Traveling this summer? Avoid these officially terrorist-y behaviors—or you might get detained.
For a friendly guide to actual suspicious signs the TSA looks for, watch the video above. Go tohttp://reason.com/reasontv/2015/07/03… for downloadable versions and subscribe to ReasonTV’s YouTube Channel to receive notifications when new material goes live.
Transportation Security Administration screeners allowed banned weapons and mock explosives through airport security checkpoints 95 percent of the time, according to the agency’s own undercover testing.
ABC News reported the results on Monday, but Ars could not independently confirm them. According to ABC News, a Homeland Security Inspector General report showed that agents failed to detect weapons and explosives in 67 out of 70 undercover operations. The report said:
(The Truth) - Are you a conspiracy theorist? If not, perhaps you should be. Yes, there have certainly been a lot of “conspiracy theories” over the years that have turned out not to be accurate. However, the truth is that a large number of very prominent conspiracy theories have turned out to actually be true. So the next time that you run into some “tin foil hat wearing lunatics”, you might want to actually listen to what they have to say. They may actually know some things that you do not. In fact, one recent study found that “conspiracy theorists” are actually more sane than the general population. So the next time you are tempted to dismiss someone as a “conspiracy theorist”, just remember that the one that is crazy might actually be you. The following are 16 popular conspiracy theories that turned out to be true…
Continue reading
(DailySheeple) - Now not only does the TSA thoroughly inspect your person and your carry-on bags – they can order an inspection of the car you left behind also.
A New York woman was shocked to return home from a trip to find a notice on her car informing her that it had been searched after her departure from Greater Rochester International Airport. Continue reading
(CAV News) - Seriously, just read the excerpt here, and then when you’re finished apply your own clever headline. The TSA never ceases to amaze me when it comes to standards and practices and here’s one for you:
A Great Falls, Va. man tried to take a live smoke grenade on board an airplane Sunday, police say.
Transportation Security Administration officers found the grenade hidden under the inner lining of the man’s bag at Washington Dulles International Airport.
The grenade was confiscated and the man was allowed to continue his flight to Denver. He was not charged.
Two days earlier, police say a passenger tried to take a stun gun on board an airplane at Dulles. The TSA confiscated the stun gun and the man continued on his flight to Charlotte. He was not charged. (Source:
It almost seems as if the TSA is finding new and creative (fun and appalling) ways to make headlines.
If they aren’t harassing your toddlers:
detaining a 12-year-old disabled girl for supposedly testing positive for explosives:
stealing your electronics:
even feeling up our politicians (Rand Paul detained, Claire McCaskill tweeted about her lovely groping)
or reinstating small knives (made headlines in the past week)… they top it off with the aforementioned.
Just when you thought you might give them credit for I don’t know doing something other than cause poor little three-year old Lucy to cry, they allow the alleged back on the plane and not charge them with anything? Sounds like a little funny business. But according to a yahoo search, TSA finding grenades is nothing new.
So was it a safety check? Most people disagree that a live grenade would be used for security testing. Was it serious enough to take the grenade but let the two passengers go along their way? With the TSA nobody knows.
But what’s wrong with a grenade if you are going to allow small knives (but you can’t bring toothpaste on board)? Even the helpless Airliners are questioning the policy of small knives
US Airways CEO Doug Parker has asked TSA Administrator John Pistole to “reconsider” the decision to allow certain knives back into the cabins of commercial aircraft.
In a letter dated March 11, Parker writes, “US Airways fully supports the continuous review and amendment of TSA policies. We also understand and support the risk-based assessment employed by the TSA. However, this review and policy amendment process is most effective when it is conducted in a collaborative way with airlines and their flight crews.
I say it’s time to do away with the TSA. Not only have they gone from intrusive pain in the asses, but now they are becoming a laughing-stock. Allow the airliners to provide their own security.
There’s a meme and a cute saying out there:
(By D.S Wood)
http://www.wjla.com/articles/2013/03/tsa-confiscates-live-grenade-stun-gun-at-dulles-86142.html
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/71818.html
http://rt.com/usa/tsa-12-year-old-girl-wheelchair-088/
(TheHill) -Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) complained Monday she was subject to a very uncomfortable screening by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
McCaskill tweeted about the experience before boarding a flight on Monday.
The senator, who has complained about the TSA’s security techniques in the past, tweeted that she was selected for a pat-down and that the experience was not a pleasant one.
“Today in my airport screening, test on my hands was positive,” McCaskill wrote to her 89,100 followers. “Got private, more aggressive pat down. OMG. #veryuncomfortable.”
In 2011, McCaskill referred to TSA pat-downs as “love pats” that she said made her not look forward to flying.
“I try to avoid a pat-down at all costs,” McCaskill told TSA Administrator John Pistole during a Senate hearing that year. “There are many times women put their hands on me in a way that if it was your daughter or your sister or your wife, you would be upset.”
TSA has come under fire for its security procedures from other lawmakers in the past. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he was “detained” by TSA for refusing a pat-down last year.
Additionally, former Rep. Francisco “Quico” Canseco (R-Texas) accused the agency of targeting him for additional pat-downs after a run-in at the San Antonio airport.
