Who need body scans? Passengers beat the TSA by stripping off BEFORE they go through airport security
- 'National Opt Out Day' protests fail to take place at American airports
- Only short waits at airport security lines across U.S.
- TSA: We must balance demands for privacy with protecting travellers
- Poll: Half of passengers think searches go too far
Many Americans are furious at the new TSA security checks, while others say they are willing to endure them if it keeps them safe.
But one small, though growing, group of people appear to be positively enjoying the new regulations.
Breaking out their bikinis, Speedos, body paint and racy underwear, various passengers around America are using the stringent new measures to explore their exhibitionist sides.
'Unconcerned': A passenger at LAX named only as Corinne opens her black jacket to reveal she is wearing nothing but a bikini underneath
Corinne claimed she was hoping that by baring nearly all, she could avoid having to endure a pat-down by TSA officials. It is not known if she succeeded
One female passenger arrived at the airport in Los Angeles this morning wearing nothing but a black coat and a bikini.
'It's not that I'm concerned,' the woman, named only as Corinne, told local media outside LAX.
'It's that I feel like the TSA is making travellers feel uncomfortable, and I feel like we can have security measures that don't make people feel uncomfortable.
'Every time I go through security I always say, "I don't even know why I got dressed this morning." I end up taking off belts, jewellery and everything else off anyway.'
'I don't want to do a body scan, and I'm hoping by wearing a bikini they will see everything they need to see and we can avoid a pat-down, as well.'
Meanwhile a male passenger named only as Jimmy had a similar idea in Salt Lake City.
Protest: A passenger at Salt Lake City Airport revealed a stark message to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano as he stripped off for a search
The college student posted video of himself on YouTube passing through security after stripping down to only a pair of Speedos.
And he went one further than Corinne, with body paint on his back that spelled out the words: 'Screw Big Sis'.
Meanwhile an aspiring porn star filmed herself stripping to her underwear at Seattle-Tacoma airport.
The woman, known only as 'Furrygirl', arrived at Seattle's Sea-Tac airport to board her flight on Sunday.
There she told startled TSA officials that she was 'going to enjoy this experience as much as I can, instead of being scared and humiliated like the TSA wants me to be.'
Transparent: A woman known only as 'Furrygirl' stripped off at Seattle's Sea-Tac airport to beat the new TSA scanners
Nearly naked: Now in just her underwear, the woman prepares for her pat-down - although security quickly asked her to get dressed again
She then cheerfully strips down to her underwear.
Upon reaching the pat-down area, a security guard orders her to place her coat back on, but Furrygirl replies to the guard saying she 'wants to be transparent to the TSA'.
Cheekily she adds: 'I thought we weren't supposed to wear jackets.'
Passengers furious at invasive security searches at airports across America were warned today they could soon face similar ordeals while travelling on trains and boats - possibly provoking even more racy incidents.
Thousands of air passengers began their Thanksgiving journeys amid fears protests against increased security measures could cause major disruption.
But public anger is likely to be heightened today after Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano revealed tightened security could also be introduced on trains and boats.
She said : 'I think the tighter we get on aviation, we have to also be thinking now about going on to mass transit or to trains or maritime.
Intrusive? A passenger (left) undergoes a body scanner at Logan International Airport in Boston today while a woman traveller is subjected to a 'patdown' at Chicago airport
'(Terrorists) are going to continue to probe the system and try to find a way through.'
Many travellers had threatened to boycott the stringent airport security measures as part of a National Opt Out Day organised by a number of protest websites.
Any such protests - coupled with widespread snow and storms - would have led to major disruption for Thanksgiving passengers.
But reports from airports across the U.S. today suggested passengers had chosen not to take part in the planned protests.
Outcry: TSA Administrator John Pistole said he understands the public's concerns over new invasive measures but needs to ensure passenger airline safety
A government official told Fox News that most screening lines were taking less than 10 minutes.
The station reported that Reagan National Airport in Washington DC had virtually no delays while at Los Angeles International Airport passengers were only having to wait five minutes.
Meanwhile waiting times at Tampa were under 20 minutes and Salt Lake City International Airport had no lines at all.
Despite the national furore, some passengers were happy to undergo the stringent checks.
LAX passenger Dennis Gossard, 63, from Glendale, California, told CNN: 'They can pat me down for three hours if it's going to save someone's life.'
The apparent calm at U.S. airports followed the head of the Transport Security Administration's (TSA) plea to passengers not to boycott airport body scans.
John Pistole has said he understood public concerns about privacy in the wake of the TSA's tough new airline boarding security checks.
But he said that only a small portion of the 34 million people who have flown since the new procedures have taken effect have had the body patdowns.
Despite early reports suggesting planned protests had yet to be materialise, a group called We Won't Fly said hundreds of activists would be going to 27 airports today to pass out fliers with messages such as 'You have the right to say no' and 'No radiation strip search'.
