STRIP Act targets TSA uniform: End 'impersonation' of 'real cops'

It's a new House bill that stands for Stop TSA's Reach In Policy and would prevent Transportation Security Administration officers from wearing law enforcement uniforms and police-like badges and calling themselves officers unless they receive law enforcement training.

"Congress has sat idly by as the TSA strip searches 85-year-old grandmothers in New York, pats down 3-year-olds in Chattanooga, and checks colostomy bags for explosives in Orlando. Enough is enough!" said the bill's sponsor, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) "The least we can do is end this impersonation, which is an insult to real cops."

The American Federation of Government Employees said the bill was insulting to the 44,000 TSA workers it represented and did "nothing to add to our national security.''

"Every single member of Congress should be supporting federal employees, not trying to demean them," the union's national president, John Gage, said in a statement.

Charlie Leocha, director of the Consumer Travel Alliance, said his advocacy group supported the measure.

"I just think it's important to not present an image to the public which is not true," he said, adding that TSA had gone from "more of a friendly operation ... there to help you" to workers who were "intimidating passengers."

The bill, which has drawn 29 co-sponsors in the few weeks since it was introduced, would prohibit any TSA employee "who has not received federal law enforcement training or is not eligible for federal law enforcement benefits from using the official job title of officer, or wearing a metal badge resembling a police badge or a uniform resembling the uniform of a federal law enforcement officer."

A TSA official said the badge and uniform represent "the professionalism of our employees and the seriousness of our work."

The agency, which changed the name of screeners to officers in 2005, said in a statement:

"TSA's frontline workforce protects the traveling public at airports across the country every day, and every day our officers stop deadly weapons from getting on aircraft. In 2008, as part of the organization's continued efforts to transition the workforce to a cadre of well-trained, professional transportation security officers, TSA introduced uniforms more reflective of the critical nature of their work and of the high standards they uphold."

The turbulence over Blackburn's bill comes as the House on Tuesday is poised to send to President Obama a popular measure that would require TSA to develop an expedited screening system for military personnel and, "to the extent possible,'' accompanying family members, if the armed forces member is traveling on orders and in unform.

The measure was introduced by Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-Minn.), a Navy veteran and former commercial airline pilot, after he witnessed military personnel experience lengthy waits, including having to take off their boots and medals, at security checkpoints at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport.

"Our soldiers who are sent off to fight for our country or returning from the battlefield deserve to be treated like VIPs in our airports," Cravaack said at a recent hearing.

Last week, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) called on TSA to designate a “passenger advocate” at every airport who can be summoned by passengers to hear their concerns if they feel they have been inappropriately treated by screeners.

His request came after an elderly woman claimed that she was strip-searched at John F. Kennedy Airport. TSA says it does not conduct strip searches.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/

From Google News

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Women in Egypt hold huge rally to protest violence against them

Egyptian soldiers beat and stripped some women protesters in Cairo. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the attacks on women as "shocking."

by Shaimaa Fayed and Marwa Awad

CAIRO -- Egyptian police and soldiers fired guns and teargas to try to clear hundreds of women protesters from Cairo's Tahrir Square on the fifth day of clashes that have killed 13 people and drawn a stinging rebuke from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

It may have been the biggest all-female demonstration in Egypt's history.

Clinton on Tuesday condemned as "particularly shocking" incidents such as one in which two Egyptian soldiers were filmed dragging a woman protester on the ground by her black full-body veil, exposing her bra, then clubbing and kicking her.

The confrontations provide a turbulent backdrop to Egypt's progress towards democracy, with nine provinces, mostly outside the capital, holding run-off votes on Wednesday and Thursday in a parliamentary election being staggered over six weeks.

The army has pledged to hand power to an elected president by July, but its plans to permanently shield itself from civilian oversight in the new constitution have enraged pro-democracy protesters, who want it to hand over power at once.

Medical sources say 13 people have been killed and hundreds wounded in the latest violence, which began on Friday in Tahrir and nearby streets leading to parliament and the cabinet office.

"Women protesters have been rounded up and subjected to horrific abuse. Journalists have been sexually assaulted. And now women are being attacked, stripped and beaten in the streets," Clinton said in a speech at Washington's Georgetown University on Monday.

