A vacation in the Magic Kingdom should be enough to make a child giddy with excitement, but one young boy was left trembling with fear after he was subjected to an invasive TSA pat-down.
The three-year-old, confined to a wheelchair due to a recently broken leg, was with his family at O’Hare Airport in Chicago, on their way to board a flight to Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
Despite constant assurances from his father that ‘everything is OK’, he physically trembles with fear and asks his parents to hold his hand.
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Outrage: The wheel-chair bound three-year-old boy was stopped at O’Hare Airport in Chicago and subjected to invasive checks
Despair: Despite constant assurances from his father that ‘everything is ok’, he physically trembles with fear and asks his parents to hold his hand
The terrified boy was swabbed on his hands and under his shirt for explosive residue.
His outraged father filmed the whole process and it has been posted on YouTube.
Despite such strict security for this toddler, the TSA is offering background-checked travellers the chance to use special lines and keep their shoes, belt and jacket on, leave laptops and liquids in carry-on bags and avoid a full-body scan – for a price.
The TSA’s new fast track ‘Precheck’ screening, now at two airlines and nine airports, is similar to security checks before 9/11, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Scared: The terrified boy, who was in a cast for a broken leg, underwent an invasive pat down and was swabbed for explosive residue
Airport disgust: The toddler was stopped at O’Hare Airport in Chicago on his way to Disney World for a family vacation
To qualify, frequent fliers must be invited by airlines and meet an undisclosed TSA criteria.
A $100 fee for a background check is required as well as a brief interview with a Customs officer.
However, approved travelers who are in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s ‘Global Entry’ program can transfer into Precheck, according to the Journal.
‘It’s a completely different experience than what you’re used to,’ Matt Stegmeir, a platinum-level Delta Air Lines frequent flier who was invited into Precheck, told the Journal.
‘It’s really a jarring contrast. It reminds you just how much of a hassle the security procedures in place really are.’
The program can improve screening of unknown passengers if it can move low-risk people out of the main queues.
‘We can reduce the size of the haystack when we are looking for that one-in-a-billion terrorist,’ TSA Administrator John Pistole told the Journal.
Mr Pistole added that by studying frequent-flier histories as well as conducting background checks, he’s confident the U.S. now has the technology and the intelligence information to make less-rigorous, faster screening work.
Easy pass: Passengers in the Precheck program will not have to go through full body scanners, and can instead pass through a standard metal detector
TSA is working with only two airlines, American and Delta, on program which is still in the pilot phase.
Precheck lanes are already in place only at nine airports including Dallas-Fort Worth, New York Kennedy, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta, Detroit , Salt Lake City, Las Vegas and Minneapolis-St. Paul.
By the end of the year Precheck will be in place at 35 airports and six airlines, covering most major U.S. airports and airlines, reports the Journal.
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I am hoping that the rumors I am hearing are true and that Ron Paul is brokering with Romney to swing his support to Romster in exchange for making his son, Rand his veep candidate.
Because we all know the Vice Presidency is something of a PR slot, and just like Al Gore had to find something to do as Veep and hence got all confabulated with the global warming mythology (hey, it worked out for him just fine, thanks), I think Rand will need a project to work on as well… and you know TSA is going to be at the top of his list.
After the economy, I don’t think there’s a more apposite issue than this, our greatest living symbol of our increasingly eroded freedom.
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