Editor’s Note: Some of the links in this report lead to graphic images that have been taken from current airport security scanning procedures. Use caution in viewing the links.

A constitutional attorney preparing to legally challenge the Transportation Security Administration’s enhanced screening procedures – which reveal a virtually nude image of passengers – says airline passengers have Barack Obama to thank for the process.

“Legislation has been proposed to mandate full-body scanners and make them the primary screening method in all U.S. airports by 2013, but Congress has yet to act on it,” John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, wrote in a new commentary.

“So we can thank President Obama for this frontal assault on our Fourth Amendment rights. Mind you, this is the same man who insisted that ‘we will not succumb to a siege mentality that sacrifices the open society and liberties and values that we cherish as Americans,’” Whitehead said.

Sign onto the petition demanding the suspension of the privacy-invading scans and pat-downs.

“Yet in the wake of the bumbling underwear bomber’s botched Christmas Day attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound plane, Obama directed the Homeland Security Department ‘to acquire $1 billion in advanced-technology equipment, including body scanners, for screening passengers,’” he continued.

Concerns over the invasion of privacy by TSA scanners, described as voyeurism by critics, along with the “molestation” of the associated “enhanced” pat-downs and the health concerns from the blasts of radiation have reached a critical mass.

As WND reported, groups have formed to organize passenger boycotts and prepare protests at airports, calling for a “National Opt-Out Day” on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

Whitehead told WND he’s working on assembling numerous allegations regarding the constitutionality of the scanners in light of the Fourth Amendment’s provision that the  “right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

“It’s a huge civil liberties issue,” he told WND. “In the United States, we’ve never before strip-searched – full-body strip searches – unless there’s reasonable suspicion of some kind of criminal activity.”

For the third straight day, TSA officials declined to respond to WND requests for comment or explanation.

“We’ve gotten tons of e-mails, mainly from females about the invasions of the body scanners,” Whitehead said. “In one case, a mother [told how] her 12-year-old daughter was pulled out of the security line, and [TSA] did touch her breast and vaginal areas.

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