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Alaska state legislator Sharon Cissna (source: AK State Legislature)
After her mastectomy padding showed up in the invasive full-body X-ray scan at Sea-Tac Airport on Sunday, Alaska Representative Sharon Cissna (D – District K Anchorage) refused to go through a highly invasive pat-down. Unlike some who have refused this insulting procedure, Cissna was allowed to leave the airport. She had been searched before. After telling her husband she would never submit to such indignity again, she kept her word.
Apparently, Cissna went from Sea-Tac to British Columbia, where she caught a plane to Prince Rupert, where the Alaska Ferry MV Matanuska was scheduled to dock early in the week, as it worked its way north from Bellingham, Washington to Juneau, Haines and Skagway.
From Prince Rupert, before boarding the ferry, which doesn’t have wifi, and only intermittent cell phone coverage, Cissna wrote a letter to constituents:
The evening of the 20th of February 2011 started with relief, as I was anxious to get back to the important work of the Alaskan Legislature. Heading into security after time with the line of passengers, I felt upbeat. I’d blocked out the horror of three months earlier, but after the pleasant TSA agent checked the ticket and ID, I suddenly found myself directed into scanning by the Seattle Airport’s full-body imaging scan. The horror began again. A female agent placed herself blocking my passage. Scan results would again display that my breast cancer and the resulting scars pointed a TSA finger of irregularity at my chest. I would require invasive, probing hands of a stranger over my body.
Memories of violation would consume my thoughts again.”
“Being a public servant and elected representative momentarily disappeared.
Facing the agent I began to remember what my husband and I’d decided after the previous intensive physical search. That I never had to submit to that horror again! It would be difficult, we agreed, but I had the choice to say no, this twisted policy did not have to be the price of flying to Juneau!”
“So last night, as more and more TSA, airline, airport and police gathered, I became stronger in remembering to fight the submission to a physical hand exam.
I repeatedly said that I would not allow the feeling-up and I would not use the transportation mode that required it.”
“For nearly fifty years I’ve fought for the rights of assault victims, population in which my wonderful Alaska sadly ranks number one, both for men and women who have been abused. The very last thing an assault victim or molested person can deal with is yet more trauma and the groping of strangers, the hands of government ‘safety’ policy.”
“For these people, as well as myself, I refused to submit.”
Wednesday, the Alaska House of Representatives took a “Sense of the House” vote in support of Rep. Cissna in a resolution:
“that efficient travel is a cornerstone of our economy and our quality of life especially here in Alaska, and that no one should have to sacrifice their dignity in order to travel.”
The House voted 36-2 to adopt that sentiment. Reps. Bob Lynn, R-Anchorage, and Dan Saddler, R-Eagle River, voted “no.” Cissna and Rep. Anna Fairclough, another Eagle River Republican, were absent.
Representatives Lynn and Sadler are the legislature’s most ardent supporters of the most intrusive and ridiculous aspects of our mismanaged, stupid “war on terror.” Lynn denounced me in a 2004 joint session of the legislature as an enemy of the State.
Anchorage blogger Steve Aufrecht, who is in Juneau for part of the ongoing legislative session, visited Rep. Cissna’s Juneau office yesterday, where he photographed a pile of copies of emailed letters of support for the legislator. Steve wrote “Cissna’s office has been inundated with supportive emails from around the country.”
Alaska U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski, the sole member of Alaska’s national congressional delegation to vote for the extension of Patriot Act provisions last week (Rep. Don Young (R) and Sen. Mark Begich (D) voted against the extension), is supporting Cissna. She wrote to the TSA yesterday:
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, today sent a letter to Transportation Security Administration Administrator John Pistole requesting the TSA immediately clarify it’s screening policy for airline passengers with special medical conditions.
“This kind of invasive probing should not be the price of travel,” Murkowski wrote in the letter. “I appreciate that the TSA has a difficult task in keeping air transportation safe…. However, this incident highlights specific privacy concerns that must be addressed. I am concerned there is an imbalance between safety requirements and overly invasive procedures targeting air travelers who have undergone mastectomy surgeries or use prosthetics.”
