Henry Kissinger, Nobel Peace Prize winner, given a full TSA pat-down at LaGuardia

GlobalPost

Henry Kissinger is the latest high-profile figure to be subjected to a serious TSA pat-down. 

The 88-year-old former US Secretary of State, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end the war in Vietnam, was given "the full Monty" while going through security at New York's LaGuardia airport, freelance journalist Matthew Cole told the Washington Post

The TSA agent sent the diplomat to be searched after asking him his name, which he didn't apparently also didn't recognize, Cole told the Post. Kissinger was in a wheelchair, possibly because it was a long walk to his gate. 

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 “He stood with his suit jacket off, and he was wearing suspenders," Cole said. "They gave him the full pat-down. None of the agents seemed to know who he was." 

Kissinger didn't seem ruffled by the treatment: he was just looking forward to being served breakfast on his flight, which was reportedly headed to Toronto, the International Business Times reported

Kissinger is not the first notable figure to get the close attention of TSA officials: Californian Senator Diane Feinstein and TV host Geraldo Rivera have both been subjected to "handsy" searches by airport security, according to MSNBC's travel blog Overhead Bin

"Surely there’s a smarter way to do airport security," wrote the New York Times' Juliet Lapidos, "some middle ground between illegal profiling and patting down octogenarians." 

One would think. 

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