat down from a TSA officer at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.
The fact that TSA pat down procedures now often involve screeners physically touching people’s genitals is documented.
Back in May, Fox News host Geraldo Rivera described how he was “manually raped” by a TSA agent who touched his “junk”.
In November 2010, we reported the story of how radio host Owen JJ Stone was told by a TSA screener that his pat down would include the screener putting his hands down Stone’s pants. The TSA worker directly patted down his testicles, penis and backside while his hand was inside Stone’s pants. Stone was initially embarrassed to reveal the full scope of the groping but related the details of what amounted to nothing less than outright sexual molestation.
Also in November 2010, blogger Erin Chase went public to reveal how she literally had her vagina groped by a TSA screener, who touched both her labia as well as her buttocks and breasts during a pat down.
Former Miss USA Susie Castillo also revealed how a TSA worker touched her vagina during a pat down at Dallas-Fort Worth airport in April 2011 after she refused to go through a body scanner.” ~Rape Victim Traumatized By “Horrific” TSA Experience , by Paul Joseph Watson
My notes…I have not used air transportation in over seven years. I have heard stories here and there, but had no idea the level of molestation taking place in airports.
This story is exactly why I do not fly. I don’t wish to go through the naked radiation scanner, or to be groped and intimidated by authority figures, who often have a heavy psychological problem with control and aggression.
If I have to fly anywhere, I will use the radiation scanner, and I would recommend that for anyone who has been sexually abused or raped.
This man should contact the major media outlets, as well as media like Democracy Now, and CNN’s Nancy Grace and Jane-Velez Mitchell, and find a way to get this story on national news.
It might be empowering for his wife to tell her story and it would bring awareness to the general public. They should start a campaign, take it to congress. There are about 60 MILLION survivors of child sexual abuse in this country who will be affected by this story, and who would be prompted to take action.
Silence is approval. Someone with time and courage should fight these airport rapists. A Constitutional attorney would be great –someone who knows what they are doing and how to take action.
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Source: Rape Victim Traumatized By “Horrific” TSA Experience , by Paul Joseph Watson, Thursday, August 9, 2012
EVIL SITS AT THE DINNER TABLE 
I am sorry for your loss of two people in 911, High Heels. My heart goes out to the woman also.
I wonder how many people who work those jobs for TSA who have the power to grope strangers boarding a flight, get off on it because they are paid and immune from prosecution.
Thank you much, Nel. I do agree with you about the TSA. I have come across some absolutely ghastly people who work in this area–and have been reduced to tears due to my own history of childhood sexual abuse.
These people can get away with it freely–because the higher ups at the TSA won’t listen to reasonable complaints.
And these TSA people are folks (not all–but the great majority) of people who want to be cops but don’t have the intelligence or self-discipline to go through all the training. So many of them get their ha-ha’s from bullying people. And because the country has us fooled into thinking we will be blown up if we don’t comply–they get away with it. It’s all a dog and pony show. They should really be worried about the unfettered access to all the planes through the cargo area. NPR did a story on that and their reporters were allowed to get through to the planes with objects that looked like major explosives without anyone batting an eye.
But they have to grope this poor woman and cause her a nervous breakdown–all in the name of “safety” (what a freaking joke).
I absolutely HATE the TSA. And it seems their the worst in little towns where they don’t have anything better to do than to push their weight around.
“to be groped and intimidated by authority figures, who often have a heavy psychological problem with control and aggression”
Not a happy thought.
No, not a happy thought, and the TSA hires these individuals on purpose to intimidate and control the masses.
I am so glad that you posted this article! I have stopped flying because of these personal invasions by TSA.
The thought of submitting to this kind of treatment invokes horrible feelings in me.
I own my breasts and vagina and I refuse access to them by strangers. My husband is the only one that is allowed to touch those areas of my body, besides my doctor.
I get nausea, tightness in my throat, and feelings of fear when I think about those women touching my private parts. I refuse to consent or submit to abuse like that.
To this day, I am not able to stand naked or undress or dress with another person in the room staring at me. I used to get panic attacks in the shower rooms at school and I broke out in painful rashes on my skin and painful bleeding sores on my hands, feet, and face. There was no physical cause for them, so I was excused from taking the showers at school and put into a special gym class that was low impact.
Little Nel, I didn’t post the photo that was originally found with this article because it was a woman TSA agent abusing a female passenger. I was disturbed by it, but not nearly as much as I would have been a few months ago. I have come a long way in this area of my healing. But I thought about you and did not post the photo out of respect for you. After reading your comment here, I am glad I listened to my gut.
A female high school student was given an illegal strip search by a female nurse in her high school last week and the girl was pretty shaken up. Her mother is furious and taking action.
I wish CNN’s Jane-Velez Mitchell had emphasized in the story (on CNN last night) that female to female contact can be just as traumatizing, if not worse, for some females. I was going to call into the show but they moved on to another segment.
Thank you, Alethea.
I remember that the matron dragged me out of my cell one night and tried to make me watch as she abused a young girl who was 12-15 years old in age. It was in an area of the jail that I had never seen before. It was a huge bathroom/shower room with new tile on the floors and walls.
When I realized what was happening, I was sleepy and confused, I refused to watch by pulling my knees to my face and shutting my eyes tightly because I knew that I was next.
And why is this happening ? Because of fake jets on 911. Americans are brain dead sheep. Ill never fly again.
Those weren’t fake jets. I agree that much of the TSA is about posturing and trying to make people “feel” safe (believe me, flying is nowhere NEAR the biggest threat to our security). But I watched those planes hit–and lost 2 people close to me. There was nothing fake about 911.
High Heels, You might want to watch a film called “Zietgeist.” If you fast forward to the section of the film which on 9/11, you would be pretty blown away at the evidence. That film won many many awards and documents its evidence. You can get the film at Netflix.
Those towers were blown up with explosives, not airplanes. There may have been airplanes as well, but the towers were blown and made to look as if airplanes took them down.
Do not ever underestimate the U.S. Govt., who are capable and guilty of human torture, lies, and human experiments.
Governments throughout history have done many evils to their “subjects” to maintain power and control and our government is no exception.
FYI,
My husband worked for ABM Co. who furnished the twin towers with operating engineers who maintained all the equipment like heating and cooling, elevators, solid waste, water flow, safety checks, electrical, fire safety, and energy management.
He said that explosives could have been planted in those buildings.
He was the chief engineer at the First Interstate Towers in Los Angeles which was later burned by arsonists. He left that job because he said that it was not safe against arson and that it could be easily set on fire. He was the boss and he did not want to be held responsible if that ever happened.
Sounds like your husband is a smart and morally aware man.
I have to fly constantly (my husband and I are bicoastal) and we fly cross country at least once a month–plus travel to other places as well. I am so familiar with the brutal practices of the TSA agents. We rarely are subjected to difficulty because we do fly so much we have high status with United Airlines that allow us to go through lines very quickly and we normally aren’t hassled. But when we are, it’s as brutal as you report. I have been reduced to tears several times (and I always complain) because I am a survivor of extreme sexual abuse from the time I can remember until I was near adolescence. My heart goes out to this woman.
Well thank God you complain. It is the silence by travelers that allows these kind of things to continue. Just think if everyone who ever passed through one of these inspections vehemently protested it, then it would stop. But they have used fear and intimidation to cause the silence and thus, a complying public.