The White House removed a petition about the TSA airport screening procedures from the White House “We the People” website.

About 22,500 of the 25,000 signatures necessary for a response from the Administration were obtained when the White House unexpectedly cut short the time period for the petition.

The site also went down for “maintenance” following an article in Wired.com (http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/08/nude-scanner-order/) that sought support for the campaign:

“A federal appeals court Wednesday ordered the Transportation Security Administration to explain why it hasn’t complied with the court’s year-old decision demanding the agency hold public hearings concerning the rules and regulations pertaining to the so-called nude body scanners installed in U.S. airport security checkpoints.

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit’s brief order came in response to the third request by the Electronic Privacy Information Center for the court to enforce its order. Concerns about the machines include the graphicness of the images, the potential health risks and the scanners’ effectiveness.

Jim Harper, the director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute, has started a White House petition to force the TSA to promptly follow the law. By government policy, if the petition gets 25,000 signatures, the President Barack Obama administration is obligated to publicly respond. The petition needs another 9,000 signatures as of publication.”

At 22,500 signatures the petition was pulled by the White House!

We the People – a big joke.

( via epic.org)