Sunday, January 02, 2011

Full Body Scanners !

This is a=written by an American soldier...

As the Chalk Leader for my flight home from Afghanistan, I witnessed the following:

When we were on our way back from Afghanistan, we flew out of Baghram Air Field. We went through customs at BAF, full body scanners (no groping), had all of our bags searched, the whole nine yards. Our first stop was Shannon, Ireland to refuel. After that, we had to stop at Indianapolis, Indiana to drop off about 100 folks from the Indiana National Guard. That's where the stupid started.

First, everyone was forced to get off the plane-even though the plane wasn't refuelling again. All 330 people got off that plane, rather than let the 100 people from the ING get off. We were filed from the plane to a holding area. No vending machines, no means of escape. Only a male/female latrine.

It's probably important to mention that we were ALL carrying weapons. Everyone was carrying an M4 Carbine (rifle) and some, like me, were also carrying an M9 pistol. Oh, and our gunners had M-240B machine guns. Of course, the weapons weren't loaded. And we had been cleared of all ammo
well before we even got to customs at Baghram, then AGAIN at customs.

The TSA personnel at the airport seriously considered making us unload all of the baggage from the SECURE cargo hold to have it reinspected. Keep in mind, this cargo had been unpacked, inspected piece by piece by U.S. Customs officials, resealed and had bomb-sniffing dogs give it a
one-hour run through. After two hours of sitting in this holding area, the TSA decided not to reinspect our Cargo-just to inspect us again:

Soldiers on the way home from war, who had already been inspected, reinspected and kept in a SECURE holding area for 2 hours. Ok, whatever. So we lined up to go through security AGAIN.

This is probably another good time to remind you all that all of us were carrying actual assault rifles, and some of us were also carrying pistols.

So we're in line, going through one at a time. One of our soldiers had his Gerber multi-tool. TSA confiscated it. Kind of ridiculous, but it gets better. A few minutes later, a guy empties his pockets and has a pair of nail clippers. Nail clippers. TSA informs the Soldier that they're going to confiscate his nail clippers. The conversation went something like this:

TSA Guy: You can't take those on the plane.

Soldier: What? I've had them since we left country.

TSA Guy: You're not supposed to have them.

Soldier: Why?

TSA Guy: They can be used as a weapon.

Soldier: [touches butt stock of the rifle] But this actually is a weapon. And I'm allowed to take it on.

TSA Guy: Yeah but you can't use it to take over the plane. You don't have bullets.

Soldier: And I can take over the plane with nail clippers?

TSA Guy: [awkward silence]

Me: Dude, just give him your damn nail clippers so we can get out of here. I'll buy you a new set(hands nail clippers to TSA guy, makes it through security).

To top it off, the TSA demanded we all be swabbed for "explosive residue" detection. Everyone failed, (go figure, we just came home from a war zone), because we tested positive for "Gun Powder Residue". Who is hiring these people?

This might be a good time to remind everyone that approximately 233 people re-boarded that plane with assault rifles, pistols, and machine guns - but nothing that could have been used as a weapon.

Can someone please tell me What happened to OUR country while we were gone?

Sgt. Mad Dog Tracy

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love watching the youtube videos of you with your "Everything is OK 'campaign'". I was just wondering what your source was for this story. The TSA is the shining example of government inefficacy, lunacy and the trampling of civil rights in the US.

Unknown said...

Wow... the part with the nail clippers in particular is beyond ridiculous. The silver lining is all these absurd protocols they are enforcing is that they are inspiring people to wake up every day. Each piece that makes no sense is a small red flag just waiting to be discovered. i"m also curious, where did you get this statement? (sources are important to many that aren't awake, and I believe being able to cite a source is integral in spreading the message of truth).

On a side note: thank you for all you've done so far. I've been inspired by your work for some time now <3

Anonymous said...

This story is fake:

http://www.factcheck.org/2010/12/tsa-not-to-blame-for-this/

Anonymous said...

"Can someone please tell me What happened to OUR country while we were gone?"

What better way to introduce fascism than to distract and send abroad the very people who are there to protect the country against takeover by fascists? Ironic, eh?