Busted: TSA fondlers could be arrested

Senator calls for sexual-assault charges for agents who touch 'in a private area'

November 23, 2010
By Bob Unruh

WorldNetDaily

A state lawmaker who just a week ago called on Congress to rein in the Transportation Security Administration's use of invasive and offensive imaging and pat-down procedures for airline passengers has taken the battle to the next level.

State Sen. Michael Doherty, a member of the New Jersey Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, today announced plans to introduce legislation that would curb the TSA's procedures in hisstate.

"I am of the belief that our society is founded upon our ability to exercise our individual civil liberties freely, and I stand ready and willing to defend those liberties when they are threatened. It is with great sadness that I have come to recognize that one of our greatest threats have been presented by officials of the TSA that have begun to implement intrusive searches of law abiding Americans who are traveling within our borders," he said.

His plan would lift any protections – or immunities – TSA agents would have to any actions they take under the color of "following orders," he told WND.

"In response to the attitudes and actions of the TSA and top Obama administration officials, I am drafting new legislation that will make it perfectly clear that in New Jersey, our constitutionally granted civil liberties are treasured and will be protected," he said.

"If an individual is touched in a private area during a search, when there is no arrest or probable cause that is affirmed by oath or affirmation, the person who violated that individual's privacy will be guilty of the crime of 'sexual assault,' and will not be immune from prosecution in thestate of New Jersey," Doherty said.

"If an image is generated that provides detail of an individual's private parts that violates New Jersey's privacy or child pornography statutes, the person who generated that image will not be immune from prosecution in thestate of New Jersey," he said.

"Finally, if imaging technology that uses technologies that are believed by the legislature to be dangerous to individuals due to their broad or random use in security applications such as airports, the state of New Jersey will prohibit such use and will provide no immunity to individuals who violate any New Jersey state law in New Jersey," he said.

That the imaging procedures, which essentially reveal a nude image of an airline passenger for TSA agents to see, or the pat-down procedures, in which TSA agents have been reported even groping inside passengers' underwear and routinely include physical contact with the passenger's private parts, are constitutionally questionable seems not to be much of an argument.

It was Mo McGowan, a former top TSA official, who admitted on a Fox News Channel appearance that the procedures apparently conflict with the Fourth Amendment, which protects Americans from unreasonable searches.

Mo McGowan was asked if the government could find a reasonable compromise that could detect terrorists without molesting adults and children.

"That's a great question," said the former director of TSA security operations. "I don't think that there is. We're not dictating these events that are occurring. Events are happening across the world ... driving us as a society to have to go to these measures.

"I mean, nobody likes having their 4th Amendment violated going through a security line," he said. "But the truth of the matter is we're going to have to do it."

Further, Doherty specifically issued a call to other lawmakers in his state to help address the problem, and fellow lawmakers across the nation to do the same.

"I am calling upon my colleagues in the legislature to step up and co-sponsor legislation that will protect the rights of citizens in New Jersey,” Doherty continued.

"When the federal government is actively limiting the liberties and rights of law-abiding American citizens, the several states have both a right and obligation to respond to misguided leadership at the federal level," he said. "I believe that one of the founders of the nation addressed this issue most eloquently: 'They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety,' Ben Franklin."

"The more legislators from across the country who start stepping up and saying enough is enough we will keep the pressure on the TSA and back them off," he told WND.

"If the federal government is not going to protect America citizens it's imperative that state elected officials stand up," he said.

Full story HERE