“Air travel to Alaska should never require submission to a stranger’s intrusive touching of one’s sensitive body area,” Murkowski wrote.
Hundreds of people are expected to meet the MV Matanuska in support of Rep. Cissna when it docks at the Auke Bay terminal north of Juneau this morning. Progressives in the state capitol are already mobilized this week, having been demonstrating outside the legislature in solidarity with Wisconsin union workers.
Air travel is more important to Alaskans than to residents of any other state. Most Alaska communities are not accessible by road. For instance, my wife is having to take two 737 flights and four Piper Navajo flights this week, merely to go from one job site (mentoring first-year Alaska bush teachers) to the next.
Update: Rep. Cissna arrived in Juneau at 11:00 am PST:
JUNEAU, Alaska —State Rep. Sharon Cissna (D-Anchorage) arrived back in Juneau Thursday morning after a days-long ordeal resulting from her decision to refuse a TSA pat-down at the Seattle-Tacoma Airport.
The ferry M/V Matanuska carrying the state lawmaker pulled into Auke Bay just after 10 a.m.
A dozen or so supporters, some bearing flowers and holding welcome signs, gathered on the dock to greet Cissna.
The lawmaker’s trip began Sunday, when TSA officials at Sea-Tac told her she’d have to undergo a pat-down after they spotted something unusual in a full body scan. Cissna, a breast cancer survivor, said she was targeted because of irregularities in her chest, the result of a mastectomy.
She denied further scrutiny, saying in a later statement: “It would require invasive, probing hands of a stranger over my body. Memories of violation would consume my thoughts again.”
Cissna chose to leave the airport and instead took a small plane to Prince Rupert, B.C., where she boarded the ferry. The voyage took roughly four days.
25 Comments
Hey ET, thank you so much for this update. I hope that this story comes to the attention of my congresswoman, Jackie Speier. I brought up the TSA issue on a recent “town hall” phone call and she is now on the homeland security council and wants to know why we spent all this money on these stupid machines. But that’s just one issue!
I brought up the fact that the cargo industry successfully lobbied against the machines as too costly. She did tell me that cargo is going to be screened this year (?). I also brought up the ridiculous and offensive body searches, but her reply mostly focussed on the machines/cost.
If airline travel is so egregiously dangerous to require body groping, then no one should be flying, regardless of anyone’s medical conditions. (I am thankful that medical conditions continue to keep this issue in the spotlight, though. I don’t think that otherwise healthy individuals should be subjected to this either).
thanks, ET, for filling in the back story on Rep. Cissna’s refusal. i echo dosido’s contention that nobody should be subject to these violating searches.
i was subjected to the “enhanced pat-down” in October before the new procedures had been publically announced, and the experience left me humiliated, enraged, and determined to never go through it again.
i have been flying regularly for work and pleasure, but have not stepped on a plane since. my stomach ties in knots at the thought of going through that groping again.
and an issue that gets danced around but should be debated head-on is how different the procedure is for men and women, with women’s breasts sexualized to such an extreme in our society. men getting felt up in the chest area is just categorically different then for women going through the same groping.
I’ll try to provide an update after the MV Matanuska docks in Juneau. Heavy work schedule today, so we’ll see how I manage to keep up with this.
Shannyn Moore’s radio program on Anchorage/Juneau radio will probably cover this story. The program begins at noon PST, and can be listened to on the web through the portal at Shannyn’s blog.
BTW – not sure a disclaimer is needed – I’ve known Rep. Cissna since she was in middle school. Between my junior and senior year in HS, I worked for her dad, JR Cissna, at his indoor amusement park in Federal Way WA, called Santafair. I first met her when some of the amusement park crew were sent to the family house near Redondo to move a piano and other furniture.
Sharon is by far the most knowledgeable Alaska legislator on medical care issues and on domestic violence and sexual assault. Being in the minority, she has to fight extra hard to get much done, but she does.
Hooray for Rep. Cissna. This should be brought up in Congress over and over until the invasion of privacy of thrown out.
Thank you for your report, EdwardTeller. Photos and videos if possible, please!
Thanks for the update. The invasive “pat-down” body searches are stupid, invasive, a waste of time, money & effort. They should cease immeidately, as they accomplish f*ck all in terms of “making us safe” from whatever. The typical scanners work just fine.
