Today’s News: Another Asian tourist arrested in the US for reacting to TSA groping.
The TSA assaults air passengers in airports all over America. Americans, by and large, seem to be adjusted to this unreasonable abuse of power by their government (with few protests and almost no action taken by elected representatives), but foreign visitors are not yet adapted to the “American Way of Travel.”
Some people say these brutes target the most vulnerable, including infant children, the aged, the medically infirm and people with mental illness difficulties, along with accusations of groping attractive young women by masclinated TSA female officers. The other big targets for this governmental criminal organization apparently are tourists to the US. Don’t think it is not being widely reported throughout the world and is having an effect on potential tourists to America.
Over this holiday travel season, a South Korean tourist visiting Orlando, Florida, Ms. Hyunjoo Kim, age 39, believed she was assaulted by TSA agents when she attempted to go a departure gate at the airport. It has been reported by the TSA and an off duty Orlando police officer that the tourist responded to the apparent excess groping by slapping a TSA employee. She also objected verbally when TSA officers searched the traveler’s personal belongings and confiscated two small bottles of lotion. TSA, with an extremely low educational level for employees and a propensity to show little consideration for personal or cultural differences in travelers, immediately arrested the South Korean and charged her with assault, and she is currently being held in America’s prison system, being charged with two counts of battery.
No charges were made towards the TSA employees that initiated the altercation. See: “Woman Attacked TSA agent during pat-down, police say”, Fox News 28 December 2012.
Unlike America, many cultures do not tolerate government civil servants (especially non-police officers) running their hands around a woman’s breasts, around her buttocks and over her vagina with no cause or justification. Other cultures also object to adolescents being excessively groped by unknown adults without parental approval or even observance. In Korean airports, of which I have personal experience, a thorough search is done by walking through a metal detector and random use of an electronic wand. No groping or sexual assault is performed by security employees. They don’t require people to remove their shoes, belts, or medical devices.
Recently, this blogger heard from several Thai young people in a roundtable discussion about their feelings concerning travel in the world. No one in the group wanted to visit the USA, with the reason being the country is “too dangerous” (meaning street crime), a great fear of police brutality and the unwillingness of these Thai young people to submit to the humiliation applied to them by American security (meaning primarily the TSA at airports). The image of America and Americans is quite negative outside of the US because of these factors (amongst others, of course). The world is watching what the US is doing and how conditions are in the country.
Meanwhile, candid remarks from Americans run in the vein of “Better safe than sorry”, or the ubiquitous “If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about”. These remarks are also reported about internationally in newspapers, television, radio and magazines, projecting a disturbing image of the American people as totally ignorant, intolerant of others, and with a slave-like reverence to abuses of their government.
Potential tourists traveling from spending-rich Asia are watching on television how 8 year old boys are being physically abused at airports, how 72-year old grandmas are having their medical devices removed in order to check their urine, how attractive 14-year old teenage girls are being groped by muscular women in body armor. And as a result, they are traveling elsewhere.
Tourism in the US is big business. It has an impact of $1.9 trillion, with $813 Billion coming directly from tourist expenditures. Tourism generates $124 Billion in tax revenue and employs 14.4 million people within the US. See this Report from the US travel industry.
Despite the dropping of the value of the dollar (while this causes great harm to Americans, it does make travel to the US more affordable for travelers from overseas), Bloomberg/Business Week reports that “They’re [overseas tourist to the US] are staying away in droves”.
Americans react that who needs these foreign tourists anyway…?
In addition to all these on-the-ground problems of traveling in the US, the State Department of the United States has made it extremely difficult for foreign tourists to obtain a tourist visa. For instance, in Thailand, anyone with a valid US passport can come for a holiday and get a 30-day stay. The same applies to most of the countries in Asia and Europe. For a Thai to visit the US, they must obtain a tourist visa from the US embassy requiring multiple interviews, rejections, and appeals that can stretch easily over a year, often over several years. The State Department, reflecting the prevailing attitude towards potential tourists, claims “that safety and security comes first, but acknowledged they’re working on the problem.” The world perceives the situation differently, as reflected in a recent UK Guardian Newspaper headline, ” America – more hassle than it’s worth?” Many Americans respond with “Who needs ‘em?” (You do, you idiot.)
Meanwhile, Tourism to Thailand is Soaring.
Who would have thought that Americans could be so complacent and allow tyrannical control by the government. The TSA was out in force at the Packers-Viking Football game on the last day of 2012 in the Metrodome in Minnesota. TSA also flew spy drones all over the spectator area during the whole time. What has happened to freedom-loving Americans?…gone? It is no longer the America that I knew years ago. Link
Americans are nothing more than slaves, to be treated like an animal.
Music Tribute To Travel in America from a German:
Don’t Watch the following YouTube Video. Disgusting…
TSA goons understand that baggage with the special mark of this lock offered by Master Lock is permitted to remain locked. The TSA screeners have access to special tools that allow them to open TSA-accepted locks in the event that your bags must be opened for inspection. Airport security professionals no longer need to cut your lock or force your bag open and risk damaging it. They simply open your locks, inspect, and relock your bags, sending them quickly and securely on their way. Having this lock may lower your chances of having valuable electronics, jewelry or other expensive items stolen by TSA criminal employees. A red indicator pops up to indicate that TSA has opened the lock.
