Hey man, no one is forcing you to ride the subway, take your car, leave your house, walk down the street or conduct commerce. As long as you don't don any of that, we don't need to search you.
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Hey man, no one is forcing you to ride the subway, take your car, leave your house, walk down the street or conduct commerce. As long as you don't don any of that, we don't need to search you.
TSA Agent wearing a burka.
Survival Monkey ^
Posted on Monday, December 20, 2010 9:47:08 AM by FromLori
I fly fairly frequently for work.
I recently had the pleasure of not being scanned or pulled aside for a friendlier session in two major cities. Others around me were not so lucky. Blonde females between 18 and 22 seemed to be the likely candidates for further scrutiny - and a few elderly, Caucasian grandmothers.
If the US is stilll on the "Arabs/Muslims are TeRrOrIsTs" kick, why are they searching non-arabs/non-Muslims: attractive young female college students, middle age white guys with pot bellies and grannies?
The other thing that bothers me is the broken English of many of the TSA workers. There were a few Arabs working my line and I wondered how long they had had their green card and what exactly their qualifications were for searching me, a US born citizen. Who can feel safer when guys named Mohamed are the ones checking their bags? It's like they hired a bunch of NYC Cabbies to guard us from shampoo explosives.
I made it through, had a surprisingly tasty omelette to order and then saw this: Yes, that's a burka, yes that's a real TSA agent, (I saw her badge when I passed her and made a U-turn to snap a pic)
They're not just stripping us of our freedoms, they're rubbing our noses in it along the way.
http://www.survivalmonkey.com/melbo/tsa-burka.jpg
Napolitano: Get Used to Airport Pat-Downs
http://newmexicoindependent.com/wp-c...tano-photo.jpg
WASHINGTON -- The use of full-body scanners and invasive pat-downs at airports around the U.S. will not change for the "foreseeable future," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in an interview broadcast Sunday.
While saying that she is always looking to improve the security systems in place, Napolitano added that the new technology and the pat-downs were "objectively safer for our traveling public."
Napolitano dismissed a recent news report about major airports failing secret tests designed to get contraband such as guns and knives past security screeners. The report said some airports had a 70 percent failure rate.
"Many of them are very old and out of date and there were all kinds of methodology issues with them. Let's set those aside," she said on "State of the Union" on CNN. "We pick up more contraband with the new procedures and the new machinery."
Get used to being in office for the rest of your current term because you're OUT shortly.
Bitch.
Obscene, threatening comments posted at anti-TSA website traced to Homeland Security servers
Wednesday, December 29, 2010 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) seem to now be going on the offensive against those who oppose its new invasive and unconstitutional airport security protocols being carried out by agents of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA). According to George Donnelly, owner of WeWontFly.com, government workers appear to be posting hateful messages on his anti-TSA blog under the guise of anonymity.
One such comment, which has since been deleted, said, "F**k you, f**k all you c**ksuckers, you wont change anything." Another stated, "Ride the bus, TSA is here to stay there [sic] doing a great job keeping americia [sic] safe."
Donnelly says that upon tracing the origin of the comments, he discovered that they came from the servers of dhs.gov, the official website of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Nineteen comments in total were all posted from the same server, including the two previously mentioned. And while all were worded in different tones and voices, they all expressed hostility to those opposing the TSA.
"Some questions come to mind," wrote Donnelly on his blog in response to his findings. "Is this an official statement? If not, is it an accurate representation of the DHS position? Was this person on the public dime when he or she posted this? Who posted this and what is their position with DHS?"
"This is not the first time we have been trolled by individuals connected to the TSA. Someone posted a personal attack on me from an IP belonging to mitre,org, a corporation whose core competency is securing federal government contracts, including DHS and TSA ones. Any effective TSA resistance threatens not only the TSA itself but also the bureaucrats who got us to this point and the corporations who are getting paid for the technology."
WeWontFly.com is working towards abolishing the new TSA protocols by pushing airlines to take a stand. And according to a Washington Post piece from November, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a civil liberties group, has filed a lawsuit against the TSA citing the unconstitutionality of its current actions.
TSA head: Airport screeners must avoid pat-downs of children
By the CNN Wire Staff
June 23, 2011 5:51 a.m. EDT
http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2011/TRA...d.down.wwl.jpg
Video of the April 5 pat-down incident was posted on YouTube.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- The policy change is announced at a Senate committee meeting
- Screeners must avoid pat-downs of children 10 and under
- Outrage over the pat-down of a 6-year-old sparks the change
(CNN) -- The Transportation Security Administration is changing its policy on how screeners can search children, the agency's head has said.
TSA Administrator John Pistole announced the change at a Wednesday meeting of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.
