Preemptive War/Preemptive Body Scans
By Mary Theroux • Saturday November 20, 2010 6:40 PM PDT • 19 Comments
Image of an adult man as revealed by a Rapiscan Secure 1000 backscatter X-ray scanner (the technology used by TSA) (Credit: John Wild, johnwild.info)
Americans who followed George W. Bush’s fractured reasoning in supporting a preemptive invasion of Iraq—a country that hadn’t actually aggressed against the U.S., but he just “knew” was going to—in the process implicitly supported the deprivation of the right to life for an estimated 122,000 Iraq civilians—on top of the up to 1.5 million (mostly children) estimated to have died as a result of the previous decade’s economic sanctions—not to mention cutting off any opportunity for the remainder of Iraq’s population to exercise its right to the pursuit of happiness.
The preemptive war has been accompanied by countless other preemptive rights violations—from warrantless wiretapping to rendition of suspects without trial. But of course the majority of Americans felt no personal threat from wiretapping or rendition, and most movies portraying the horrors and injustices of the War on Terror have been box office flops.
Suddenly, the preemptive deprivation of the rights of the presumption of innocence, security in one’s person, and against unreasonable searches has hit Americans now subjected to the lose-lose proposition of providing real-time images of one’s nude body to bureaucratic clerks demonstrated to lack discretion (see, for example, here and here), and with no reasonable assurance the image won’t be shared or leaked; or to allow one’s most intimate body parts to be groped by these same clerks.
It is sincerely to be hoped that the current show of outrage against the body scans/aggressive pat-downs will continue to grow, and force the draw-down of these intrusive techniques. But a better hope would be that the American populace—the beneficiaries of the greatest protections of rights and privileges in the history of mankind—would use this bare-faced exposure to what unchecked power reaps to reassess its tolerance to tyrannies small and great.
As noted by Mario Vargas Llosa, whose keen insights and masterful portrayals of political oppression and the abuse of power (among other themes) have garnered him the 2010 Nobel Laureate in Literature, tyrants are made, not born—and made possible only with “the complicity of the people,” and by “the abdication of the right to resist:”
Humans must resist (tyranny), especially at the beginning. Later it is harder to resist once the system is in place. But it is always possible.
Time will soon tell if Americans have been marched as far down the road to tyranny as we will be complicit with. If so, let’s this time remember and reaffirm allegiance to the understanding that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
All men—not just we who happened to be born in the United States.
Tags: Civil Liberties, Defense, Imperialism, Integrity, Iraq, Law, Liberty, Natural Law, Personal Liberty, Police, Politics, Power, Presidential Power, Surveillance, Terrorism, The State, Torture, Transportation, War 
This nonsensical stringing together of unconnected points backed up by obscure events to fuel non-existent fears tells me that in this age of severe bi-partisanship anything can get published.
Frank | Nov 21, 2010 | Reply
I’m wondering who is laughing harder, the al Qaeda fanatics or the TSA goon squad that gets to fondle and ogle its subjects.
This is intolerable. This agency needs to be abolished forthwith.
Steve Hogan | Nov 21, 2010 | Reply
Decline and eventually fall of the USA, caused by ignorant, arrogant, gullible,infantile masses.
ralph | Nov 22, 2010 | Reply
Nice post, Mary.
I remember all the freedoms that were wiped out by the Feds following the OKC bombing and knew that those losses would be nothing compared with what we’d lose following 9/11.
For all the lip service that Americans give to freedom, most Americans want nothing more than to be taken care of like children. Pathetic.
Paul | Nov 22, 2010 | Reply
Don’t like the US government fabricated fear and/or “security theater”? Don’t like the threat by TSA of police custody (arrest) and $11,000 in fines for refusing scanners and enhanced patdowns?
When large numbers of people take fewer flights (or none at all), the airlines will be motivated to make their own waves with the federal government – diminishing revenues make a big difference. And of course the process will necessarily need to include open discussion of the *reasons* for why flights into certain areas may carry with them more risk – why travel to/within the USA has more potential for “terrorist activity” than, for instance, to/within Switzerland (when not from USA). I don’t think there are terrorists out to wreak havoc on the Swiss people... their government hasn’t been out dictating to and/or invading most of the rest of the world. Instead, the US government has made itself “al-Qaeda’s top recruiter”.
My recommended current measures for those traveling:
- Fly commercial airlines *only* when absolutely necessary for physical presence quickly;
- If flying commercial for essential time critical reason – loudly proclaim objection to search/scan measures & complying *only* because of necessary flight or the coercion of the TSA’s threats of arrest & fines if you leave the airport at that point;
- Publicize why not flying;
- Take notes and/or record interactions with TSA if flying and publicize;
- Do not voluntarily associate with TSA agents – negative Social Preferencing;
- Publicize names and photos of TSA agents so that others can negatively Social Preference (TSA cannot operate as currently if very few individuals are willing to scan/grope);
- Be identifiable in all the above publicizing since anonymity does *not* engender highest level of support from others.
Suggestions for non airlines flying options such as private pilots/flying clubs/charters can be very useful – and hopefully will be expanded by group(s) coordinating private pilots/charters and prospective passengers.
Kitty Antonik Wakfer | Nov 22, 2010 | Reply
Largesse, mediocrity, and Reichstag. An unbeatable combination. It’s going to get worse.
“Humans must resist (tyranny),”
Ah yes, they say—what a beautiful shade of blue, your majesty...