(Alt Market) - Washington is laying on the malaise pretty thick lately over automatic budget cuts set to take effect in March, with admonitions and partisan attacks galore. Of course, those of us who are educated in the finer points of our corrupt puppet government are well aware that the public debate between Democrats and Republicans amounts to nothing more than a farcical battle of Rock’Em Sock’Em Robots with only one set of hands behind the controls. The reality is, their decisions are scripted, their votes are purchased, and they knew months ago exactly how America’s fiscal cliff situation would progress. The drama that now ensues on the hill is meant for OUR benefit and distraction, and no one else.
The Obama Administration warns that “sequestration” (austerity) will result in a return to recession for the U.S. News Flash, folks! The country never left the recession that officially began in 2008. Sorry to burst that inflated recovery hopium bubble…
Janet Napolitano warns that cuts will result in a greater risk of terrorist attacks. Apparently, an extra $85 billion per year buys us complete safety from the Muslim boogeyman, though the DHS has been far more concerned with “homegrown extremists” (people like me) than Al-Qaeda lately…
The White House and DHS has warned that funding for border control may be diminished, and the southern border will be left “wide open” to infiltration. Apparently, the White House is not aware that the southern border is ALREADY wide open. If they were truly concerned about the porous border, maybe they would refrain from decisions to release over 10,000 illegal immigrants from holding before cuts have even been finalized, sending a clear message to Mexico that there will be no consequences for anyone sneaking into the U.S. without permission…
The DOD warns that cuts to defense will result in a weakened military posture for America, and yet, our posture has already been greatly weakened by our numerous illegal wars in the Middle East (some overt, some covert). I have yet to see any tangible assessments on how our continued presence in Iraq and Afghanistan has made our nation safer…
Let’s put all of this into perspective; America’s current annual deficits have exceeded $1 trillion for the past four years. Our official national debt has expanded nearly $7 trillion in the span of five years. Through QE3 (QE infinity), the Federal Reserve is now pumping over $85 billion (that we know about) per month into our financial system. And in March, the federal government is being asked to cut $85 billion over a span of six months?
It sure seems like a drop in the bucket compared to the massive expenditures already taking place. Yet, these moderate cuts are being heralded as a sign of fiscal apocalypse by the White House and others. Why? Because America has reached the point at which any disruption in government liquidity will damage our recovery fantasy, and the establishment is acclimating us to the coming crisis so that we don’t immediately take up our torches and pitchforks. The lie is so tenuous, that the fiat must forever flow, or the illusion crumbles. Not only must spending continue unabated, it must also EXPAND with each passing year in order to handle the growing liabilities of entitlements and interest payments on capital already borrowed. Even the smallest of cuts could indeed send our economy into a tailspin (with a little help from the Federal Reserve and reduced currency creation), because that’s exactly how desperate our circumstances are.
Of course, the establishment plans to make matters worse by applying cuts where they will be most painfully felt by the populace. The fear mongering is reaching fever pitch with threats of wide open borders, weakened military superiority, lost government jobs, unemployed teachers, etc. But let’s imagine, just for one blissful moment, that the government was NOT utterly criminal and subversive; what kind of cuts would an honest government make right now in order to counter the dangers of debt disintegration and dollar devaluation?
…I really don’t know because I’ve never lived under an honest government. I have little personal experience in how one would behave. However, here is what I would cut from the budget…
Unnecessary Foreign Aid
Will some cuts be made to foreign aid after “sequestration”. Yes. But nowhere near enough. The U.S. spends around $50 billion a year on foreign aid, including $3 billion in “direct assistance” to Israel (meaning they get a lot more money and equipment through indirect means), $2 billion to Iraq, $1.7 billion to Pakistan, $1.4 billion to Egypt, $1.2 billion to Haiti (the Hatians are the only people on the list so far that actually need the money), and $1 billion to Kenya (…Kenya?). The list goes on and on. Even Mexico gets around $400 million a year in foreign aid from the U.S.
The establishment has conditioned the general public to consider any suggestion of cutting foreign aid to be taboo. Politicians on both sides of the aisle will wail and scream at the thought of reducing aid to Israel or other Middle East nations. That said, the bottom line is that we cannot afford it. You may believe every dollar to these countries results in the thwarting of evil doers and the filled bellies of orphan children. It doesn’t matter, because we can’t afford it. You may believe the whole of America’s international reputation and diplomatic sway hangs in the balance over foreign aid expenditures, but this is irrelevant, because we can’t afford it.
The most detrimental threats to the U.S. are INTERNAL and financial, not external, and cutting foreign aid would alleviate those detrimental threats by about $50 billion dollars. I’m a little tired of hearing how America is supposed to “export democracy” and keep its fingers in the cookie jars of nations around the world. This is a globalist philosophy that has never borne fruit and never will. It is time to bring the money back home where it might actually do some legitimate good.
Occupation Wars
The Neo-Cons played the American people like a banjo for nearly a decade claiming first that the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq were necessary in order to defuse Al Qaeda influence. Then, when we realized that the resource rich fields of the Middle East were the true target, rather than the “terrorists”, they changed their tune and claimed that now it would be “irresponsible” to leave the region, regardless of the fallacy of the mission, because if we did innocent people would be left to chaos and ruin.
Ultimately, the Neo-Cons never cared about the innocent citizens of Iraq or Afghanistan, they only cared about manipulating the American public into acquiescing to continued occupation, and that is exactly what they did. Today, the Obama Administration carries on exactly where the Neo-Cons left off, using the same propaganda and the same lies with a new face and a new presentation.
