India diplomat gets 'humiliating' pat-down at Mississippi airport (Meera shankar)

[TexasJohn]

With all due respect, what Chogy is saying is outdated:

from: TSA exempts pilots from pat-downs - latimes.com

TSA exempts pilots from pat-downs
November 19, 2010, 2:25 p.m.

WASHINGTON – After weeks of pressure from pilot unions over controversial new airport screening measures, the Transportation Security Administration has agreed to exempt pilots from enhanced pat-downs and full body scans, pilot organizations said Friday.

Pilots flying for U.S. carriers and traveling in uniform will immediately start going through "expedited" screening after having two forms of identification checked against a secure database, said TSA administrator John Pistole in a statement.

Airline pilots complained when the agency would not exempt them from pat-downs seen as too intrusive and full body scans that union leaders said would put pilots at risk for increased exposure to radiation.

"Allowing these uniformed pilots, whose identity has been verified, to go through expedited screening at the checkpoint just makes smart security and an efficient use of our resources," said Pistole Friday. The changes do not affect policies for screening passengers.

Since Sept. 11, pilots organizations have been arguing that screening procedures for pilots, who are already vetted and provide for the safety of their passengers every time they take control of an airplane, should be focused on verifying their identity using biometric data like retinal scans or fingerprints.

Talks between the airlines, TSA and pilots unions have been stalled for years on how such a secure identity system would be funded. On Friday, TSA told the pilots unions that the administration would move forward with a long-term plan to use biometric screening for cockpit crew members, said Captian Sam Mayer, communications chairman for the Allied Pilots Association.

"We want TSA to concentrate on the threat, and clearly the pilots are not the threat, we are the targets," said Mayer, whose union represents 11,500 American Airlines pilots.

TSA is facing lawsuits from pilots who believe the search methods are over the top. Michael Roberts, a commercial pilot from Memphis, filed a lawsuit Tuesday saying that the new procedures violate his constitutional protection against unnecessary search and seizure.

The TSA decision on Friday did not exempt flight attendants or other airline crew from the enhanced security procedures. Passengers?

Copyright © 2010, Tribune Interactive

Please read the bolded condition. Not ALL pilots have completed this requirement. Until then, for them, the pat-downs will continue...

 

[VCheng]

Please read the bolded condition. Not ALL pilots have completed this requirement. Until then, for them, the pat-downs will continue...

I would say most do, or soon will.

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

dude common man thats not fair

a pilot's about to engage in stressful line of duty (taxiing, takeoff, etc.) the last thing he wants to deal with is these kinds of things

behind closed doors, u can imagine those pilots and their backgrounds are thoroughly searched

in this day and age, you can find out anything about anyone on the worldwide web.....until the day (God forbid!) some commercial pilot decides to go rogue

 

[TexasJohn]

A good chunk of commercial pilots that I know have prior military service and probably have/ had clearance. Agreed, I hope we never see the day of the rogue pilot.

 

[Lala_Peace]

ca'mon, now don't bring the whole culture thing dude. i am just saying, that is considered more professional on international level than wearing sari.
majority of women in politics around the world wear those types of dress rather than sari or something like that.

Don't preach us how to dress. Take your opinion to your 500 yr old rented culture. We have our own way of dressing. If you don't like then put that in your constitution. We won't go to such a place which has no sense of respect for other culture.

 

[Lala_Peace]

It is absolutely disrespectful to join issue with such utterly disrespectful Americans. These guys don't count as long as Clinton say sorry. Other wise next time we will ensure a touch down if she comes here. We don't give a damn to American antics.

 

[Ganga]

Height of stupidity. What are we complaining about? Someone is just doing it's Job plain and simple. This attitude of getting VIP treatment is disgusting thing about Indians. That joker SRK told these guys that he knows Hillary Clinton.

Exception should be made only for few like President, PM.

You are wrong.Diplomats are exempted from any kind of enhanced security screening.The rules were set at the Vienna convention.

 

[Bang Galore]

are you serious man??

no offense, but they may look professional in India, but not on international level.

ca'mon, now don't bring the whole culture thing dude. i am just saying, that is considered more professional on international level than wearing sari.
majority of women in politics around the world wear those types of dress rather than sari or something like that.

opnions can be changed than. i don't wanna see president of India in this dress at all, espically when he is traveling on world tour, and i believe, diplomats are no less important.

he looks much better in this:

Actually since we are discussing the Ambassador of India, you should realise that that is the official dress code for Indian female diplomats. It's the suit(regular/closed neck) for men & saree for women. She isn't applying for a job at Pepsi, you know for her attire to be considered inappropriate.

 

[Fact_ur_mine]

if one is interested in representing their culture in world, than i am sure there are many other ways to do that.

but man, this is politics. no need to bring culture thing in here. people wear those dresses, because they ARE considered professional, NOW if India or Pakistan can make a dress that looks more professional than the current one, i think they should wear those dress.

BUT i am defiantly sure, sari or hijab aren't professional. they represent culture, fine. but these dresses don't represent "professionalism".