As dosido discussed somewhat, a much bigger “gap” in terms of safety are the cargo and baggage handlers, which have next to no scanning and screening and so on. Our tax dollars would be much better spent on improvements in that area of the airports.
It’s been clear to me since 9/14/2001 (the first day I flew after 9/11) that the whole screening process has been amped up solely and only to generate fear fear fear in the US populace. Yet another brick in the wall of ongoing Class Warfare: keep ‘em scared and stupid and that much more easily to manipulate. That’s all it’s about.
The invasive body searches are meant to *intimidate* citizens… and have *nothing* to do with keeping us “safer” from alleged terrorists. The terrorist in this picture are our wealthy elites foisting these practices on us using our tax dollars to do so.
– it also makes some people a helluva lot of $$$$…
It’s just logical, though, isn’t it, that would be terrorists would adorn themselves like suburban spouses and cut out a breast in order to insert a few ounces of chemical explosives, all in order to repeat an act that the world’s government’s most obsess about and attempt, seriously or otherwise, to avoid, an aircraft bombing or hijacking?
The TSA, apart from spending an enormous budget that goes completely without oversight, which then subsidizes hundreds of millions or more in expenditures with the private sector, seems obsessed in fighting the last war. It would be easier and more catastrophic to sabotage a ferry, a chemical rail car, a municipal water system or a major urban building HVAC system.
The resulting photogenic terror would do just as well in promoting a terrorist’s objective. But why bother with all the planning, risk and expense? We terrorize ourselves already.
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Indeed, and we most likely have been looking in the wrong places the whole time. Trying to keep things from getting into the planes, when it is obvious that on September 11th, that wasn’t the only problem with the planes.
I know I’m stating the obvious, but if Obama, Napolitano, Pistole and Lieberman were subjected to the same abuse, this authoritarian, corporate-welfare driven, abuse of civil liberties would never have gotten past the lobbyist proposal stage.
Crap. Now, how do I get from Sacramento to New Orleans without being felt up. I have no feeling on the left side of my chest wall due to a mastectomy. So, I wouldn’t actually feel anything. Just knowing that some stranger will have to see me, touch me, feel me (hat tip to The Who)so I can get on a plane to go visit my elderly parents is creepy and insulting. Homeland Security, my ass. The train and the bus are too expensive.
Funny, how we don’t have trains in this country.
Hey Senator – if you can get down to LA the Sunset Limited (Amtrak) runs daily to NOLA. It’s a 45 hour trip though, and $173 round trip.
My right lung is pretty much the same way – no feeling (from a pulmonary operation). My main fear of being goosed by the TSA is that I’ll involuntarily kick whoever does it in the nuts.
An updated article on Sharon’s arrival in Juneau, with a picture.
yup.
Alaska blogger Steve Aufrecht has posted a story, pictures and video of Rep. Cissna after she left the ferry.
I would, onitgoes, to your assessment. In the 2003-2005 period of time, I was doing a lot of travel as an associate at a law firm. They sent me from Houston to Austin or Houston to Midland or Houston to Brownsville to do depositions. The catch was this – the firm booked the flights, and they were usually one-way flights. Because we never knew how long I’d be there and they’d book the return flight as a one-way flight later in the week.
So, EVERY SINGLE TIME I went through security, they stopped to search me and grope me. I asked why. Because I was flying one-way paid for by a card not in my name.
I realized then that the post 9/11 airport screeners had lost their minds. They were there to create fear. A respected law firm flying its associates on 45 minute or 1 hour flights was still not sufficient for them. After the 5th time, I told the secretary that I’d book the flights myself and file reimbursement, and that we had to do roundtrips – even if it meant we changed the return date once we knew more.
The searches/groping stopped, but then the “you can’t take that bottled water” became the next issue.
From that point, I noticed that all the loading bays for the restaurants/stores inside the terminals never seemed to be screened. I saw people buying bottled water in those places and taking them on the plane. I wondered “what if those were shipped in by the loading bay but were explosives?”