The change was prompted by outrage over a video-recorded pat-down of a 6-year-old airline passenger at the New Orleans airport on April 5. The video, which was posted on YouTube, shows the girl protesting at first to the search, although she complies quietly while it is under way.
Pistole explained to committee members that a female security screener performed a pat-down search on the 6-year-old girl because the child had moved while passing through an airport body imaging machine. That prevented the device from getting a clear reading that the child was not carrying any banned objects through airport security.
"We have changed the policy to say that there'll be repeated efforts made to resolve that without a pat-down," Pistole told committee members.
http://www.cnn.com/video/us/2011/04/...wl.640x360.jpgApril: TSA pats down 6-year-old
http://www.cnn.com/video/bestoftv/20...nn.640x360.jpgReasons why you might get a pat-down
RELATED TOPICS
The new policy will apply to children 10 years old or younger, Pistole said.
The incident renewed debate over the the TSA's security practices, especially their use on such low-risk passengers as young children. A backlash against passenger pat-downs -- an alternative to full-body scans in some locations -- swelled during the holiday travel season last year. Pistole maintained at the time that the agency walks a fine line between privacy concerns and public safety.
However, during the committee meeting, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, grilled Pistole for erring thoughtlessly too far on the side of safety.
"This isn't to say we don't believe in safety procedures," Paul said. "But I think I feel less safe when we're doing these invasive exams on a 6-year-old. It makes me think that you're clueless, that you think she's going to attack our country, and that you're not doing your research on the people who would attack our country."
Pistole suggested a pat-down of a child is not entirely unjustified.
"Unfortunately, we know that terrorists around the world have used children as suicide bombers," Pistole replied.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...GRSK_blog.html
Kids rules have changes as of today.
Quote:
TSA changes rules on child shoe removal, pat-downs
By Sarah Anne Hughes
http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/ima...EeCZSGdgG42zWw
Airline passengers go through the Transportation Security Administration security checkpoint at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. (Erik S. Lesser - AP)
In a move that is sure to please many parents, the Transportation Security Administration will no longer ask children under 12 to remove their shoes at airport security checkpoints and will take steps to avoid invasive pat-downs.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced the changes to Congress on Tuesday, the Associated Press reports.
To avoid pat-downs on kids, screeners will send them through detectors and image machines multiple times and use hand swabs to check for traces of explosives, the AP reports.
Still, some children may be required to randomly undergo these checks. “There will always be some unpredictability built into the system,” Napolitano said.
The move comes after several incidents of children being screened in a way that outraged parents and members of the public. Selena and Todd Drexel posted a video of their 6-year-old being frisked in areas they felt were not appropriate.
Similar incidents involving an infant, as well as a young boy who was asked to remove his shirt, were reported.
Pat-downs on the elderly and ill have sparked similar outrage. In June, Lena Reppert said her 95-year-old mother was asked to remove her diaper. The TSA denied the woman was “required” to remove it.
By Sarah Anne Hughes | 03:08 PM ET, 09/14/2011
I understand "unpredictability" I don't understand "invasive".
"invasive" here means to me:
Searching a person in such a way as to cause discomfort due to type or manner of search. ie: around a kids groin.
The rules may very well have changed.Quote:
Still, some children may be required to randomly undergo these checks. “There will always be some unpredictability built into the system,” Napolitano said.
But I don't see where the practical application has.
The piece I read about recently that the person who drafted the plans for TSA is completely against how it has turned out was interesting reading.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=46114
Quote:
http://www.humanevents.com/images/v2/print_logo.gif
http://www.humanevents.com/img/2_sma..._300046813.jpg
TSA Creator Says Dismantle, Privatize the Agencyby Audrey Hudson (more by this author)
Posted 09/12/2011 ET
http://www.humanevents.com/images/TSA_Uniform.jpg
They’ve been accused of rampant thievery, spending billions of dollars like drunken sailors, groping children and little old ladies, and making everyone take off their shoes.
But the real job of the tens of thousands of screeners at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is to protect Americans from a terrorist attack.
Yet a decade after the TSA was created following the September 11 attacks, the author of the legislation that established the massive agency grades its performance at “D-.”
“The whole program has been hijacked by bureaucrats,” said Rep. John Mica (R. -Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation Committee.
“It mushroomed into an army,” Mica said. “It’s gone from a couple-billion-dollar enterprise to close to $9 billion.”
As for keeping the American public safe, Mica says, “They’ve failed to actually detect any threat in 10 years.”
“Everything they have done has been reactive. They take shoes off because of [shoe-bomber] Richard Reid, passengers are patted down because of the diaper bomber, and you can’t pack liquids because the British uncovered a plot using liquids,” Mica said.
“It’s an agency that is always one step out of step,” Mica said.