Original cost estimates of the two invasions were around $100 billion for a two year involvement, and the American people were assured that this was all that was needed. Today, over a decade later, the costs have escalated to at least $4 trillion (Obama’s claim of a $1 trillion price tag is an outright fabrication), and still have not abated. If the government truly wanted to save massive amounts of capital and shield the populace from debilitating service and entitlement cuts, they would bring the troops home; ALL OF THEM, and stop flushing money down the toilet in the Middle East.
Instigations Of Foreign Insurgencies
Why is the Obama Administration continually pouring money into the coffers of Middle Eastern insurgencies led by Al Qaeda operatives that supposedly hate the U.S.? They did it in Egypt, they did it in Libya, and now they are doing it in Syria. Is Obama an idiot, or, is there a greater purpose at work? Is the goal to deliberately destabilize the region, or are they doing it out of blind hubris and stupidity? In either case, all the money being showered on these civil wars is a wretched waste, and should be stopped.
TSA Thugs
The Transportation Security Administration is the most hated institution in America. It is reviled across the country and its dubious purpose is questioned by almost everyone. Americans, no matter how uneducated and oblivious, still do not like being molested by blue gloved bureaucratic freaks with preexisting criminal records. We do not like having our small children molested by them either. We do not like being irradiated so that our naked pictures can be stored in a central database. We do not like thugs, brown shirts or blue shirts, ordering us around and looking down their noses at us. Frankly, Americans have a history of shooting those kinds of people…
DHS head Janet Napolitano has already released warnings ahead of budget cut decisions stating that the TSA may be on the chopping block, and that this would put American travelers “at risk”. I highly doubt that this is the plan, though…
The TSA is not meant to protect the citizenry in any way. It is a conditioning machine for the masses, and nothing more. It is designed to inhibit our natural rebellion against personal search and seizure tactics, and make us apathetic to deeper intrusions into our privacy. That is all. I find it highly unlikely that the establishment would dismantle such a useful tool of oppression. But, if Napolitano is sincere, then I say go for it Janey, do your worst! Abolish the whole damned agency, because if you don’t, eventually, we’ll do it for you.
The Criminal ATF
The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms has a long history of questionable and often illegal activities, usually ending with the murder of civilians with dissenting views. However, the latest snafu involves a much larger conspiracy, culminating in the agency being caught red handed feeding American weapons to violent Mexican drug cartels in an effort to stigmatize gun ownership in the U.S. and to wrongly attribute deaths in the border region to American gun dealers. This debacle is known as “Fast and Furious”.
Eric Holder, Attorney General of the U.S. and a staunch proponent of the ATF, has defended the Fast and Furious agenda to the point of contempt of Congress. Holder is a gun control advocate and key player in the current attacks on the 2nd Amendment, despite his habit of protecting agencies that feed weapons to psychopathic drug lords.
Any agency with this much schizophrenic disregard for the rights and safety of Americans should be wiped from the ass-end of history. It also has an annual budget of $1.2 billion, which could be spent in far better places, to be sure.
Big Brother DHS
What exactly does the Department of Homeland Security do that the FBI and the CIA did not already do before its inception? The great lie spread in the wake of 9/11 was that various alphabet agencies were not “in communication” with each other, and that intelligence gathered was not “reaching the right people”. Of course, Bush had received several warnings pre-9/11 of impending attacks, and the FBI and CIA on more than one occasion had the opportunity to apprehend Osama Bin Laden, but were thwarted by the Administration itself, sending a clear message that the government catches “terrorists” only when it WANTS to catch a terrorist.
The DHS was established as a means to centralize information sharing, but it has become much more. It now encompasses and directs much of the internal law enforcement outfits of the U.S. through so-called fusion centers, and even plays a growing role in external matters. Much of the analytical paperwork coming out of the agency, though, does not deal with foreign enemies like Al Qaeda. Rather, the agency is almost obsessively focused on “domestic threats”, like returning war veterans, Constitutionalists, gun rights champions, Ron Paul supporters, and Liberty Movement activists.
In the end, the DHS is intended to combat a specific opponent, and that opponent is obviously the American people.
The DHS is set to absorb $2.6 billion in cuts if sequestration goes though, causing the organization to spew dire prophecies of doom. Yet, the DHS is projected to have a $9 billion surplus by the end of 2013, and apparently has enough funding to place orders for over 2 billion rounds of combat ammunition (not for training purposes, sorry disinfo-agents). I say cut the head off the beast. Remove DHS, save American liberties, and spend those billions elsewhere.
Gitmo-Style Black Sites
I find it highly distasteful and disturbing that the U.S. government is operating black sites like GITMO where they can torture and murder in obscurity, rather than having to answer to the public, all while instituting these activities in our name. The common argument is that these prisons are necessary to isolate the most volatile of villains, and obtain vital data in the war on terror. Well, despite what you may have seen in the movie ‘Zero Dark Thirty’, torture rarely if ever produces reliable and concurrent intel that can be acted upon to prevent any impending attack, or apprehend any enemy agent. And, after what we saw at Abu Ghraib, the government has proven itself absolutely untrustworthy to handle incarcerated prisoners in any capacity, let alone in places where independent oversight does not exist.
