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Mom blogger alleges sexual assault by the TSA

The whole x-ray body-scan or close pat-down at American airports is looking more and more absurd and aggravating- and increasingly the subject of ire from fliers.

First up, this, from a well-known blogger American Mom:

"A prominent "mommy blogger" has described in humiliating detail how she was violated by a US airport security official who touched her genitals while executing the controversial new "enhanced pat-down" procedure.

Her account of the incident, which she retold in excruciating detail in a blog post, has become another cause celebre in what many Americans see as a mounting catalogue of violations of their civil liberties.

Erin Chase, a blogger and author who has become a minor celebrity though her book on frugal recipes, The $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook, was screened at Dayton International Airport, Ohio, last Friday.

She was forced to leave her child in the pram and subject herself to a hands-on screening by a female officer from the Transportation Security Administration, the US federal organisation that is responsible for airport security."

And despite all the assurances of privacy, etc. from US government authorities, this from CommonDreams:

"Promises, promises. Federal officials have always said the naked images from increasingly controversial x-ray scans are not and cannot be stored. Surprise! U.S. marshalls in Florida saved 35,000 of them. Through a FOIA request, Gizmodo got and published 100 of them. They're a fuzzier version of airport scanners, but the point is made: "That we can see these images today almost guarantees that others will be seeing similar images in the future."

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