It cost $1 billion just to train workers, which now number more than 62,000, and “they actually trained more workers than they have on the job,” Mica said.
“The whole thing is a complete fiasco,” Mica said.
In a wide-ranging interview with HUMAN EVENTS just days before the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Mica said screeners should be privatized and the agency dismantled.
Instead, the agency should number no more than 5,000, and carry out his original intent, which was to monitor terrorist threats and collect intelligence.
The fledgling agency was quickly engulfed in its first scandal in 2002 as it rushed to hire 30,000 screeners, and the $104 million awarded to the company to contract workers quickly escalated to more than $740 million.
Federal investigators tracked those cost overruns to recruiting sessions held at swank hotels and resorts in St. Croix, the Virgin Islands, Florida and the Wyndham Peaks Resort and Golden Door Spa in Telluride, Colo.
Charges in the hundreds of thousands of dollars were made for cash withdrawals, valet parking and beverages, plus a $5.4 million salary for one executive for nine months of work.
Other over-the-top expenditures included nearly $2,000 for 20 gallons of Starbucks Coffee, $8,000 for elevator operators at a Manhattan hotel, and $1,500 to rent more than a dozen extension cords for the Colorado recruiting fair.
The agency inadvertently caused security gaps by failing for years to keep track of lost uniforms and passes that lead to restricted areas of airports.
Screeners have also been accused of committing crimes, from smuggling drugs to stealing valuables from passengers' luggage. In 2004, several screeners were arrested and charged with stealing jewelry, computers and cameras, cash, credit cards and other valuables. One of their more notable victims was actress Shirley McClain, who was robbed of jewelry and crystals.
One of the screeners confessed that he was trying to steal enough to sell the items and buy a big-screen television.
In 2006, screeners at Los Angeles and Chicago O'Hare airports failed to find more than 60% of fake explosives during checkpoint security tests.
The sometimes rudder-less agency has gone through five administrators in the past decade, and it took longer than a year for President Obama to put his one man in place. Mica’s bill also blocked collective bargaining rights for screeners, but the Obama administration managed to reverse that provision.
Asked whether the agency should be privatized, Mica answered with a qualified yes.
“They need to get out of the screening business and back into security. Most of the screening they do should be abandoned,” Mica said. "I just don’t have a lot of faith at this point,” Mica said.
Allowing airports to privatize screening was a key element of Mica’s legislation and a report released by the committee in June determined that privatizing those efforts would result in a 40% savings for taxpayers.
“We have thousands of workers trying to do their job. My concern is the bureaucracy we built,” Mica said.
“We are one of the only countries still using this model of security," Mica said, "other than Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, and I think, Libya."
Audrey Hudson, an award-winning investigative journalist, is a Congressional Correspondent for HUMAN EVENTS. A native of Kentucky, Mrs. Hudson has worked inside the Beltway for nearly two decades -- on Capitol Hill as a Senate and House spokeswoman, and most recently at The Washington Times covering Congress, Homeland Security, and the Supreme Court. Follow Audrey on Twitter and Facebook.
September 17th, 2011, 02:22BackstopRe: Police, TSA and other "Authorities"This sums it up nicely: “The whole thing is a complete fiasco,” Mica said. November 1st, 2011, 20:26vector7Re: Police, TSA and other "Authorities"Check Out Texas’ New Grenade Launcher-Equipped Police Drone in Action
- Posted on November 1, 2011 at 1:10pm by Buck Sexton
For the first time in the history of Texas, a local law enforcement agency will have a high tech drone with grenade-launching capabilities, night vision and infrared imaging at its disposal.
http://www.theblaze.com/wp-content/u...11-620x187.jpg
Last week the Blaze told you about the second drone heading to patrol the Texas border in support of federal operations. This time, though, a drone will be in the hands of local law enforcement. The Montgomery Sheriff’s office will have full operational control over its own Shadowhawk drone, marking a first for the Lone Star state.
The price tag on this little aerial beast? $250,000, much of it paid for by the department of Homeland Security. The operating cost of the drone is approximately only 11% of that required for a helicopter crew. In addition, it can be airborne in minutes, and only takes five minutes to completely refuel.
http://www.theblaze.com/wp-content/u.../11/drone2.jpg
The Shadowhawk drone is built by Vanguard Defense Industries. At 29 pounds and a length of 72 inches, its much smaller than the Predator and Reaper drones associated with military operations abroad, and can only fly for three hours at a time within a 25 mile radius.
But as a law enforcement tool, the Shadowhawk can easily operate in civilian airspace and maneuver in tight urban environments. It is fully controlled by remote operator, which puts no law enforcement personnel at risk. Within its stated parameters, it appears it will be a highly effective crime-fighting tool.
