What? What the hell was the rationale behind that?
I’m not quite sure, but they took it out of my hand luggage and I had to pick it up on the other end (Paris–>JFK). When you’ve got a former Israeli military guy interrogating you, you don’t ask questions. I asked if they could at least give it to my relatives who were in Paris (if the relatives came to pick it up themselves) as I was worried about having it go out of my possession. It’s “The Family Khoran” given to me to give to my dad, the oldest male member of our family. It was bought by my paternal grandfather on his pilgrammage to Mecca. I didn’t want it to get ‘accidently lost on purpose.’
I had to wait a good hour to collect it in JFK, but I finally got it back. What a nightmare!!
(You may ask why I bought a ticket on this airline? I got it through the University travel agency, which had a great deal (something like $149 in 1991). I didn’t know the airline was owned by Israelis until I arrived at JFK.)
I think the answer is not often enough. I also think that you and I ought to remedy that particular oversight.
(BTW, the “thing” with Vin is that he is hot. Really quite hot. I need new undies hot.)
What pisses me off is that, in the three roundtrip plane rides my wife, child and I have taken since 9/11, we were pulled aside SIX TIMES, and given the “search every square inch” treatment. This meant taking off all of our shoes, all of us being frisked, all of our luggage being emptied and searched, and one of my child’s favorite toys (buzz lightyear) being disassembled, because we had removed the batteries and couldn’t prove it worked! (Sorry, but we wanted to spare the rest of the plane hearing “Buzz Lightyear to the rescue” repeated a million times!) We nearly missed two flights because of these “random” checks.
What’s worse is that at every check, it was obvious that families travelling with small children were specifically targeted! At every single checkpoint, we were in line with other parents with small infants and children, while every other Joe and Jane were apparently exempt. Pissed me off then, pisses me off now. It’s the main reason I refuse to travel anywhere this year that I cannot drive to.
Bastards.
From an anecdotal and personal experience standpoint (more than 100 flight legs this year), I would have to agree 100%. There ARE a large number of attractive women who are searched, and I have noticed that they are selected to be searched before their boarding pass is even looked at at the gate.
And I’ve seen several women get groped in ways that would put people in jail. By leering security people. Some of the shit souds like it’s from cheap USENET porn, except for the utter degredation part of it. I’ve seen women forced to stand while hands go up the skirt, breasts are cupped, and once nipples clearly tweaked - by a male officer. The woman said nothing, and given what happened to me the last time I spoke up, I kept my mouth shut.
I don’t know if it’s because I’m small, ugly, and unnoticeable, but I almost never get searched.
However - when I was searched once this last Summer, it was ten times worse than what the OP writes about. No, I can’t even tell what happened. But it not only was so degrading, it was actually threatening and frightening - to the point where if I had not been in an airport (and thus assumed to be a criminal by definition, as all travelers are nowadays) I would have called the police. Or had I been alone and not near help (tho I’m typically armed in some fashion), I might have had to defend myself.
What they did to me was not right. And no one gave a shit.
Reading what I wrote, I see the answer, of course:
Out of curiosity Anth, what airport was this at?
My worst experiences have all been at Cincinnatti. To the point where I consciously route flights and connections around that airport, no matter how much it delays me, unless there is no other option. I have also had bad experiences at Phoenix - some of the worst gropings I’ve witnessed have been at Phoenix.
OK. I asked to see if it was any of the airports I’m used to, as the things you describe surprise and disappoint me. I was also worried that it might have been a UK airport, where lately the security staff have become very irritating.
Is it really the case that male staff are being used to frisk female passengers? That’s almost unbelievably stupid.
Mr. Diesel we need the pants OFF. OFF! And now flex…and let’s see your tongue…
This stuff about searching anyone with olive skin and dark hair is ridiculous. I look vaguely Middle Eastern (because I’m Jewish!), and have been searched on every domestic flight I’ve been on since 9/11, sometimes more than once per flight leg. There’s no other reason for it, and it defies all laws of probability. I’m a U.S. citizen by birth, as are my parents; I have a relatively non-ethnic name; and I always buy round-trip tickets, well in advance, and pay by credit card. I don’t look “dangerous” (I’m 5’1", dress neatly, bathe regularly, and am generally about the least threatening person one could imagine), and I don’t carry anything terribly interesting in my luggage.
So should I just feel flattered that airport security thinks I’m hot or something? Or should I be pissed off that I’m being erroneously profiled?
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as someone else who flies alot, I feel your pain BBJ. Every time I fly one way, it’s the cavity search for me. Which sucks when you have 3 one way trips in the span of two days.
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as a lawyer, I have to imagine that there’s one ferocious class action suit waiting out there- I realize there’s gov’t. immunity, but the sort of things that Anthracite and others are talking about is plain assault.
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regardless of the other two points, it scares me that security is operating in such a manner as to piss off those who are supposed to be protected. If there’s enough of an outcry, then there will be less security in the future.
blanx
(who’s looking ever so forward to flying to St. Louis in January).
Obviously, the problem with adopting a full-on profile policy is that any terrorist organization worth their salt will use it to their advantage, as Kyla hinted at. The day they start searching ONLY people who look vaguely arabic, terrorist groups will put forward their least arabic-looking members for airline jobs. They could use blondes, and women, and families, and be very effective because they didn’t fit the profile.
Heck, I’m not even all that good a plotter, and that’s the first thing I’d do.
Hmmm … petite, olive skinned & dark-haired, well-groomed …
Pending photographic evidence to the contrary, I’d bet on the ‘hot babe’ theory versus the ‘profiling’ theory.
I suggest bringing a vibrator and … what were those … oh yeah, ‘anal beads’ 
… next time, and see if the attention level increases after your luggage is searched.
I realize this is kind of off-topic, and it may actually come back to haunt me because BBJ is one of the dopers in my area and we may someday end up in the same room at a dopefest, but I gotta say it. Every time I see the abbreviation of your username as BBJ I am reminded of the acronym BBBJ which means Bare-Backed Blow Job(a BJ given without a condom). I know it’s juvenile and unworthy, but damned if it isn’t a serious distraction when I’m trying to read a thread to have some juvenile part of me go off into Beavis and Butthead-land and start snickering “Heh, He said BBBJ, huh-huh-huh”.
I’m such a turdburgler 
Enjoy,
Steven
You got lucky. I saw them make someone remove their prosthesis so they could run it through the X-Ray machine. I felt bad for the guy. It had to be embarrassing.
You guys are killing me. For the second time I never said everyone shouldn’t go through security screening. What I did say was that a great majority of terrorist attacks are done by young middle eastern men and that they should receive additional scrutiny.
I can see why it’s embarrasing, but it’s necesary.
And I think we all asked for a cite, BIG DADDY.
Basic problem of available resources. The moment you say that one group should receive more attention, then you are diverting security resources away from other groups. Terrorists then take advantage of this, and use people from these (now safer) groups.
Profiling is ridiculous when you credit the terrorists with any sort of intelligence.