Didn’t Obama make a campaign promise in 2008 to shut down GITMO, by the way? Why not do it now, save the country some cash, and end a disgusting and immoral practice that demeans the whole of our society?
Domestic Drone Programs
Why does the federal government need 30,000 drones in the skies over the heads of American citizens? Why is this being pursued? If the government seeks to make war on the American people, then by all means, admit that this is the goal and at least we will know the rationalization for spreading a spider’s web of remote controlled technotronic death from sea to shining sea. This is the only POSSIBLE purpose that such a fleet of drones could serve. If this is not the reason for the escalation of drone activity, then there is no logical reason, and they should be perfectly willing to end these programs, saving the U.S. millions if not billions of dollars.
Corporate Welfare
Long before the banker bailouts and the “too big to fails”, government has been pouring free money into the coffers of international corporations that were already claiming billions in capital. This welfare has reached epic levels; around $93 billion by some estimates. Why? Maybe because the establishment knew years ago that these companies were headed for debt implosion. Or, maybe because D.C. is a revolving door and corporate vampires like to spend time in the public sector bleeding taxpayers dry. I don’t know. What I do know is that whatever purpose corporate welfare was supposed to serve, it failed. We are in the midst of the most extensive economic crisis of all time, and many of the companies that received welfare for the past couple decades are debt addled failures that provide little in job creation. It’s time to cut our losses…
The Obama Family’s Extravagant Vacations
All this panicked discussion on budget cuts, yet, no one seems to be talking about reducing the most frivolous of expenditures. The Obama family’s four trips to Hawaii alone have cost Americans tax payers at least $20 million (this is a very conservative estimate)! Why is the nation pounding its collective head against the wall over extreme national debt obligations while this joker and his overprivileged family are spending a thousand times more on each of their vacations than any other citizen?
Hey Obama, try a trip to Florida, you money swilling bastard! Maybe you could squeeze it in for under a million? Take a swim in the Everglades perhaps, the water is fine…
One Day Soon, Everything Will Be Cut…
If Americans are frightened of a small budget cut of $85 billion, imagine what they’ll do when they realize this is just the beginning of the avalanche. It will not be long before our foreign creditors turn away from the Dollar and begin using alternative currencies like the IMF’s SDR basket. At that point, the purchasing power of the Greenback will be severely suffocated, and the numerous social services the public enjoys today will be buried as well.
Some people might question why I did not include any entitlement programs or social support in my list of needed budget cuts. I would only point out that such programs are not long for this world anyway, and though most of them shouldn’t exist in the first place, the expenditures listed above are even more peripheral. The feds will keep welfare going for as long as possible, in order to subdue public response and soften collective rage, but there will come a time when the food stamps, medicare, disability payments, and other subsidies will suddenly stop. EU members like Spain are a perfect example, stealing over 90% of social security funds in order to maintain a façade of solvency, while others are raiding retirement funds and employee pensions, all because austerity measures are exhausting entitlement pools. This is where the U.S. is headed, and it cannot be avoided. Not through fiat printing, or any other nonsensical strategy.
My goal was to merely point out that there are plenty of irrelevant federal appendages out there that could be amputated, but probably won’t be, while other more useful programs will come under fire. In the end, the budget cuts are not about saving money; they are about social maneuvering and political gain. They will be used as an excuse for everything, and will produce nothing favorable, not because cuts are not needed, but because the people in charge of them are not trustworthy.
(TSA News) -I wish I could say that this is a new low for the contemptible thugs in blue for whose equipment and “services” taxpayers pay billions of dollars every year.
Sadly, it isn’t. It’s just par for the course; another Day in Despotism here in the Land of the Meek, Home of the Afraid.
In case you couldn’t bring yourself to watch this indisputable display of abuse — this disgusting mistreatment of a little girl and her family about which her mother (Annie Schulte) and father comment “look at her all dressing like a potential terrorist/drug trafficker; people who roll in on hot pink wheelchairs, wearing a gingerbread coat and clutching a stuffed baby lamb, are just begging to be harassed” — let me itemize the violations and absurdities at hand (perhaps you can identify more; as a mother myself, I’m too upset by what I just watched to further research the laws, statutory and logical):
First, there is the obvious Fourth Amendment violation against unwarranted search and seizure. I don’t care what kind of pretzel logic the TSA twists itself into parroting in order to justify groping a three-year-old in a wheelchair who’s on her way to Disney World: it’s a violation of her Constitutional rights. Period. Full stop.
And this should not stand. Not in the country that calls itself the United States of America. Citizens and residents who accept otherwise should not only be ashamed of themselves, but should, in my opinion, be constantly, and in strenuous terms, be made aware that they’re engaging in a kind of treason against the very freedoms the nation’s founders established (and countless fought for and died to protect), and thus, by extension, debasing the idea of America itself.
Second, travelers are indeed permitted to photograph and/or videotape the so-called “screening procedure” (more accurately, security theatre), including aggressive pat-downs that would be defined as sexual assault in any other context and nude photography of their bodies. The only subject matter exempt from passengers’ freedom-to-document are the screening machines themselves. As shown in the above video, these TSA screeners try to claim otherwise and keep harping on their imagined rule that the passengers can’t record the incident, even as the parents ask them to cite the actual law pertaining thereto.
