Published: May 12, 2015
Transportation Security Administration officers allegedly sexually assaulted commercial airline passengers at three major U.S. international airports, according to documents obtained by a government watchdog group.
Judicial Watch received 58 pages of sexual assault allegations following a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security after the agency failed to respond to a March 5, 2014 Freedom of Information Act request.
Victims of the sexual assault allegations said they were “shocked,” “violated,” and “humiliated,” documents show.
One woman said a female TSA agent “placed both palms against my breasts and I was shocked, humiliated, alarmed and assaulted and said ‘Stop!’”
The woman reported the October 2013 incident at the Los Angeles Airport to a supervisor, according to documents. She was told the supervisor would look at the video, but that she was not allowed to know what actions were taken against the officer. She was also told that she couldn’t look at the video herself.
Another female TSA officer groped a passenger’s breasts at the O’Hare Airport on July 5, 2013. Two other officers watching and “even the supervisor … began to roar with laughter,” documents show.
A day later at O’Hare Airport, a woman reported that her mother, a breast cancer survivor, felt her pat down was akin to rape and that she would “never travel again” because of her treatment.
Yet another report showed that a passenger “was struck very hard in the groin area” during a pat down at Denver International Airport on April 7, 2013.
Two TSA officials at Denver International were fired after manipulating screenings to allow a male agent to “fondle the genital areas of attractive male passengers,” CBS4 in Denver reported last month.
One report showed a TSA official questioned an elderly woman about her colostomy bag.
She told the officer “It’s only poop. I can’t blow up a plane with poop!”
The officer then made her “touch her bag so I could then test her hands,” the report said.
“That we had to fight and sue in court to get the TSA to disclose these shocking complaints shows the TSA is more interested in a cover up than addressing the problem that its employees violate innocent travelers too often, sexually or otherwise, said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton in a statement.
“Americans simply trying to board a plane should not have to worry about being assaulted by federal employees working for TSA,” Fitton said.