David Crawford | Nov 22, 2010 | Reply
This article plus one published by II Sr. Fellow Ivan Eland on the body scans, combined to give me a ‘eureka’ moment today. I finally “got” why folks seem to be so upset when it comes to new airport security measures, something that just don’t concern me. Eland refers to the body scans as “pornographic, which showed genitals, breasts, etc.” Bingo! Perhaps those who rage against the scans, view genitals per se as pornographic because they ascribe to values touted by our original Puritan culture. It’s a sexist culture that still results in a double standard when it comes to men and women; note that only female genitalia were named by Eland, as if touching male genitalia doesn’t matter. It’s a culture that’s shame-based when it comes to the body. Perhaps those who are sex-positive with a more neutral view of the body and its bits, won’t be so offended.
Ann Grogan, J.D. | Nov 23, 2010 | Reply
Dear Ann:
Do you believe that you have a right to your own body: to choose who sees your nude form, with whom you share your sexuality, to make your own decisions regarding what you ingest, etc.? Or do you believe that your body—and therefore your entire mortal being—are subject to government decree?
See also my post, “Hands Off My Body, Obama!”
I hope you’re not a rights attorney, or I really will begin to despair.
With best wishes,
Mary
Mary Theroux | Nov 23, 2010 | Reply
Kitty:
Thank you for your helpful suggestions. I might offer that a more expeditious method might be for everyone in the security line to proclaim they are sovereign individuals and refuse to be treated as criminals any more. It brought down the Iron Curtain.
Best wishes,
Mary
Mary Theroux | Nov 23, 2010 | Reply
Mary, how well you say it!
I do not know what it is going to take for Americans to say ENOUGH to allowing our government to bully us and treat us as criminals, taking away our rights, and thinking “they” are God and know better what is good for me than I do.
Keep up the fight for individual liberty!
Julie
Julie Sheppard | Nov 23, 2010 | Reply
I think the detection and exposition of this preemption thread is MOST valuable.
Preemption is behind laws against drunk driving and hate speech, too. ALL preemptive attacks on individual sovereignty should be repealed, immediately. There is NO limit to how far they can go otherwise.
N. Joseph Potts | Nov 23, 2010 | Reply
Mary, my suggestions of specific actions in regard to traveling currently follow from my and husband Paul Wakfer’s view of ourselves (and potentially all others) as self-sovereign individuals based on the principles in “Social Meta-Needs: A New Basis for Optimal Interaction” – http://selfsip.org/fundamentals/socialmetaneeds.html However, I contend that to declare to any government official/agent who has stopped me/us that this is so and therefore s/he should treat me/us accordingly would not result in him/her (hir) ceasing to inhibit my/our movement/actions. Since s/he is a government enforcer, and by definition has government decreed authority to use and/or threaten physical force, s/he does not hold those same principles as true. Therefore clearly defined actions – some with reasons, eg. for negative Social Preferencing – were given in hopes that others would see the logic in them and the value to them of doing so.
The most important of my recommendations is negative Social Preferencing towards TSA agents – not voluntarily associating with them and making it publicly known why this action is being taken. I have written about this general method in some detail in “Tax/Regulation Protests are Not Enough: Relationship of Self-Responsibility and Social Order” – http://selfsip.org/focus/protestsnotenough.html This selective (discriminating) association to exclude those who cause harm is a potentially *very* powerful method of non-violent action, referred to as ostracism by many down through the ages. It is included in Gene Sharp’s 2nd volume (of 3), “The Politics of Nonviolent Action”, Chapter 4, “The Methods of Social Noncooperation”. Even in the current very unfree societies (of which the US is a major one), negative Social Preferencing can be effectively used to influence individual social behavior and the actions of the State.
Kitty Antonik Wakfer | Nov 23, 2010 | Reply
You got to the real point. Thanks
Pradipta Shome | Nov 23, 2010 | Reply
Anthony Gregory answers the idiotic line of argument propagated by Ann Grogan and other loony lefties in a blog post at LRC: http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/71176.html
Paul | Nov 24, 2010 | Reply
Is there any organization which will support people who resist TSA pornscans and shakedowns? It’s a lot easier to resist if you have an organization backing you up.
Joseph_M | Nov 27, 2010 | Reply
Coming back from a reunion in Hawaii, I was confronted with the “new directive.” The groping was unnerving, invasive, humiliating, and totally unnecessary. That the protests have been so muted infuriates and frightens me. Will we all line up meekly to be shipped to the nearest center for extermination?
Remember Franklin: “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
If we can establish an organization that will support resistance to the illegal shakedowns, I’ll become a charter member.
Linda | Nov 30, 2010 | Reply
Stop harassing American citizens at the airport – that isn’t going to make anyone safer – and instead realize that we, along with all other human beings on the planet, are at war with the Islamic institutional leadership, filled top to bottom with sworn, eternal enemies of all humanity who preach predatory war as a religious duty to all Muslims who will listen to them, and their enforcers, who are the Muslims ready, willing, and eager to commit those acts of predatory war with an aim of conquering and enslaving peaceful peoples around the world under Sharia so-called “law”. Having the TSA in airports and serving as a magnet for perverts to fondle women’s titties or men’s crotches does not make anyone safer. Cleansing from the face of the Earth the Islamic institutional leadership that preaches predatory war as a religious duty will.
Robert | Dec 7, 2010 | Reply