Third, the tactics here are insensitive and unkind on their face, as well as pointless. Not only is this little girl so obviously terrified to the point of crying out loud, and desperately upset that her comfort toy — her stuffed animal — is being taken away, she is distraught that her parents’ attempts to protect her are being summarily ignored. Imagine how frightening that must be. If indeed the child “alarmed,” the screeners could have resolved the matter by allowing one of the cleared parents to carry her through the metal detector in their arms while they checked her wheelchair for hidden bombs, machetes, or fusilage-piercing grenade launchers.
What will it take for the American public to recognize how wrong this is, all of it, and demand that our so-called leaders put an end to it? Why are citizens not carrying out a full-on economic boycott of the airlines for all non-essential travel? What will it take, if not the unconstitutional persecution of a little child in a wheelchair?
(TheDailySheeple) -Rahinah Ibrahim is a Malaysian citizen and a mother of four. She was in the United States legally, having arrived in 2001. On January 2, 2005 the PhD student in Construction management and Engineering at Stanford University arrived at San Francisco International Airport to board a scheduled flight to a Stanford sponsored conference, where she was to present the findings from her doctorate in her home country of Malaysia. She was wheelchair bound at the time, a complication of recent surgery.
At the airport she was handcuffed and taken to a holding cell by the TSA agents that had detained her. She was given no explanation as she was searched as to why she had been arrested. She was interrogated for several hours by the FBI and during the interrogation she was told she had been placed on a ‘No-Fly’ list. At no time was she advised why she was on such a list.
She was eventually cleared to fly by the FBI and told she was not a security risk, and she was assured there would be no further problems as she was sent on her way.
When Ibrahim tried to board a flight to come back to the USA however, there were problems, big ones. She was prevented from boarding her flight by local authorities in Malaysia who had been instructed by the US Consulate that she was barred from returning to the US.
Now, some eight years on she is still in Malaysia. She is banished, effectively in exile for reasons unknown to her.
This case is nowhere near being unique over the past 10 years there have been numerous documented cases of people holding legal residency status, and even US citizenship, being barred from returning to the US after taking a trip abroad.
Saadiq Long is a US citizen and a US Airforce veteran. He was banned from boarding a flight to Oklahoma to visit his mother who was in bad health and deteriorating daily due to congestive heart failure. American born and raised in Oklahoma but working in Qatar after leaving the Airforce an official from the Department of Homeland Security informed Long he was on a ‘No-Fly’ list and was not allowed to return to the country of his birth. After a massive public outcry he was eventually allowed to visit his mother. This man is a US citizen. He was born in the USA and had served in the military.
Of the 10,00 people currently on the US ‘No-Fly’ list, 500 of them are US citizens.
There is obviously a genuine and urgent need to protect the United States from terrorism, and to prevent such people entering the country, but the secrecy involved in the decisions that are affecting thousand of genuine law-abiding people, has no place in a modern democracy. It shows a major deterioration in constitutionally protected rights of Us citizens and those legally entitled to reside in the country.
The US justice system has been subverted and the erosion of civil liberties has increased in pace under Obama and it shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon.
(Lew Rockwell Blog) -I’m not certain whether The Washington Times considers itself mainstream media, and, if it does, whether anyone else agrees. But it contains a lengthy warning that the Fedcoats may be plotting a “mass shooting” at one of the TSA’s checkpoints, a la Newtown or the movie-theater in Colorado. Why would Our Rulers murder more of us? Because another massacre “would likely lead to even more calls for gun control measures, as well as discussions of arming TSA workers…”
The writer bases his story on a report from a “TSA source” who says he and his fellow gropers “are being instructed to ‘save themselves’ instead of attempting to protect passengers.” Good: those inept bozos scrambling to escape rather than pestering passengers gives the latter the best chance of surviving. “It is unclear whether the TSA is conducting this training at airports around the nation or only at the airport where the source, a veteran of the agency, is assigned. Expressing fear bordering on extreme distress, the TSA source claims that his life, along with the lives of other unarmed TSA personnel, would be in grave danger were an airport checkpoint shooting to unfold.” Yeah, what a pity to take out Thieves and Sexual Assailants when perfectly good passengers are milling about.
Of course, this is the scenario that many genuine experts in security — as opposed to the charlatans at the TSA — have predicted for years: that bad guys will attack the hundreds of people whom the TSA delays in long, vulnerable lines. And it is yet another proof that the agency actually endangers, rather than protects, passengers; politician of even minimal decency and concern for their constituents would abolish the TSA rather than annually stealing our money to finance its depredations on us.
At any rate, if gate-rape and games of sexual humiliation and dominance at the government’s checkpoints are not enough to keep you from flying, perhaps the suspicion that the serial killers in office hope to slaughter yet more innocents will.
(Wired) -A Virginia man who wrote an abbreviated version of the Fourth Amendment on his body and stripped to his shorts at an airport security screening area won a trial Friday in his lawsuit seeking $250,000 in damages for being detained on a disorderly conduct charge.
Aaron Tobey claimed in a civil rights lawsuit (.pdf) that in 2010 he was handcuffed and held for about 90 minutes by the Transportation Security Administration at the Richmond International Airport after he began removing his clothing to display on his chest a magic-marker protest of airport security measures.
“Amendment 4: The right of the people to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated,” his chest and gut read.
