Why Did Amy Alkon Have To Go To Pravda To Publish Her Op-Ed About TSA Rape?
I'll let her tell the story in her own words:
I don't understand it. I went to countless mainstream news outlets in America and every one of them refused to publish this -- my op-ed on our eroding civil liberties and what we need to do to stand up for them.
Media outlets that refused to publish this piece include the LA Times, The New York Times, Reuters, CNN.com, The Huffington Post, AOL, The Wall Street Journal, Yahoo.com, MSNBC.com, and The Washington Post.
Apparently, only the Russian media cares about discussing civil liberties in America. The Russian newspaper Pravda published the piece about an hour after I sent it to them. (My next try was going to be North Korea, but the furor there following Kim Jun Il's death made that seem like kind of a bad idea.)
The piece is here:
On March 31, 2011, I was flying out of LAX to attend a psychology conference in New York. When I reached the TSA checkpoint in the United terminal, I found that I had no choice but to get the pat-down. Tears welled up in my eyes -- for how we've allowed the Constitution to be ripped up at the airport door and because I was powerless to stop a total stranger from running her hands over the most private parts of my body as a condition of normal, ordinary business travel.
I can hold back the tears ... hang tough ... but as I was made to "assume the position" on a rubber mat like a common criminal, I thought fast. I decided that these TSA "officers" earning a living violating our Fourth Amendment rights, and searching us without probable cause, do not deserve my quiet compliance. I let the tears come. In fact, I sobbed my guts out as the agent groped me. And then it happened: She stuck the side of her latex-gloved hand into my vulva. Four times. Twice from the front and twice from the back, with the only barrier being the fabric of my pants. I was shocked -- utterly unprepared for how she got the side of her hand up there. It was government-administered sexual assault -- an action that, in the workplace, would be considered sexual harassment, and elsewhere would be considered a serious crime. ...
The TSA's main accomplishment seems to be obedience training for the American public -- priming us to be docile (and even polite) when ordered to give up our civil liberties. Not only does the TSA violate our Fourth Amendment rights, they've posted signs that effectively eradicate our First Amendment right to speak out about it. One such sign, in Denver International Airport, offers the vague warning that "verbal abuse" of agents will "not be tolerated." Travelers are left to wonder whether it's "verbal abuse" to inform the TSA agent with his latex-gloved hands on their testicles that this isn't making us safer, or are they only in trouble if they pepper their statement with obscenities? Not surprisingly, few seem willing to speak out and risk arrest.
Isn't it time this becomes an election campaign issue?
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Sep '10
Re: Why Did Amy Alkon Have To Go To Pravda To Publish Her Op-Ed About TSA Rape?
One more of the great aspects of Bush's war on terror.
Jun '10
Re: Why Did Amy Alkon Have To Go To Pravda To Publish Her Op-Ed About TSA Rape?
Fly private planes. I doubt her story. So did, no doubt, the media outlets she sent it to. There may be bad tsa agents, but this is not policy. Tell the muslims to stop attacking us. Dont tell us to stop taking precautions.
Edited on Dec 28, 2011 at 4:53amDec '11
Re: Why Did Amy Alkon Have To Go To Pravda To Publish Her Op-Ed About TSA Rape?
Quite a story. I'm glad that I myself haven't had the dubious honor yet, but I'm sure my turn is coming.
Obedience training is the idea. The TSA seems to me to be a large part of that "...civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded [as the military]"... that then-Senator Obama was talking about in 2008. Such a force can only operate if independent-minded Americans are sufficiently broken to accept random, apparently meaningless interference in their lives.
Parenthetically, I'm not surprised that Russia would publish something derogatory about the U.S. Despite the Clintonette's ludicrous Red Button Affair of 2009, we're still Putin Enemy No. 1.
May '10
Re: Why Did Amy Alkon Have To Go To Pravda To Publish Her Op-Ed About TSA Rape?
I just don't believe it. I suspect the editors of those other newspapers didn't believe it either. Publishing it in Pravda is just one tick right of despicable. And though what she describes is heinous, so is the image of a grown woman sobbing at a pat down in airport security. Please.
