Sharon Cissna

The following is an article that was written by Daniel Rubin, a Philadelphia Inquirer columnist, about Sharon Cissna.

Say 'No' to TSA - Alaska's Cissna tells House panel
March 17, 2011 | By Daniel Rubin, Inquirer Columnist

If the rallying cry of outraged air travelers last fall was "Don't touch my junk," a simpler and softer call has risen from an Alaska state representative and breast cancer survivor.

"No."

It's a powerful word, Sharon Cissna told a House subcommittee Wednesday. And each time she said it to a growing circle of TSA agents, airport workers, and police in Seattle last month, she felt more confident. "No," the Democrat from Anchorage recalled saying, "I will not be physically touched. I will leave the airport. There will be another way to return to the statehouse in Juneau."

She used the word horror to describe what happened in November, when she was returning from surgery and her prosthetic breast triggered a whole-body-imaging machine alarm. She likened the pat-down to a "feeling up."

As a girl, Cissna had been touched inappropriately, she told the panel, and as a mental-health counselor since 1962, she has tended victims of abuse. So when she learned that to get on the plane last month she would have to undergo another pat-down, she refused. She left the airport and traveled four days - by car, ferry, and small plane - to get home.

Cissna provided the most emotional moments during the first morning of testimony before a subcommittee that is probing the use of whole-body-imaging machines. The drama was provided by the jockeying between Democrats and Republicans over whether officials from the Transportation Security Administration would get to testify.

TSA officials objected Monday to having to sit next to the head of a privacy group that has sued the agency five times. Democrats were more sympathetic to the TSA's discomfort. Midway through the hearing, the TSA agreed to send two officials to answer questions, but with 45
minutes left before another panel needed the room, Subcommittee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, a Republican from Utah, announced that the TSA would have to come another day. Ultimately, the chairman allowed the testimony.

Much pointed commentary emerged during a discussion of the new technology's safety and effectiveness. Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said his group was battling the TSA to see 2,000 images of passengers' bodies it believes the agency has kept. The group contends that the machines can store the sensitive pictures when set in a training mode. The TSA denies the machines save such images.

Lynn Fallon

Lynn Fallon was interviewed by an NBC correspondent regarding her molesting pat down experience. This interview can be viewed on the following website:

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/TSA_Goes_Too_Far_Philadelphia-119300269.html