"TSA Agents took my son" blogger addresses TSA video in follow-up blog entry.

[Heidi]

my sincere apologies to all of you who have been concerned, wanting answers and looking for an immediate response from me regarding my experience with TSA in the atlanta airport on thursday.

to get right to it, yes, that is me and my son in the video posted on the TSA blog. i will address that in more detail in a moment.

<snip>

i have no further accusations of the TSA, and ultimately who to believe is left up to you. there is nothing more i can do with regards to that.

<snip>

bottom line: my son and i were mistreated and using my blog and my freedom of speech, i made that known to the public. for those of you who know me or “know” me in terms of frequenting my site, i trust that you know i am a strong advocate for parents which is why i posted in the first place, and made that known at the bottom of my original post that no child should be separated from their parent.

am i a dramatic writer? most definitely.

did my son and i suffer a traumatic experience? absolutely.

was my post written when i was extremely emotional? yes.

with that being said, i just ask that you maybe take a step back… in my opinion Elliott.org had a fantastic take on this entire incident that gave me perspective as well.

my apologies

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. Based on the video, the part about being separated from her son was WAYYY over the top

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

2. So basically...

She lied because she's an *advocate for children*

[JTFrog]

3. Oh please Drama Queen.

She needs to take a step back.

There was nothing true about that crazy story other than the metal detector went off and being late she overreacted. The only traumas she or her son experienced were self inflicted.

[WillowTree]

4. She's flat-out lying. Watch the video.

There's a gap of about 20 seconds between when she walks away from the "cage" at the beginning and when she walks into the frame in the area where she was wanded. From that point on, don't watch her, but focus on the people walking by and at the desk in the foreground. There isn't a single blip or incongruity in the actions of anything or anyone around her from the time when she walks into that frame and the end of the video. Not one.

She made no phone calls, at least not in any time period when she says she did, and the child was never removed from her. Admittedly he would have been out of her sight line during the brief time when her back was turned while she was being wanded, but no one ever picked up that baby or took him away from the immediate area where she was.

In the end, it just looks to me that she's pissed royal that she was detained for all of about 10 minutes and proceeded to concoct a little psychodrama to justify her exaggerated outrage over it. Makes me awfully glad I don't have to deal with her.

[MajorChode]

6. I'm sure there are dozens of similar incidents every day

that TSA workers have to deal with. And the vast majority of the time it's dealt with professionally and you never hear anything about it. The only thing you do hear about is when someone is foolishly required to remove a nipple piercing and people form their entire opinion about an agency with thousands of employees on that one incident. Some even claim they are the Gestapo which is a gross insult to anyone who actually was a victim to the Gestapo or had a family member that was.

[MajorChode]

5. Busted!

So yes we did get a mea culpa and yes we did get a little closer to the truth, but this woman didn't post a full disclosure and she wants to claim "freedom of speech" as justification for her defammation. She posts a non-specific apology to her readers, apparently for some of them being trusting enough to believe her in the first place, but there's no apology to the TSA. I'd like to think she's learned something valuable from the experience, but I suspect she hasn't. The only thing she appears to have learned is to be a bit more careful with her deceptions because there might be people who will call her on it and there might be video.

[DRoseDARs]

9. I'd really love her to be on the wrong end of a court summons over this. CPS should be involved too.

TSA's reputation is bad enough without assholes conjuring outrageously false stories like this. If she's this unstable, Child Protective Services should probably pay her a visit too, being a "child advocate" organization and all.

[MajorChode]

12. That's what usually happens to government agencies

They rarely defend themselves unless the incident gains a lot of media attention and they can't sue for defamation. So people like her are free to make up any outrageous shit they want under the guise of "freedom of speech" and nothing usually ever happens to them. The result is people form a warped perception of government and believe they are perpetual fuckups on everything. The reality is that government runs much more efficiently and reliably than the vast majority of private organizations.

[lillypaddle]

7. Is there a link to the video?

Am I just blind - I don't see a link to it.

[Heidi]

8. The link is in another GD thread.

Good morning! :hi:

The video: http://www.tsa.gov/blog/2009/10/response-to-tsa-agents-took-my-son.html

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6798513&mesg_id=6798513

[lillypaddle]

10. Thanks, Heidi

[aikoaiko]

11. She may have a touch of the crazy