Latest TSA Nightmare: Man Soaked by Urine

Sunday, 21 November 2010

They keep coming -- horrific examples of bad behavior by the TSA during pat-downs and body scans. The lastest: A bladder cancer survivor was soaked by his own urine after a TSA agent broke the man's urostomy bag.

"I tried to warn him that he would hit the bag and break the seal on my bag, but he ignored me," said the passenger, Thomas Sawyer. "Sure enough, the seal was broken and urine started dribbling down my shirt and my leg and into my pants. They never apologized. They acted like they hadn’t seen what happened. But I know they saw it because I had a wet mark. I am totally appalled by the fact that agents that are performing these pat-downs have so little concern for people with medical conditions."

From 3-year-old girls to nursing moms and now cancer patients, the TSA is racking up some major PR disasters, and they're heartbreaking, and they're infuriating, and there needs to be some additional sensitivity training, clearly.

But until a better way is found, I'd also rather have pat-downs and body scans done than not. At least now, terrorists are getting the message that we're serious.

President Obama addressed the issue yesterday at a press conference in Portugal and stood by the security measures.

"At this point, the Transportation Security Administration, in consultation with our counterterrorism experts, have indicated to me that the procedures that they've been putting in place are the only ones right now that they consider to be effective against the kind of threat that we saw in the Christmas Day bombing."

No one wants to be treated disrespectfully or be groped and ogled by a TSA agent on a power trip, and my heart breaks for this man who was subjected to such humiliation. But for the hundreds of thousands of passengers boarding planes each day, these awful incidents are more the exception than the rule.

And if it's a choice between an aggressive system -- that admittedly has some flaws -- and boarding a plane with a bomb on board, then pat me down all you want. If I can't take it, I'll take a train or a car.

Wayward and abusive agents can and should be dealt with severely, but so should the threat of terrorism. And while all these headline-making horror stories are alarming, the real alarm is the possibility of human lives being lost to terrorists.

Do you think TSA deserves the bad rap they're getting or is it just a few bad agents making a bad name for an agency trying their best to protect us?