Our airport security system is a problem, but not on the scale Ms.Alkon posits. Not by a long shot.
Oct '10
Re: Why Did Amy Alkon Have To Go To Pravda To Publish Her Op-Ed About TSA Rape?
At the very least, there should be plenty of cameras so we can catch this sort of thing.
Dec '10
Re: Why Did Amy Alkon Have To Go To Pravda To Publish Her Op-Ed About TSA Rape?
To narrowly answer your question, I will echo what others have said: The Russian media is happy to publish anything that reflects poorly on the United States. The reason, I've heard posited, is it makes the Russians think, "Well, if that's what's going on in the U.S., I guess the nightmare I have going on here isn't that big a deal."
For the record, I still think they are doing us a service. Because of this we are able to read a lot of things that may be hard to get published here. But that means we do have to have our BS-detectors at a high gain when consuming that media.
Aug '11
Re: Why Did Amy Alkon Have To Go To Pravda To Publish Her Op-Ed About TSA Rape?
TucsonSean: Fly private planes. I doubt her story. So did, no doubt, the media outlets she sent it to. There may be bad tsa agents, but this is not policy. Tell the muslims to stop attacking us. Dont tell us to stop taking precautions. · Dec 28 at 4:53am
Edited on Dec 28 at 04:53 am
Sorry, but the point isn't that you therefore shouldn't take precautions. The point is that the method is utterly ridiculous. There is a smart way to conduct security checks, and the TSA is not doing it the smart way.
Nov '11
Re: Why Did Amy Alkon Have To Go To Pravda To Publish Her Op-Ed About TSA Rape?
I'm sure all this will get a lot better when the TSA is unionized... oh, wait...
Re: Why Did Amy Alkon Have To Go To Pravda To Publish Her Op-Ed About TSA Rape?
I don't know. The one time I broke down in tears at a "pat down" -- flying back from Israel into Philadelphia -- I was treated incredibly rudely by the TSA agent. And each time I've been fondled by TSA agents, I'm absolutely shocked that someone (who not only is not my husband but a government agent!) is doing it. And that I seem to be the only person who thinks it's weird that I'm being caressed-for-terror by a government agent in my most sensitive regions.
I believe I may have been one of the first Americans to receive a TSA groping - -Oct. 31, 2010 -- and I called my husband telling him that in some cultures, I'd be married to my TSA agent.
Re: Why Did Amy Alkon Have To Go To Pravda To Publish Her Op-Ed About TSA Rape?
jonorose:
the point isn't that you shouldn't take precautions. The point is that the method is utterly ridiculous.
Exactly.
Of course it should be an election issue.
May '10
Re: Why Did Amy Alkon Have To Go To Pravda To Publish Her Op-Ed About TSA Rape?
Well I certainly respect your perspective and experience @Mollie and am sorry that you had such a personally distressing experience. But the patdown is an age-old technique of law enforcement and though the inefficiency and annoyance of being patted down relative to the risk I pose to our nation's security seems highly inefficient and backwards, at no time would I ever describe it as a violation, rape, caressing or groping. Those terms frankly seem hyperbolic and applied for rhetorical effect. I travel constantly and have yet to see any pat down that resulted in tears or that was anything other than completely matter-of-fact and business-like. So while I would like to see a smarter and more efficient system developed and applied, I don't believe that when we're sending soldiers to die in Afghanistan that somehow being frisked at an airport is an unacceptable violation of my civil liberties or the sanctity of my person.
May '10
Re: Why Did Amy Alkon Have To Go To Pravda To Publish Her Op-Ed About TSA Rape?
May '11
Re: Why Did Amy Alkon Have To Go To Pravda To Publish Her Op-Ed About TSA Rape?
You are absolutely correct that the pat down is a law enforcement technique. And therein lies the issue.
When an officer pats a "suspect", there is an implied supposition of a crime involved. While the "patee" may be innocent, there was a reasonable suspicion on the part of the officer.
What is the reasonable suspicion that Mollie, Judith, yourself, or Amy Alkon have committed a crime? Or that they are going to?
