TSA backs up most of Chaffetz's account

Rep. Jason Chaffetz was pulled out of a normal security line and told to enter what he calls a "strip search" machine at Salt Lake International Airport, according to Transportation Security Administration reports obtained by the Deseret News through a Freedom of Information Act request.

A union representing TSA workers earlier had claimed that Chaffetz himself chose to stand in line for that machine and spark a now infamous conflict with security officials over the machines that he has been trying to ban.

While the just-released reports back up most of what Chaffetz has said about the Sept. 21 incident, they do say TSA officials did not know who Chaffetz was when they asked him to go through the machine, even though he later claimed it was payback for fighting the machine and opposing TSA unionization.

The reports also say Chaffetz became combative and used profanity-laced tirades — including telling them their process "was full of (s-word)" — after identifying himself as a congressman, raising questions if a non-congressman using such language would have passed through security. But Chaffetz says the profanity is exaggerated in the reports.

The incident began, one officer wrote, when he noticed no one was in a line for the whole-body imaging machine, so he chose the next person waiting to go through an adjacent, regular security line to enter that imaging machine instead. It happened to be Chaffetz.

"He said, 'No, I don't want to go through here,' " the officer wrote. "I said we could give him a pat down instead of the ITM (whole-body imaging machine). He said, 'No, I want to go through here and again pointed at the walk through."

The officer added, "I then stated, 'Sir, at this point your options are the ITM or we could give him a full pat down instead of the ITM.' He then went through the walk-through" and was led to another area for a pat-down search.

The officer wrote, "At that time, I didn't know who he was nor would (it have) mattered. He was a passenger."

Another officer wrote about watching Chaffetz receive the pat-down search. "During the entire process he was asking why we had singled him out. We informed him he was randomly selected to go through the ITM. We also informed him that by refusing to go through the ITM that he was subjected to a full pat down.

"He then informed me at how ridiculous and 'full of (s-word)' our screening process was. We informed the gentleman that the screening was completed and told him to have a good day." Of note, Chaffetz denies saying such profanity at that point.