TSA agents fired for groping 'attractive' men

Two Transportation Security Administration workers at Denver International Airport were fired after they were observed manipulating the security screening system to allow a male agent to "grope" the sex organs of "attractive male passengers," according to a television station's investigative report.

Brian Maass, an investigative reporter for CBS4 in Denver, reported such assaults on passengers had happened about a dozen times.

Law enforcement reports he obtained explained that a male TSA worker told a female colleague he "gropes" male passengers who come through the airport screening.

"He related that when a male he finds attractive comes to be screened by the scanning machine he will alert another TSA screener to indicate to the scanning computer that the party being screened is a female," Maass reported. "When the screener does this, the scanning machine will indicate an anomaly in the genital area and this allows (the male TSA screener) to conduct a pat-down search of that area."

The issue of the TSA's security procedures and passengers' privacy erupted a few years ago when it was revealed the agency was using scanners that exposed the passengers' bodies. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., came out in opposition, Texas lawmakers considered legislation and lawsuits were filed.

Eventually, many of the machines that had been installed either were removed or modified to produce a less-revealing image of passengers, but concern about the issue remains.

The CBS report said the TSA was alerted to the recent Denver allegations through an anonymous tip from one of its own employees on Nov. 18, 2014, but it did nothing for some three months.

Read the case for personal freedom in Judge Andrew Napolitano's "It is Dangerous to be Right When the Government is Wrong."

Maass reported: "On Feb. 9 TSA security supervisor Chris Higgins watched the screening area, observing the employees. 'At about 0925 he observed (the male TSA screener) appear to give a signal to another screener … (the second female screener) was responsible for the touchscreen system that controls whether or not the scanning machine alerts to gender-specific anomalies, according to a law enforcement report obtained by CBS4.

"According to the report, the TSA investigator then watched a male passenger enter the scanner at DIA 'and observed (the female TSA agent) press the screening button for a female. The scanner alerted to an anomaly, and Higgins observed (the male TSA screener) conduct a pat down of the passenger's front groin and buttocks area with the palm of his hands, which is contradictory to TSA searching policy,'" the report said.

Higgins said in the report that the female officer "admitted that she has done this for (the male TSA officer) at least 10 other times."

"She knew that doing so would allow (the male TSA officer) to perform a pat down on a male passenger that (the male TSA screener) found attractive."

TSA did not release the names of the fired workers and declined the CBS4 request for an interview. The federal agency said in a written statement that the "alleged acts" would not be tolerated.

"TSA has removed the two officers from the agency. All allegations of misconduct are thoroughly investigated by the agency. And when substantiated, employees are held accountable," the agency told Maass.

The case probably will not result in charges, authorities said, since the passenger, who was flying Southwest Airlines, was not identified.

WND reported several years ago when a woman, Jamelyn Steenhoek, filed a complaint of sexual assault against a woman TSA agent for being groped in ways "as extensive as an exam."

Denver prosecutors then, too, said they would not file charges. At that time it was because they didn't believe they could prove the TSA agent was assaulting people for sexual "gratification, arousal or abuse."

WND reported extensively on the controversy over the TSA's "enhanced" screening, which began in 2009, including when judges threw out cases against the agency based on a "secret order" issued by the TSA.

The dispute over the order arose in cases handled by John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute, who argued Americans do not lose their constitutional rights when they travel.

Rutherford reported its complaints centered on "virtual strip searches" from the scanning process or physical searches "during which TSA agents may go so far as to reach inside a traveler's pants."

Whitehead said at the time,:"No American should be forced to undergo a virtual strip search or be subjected to such excessive groping of the body as a matter of course in reporting to work or boarding an airplane when there is no suspicion of wrongdoing. To do so violates human dignity and the U.S. Constitution, and goes against every good and decent principle this country was founded upon."

But District Court Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. cited a "secret order" issued by the TSA as the basis for dismissing the cases.

At one point, the Libertarian Party of Florida formally asked sheriffs across the state to start arresting TSA agents in the 67 counties for sexual battery.

"As sheriff, you have the absolute duty to enforce the law uniformly and without prejudice. You are, at best, engaged in selective enforcement by choosing to further ignore these flagrant violations of federal and state law. At worst, you are complicit," said a message to the 67 sheriffs from the party, signed by chairman Adrian Wyllie.

Paul's criticism of the process was blunt

"The press reports are horrifying: 95 year-old women humiliated; children molested; disabled people abused; men and women subjected to unwarranted groping and touching of their most private areas; involuntary radiation exposure," he wrote. "If the perpetrators were a gang of criminals, their headquarters would be raided by SWAT teams and armed federal agents. Unfortunately, in this case the perpetrators are armed federal agents. This is the sorry situation 10 years after the creation of the Transportation Security Administration."