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Increased TSA security measures will slow down holiday travel, cause delays

interns Contributor
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With the holiday travel season fast approaching, recent stepped-up security screening at the nation’s airports has provoked an outcry from passengers and airline pilots alike, with some of the latter group even threatening to boycott intrusive new checks during the Thanksgiving rush.

CBS News travel editor Peter Greenberg says, regardless of how many airline pilots chose not to pass through security to go to work, the additional security measures are likely to cause longer lines and delays as Americans head off to see their loved ones this holiday season.

The new measures include a new type of walk-through scanning machine which uses very low doses of x-rays to scan travelers’ front and back, creating what many have called a “naked” image.

In addition, Transportation Security Agency agents are now allowed to conduct a very detailed, very personal, body search of passengers who refuse to pass through the new scanners. The agents are allowed to use fingers and the palms of their hands to feel around breasts and genitalia.

A growing number of people, including the 11,500-member Allied Pilots Association, brand these new searches humiliating. The pilots’ union has dubbed the new measures a “virtual strip search” and a “grope.”

Full story: New airport security to slow down holiday travel