Life and Leisure

'Don't touch my junk' a call to arms in US

By Andy Goldberg (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-11-25 08:01

Exploding engines and terrorist threats have got nothing on the latest threat facing American air travelers.

As millions of Americans prepare to take to the skies for Thanksgiving holiday, many are up in arms over new government security guidelines that require passengers to undergo a thorough pat-down if they refuse to go through a new type of scanning machine that provides detailed images of their bodies.

The traveler revolt, which has been likened to the anti-government wave sweeping through American politics, already has a new hero. John Tyner of San Diego may not yet be a household name, but his slogan "Don't touch my junk" is already the catch phrase of the season.

"'Don't touch my junk' is the anthem of the modern man, the Tea Party patriot, the late-life libertarian, the midterm election voter," argued rightwing columnist Charles Krauthammer. "Don't touch my junk, Obamacare - get out of my doctor's examining room ... Don't touch my junk, you airport security goon - my package belongs to no one but me."

Tyner, a 31-year-old software engineer, was on his way from San Diego to South Dakota for a hunting trip last weekend when he refused the revealing full-body X-ray, but also objected to the alternative intimate search, which he likened to sexual assault.

"If you touch my junk, I'll have you arrested," he said in a recording of the incident, which has now logged millions of views on YouTube.

Tyner decided not to make the trip, but he certainly made his point. The protests have already spawned countless T-shirts and bumper stickers with the famous warning.

Sites like Wewontfly.com and OptOutDay.com have attracted thousands of hits with their calls to boycott the nation's airports on Nov 24, one of the busiest travel days of the year, falling the day before the annual observance of Thanksgiving.

"They're feeling up old ladies and children, and they're calling it security, but it's not security," James Babb of the Wewontfly website told CBS. Bizarrely enough, Babb wants passengers to be able to carry guns on board as a way to boost security.

Outrage at the so-called "Peel and Feel" policy and the "porno-scanners" crosses party lines. Civil liberties groups had long tried to mobilize opposition to the scanners, but it was only when Tyner came on the scene that the protests achieved critical mass.

That prompted a US Senate hearing on Nov 17 in which the head of the Transport Security Administration (TSA) doggedly defended the practice.

John Pistole, head of the TSA, insisted that the scanners and the pat-downs were the most effective way to keep passengers safe and that the vast majority of travelers approved of the tradeoff.

"I think everybody will want to opt for the screening with the assurance that that flight is safe and secure," Pistole said.

A recent CBS News poll backed up that assertion, finding that 4 out of 5 Americans approve of the use of full-body digital X-ray machines.

But privacy groups maintain that the policy is just another government grab.

"There's been no meaningful effort in Washington to hear from the American traveling public," said Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which has filed a suit against the Department of Homeland Security, arguing that the procedures are a violation of the Fourth Amendment, which protects Americans from unreasonable search.

There are already signs the government is backing down. On Nov 19 the TSA said that pilots would not have to undergo the pat-downs and screenings, while reports said that officials were evaluating a new scanner that would show only suspicious objects rather than the bodies that carried them.

But ultimately, the government could be in a no-win situation no matter what it does.

"If you cherry-pick isolated incidents that I really doubt occurred as they are being spun, you get the Glenn Becks and Bill O'Reillys and the Ann Coulters railing against the government," said Tom Mockaitis, a terrorism expert at DePaul University, referring to outspoken rightwing commentators.

"These are the same people who a year ago railed that the government wasn't doing enough to stop terrorists."

German Press Agency