In sending the case to trial, unless there’s a settlement, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 and reversed a lower court judge and invoked Benjamin Franklin in the process. According to the opinion by Judge Roger Gregory:
Here, Mr. Tobey engaged in a silent, peaceful protest using the text of our Constitution—he was well within the ambit of First Amendment protections. And while it is tempting to hold that First Amendment rights should acquiesce to national security in this instance, our Forefather Benjamin Franklin warned against such a temptation by opining that those ‘who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.’ We take heed of his warning and are therefore unwilling to relinquish our First Amendment protections—even in an airport.
Tobey didn’t want to go through the advanced imaging technology X-ray machines, or so-called nude body scanners, that were cropping up at airports nationwide. Instead, when it was his turn to be screened, he was going to opt for an intrusive pat-down, and removed most of his clothing in the process.
Among other things, the federal lawsuit claimed wrongful detention and a breach of the First Amendment and Fourth Amendment. Tobey was on his way to Wisconsin for his grandmother’s funeral. Despite his detainment, he made his flight.
According to the suit, while under interrogation, the authorities wanted to know “about his affiliation with, or knowledge of, any terrorist organizations, if he had been asked to do what he did by any third party, and what his intentions and goals were.”
Two weeks later, Henrico County prosecutors dropped the misdemeanor charge against him, and he sued the Transportation Security Administration and others.
In dissent, Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson wrote:
Had this protest been launched somewhere other than in the security-screening area, we would have a much different case. But Tobey’s antics diverted defendants from their passenger-screening duties for a period, a diversion that nefarious actors could have exploited to dangerous effect. Defendants responded as any passenger would hope they would, summoning local law enforcement to remove Tobey—and the distraction he was creating — from the scene.
(DailyTech) -Secure 1000s will be removed, replaced by another lobbyist-backed firm, L-3
After months of dragging its feet, the U.S. Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) has finally caved to overwhelming criticism and agreed to remove airport imaging devices which digitally declothed passengers in the name of “fighting terrorism”.
I. Dirt at Every Turn: OSI’s Nude Scanner Push
The scanners in question come from a company called OSI Systems Inc. (OSIS). The device is named the Secure 1000 and is produced by the Rapiscan unit. A number of issues have been raised regarding the scanner. First, while the company insists the backscatter X-rays used are safe, some health experts have suggested that frequent exposure could cause DNA damage in frequent fliers, which could in turn lead to cancers.
Then there’s the cost and allegations of special interests.
In the wake of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s Christmas 2009 failed attempt to blow up a plane in which he used explosive hidden in his underwear, there was a cry to beef up security at U.S. airports.
In 2010, Congress handed out a number of large contracts to scanner manufacturers, with OSI receiving the largest one (a gleaming $173M USD contract to purchase Secure 1000 scanners). You could say OSI had an inside track — it employed Susan Carr as one of its lobbyists. And Susan Carr had formerly served as a senior legislative aide to Rep. David Price, D-N.C., chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee. Rep. Price, involved with planning the security budget, was pivotal for pushing Rapiscan’s large contract.
OSI also contracted former U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) chief Michael Chertoff as a lobbyist. Mr. Chertoff had formerly pushed for trial deployments of the scanner in 2005, at the start of his four-year tenure with the DHS, which concluded in 2009.
Without initially disclosing The Chertoff’s Group’s contractual relationship with OSI, Mr. Chertoff masqueraded as an independent, unbiased expert putting forth a number of radio interviews in late 2009 and even writing an op-ed in The Washington Post. Between Mr. Chertoff and Ms. Carr, OSI had the high profile help it needed to woo Congress.
In addition to the base contract, Congress also awarded Rapiscan with $118M USD [PDF] in stimulus funding. It used that money to create a whopping 84 jobs, at a cost of roughly $1.4M USD per job, according to an analysis by The Huffington Post of disclosed government records.
Rapiscan was getting a lot of money, but wasn’t producing many jobs, but was it at least securing the nation’s airports?
Not really, according to numerous government reports. The DHS’s own Inspector General in 2010 called training on how to properly use the machines rushed and poorly supervised [PDF]. That same year, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) wrote [PDF], “It remains unclear whether [the scanners] would have been able to detect the weapon Mr. Abdulmutallab used.”
Independent observers also have discussed how easy it is to trick the poorly designed instruments.
So if OSI’s machines weren’t creating jobs, had questionable lobbying ties, were creating potential health risks, and weren’t even providing quantifiable increases in security, were they at least protect citizens’ privacy?
Apparently not.
There were reports of TSA agents making fun of passengers, based on their naked scans, and even a report of a TSA agent assaulting their supervisor after the supervisor began to joke about their underling’s reportedly small genatalia, which he observed during a training exercise with the scanners.
II. Despite Allegations of Fraud OSI Settles Scanner Matter Quietly
Congress in 2010 ordered OSI to deliver a software update to mask genatalia and breasts in the images. OSI was even paid another $5M USD to perform the update. But at the end of the day, taxpayers got nothing as OSI complained it would be unable to devise an algorithm to properly mask the images until 2014.
Representative Mike Rogers (R-Alab.), then chairman of the House Transportation Security subcommittee, received a tip that OSI had also faked tests that seemed to show it making some progress with the software. In a letter to TSA Administrator John Pistole, he writes, “[OSI] may have attempted to defraud the government by knowingly manipulating an operational test.”