Below is a video overview of the Shadowhawk, courtesy of KRIV-TV:
Crime-Fighting Drone Fitted with Grenade Launcher: MyFoxHOUSTON.com
Right now Texas law enforcement authorities say its primary mission is assisting in “missing person” cases. While the Shadowhawk could certainly find a missing hiker or stranded motorist faster than a squad car, soon its mission set will also include a wide array of policing activities. As stated on the Vanguard website, the Shadowhawk can maintain continuous surveillance of a subject:“at 700 feet without being heard or seen unlike full sized aircraft. Imagine the advantage provided to an entry team in the following scenarios; high risk warrant, hostage rescue, domestic violence.”Most interesting of all are the grenade launcher and other projectile modifications for the Shadowhawk. Generally speaking, police drones have not been equipped with guns or launchers. Shadowhawk variants, however, include 40 mm grenade launchers and other lethal small arms payloads. These are set up for military application only, but the Shadowhawk’s grenade launch capability could be used for the deployment of CS gas canisters and other non-lethal ordnance during a crow control or raid scenario.
If the Shadowhawk proves itself during law enforcement missions, it could only be a matter of time before a lethal payload is introduced for drone use on U.S. soil. Police drone operators back in the station could then be making life or death decisions with the click of a button.
Here is a promotional video from Vanguard intended to show the Shadowhawk in action:
December 3rd, 2011, 16:26BackstopRe: Police, TSA and other "Authorities"Her and her mother need to shut up, get in line, and follow orders.
It's for their own good. December 3rd, 2011, 21:26BackstopRe: Police, TSA and other "Authorities"More Gate Raping By The TSA.
This shit needs to stop! :mad:
Quote:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nati...ticle-1.986198
85-year-old woman may sue TSA after being strip searched at JFK Airport
'I really look like a terrorist,' 110-pound Long Island grandmother says
BY Nicholas Hirshon
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Friday, December 2 2011, 9:36 PM
http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopo..._485/image.jpg
Caption: Lenore Zimmerman, 85, shows injury she says came during strip search by security at JFK Airport.
An 85-year-old Long Island grandmother says she plans to sue the TSA after a humiliating strip search on Tuesday by agents at JFK Airport.
Lenore Zimmerman, who lives in Long Beach, says she was on her way to a 1 p.m. flight to Fort Lauderdale when security whisked her to a private room and took off her clothes.
“I walk with a walker — I really look like a terrorist,” she said sarcastically. “I’m tiny. I weigh 110 pounds, 107 without clothes, and I was strip-searched.”
TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said a review of closed circuit TV footage from the airport shows “proper procedures were followed.”
But Zimmerman, whose hunched back puts her at 4-foot-11, said her ordeal began after her son, Bruce, drove her to the JetBlue terminal for the Florida flight. She lives in warm Coconut Creek during the winter.
She checked her bags, waited for a wheelchair and parted ways with her doting son — her only immediate relative.
When Zimmerman reached a security checkpoint, she asked if she could forgo the advanced image technology screening equipment, fearing it might interfere with her defibrillator.
She said she normally gets patted down. But this time, she says that two female agents escorted her to a private room and began to remove her clothes.
“I was outraged,” said Zimmerman, a retired receptionist.
As she tried to lift a lightweight walker off her lap, she says, the metal bars banged against her leg and blood trickled from a gash.
“My sock was soaked with blood,” she said. “I was bleeding like a pig.”
She says the TSA agents showed no sympathy, instead pulling down her pants and asking her to raise her arms.
“Why are you doing this?” she said she asked the agents, who did not respond.
The TSA claims the footage does not show any sign of the injury.
“Our screening procedures are conducted in a manner designed to treat all passengers with dignity, respect and courtesy,” Farbstein said.
Zimmerman says a medic arrived to treat her injury. The process took so long that she missed her 1 p.m. flight and had to catch a later one.
Her son said he was shocked when his mom called around 9 p.m. that night and described what happened.
“She was put through a hell of a day,” he said.
Zimmerman, who takes blood thinners, later had a tetanus shot for fear of infection from the walker wound.
Bruce Zimmerman, 53, said he can’t understand why the agents targeted his mom.
“She looks like a sweet, little old lady,” he said. “She’s not a disruptive person or uncooperative.”
December 3rd, 2011, 22:04Phil FiordRe: Police, TSA and other "Authorities"I have not flown since 2003. I have no plans on doing so any time soon. I used to fly a lot. December 3rd, 2011, 23:17BackstopRe: Police, TSA and other "Authorities"2001 for me.
Yeah, I've earned a few free flights in my day.
And I remember way back in the day when you didn't have to turn those free tickets in to the mil.