Not your mistake, the place where you lived in most of your life portrayed you skirt as professional most dress.So most of persons believe something is good not because they think it is good. Its because Society made them believe its good.

If india would have been super power and ruling like US, you have said same about Saree.

 

[Chogy]

Wow, I'm a bit surprised at the heat being created by this thread.

I'd like to approach it from the pilot perspective. I've been at it since long before 9/11.

Before 9/11 - I could say "Hey man, I need to stretch my legs and get some coffee." - get up, and leave the cockpit. The other guy is up there alone. I can walk around, chat with passengers, drink coffee, use the lav, take 20 minutes to get the blood flowing. It was nice.

Now, I cannot go into detail, but we are prisoners up there. My hips and legs ache like a **** and I can almost feel the blood clots forming. We have stopped drinking fluids because visits to the lavatory are so challenging. Now we are all getting kidney stones and other issues. I know, waah, waah.

But it has been the security portals that have turned the job into a nightmare. The stuff being quoted in this thread on expedited clearance for crew is brand new. Until just weeks ago, we were treated exactly the same as other passengers, except we could carry liquids. That's it. My nail clippers are confiscated just like anyone else.

TSA: "You might use this to take control of the aircraft!"
Us: "Uhh, hey dumb-***, think. We are already in control of the aircraft. With a flick of my wrist, I could kill us all."

It is maddening. People hate flying once a month because of TSA. Imagine going through that portal 30 times a month!

We have had reliable biometric systems since long before 9/11. I should have my retina scanned, or use my thumb print, and waltz right through. We've spent billions on chemical sniffers and nudie x-ray machines, yet no biometrics for crew.

End of whine. I've got dozens of TSA horror stories... some of them are very funny. As for the diplomat - I'm sorry, the terrorists have shown great imagination with shoe and underwear bombs, and impersonation is not difficult. A 20 year old TSA person is not going to recognize the world's 50,000 diplomats on sight, and if someone flies commercial, they get searched, period.

 

[VCheng]

^^^ I, like so many people I know, just try to avoid flying as much as is possible. Not good.

 

[Chogy]

^^^ I, like so many people I know, just try to avoid flying as much as is possible. Not good.

And what a sad state of affairs that is... Here, mankind has an amazing form of transportation that can transform a trip that would take weeks or months in the year 1900, and turn it into a couple of hours. It's almost a miracle that you can eat breakfast in London, and dinner in New York.

Now, we've all become targets...

 

[VCheng]

Like I have said before, this is just another way terrorism affects us all, in ways large and small. We are all in this together.

 

[LaBong]

End of whine. I've got dozens of TSA horror stories... some of them are very funny. As for the diplomat - I'm sorry, the terrorists have shown great imagination with shoe and underwear bombs, and impersonation is not difficult. A 20 year old TSA person is not going to recognize the world's 50,000 diplomats on sight, and if someone flies commercial, they get searched, period.

Actually it has been mentioned to the crews that the lady is an Ambassador thus enjoying certain immunities.

Anyway US authorities expressed regret, let's not make a mountain out of molehill.

 

[TenjikuKensei]

if one is interested in representing their culture in world, than i am sure there are many other ways to do that.

but man, this is politics. no need to bring culture thing in here. people wear those dresses, because they ARE considered professional, NOW if India or Pakistan can make a dress that looks more professional than the current one, i think they should wear those dress.

BUT i am defiantly sure, sari or hijab aren't professional. they represent culture, fine. but these dresses don't represent "professionalism".

Are you for real? I dont like participating in such arguments, but I couldnt resist replying to your post (consider mine a reply to this as well as the other posts of yours preceding this.)

Have you heard of the term "The old order changeth, yielding place to new?". This is exactly that. In fact one could even change the saying a bit and state" The new order changeth, yielding place to the old".

These are a lot of logical fallacies in your posts, the primary being exemplified by your following statement.

"people wear those dresses, because they ARE considered professional"


Did you take a moment to reflect upon the "reason" why such dresses are considered professional? The operative word here is "considered professional". It should be followed by "why" and "by whom". If you had asked yourself those simple questions; you would have immediately arrived at the obvious answer. The realization that these dresses are considered professional ONLY due to the reason that for the past couple of centuries, the center of power lay in the west..thus international diplomacy took on the functions and forms of those who held the reins of power.To confuse a geopolitical side-effect as a primary quality underlines the core problem with your line of reasoning.

let me quote you a couple of lines from a person whom you would probably admire(an assumption based merely on your last posts)

"Teach him to have faith
in his own ideas,
even if everyone tells him
they are wrong"
..
..
the strength not to follow the crowd
when everyone is getting on the band wagon…"


Kudos to the Indian ambassadors who hold on to their tradition. A few decades from now one might even see the Saree becoming an "accepted" professional attire even in your own circles. After all...even to this day...in formal functions here in the west;The classiest South Asians wear Sarees, while those who don't, look horribly out of place and merely succeed in coming off as yet another one of those Tom, Dick and Harry's of the world. or rather...Mary's Linda's and Babara's of this world.


A mere two centuries of western dominance does not a professional attire make