TSA aside, it’s hard to get a visa to come to the U.S.
Several years back, I was attending a Debian Linux (computer operating system) conference in Mexico. A number of attendees, including several speakers, were coming from Europe and the Middle East through the U.S.
All who traveled through the U.S. had visa problems, and some never made it.
Debian, which was founded by an American, no longer holds conferences in the U.S. or in countries (Mexico or Canada) where many attendees would need to travel through the U.S., due to the visa problem.
Now, about visas… I once flew to Saudi Arabia and had an entry paperwork problem. I was detained, but in the office of the airport security chief. We smoked each other’s cigarettes, ate food his wife sent, drank very good coffee, and generally had a pleasant time. Omar, the security guy, pointed out that if *he* had been detained in a U.S. airport it would have been in a cell. “We are a hospitable people,” Omar said. “The USA? No longer so.”
However, I’ll say that I’ve had unpleasant airport security experiences in New Delhi and Amsterdam. It’s not just the U.S. that can irritate travelers.
Thanks for the comment, and Yes, there are some countries in the world that can also be a hassle (certainly not quite to the degree of the America, but maybe close). These countries are often following the dictates of the most powerful nation making demands on how things should be done.
Whether you get sexually assaulted in an airport depends on the security risk assessment at that time; the same airport can have different procedures on different days.
The most intimate body search in my experience is in China, where they can be thorough. On the other hand I have seen a guy down to his under-pants in Australia trying to make the machine not peep.
All this is changing with the introduction of the enhanced body scanners.
I think though, rather than pointing the finger at the (inept) security staff, the cause of the problem is Moslim terrorists who are prepared to die in order to blow up a plane.
As for the difficulty of Thais getting visas – it’s not just the USA. It may be because so many of them go AWOL once they get in. New Zealand at the turn if the last century tried visa-free entry for Thai nationals for a year or so. During that time over 50% broke the visa conditions and disappeared into the black economy.
Thanks for the comment, but I do not see TSA in America just evaluating risky people and examining them. You are out of touch making that claim. Little old ladies and little children are getting molested, yet there have been few “Moslim” threats coming from those groups. It seems totally indiscriminate or perhaps targeting the most vulnerable. Many say the goal is not to catch a terrorist (and actually the TSA in all their invasive searches have caught NONE), the goal is get the American public used to invasive and illegal searches for greater control. So your statement saying that “sexual assault depends on the security risk assessment” is total bull shit. Maybe somewhere else, but not in the US. You may be unaware of the US Constitution, which is the Supreme Law of the United States, but the 4th amendment to the Bill of Rights in that document absolutely forbids what the TSA is doing (“unreasonable search and seizure without probable cause…” and more). It may be legal in China, but it is definitely illegal in the United States.
Body Scanners are harmful to the health of a human being, so while it eliminates some abusive searches, it mangles up the genetic structure and can easily cause serious harm. There has been so much written about that problem, and you can find all over the internet, in books, medical journals, so much…. So now we have a choice of potentially damaging our genetic structure or having illegal abusive physical searches performed by civil servants of the federal government on our children. Please wake up.
As far as “targeting” the incompetence of the TSA, this group has had hundreds of employees convicted of outright theft of personal gear of travelers, with many TSA “agents” having criminal backgrounds, even convicted pedophiles working for the TSA doing body searches on children. This is about the worst bunch the US federal government has ever employed.
Perhaps you have just not been to the USA lately, but over the last ten years this criminal organization has been wildly abusing American citizens, and the point of my article is that they are also abusing foreign tourists to the US. Please wake up. Your comment shows your naivete.
As far as Visas go, why should Americans be allowed to easily come to Thailand when it is not reciprocated? The US has become the world’s bully in just about all foreign relationships. There are simple ways to control visitors returning. How about a bond? The tourist puts up a bond of a certain amount of money and it is returned to them when they do not violate their visa. No, instead the US puts every potential US visitor through hell. Please open your eyes.
The negative image of the US in Thailand should be a cause for concern, but in all fairness, we need to look at it from the other end as well. One has only to look at blogs, message boards and youtube videos to see the negative image that the Land of Smiles has because of increasing crime against foreigners, dual pricing, and the notorious jet-ski scams in Phuket and Pattaya.
Does anyone remember all the incidents involving foreigners at Suvarnabhumi Airport who were arrested for theft after having unpaid for items slipped in their shopping bags by duty free staff? It got so serious that the British Embassy had to issue warnings.
On November 23, 2010, TSA officials said that some high-ranking US government officials were being allowed to bypass some security procedures if they were traveling with government bodyguards and escorts. Among the officials are executive-branch leaders such as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and FBI Director Robert Mueller and congressional leaders such as Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner . Law-enforcement officials are also allowed to bypass the screening process if they are traveling armed, have the appropriate paperwork, and have completed a training course by TSA.
You might encounter a TSA screening area when you’re at the train station or the subway. In one memorable 2011 incident, Amtrak passengers disembarking in Savannah, Georgia, were screened before they could leave the station. TSA agents have even been spotted at NFL games and political conventions. According to Government Executive, an extra 55 TSA screeners were on hand to help the Secret Service check delegates at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte last summer. That’s a real stretch of the agency’s mandate, even for the most security-obsessed traveler.