In the wake of that report, the TSA began to quietly remove the Secure 1000 scanners from airports. 76 units were shuffled out last year. Now the remaining 174 units will be sent out to pasture as well.
For OSI, which hasn’t been able to sell a scanner to the government in two years, the news was actually positive and triggered a jump in share prices. Some had feared that Rep. Rogers’ might be able to launch a full-blown fraud probe into the company’s testing. While the government decision closes the door on the Secure 1000, OSI gets to pocket the nearly $300M USD the federal government handed it, while facing no threat of fraud charges for its questionable behavior.
Comments Timothy Quillin, a technology analyst with Stephens Inc. in Little Rock, Arkansas, to Bloomberg, “They [OSI] hadn’t really intended to sell more body scanners to airports. To have a resolution to just cancel the contract on the privacy software development is a positive outcome.”
John Sanders, the TSA’s assistant administrator for security capabilities even went to bat for OSI, telling Bloomberg, “We are not pulling them out because they haven’t been effective, and we are not pulling them out for safety reasons. We’re pulling them out because there’s a congressional mandate.”
III. No More Scanners? Not While Lobbyists Are Kicking
The DHS insists the scanners are optional and will be allowing PreCheck passengers to go through metal detectors instead, to allow for faster processing. Many security experts have suggested that metal detectors, combined with basic pat-downs, are actually better at detecting weapons and explosives than the full body scanners.
But the airports are still expected to feature plenty of scanners from OSI’s two major competitors — American Science and Engineering Inc. (ASEI) and L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. (LLL). ASE uses backscatter (like Rapiscan), while L-3 uses the newer and supposedly safer millimeter wave technology.
One piece of good news on the privacy front is that while OSI claimed a masking algorithm was impossible, L-3 did deliver a timely masking algorithm for its machines in 2011. This is expected to reduce the embarrassment factor in the scans.
However, questions remain regarding the underlying efficacy of the machines, as does the same question of few jobs in return for huge investments.
And then there’s that old dog, special interests. L-3 employs at least three lobbying firms full of D.C. insiders. Among them is Park Strategies, run by former Sen. Al D’Amato (R-N.Y). Sen. D’Amato served on the President’s Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism in 1989 after being appointed by President George H. W. Bush.
Showing its tight grip on both sides of the aisle, the company also employs Linda Daschle, wife of former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.). Mrs. Daschle reportedly received over $100,000 for her lobbying work for the company. The company is estimated to have poured over $1.4M USD since 2004 into PACs and candidate campaign funds, in exchange for guarantees of Congressional support.
L-3 received a $163M USD contract from Congress, along with several smaller contracts.
It appears as The Who famously sang, “Meet the new boss / Same as the old boss.”
(Examiner) -There goes half the new applications filed by dirty old (and young) men aspiring to become TSA officers because of the lascivious fringe benefits. Those benefits, at least up until yesterday, included the promise of a chance to ogle “nekkid” women via invasive “nude body” scanners. But on Friday, the agency announced that the odious devices will be phased out by June owing to public pressure over privacy concerns.
“The TSA defended the scanners,” the Associated Press reports, “saying the images couldn’t be stored and were seen only by a security worker who didn’t interact with the passenger.” Somehow that sounds even more perverse – bordering on the pornographic in fact – but the statement is almost certainly false. In August of 2010, the U.S. Marshals Service admitted that it had stored more than 35,000 nude scans of passengers on a computer in a Florida courthouse.
As for the claim that TSA officers had no interaction with passengers, passenger Ellen Terrell tells a different story. A wife and mother, Terrell maintains that in February 2010 she was told by a screener that she had “a cute figure” and was asked to pass through the scanner three times. There is also the recently published account of a former TSA employee who wrote of witnessing “light sexual play among officers, a lot of e-cigarette vaping, and a whole lot of officers laughing and clowning in regard to some … nude images.”
The AP article notes that although the nude scanners are being retired, other airport body scanners, which produce a generic outline instead of a naked image, are staying put.
EMERYVILLE, Calif. (KGO) — People are used to seeing TSA inspectors at airports but on Wednesday, a specialized team made their presence known at the Amtrak station in Emeryville. Train stations are difficult to secure because they’re so wide open but on Wednesday, the TSA showed up unannounced to let the public, especially potential troublemakers, know that they are keeping an eye on the rails.
Amtrak passenger Vera Molina said she noticed all the black-clad TSA inspectors right away and it’s a presence she appreciates. Asked if she would like to see them more often she said, “I would, can’t hurt, just in case you never know.” As part of their nationwide “Viper Team” effort, the Transportation Safety Administration put about a dozen agents at the station to see and be seen, although some of the inspectors also work undercover.
“The visible deterrent is making a presence known at the station, getting on the train, talking to passengers, lettings the bad guys know that we’re here, and letting the passengers know that we’re here, and working with law enforcement to really tailor our Viper teams to their needs,” TSA spokesman Nico Melendez said.
The idea is to look for signs of trouble in a place that can be difficult to police because of its wide open environment. That said, the TSA and Amtrak believe that working together they can make rail travel as safe as it can be. “We do have random baggage checks and we do have, at some of the larger stations, we have canine units and we do random sweeps of stations, tracks, infrastructure,” Amtrak spokesperson Vernae Graham said.
