Would Lenore Zimmerman lie?

Probably not. When she says that she was strip searched at JFK airport by two TSA agents, who required her to remove her pants and bloomers, it’s unimaginable that she was making it up.  But there’s a problem.  There’s no video of it happening.  She was taken to a private room, where no one else could see what happened.  If there is a video of what happened inside the room, it hasn’t been made public.

Therefore, it never happened.  That’s the TSA’s position, and they’re sticking to it.

That’s not to say that TSA Bob is a heartless fellow.

You may have heard in the news about an elderly woman who is stating she was strip searched at New York’s JFK airport by TSA officers. TSA contacted the passenger to apologize that she feels she had an unpleasant screening experience; however, TSA does not include strip searches in its protocols and a strip search did not occur in this case.

By using bold faced type, TSA Bob makes it absolutely clear that a strip search could not possibly have happened since the TSA doesn’t do such things.  Whew. Dodged a bullet there.

Brian Tannebaum questions the efficacy of even noticing Lenore Zimmerman’s complaint.

I write not to express outrage at the notion that airport security would ask some old lady to take her pants off, I write to ask what the point is in even talking about it?

What’s the point of pounding the keyboard to rant about the unbelievable power of TSA and the cowards in Congress who allow it to continue?

Very little will ever change.

Perhaps he would feel differently if there was a video of this nice old woman without her knickers.  While the existence of video, showing the many things that never, ever happened before the existence of video, informs us that sometimes the very people we think are there to protect us behave very badly, we’ve grown jaded.  We have plenty of video now to show that police lie, beat the crap out of people for no good reason, even kill people needlessly and then lie to cover it up.  We know this because we have video conclusively proving it.

There is no one in America with a computer who can credibly deny these things happen.  They can rationalize why it’s not consequential, whether because the person deserved it anyway, or it’s the price we have to pay for self-preservation, or cops and TSA agents have a very difficult job and it’s too much to expect them to be perfect.  These are very forgiving people.

But the need to rationalize wrong happens only when we’re forced to confront it.  Damn those videos.  Here, there is no video, and thus nothing to stop TSA Bob from doing what government has done successfully forever. Deny it ever happened.

But TSA Bob is a shrewd fellow, well-trained in the magic of marketing, and he seizes the opportunity to remind us that, even though this never happened, there are excellent reasons why it should.

The passenger opted out of advanced imaging technology screening, requested a pat-down and told the officers that she was wearing a back brace or support belt which required private screening.

Private screening was conducted by two female officers. The item was removed, rescreened, and the passenger was cleared for travel. Nothing unusual was depicted on the CCTV as the passenger and two female officers entered and exited the room. The wheelchair attendant assisted the passenger in departing the checkpoint area for the gate.

Terrorists remain focused on attacking transportation through tactics such as concealing explosives under clothing. Further, as evidenced by the Christmas Day 2009 attempted bombing, concealed anomalies under clothing must continue to be resolved and cleared as part of the screening process to ensure the item does not pose a threat to the safety of the traveling public. Terrorists and their targets may also range in age. Read here about a group of elderly men who were planning on using toxic ricin against U.S. citizens, U.S government and officials.

Anyone.  Anyone can be a threat, a terrorist, bent on destruction.  Old women. toddlers, anyone.  Whether it’s a bomb planted in a shoe, or in underwear, or even a bodily crevice.  Why would you question the will of a terrorist, a person who has already made the choice of giving up their life to destroy ours, from having a bomb implanted deep within their anus?  It could happen, and when the TSA finds it and stops it, you will be extremely thankful that it wasn’t you or your child on that plane that would have exploded but for the heroic vigilance of the TSA.

But the TSA doesn’t make airplane passengers remove their old lady undergarments.  It is not included in its protocols.  It didn’t happen, and there’s no video to show otherwise.

So Lenore Zimmerman, who seems to be a lovely woman from Long Island, a snowbird flying to Florida to escape the harsh northern winters that chills her very bones, must have been terribly confused.  Perhaps she had a senior moment. Maybe she’s antagonistic toward the government.  Even anarchists grow old, you know.  This could be her way of trying to embarrass the TSA, by fabricating a story of being strip searched at JFK Airport when protocols preclude it from being possible.  

Without a video, we can never be certain that Lenore Zimmerman isn’t one of them.  But if we had a video, unsavory as the image of Ms. Zimmerman’s knickerless lower torso might be, would it change anything?   It hasn’t thus far.