Original Blog Entry: Hillary Clinton: I'd avoid TSA 'pat-down' if I could...

truesee — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 21:29:08 GMT

Hillary Clinton: I'd avoid TSA 'pat-down' if I could... but adds 'enhanced measure' a necessary evil

James Gordon Meek

DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

Sunday, November 21st 2010, 2:19 PM

Miller for NewsSecretary of State Hillary Clinton said on 'Face the Nation' that she's dodge the TSA's pat-down search if she were able to, but the invasive security measure is important for safety.

Walker/APA Transportation Security Administration agent performs an enhanced pat-down on a traveler at a security area at Denver International Airport.

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton put down TSA pat-downs on Sunday, calling it an offensive security measure she wouldn't want to experience herself.

Everybody is trying to do the right thing, Clinton said on CBS' Face The Nation. I understand how difficult it is, and how offensive it must be for the people who are going through it.

Asked if she would be willing to submit to an airport frisk, Clinton laughed and admitted, Not if I could avoid it. No, I mean who would?

Clinton has likely rarely, if ever, dealt with metal detectors, explosives swabs, full-body backscatter scanners or pat-downs as an air traveler since she began receiving Secret Service protection with her husband, former President Bill Clinton, in 1992.

In Lisbon, President Obama said he understands frustrations and the Transportation Security Administration has to think through, are there ways of doing it that are less intrusive?

TSA Director John Pistole agreed on CNN's State of the Union, that to some people, it is demeaning -- but his security screeners will continue doing patdowns.

Not going to change, Pistole said.

Pistole said the measure was a response to Al Qaeda in Yemen airbomber Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to destroy a Detroit-bound jetliner with a bomb in his underwear last Christmas. But the pat-downs policy didn't begin for 10 months because Homeland Security officials were awaiting Pistole's June Senate confirmation as director, an insider told the Daily News.

I am absolutely confident that our security experts are gonna' keep tryin' to get it better and less intrusive and more precise, Clinton said.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/11/21/2010-11-21_hillary_clinton_id_avoid_tsa_patdown_if_i_could_but_its_a_necessary_evil.html#ixzz15xELxsUz

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