OF course, then it hit me. The “no bottled water” screenings were more akin to the Movie Theater “no outside snacks allowed” crap. They didn’t want you bringing your own box of junior mints. You had to buy THEIR box of junior mints for $5!
It was a way to boost airport terminal restaurant/store sales. That’s it. That’s all. Security, schmurity.
Same with these rape-scanners. It was a way to make more money for some company associated with Chertoff than anything to do with “security.”
Fear = Profits
…meanwhile, the US is losing its client states in the mideast and north africa, refueling bases, and credibility in the Mid-east as its spent all its time and money groping grandma and fear-mongering for profit…
We do terrorize ourselves. Why would a terrorist cell go through so much trouble to blow up a single plane here in the US when, in the alternative, it could instead…
1. mobilize people to topple regimes once friendly to the US
2. blow up tankers that refuel the war effort in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, etc.
3. Uncover and out and make attempts on the lives of CIA assets in those war zones,
4. Do all the other things that are HAPPENING RIGHT NOW that are undermining American hegemony in the region.
Think about it – if Al Quaeda’s primary goal, as is claimed, is the removal of US forces from the Middle East, the lifting of the blockade on Gaza, and the removal of the Saudi royal family, then they have already begun to accomplish those things without a single plane being blown up:
– Egypt’s Mubarak fell, and now the Gaza checkpoint is open for travel b/w Egypt and Gaza
- Bahrain and Yemen are now facing the threat of topple, putting Saudi in a much more difficult position,
- Pakistan is holding Raymond Davis, the US has already lost its Station Chief, and Pakistani forces are beginning to divide over the US being involved – the US may actually not be able to so effectively operate in Pakistan in the near future.
Why bomb a plane in this nation? Al Quaeda would have a better chance of success getting US troops OUT OF THE MIDEAST by getting popular US support on its side to pull out the troops. The US electorate could become more sympathetic to those concerns if AQ did NOT Bomb our civilians.
I grow increasingly skeptical of the claims that Bin Laden and Al Quaeda are really what our government claims they are. If they wanted the Saudi Regime gone and US forces out of the US, then blowing us up was the WORST way to go about doing it. But mobilizing nonviolent protests in US client states and gaining diplomatic recognition and garnering international sympathy for their cause would have been far more effective.
I’m not saying that what is happening in Egypt is a result of AQ or anybody else. I am merely saying that such methods are far superior to violence against civilians in the US. Which makes me question the entire “war on terror” approach and whether we are even fighting a real enemy, or some mythical ghost conjured up by prolific fear-mongers…
We do have Greyhound, but guess what… they are proposing putting these scanners and gropers in at Greyhound bus stations too. Just to make sure that some “terrorist” doesn’t decide to watch the Keanu Reeves movie, “speed” and get any funny ideas…
**I meant to say “US forces out of the MIDEAST” not out of the US!! oops.**
Yes, true. That, too.
Good points. I knew about that one-way flight thing, as it happened to me once or twice. I’m not sure if that “rule” is still in effect.
The whole situation is bogus, yet I *often* hear citizens in the airport security lines mouthing the talking points about “well we *must* do this in order to be safe,” and other such bogus crap.
And just like clockwork, about once per year they bust someone who is allegedly trying to do something nefarious on an airplane somewhere… so BINGO! Gotta ratchet up the “security” at a heafty fee to the taxpayers.
Frankly, long before 9/11 there were ongoing “incidents” with airplanes. Let’s get real: 9/11 is just an excuse for a whole lot of senseless fear-mongering, plus money generating for the uber elites. Cha-ching!
You make a lot of good points with what you say. The issue is that too many US citizens are completely ignorant about those issues (as our Oligarchs want them to be), and so they simply cannot connect the dots.
What happened on 9/11 was a horrible tragedy, but let’s also get real: these kinds of mass killings happen all around the world in lots of countries. It’s quite unfortunate, but our citizenry as allowed our nation to be led around by the short & curlies based on some bogus notion that the boogey man’s gonna git us unless we spend spend spend on idiotic airport “security” – and not on any other security measures.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175359/tomgram:_engelhardt,_washington's_echo_chamber/
this is what I’ve been saying. Washington’s priorities are very bass-ackwards…