TSA Gets Probed by Former Congressman

By Ann Hunter on November 30, 2010

On Monday, the public interest group, Liberty Guard, filed a Freedom of Information Act Request with the Transportation Security Administration regarding their alleged manipulation of security procedures for political purposes.

The group, led by former Congressman Bob Barr, claims the TSA deliberately shut down full-body scanners while standing down on new "enhanced pat-downs" in order to diffuse protests that were supposed to take place on National Opt Out Day, November 24th.

Reports on Twitter and in the media justify Liberty Guard's suspicion as the new full-body scanners were roped off and largely unused throughout the nation.

The TSA, mocked the lack of protests on their own blog stating, "What some protesters threatened as an opt out day has turned into a TSA appreciation day."

But Bob Barr and his group don't see any humor in the TSA shutting down its intrusive procedures to give protesters nothing to protest.

"Considering recent hardline statements made by DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and TSA Administrator John Pistole, this apparent sudden reversal in the TSA's direction warrants additional scrutiny," said Joe Seehussen, President of Liberty Guard. "We'd like to know if we can expect a policy shift from the TSA or if they were merely attempting to shut down the public outcry regarding their search procedures."

The FOIA request appears to dig much deeper than National Opt Out Day and investigates the TSA's clear disdain for Americans concerned about the 4th amendment.

The terms used in the FOI request include "Matt Drudge", "Drudgereport.com", "Alex Jones", "PrisonPlanet.com" and even "John Tyner." The search string encompasses the leading opposition of the Opt Out movement.

The FOIA request also includes the term "domestic extremist" which appears to reference an alleged memo from top TSA brass directing data to be collected on travelers opting out of the full-body scanners. The memo supposedly goes on to state that the information on American citizens should be passed on to the Department of Homeland Security office that investigates domestic terrorists.

While the alleged memo sounds overly-conspiratorial, in 2009, a similar report was released by the DHS office in Missouri. The report, called the MIAC report, labeled supporters of Bob Barr and Ron Paul as "militia" and tagged them as suspected domestic terrorists.

Liberty Guard's FOIA request can be downloaded here.