But Mr Pistole implored passengers not to take any delaying actions or engage in boycotts, saying this would only serve to 'tie up people who want to go home and see their loved ones'.
In light of the public outcry in recent days, Mr Pistole has pledged to review security procedures but says the TSA must balance people's demands for privacy with the need to protect passengers from terror threats.
A traveller undergoes an enhanced pat down by a Transportation Security Administration agent: Staff have said that they also find the searches unpleasant
He said he hoped people would exercise sound judgement today and over the holiday season.
'Just one or two recalcitrant passengers at an airport is all it takes to cause huge delays', said Paul Ruden, spokesman for the American Society of Travel Agents which has warned its 8,000 members about the effects of the delays stemming from the boycott.
Mr Ruden added: 'It doesn't take much to mess things up anyway - especially if someone purposely tries to mess it up'.
The latest poll shows that half of all Americans said hand searches for those who refuse to be screened went too far.
However the ABC News and Washington Post survey did find that 64% of respondents did back the use of the machines to stop terrorism.
Body scans take only 10 seconds to process but those who decline and submit to a full patdown will take up more of the TSA agents' time.
President Obama weighed into the debate while in Lisbon over the weekend and said he had asked TSA officials whether there is a less intrusive way to ensure travel safety.
'Clearly it's invasive, it's not comfortable', Mr Pistole said of the pat-downs but added, 'If we are to detect terrorists, who have again proven innovative and creative in their design and implementation of bombs that are going to blow up airplanes and kill people, then we have to do something that prevents that'.
'I understand people's frustrations', but added that he had told the TSA, 'You have to constantly refine and measure whether what we're doing is the only way to assure the American people's safety'.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said she would not submit to a security pat-down if she could avoid it.
Meanwhile more stories are emerging from passengers having their privacy invaded.
Eliana Sutherland recently flew from Orlando International Airport.
She told local media that she felt the two male TSA workers were staring at her breasts and chose her for additional screening because of their size.
No exemptions: Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa goes through an Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) full-body scanner at the city's airport
'It was pretty obvious. One of the guys that was staring me up and down was the one who pulled me over,' said Sutherland. 'Not a comfortable feeling.'
The TSA is set to investigate her claims.
With pilots and flights attendants allowed to get around some of the TSA's new screening requirements, it is being reported that some high level government officials will be able to circumvent being patted down too.
Cabinet secretaries, top congressional leaders and an exclusive group of senior U.S. officials are exempt from the rigorous security checks when they fly commercially with government-sanctioned security detail.
THE CHERTOFF LINK: WHO PROFITS FROM THE TSA SCANNERS?
President Bush's Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff, pictured below, has a financial link to one of the companies that makes the new TSA body scanners, it has been revealed.
The Cherftoff Group worked 'briefly' as a consultant for Rapiscan last year.
Rapiscan has sold $41.2million in scanners to the TSA. The company has spent $221,500 lobbying government.
The company insists that Mr Chertoff's work for them was unrelated to the government.
'Mr Cherftoff and his staff of experts provided Rapiscan with advice and analysis with respect to a limited set of well-defined subjects unrelated to aviation security,' Peter Kant, executive vice president of the company, told Fox News in a written statement.
'Chertoff Group's activities in that engagement were advisory, and neither Mr Chertoff nor his staff has ever represented Rapisan in any communication with the U.S. government.'
The TSA has not explained why it has made these exemptions but many of the exempted government officials have gone through several levels of security clearances, including FBI background checks which eliminates the need for an additional layer of security at airports.
TSA spokesman Nicholas Kimballs said: 'TSA follows a specialised screening protocol for federal law enforcement officers and those under their control, which includes identity verification'.
Some members of President Obama's Cabinet, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, travel almost exclusively on government or military planes and are therefore not subject to airport security.
Senate Sergeant at Arms Terrance Gainer said the only Congress members with protective details are leaders, 'based upon a threat analysis conducted by the (U.S. Capitol Police) and affirmed by the Capitol Police Board.'
Mr Gainer added that members 'with sworn protection' are able to avoid security because 'their secure posture is affirmed by the law enforcement process established by TSA.'
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg yesterday urged travellers to get over their outrage about the body scanners and patdowns saying it is necessary in the 'dangerous world we live in'.
'We have to stop all this shilly-shallying and understand if you want to be safe on airplanes we have to make sure that we keep you safe,' Mr Bloomberg said.
Mr Bloomberg shared that although he flew to Washington on a private place, he underwent a patdown last week at Reagan National Airport.
'If you have a better idea, call Janet Napolitano,' Bloomberg said of the beleaguered Homeland Security Secretary. 'I'm 100 per cent in sympathy. She wants to make sure we're safe. That's the job she's been charged with.'
Up to two million passengers per day were expected to fly yesterday and today ahead of Thanksgiving.
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