Consumer Advocate Backs TSA Opt Out Campaign
Consumer advocate and noted journalist Christopher Elliott has publicly backed Infowars’ national Opt Out and Film campaign set to take place next month as he leads a charge to abolish dangerous TSA body scanners.
Elliott is a nationally syndicated columnist whose articles have featured in the Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal.
He is also a co-founder of the Consumer Travel Alliance, a Washington-based advocacy group for travelers which has made a bold stance against increasingly ludicrous TSA policies in recent months.
In a Huffington Post article published this morning, Elliott explains how reports that the TSA was shutting down its dangerous x-ray body scanners, linked to cancer by many prestigious health bodies, are inaccurate and that the federal agency is merely moving them to other airports around the country.
He also notes how the 2010 Opt Out day protest was virtually ignored by the mainstream media despite the fact that it proved the TSA made a political decision to mothball the scanners for one day in order to avoid a PR embarrassment – underscoring that the scanners have nothing to do with genuine safety.
Elliott highlights how, “Momentum is building for a second, more sustained opt-out protest which would take place during an entire week, from Nov. 19 to 26. The idea, first suggested by the activist site InfoWars, is now being seriously discussed among activists, and is gaining traction among passengers.”
“The reasoning behind a National Opt-Out Week is this: If the TSA decides to shut down its scanners in response to the protest, as it allegedly did in 2010, activists would have ample opportunity to document the action over a period of a week. TSA critics would then have more than enough evidence to prove that these scans and pat-downs are a false choice and do practically nothing to improve our safety,” he adds.
The campaign is also designed to re-assert the right of travelers to film TSA screening procedures, a right the TSA acknowledges on its own website.
It also encourages travelers to ‘opt out’ of the TSA’s bizarre obedience training programs, including the ridiculous “all stop” policy where travelers are ordered to freeze on the spot for no reason whatsoever. Again, the TSA has admitted that travelers are not mandated to comply with these bizarre displays of security theater.
Anecdotal evidence clearly suggests that TSA screeners treat travelers with the dignity and respect they deserve when they know they are being recorded.
Elliott suggests that if more and more Americans were to opt out of the naked body scanners, the TSA would be forced to eliminate its lengthy and invasive pat down procedures for fear of extending waiting lines and creating even more rancor.