"This systematic degradation of Egyptian women dishonours the revolution, disgraces the state and its uniform and is not worthy of a great people," she added, in some of the strongest U.S. criticism of Egypt's new rulers.

The United States, which saw deposed leader Hosni Mubarak as a staunch ally, gives Cairo $1.3 billion a year in military aid.

WOMEN MARCH

Gunfire rang out across the square at dawn as security forces charged hundreds of protesters, and later thousands of women marched on the square to condemn attacks on females who have taken part in the protests. But by nightfall the square was calm again.

The women marchers were dressed in black and accompanied by male demonstrators who vowed to protect them from harassment.

"The women of Egypt are a red line!" they chanted.

"This is a continuation of the systematic violence we used to witness (under Mubarak)," said Sarah Rifaat, a 27-year-old environmentalist. "They manipulate women, thinking they can break the people and scare them this way.

"What happened to the girl who was stripped and dragged was sheer savagery. We cannot be silent about this. I want someone from the military council to admit responsibility."

In a statement, the army council that took over after Mubarak was overthrown in February apologised, saying it "respects and appreciates Egyptian women and their right to protest and fully participate in political life".

General Adel Emara, a member of the council, said on Monday that the attack on the woman protester was an isolated incident and was under investigation. He denied that the army had given orders to clear the square.

But other generals and their advisers have condemned the pro-democracy protesters, sometimes in extraordinary terms.

"What is your feeling when you see Egypt and its history burn in front of you?" retired general Abdel Moneim Kato, an army adviser, told the daily al-Shorouk, referring to a historic archive building set alight during clashes - the Institute of Egypt. "Yet you worry about a vagrant who should be burnt in Hitler's incinerators."

One opposition group that has lowered its profile in the protests is the once-banned Muslim Brotherhood, whose Freedom and Justice Party leads the election results after the first round, followed by hardline Salafi Islamists.

A large percentage of the individual - rather than party list - seats up for grabs in the run-offs will be contested between Muslim Brotherhood and Salafi candidates.

Washington has reached out to Islamists in a shift in approach since the summer. A senior U.S. diplomat met Islamist and other newly elected members of parliament in the northern city of Alexandria, the embassy said on Tuesday.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2011/1221/Women-in-Egypt-hold-huge-rally-to-protest-violence-against-them

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Renegade Amish group charged with hate crimes in beard-cutting attacks in Ohio

Samuel Mullet, 11 followers under arrest

by Nina Mandell

Twelve members of a renegade Amish group were charged with hate crimes in the bizarre beard-cutting attacks on other members of the sect in eastern Ohio, the Department of Justice said Tuesday.

Samuel Mullet and 11 members of his group also face charges of conspiracy, assault and tampering with evidence in the case that has drawn worldwide attention to the insular community.

Mullet and six of his followers were jailed in late November and five additional suspects were arrested this week.

The rebel Amish leader told the AP after his arrest in November that the attacks were to send a message to other Amish about how they treat his followers.

"They changed the rulings of our church here, and they're trying to force their way down our throat, make us do like they want us to do, and we're not going to do that," he said.

Prosecutors say Mullet and his followers forcibly cut women's hair and men's beards and hair using battery-powered clippers or scissors in five attacks between September and November. The Amish believe the Bible instructs them to grow their hair after marriage.

They also allegedly injured people who tried to protect or rescue the victims from the offensive attacks and then conspired to conceal evidence.

In addition to the widely reported assaults, prosecutors say that the men placed over-the-counter medication in one of the victim's drinks meant to sicken him.

“One of our most fundamental rights is freedom of religion," Stephen Anthony , special agent in charge of the FBI at Cleveland Field Office, said in a statement. "The FBI, along with our law enforcement partners, are committed to protecting this fundamental right against those who would use violence and intimidation to attack it."

Mullet denied ordering the attacks to the AP, but admits he did nothing to stop them.

If convicted, the defendants face life in prison for the hate-crime charge alone.

"For nearly 500 years, people have come to this land so that they could pray however and to whomever they wished," said Steven Dettelbach , U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. "Violent attempts to attack this most basic freedom have no place in our country."

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/renegade-amish-group-charged-hate-crimes-beard-cutting-attacks-ohio-article-1.994743?print=1

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