Think air travel security has been bad? It gets worse!

Johnny Edge has a post up about his recent encounter with TSA officials. Anyone who travels by air, or may be considering traveling by air - or anyone who gives a damn about the fact that our civil liberties are being eroded - ought to read it. It begins:

This morning, I tried to fly out of San Diego International Airport but was refused by the TSA. I had been somewhat prepared for this eventuality. I have been reading about the millimeter wave and backscatter x-ray machines and the possible harm to health as well as the vivid pictures they create of people's naked bodies. Not wanting to go through them, I had done my research on the TSA's website prior to traveling to see if SAN had them. From all indications, they did not. When I arrived at the security line, I found that the TSA's website was out of date. SAN does in fact utilize backscatter x-ray machines.

Having been denied use of the available metal detector, the writer declines both a groping and the nude-image backscatter scanner and is (eventually) escorted out of the security area, only to discover:

He informed me that I could not leave the airport. He said that once I start the screening in the secure area, I could not leave until it was completed. Having left the area, he stated, I would be subject to a civil suit and a $10,000 fine.

It gets better. The writer had checked the airport's website to see what screening procedures to which he might be subject:

I told him that I would submit to a walk through the metal detector, but that was it; I would not be groped. He told me that their procedures are on their website, and therefore, I was fully informed before I entered the airport; I had implicitly agreed to whatever screening they deemed appropriate. I told him that San Diego was not listed on the TSA's website as an airport using Advanced Imaging Technology, and I believed that I would only be subject to the metal detector. He replied that he was not a webmaster, and I asked then why he was referring me to the TSA's website if he didn't know anything about it.

There's audio confirmation for most of what the writer relates (the video's not good because the cell phone was out of his immediate control for a good portion of the encounter), although I imagine that after this goes viral the TSA will require proof that all recording devices are turned off before a person is allowed to enter the screening area. After all, it's easier for bullies to deny what they're doing when they can prevent evidence to the contrary coming to light.

So will I be flying commercial while the virtual strip-searches and gropes continue? Not unless hell freezes over.