[Infowarrior] - TSA Agent Threatens Woman With Defamation, Demands $500k For Calling Intrusive Search 'Rape'

[Richard Forno]

TSA Agent Threatens Woman With Defamation, Demands $500k For Calling Intrusive Search 'Rape'

from the don't-be-a-victim dept

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110906/11065015824/tsa-agent-threatens-woman-with-defamation-demands-500k-calling-intrusive-search-rape.shtml

Amy Alkon is an advice columnist and blogger who is just one of many people who has had a horrifying and traumatizing experience going through airport security lately. After being pulled aside for an "enhanced" search, she found the process to be so invasive and so in violation of her own rights that she was left sobbing. She wrote about the experience on her blog, noting that she didn't think the search was just "invasive" in the emotional sense, but flat out physically invasive:

< -- snip so 'evil' but legitimate words about anatomy don't trip your employer's paranoid censoring bots- >

Upon leaving, still sobbing, I yelled to the woman, "YOU RAPED ME." And I took her name to see if I could file sexual assault charges on my return. This woman, and all of those who support this system deserve no less than this sort of unpleasant experience, and from all of us.

After investigating whether or not she could file sexual assault charges, and being told that this was probably a non-starter, she instead wrote about the experience, and named the TSA agent who she dealt with: Thedala Magee. Alkon felt that if people can't stop these kinds of searches, they should at least be able to name the TSA agents who are doing them. 

Magee responded by lawyering up and threatening Alkon with defamation and asking for $500,000 and the removal of the blog post. 

No free woman should endure what your client did to Ms. Alkon.  < - snip - > This was not only her right -- it was her responsibility. I honestly don't know if this reaches the "technical" definition of rape, but I am massively troubled, if not horrified, by the idea that a woman who feels sexually assaulted based on what happened above ends up being threatened for saying she felt violated. Talk about adding insult to injury.