Passenger finds 'chilling' note from bag handler

[FunkSoulBrother]

SEATTLE, Washington (AP) -- An airline passenger who had two "No War with Iraq" signs in his suitcase says the federal security agent who opened his luggage inserted a note criticizing his "anti-American attitude."

"I found it chilling and a little Orwellian to have received this message," said Seth Goldberg, 41, of Cranbury, New Jersey.

Federal Transportation Security Administration officials are investigating.

Goldberg says that after a March 2 flight from Seattle to San Diego, California, he opened his bag and found a card notifying him that TSA had opened and searched it.

A handwritten note on the card said: "Don't appreciate your anti-American attitude!"

He said it would have been hard for anyone else to have placed the note because when he claimed the bag in San Diego the zipper pulls were sealed with nylon straps that indicated a TSA inspection.

If a TSA employee placed the note, "we will take appropriate and swift action," TSA spokesman Brian Turmail said Saturday from Washington, D.C.

"That is not appropriate behavior and not within the very high expectations we hold ... and that the American public has a right to expect," Turmail added.

Screeners are trained "in a range of customer service issues ... to assure the security process is polite, professional and appropriate," Turmail said.

Goldberg said he picked up the anti-war signs in Seattle.

"In New Jersey there's very little in the way of protest and when I got to Seattle I was amazed how many anti-war signs were up in front of houses," he said.

 

>A handwritten note on the card said: "Don't
>appreciate your anti-American attitude!"

Bravo

- - -
"This is the business we've chosen." - Hyman Roth

 

[Skyweasel]

Being anti-war is not anti-American, far from it.

 

[radiofreecostarica]

what a good little nazi that bag handler was...

awwwww.

 

[Phaedrus]

FF, aren't you being hypocritical? It's well and good that this particular screener shared your views on the prospect of war with iraq, but if you were in the position of the passenger you would be screaming to the heavens about this egregious breach of your rights to privacy and property.

The person who did this should lose his job over it -- not because of pro-war views, not because of taunting a passenger without having the courage to do so to his face, but for directly and outrageously abusing his access to the passenger's property to do vent.

Again -- if you were there you'd be howling like a loon, and anyone on this forum who said 'bravo' would be a f*ggot Nazi c*cksucker according to FatFrank.

 

RED ALERT! RED ALERT!
The pro-war Neo-Nazi's have escaped from the trailor park & may now be secretly servicing your every need at McDonald's or even as a bag handler

The little Nazi's are everywhere, right Frank

 

[Jazz]

This is insane. Come on. folks, one note got put into someone's luggage and you'd think Armageddon was here, that the storm troopers are at the door. Good grief

 

[radiofreecostarica]

sure, let's wait until they come with yellow stars. my bad.

 

radio,

You would wear a pink triangle

- - -
"This is the business we've chosen." - Hyman Roth

 

[radiofreecostarica]

and you sir, head to toe in lavender.

 

[Phaedrus]

My point on this has nothing to do with the war/no war argument ... it is only that this screener committed a gross violation of this person's privacy, especially considering that people with the authority to root through your sh*t are ostensibly supposed to maintain a high level of professionalism in their jobs, and they simply don't. The guy should be fired.

My question to FF was simply intended to remove it from the war/no war context and ask him how he'd feel about some punk airport quasi-cop pulling similar stunt on himself.

Jazz, do you really not find anything wrong with this screener's actions? Of course it isn't 'Armagedon' but do you seriously think that this is not serious as far as baggage-screener issues go?


Phaedrus

 

[radiofreecostarica]

Over the past half century the mainstream has constantly suppressed all dissent coming from both right and left. All are "crazies" and "unamerican". All are relegated to the likes of Tim McVeigh/David Koresh/"radicals" and, through subtle wordplay, are discredited by the press. What we fail to acknowledge is that it is the margins that usually push toward a greater human progress of thought and action. Innovation in itself is extreme, invention absurd. That being said, while the press discredits the "loonies" this seemingly "normal" man will continue checking bags and leaving his post-it invectives in the luggage of any with whom he disagrees.
The employee in question should be fired (or at least suspended) from his current job for his inability to keep a calm head while doing his duty.

 

[Jazz]

The guy was a jerk for doing it. Big deal. Suspend him without pay for a month, send him to group hug sessions, reinstate with a warning he will be immediately fired if anything further is noted.

Note - make sure the warning is NOT endorsed by the UN, because those clowns do their utmost to word resolutions in such a way that even a clear intent can be made ambigous.

 

[Jazz]

One other thing - this was one guy obviously not following government policy. Jerks and assholes abound in real life, probably even at your place of work, nothing unusual about that. My point was this isn't an official policy so I'm not soiling my BVDs over it.

 

[radiofreecostarica]

its NOT govt. policy to suppress dissent?

 

>policy to suppress dissent?

http://therxforum.com/6/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=100090022&f=9103084407&m=5693040607

- - -
"This is the business we've chosen." - Hyman Roth

 

[radiofreecostarica]

my point exactly.

 

[Jazz]

The funny thing about this topic is that, as with most of these topics, the subject gets changed immediately whenever someone makes a valid point, and the argument is shifted to another topic. The one in this case is laughably so far away from a shmuck putting in a note to a suitcase that it borders on silliness. What did you think the military would do in a post 9/11 atmosphere, just open the gates and let the anti-war protestors IN? And if one of them had a bomb, oh say like hundreds of Palestinians have had, gets in and explodes it and kills some military people, that'd be their just due, right? Have you forgotten terrorism? Also, if people have been warned not to penetrate fences and do so anyway, I'd consider that 'thinning of the herd'.