Additional Reporting by BC Bass

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- John Pistole, head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), has weathered an ongoing storm of public criticism over his agency’s increasingly intrusive and inconvenient screening procedures, which analysts say have done little, if anything, to make travelers safer than they were before September 2001. Parents have complained about invasive imaging systems that display images of their children nude, as well as TSA screeners freely groping young boys and girls in line as part of enhanced “pat down” policies. Pistole defended his agents, explaining that they are all highly trained and trustworthy individuals: “Leaving your child alone in a closed room with an officer while he conducts a thorough cavity search should raise no more alarm than your child visiting a priest’s chambers.” Interestingly, the number of former priests and retired congresspeople hiring on at the TSA has steadily increased over the last three years.

But today, with the government’s warning to air carriers that terrorists could be planning to surgically implant explosives into people to circumvent screening systems, Pistole called on commuters to display more patience and tolerance.