The TSA was organized not as a preventative measure at airports but as a way to get thousands more into the employ of the Federal government. Go back to the original debates after 9/11 and this becomes clear.
Aug '10
Re: Why Did Amy Alkon Have To Go To Pravda To Publish Her Op-Ed About TSA Rape?
Trace and Sean,
You doubt her story? Why? Do you doubt Mollie's story?
I do agree that publishing it in Pravda, notwithstanding that the Cold War is history, is distasteful. I wouldn't have done it.
But I'm curious as to why you doubt Ms. Alkon's story. The pat-the-groin maneuver is done constantly by the TSA. Have you never seen it? Ms. Alkon may have used language that you consider overwrought, but she was simply saying that she found the touching upsetting. She didn't say, for example, that the TSA agent reached into her pants, so why doubt Ms. Alkon?
This is a non sequitur. The armed forces are charged with, among other things, safeguarding our civil liberties, and those liberties should not change depending on whether we have troops engaged in hostilities.
May '11
Re: Why Did Amy Alkon Have To Go To Pravda To Publish Her Op-Ed About TSA Rape?
Really?
One way ticket on Delta from JFK to LAX, 5+ hour trip (1/13/2012) = $319
Charter flight $1200/ hour, 5 hour trip = $6000
Question: Would ANY of our congresscritters put up with pat downs of themselves? Princess Nancy? Boehner? Harry? Oh wait, they fly private...
Sep '10
Re: Why Did Amy Alkon Have To Go To Pravda To Publish Her Op-Ed About TSA Rape?
The woman went inside her, Trace. Four times. It's a friggin' big deal. And, as others have noted, a totally worthless endeavor, merely theater of the absurd to present the notion that genuine security is going on. Name me one terrorist this nonsense has foiled and I might say that the means in part justify the end, but it's just not reality, however age-old the patdown technique. If you would prefer to not believe her, though, that's of course your right.
Re: Why Did Amy Alkon Have To Go To Pravda To Publish Her Op-Ed About TSA Rape?
I agree with Trace that it's despicable to publish in Pravda. But, just out of curiosity, how much do they pay?
Jul '10
Re: Why Did Amy Alkon Have To Go To Pravda To Publish Her Op-Ed About TSA Rape?
I think the major news outlets declined to publish it because it was quite graphic. Also, her complaints about not getting published assume that her piece was timely, poignant, concise and well-written, to an extent that major US news outlets (who throw out tons and tons of good pieces everyday) come to expect from their unsolicited submissions. I can understand being upset about not getting your piece into a big name publication, but to try and pin it solely on political apathy on the part of the news media is a stretch.
May '10
Re: Why Did Amy Alkon Have To Go To Pravda To Publish Her Op-Ed About TSA Rape?
Pilli
You are absolutely correct that the pat down is a law enforcement technique. And therein lies the issue.
When an officer pats a "suspect", there is an implied supposition of a crime involved. While the "patee" may be innocent, there was a reasonable suspicion on the part of the officer. ....
Agreed.
Every terrorist caught at airports since 9-11 was caught and stopped by civilians. Whatever the TSA's purpose, it is not security.
Claire Berlinski, Ed.:
Isn't it time this becomes an election campaign issue? ·
This is one of those rare issues which defies politicial affiliations. Both Democrat and Republican voters are bothered by the TSA's political theater. Unless the TSA can come up with a new violation to anger citizens, our "Representatives" have already heard all they are going to hear on this. And yet nothing has been done about it.
In other words, preservation of the TSA and its methods is an example of true bipartisanship. It serves the interests not of voters but of the political class.
Sep '10
Re: Why Did Amy Alkon Have To Go To Pravda To Publish Her Op-Ed About TSA Rape?
Amy Alkon is a well-known author and syndicated advice columnist who has access to many publications and so has a reason to wonder why they weren't interested in her piece. My take on it is that, were Bush or McCain president, the media would be lapping it up, but with Obama as prez, not so much. I personally do not think that thought is much of a stretch at all. I see it play out daily. Also, the graphic nature of the piece is the point, not simply an example of indelicate prose.