Some of those who regularly travel on Amtrak said they think the current level of security s just enough. Passenger Greg Hayes said he wouldn’t’ want to go through screening. “No, no. I would hope that we don’t come to that. I can’t see trains being really the source of a security problem, but then maybe I’m not imaginative enough,” he said.
The TSA’s Viper teams aren’t just used to patrol transportation sites like train stations. They also have been used and will be used at high-profile events in the Bay Area.
(NaturalNews) If you’re not doing anything wrong, then you’ve got nothing to
worry about, right?
That seems to be the pervasive logic of an increasing
number of government officials and agencies that have forgotten the uniquely
American legal principle of being presumed innocent until proven guilty.
How else to explain the acceptance and widespread employment of technology that
gathers potential evidence on everyone indiscriminately, whether they’ve
been suspected of creating a crime or not?
According to the Electronic
Freedom Frontier, a group that advocates for privacy rights in the digital
age, “In the amount of time it takes to get lunch, the government can now
collect your DNA and extract a profile that identifies you and your family
members” using a device called a Rapid DNA Analyzer, which can “process DNA in
90 minutes or less.”
Guilty until proven…innocent?
The
EFF says these machines are not the imagination of science fiction writers.
Rather, the group says they are “an operational reality” and are currently being
marketed to federal, state and local law enforcement agencies all around the
nation.
The device, according to GE Life Sciences, in conjunction
with NetBio, Inc., “is a self-contained unit with all the
accessories you need to conduct a full DNA analysis.” Designed for field use by
non-scientific personnel, the laser printer-sized machines will soon
“revolutionize the use of DNA
by making it a routine identification and investigational tool.”
“Major
applications include criminal forensics, military human identification,
biothreat detection, and clinical diagnostics. NetBio believes that widespread
use of RDA, particularly in the field and at the point of care, will improve
both the safety, and health of society,” says a description of its machine by
NetBio [http://netbio.com/].
Well, what’s the big deal? After
you, you haven’t done anything wrong - have you? What’s a little DNA
between a citizen and their government?
The fact is, the potential for
abuse with a machine like this is endless. Such technology merely feeds into the
tyrant’s mentality that, “in the name of public safety,” you are, by definition,
a rebel and a threat if you don’t automatically comply, hence the mindset, “You
must be hiding something.”
It’s as if the Fourth Amendment’s privacy
protections have never existed.
EFF lays out additional
concerns:
DNA samples contain such sensitive, private and personal
information that their indefinite storage and unlimited sharing create privacy
risks far worse than other types of data. The United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR) stated in a 2008 Note titled DNA Testing to Establish
Family Relationships in the Refugee Context that DNA testing “can have serious
implications for the right to privacy and family unity” and should be used only
as a “last resort.” The UNHCR also stated that, if DNA is collected, it “should
not be used for any other purpose (for instance medical tests or criminal
investigations) than the verification of family relationships” and that DNA
associated with the test “should normally be destroyed once a decision has been
made.”
Who would verify that such samples, in fact, are
destroyed once the “suspect” from whom it was taken was cleared by
authorities (for doing…nothing)? The agencies themselves? Given our
government’s history of privacy abuses, why should any of us trust
them?
What’s more the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, as well
as the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate, has
earmarked substantial funds to develop a Rapid DNA capability, and for
more “much broader purposes than just verifying refugee applications,” as the
agencies have stated, according to EFF.
Devices already being
tested
“The agency notes that DNA should be collected from all
immigration applicants - possibly even infants - and then stored in the FBI’s
criminal DNA database,” EFF says. “The agency also supports sharing immigrant
DNA with ‘local, state, tribal, international, and other federal partners’
including the Department of Defense and Interpol on the off-chance the refugee
or asylum seeker could be a criminal or terrorist or could commit a crime or act
of terrorism in the future.”
All on the off-chance that someone,
sometime, somewhere, may commit a crime.
The Transportation
Security Administration falls under the purview of DHS; we could see the
deployment of some sort of Rapid DNA Analyzer at airports as part of a new
regulatory requirement in order to board an airplane. Then, of course, the
government would have your DNA sample forever.
DHS began testing the
devices in the summer of 2011, according to NextGov.com.
This “guilty until proven innocent” law
enforcement mentality is not the kind of justice system our founding
fathers envisioned.
(IntelHub) - Radio talk show host and ardent Homeland Security critic Alex Jones was detained by the TSA at Austin-Bergstrom airport earlier today and threatened with arrest for refusing to take his shoes off at a security checkpoint.
Traveling to New York to appear on CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight, Jones had already showed his ID as he approached the metal detector. Jones and colleague Rob Dew noticed that a large number of people across all age ranges were not removing their shoes as they walked through the metal detector. The x-ray body scanners were not in use.
As soon as he approached security, Jones was addressed by a TSA screener who said, “Hello Mr. Jones,” indicating that she knew who he was, and immediately ordered him to remove his shoes.
When Jones refused, citing the fact that innumerable other people had not removed their shoes, the TSA screener claimed that only under 12′s and over 75′s were not mandated to remove footwear under TSA policy.
When Jones contested the point, arguing that numerous travelers in their 40′s had not removed their shoes, other TSA agents ordered him to take off his shoes, before Jones was approached by a police officer who immediately got in his face and started threatening him with arrest.
Despite Jones’ protests that he was clearly being discriminated against because he was a known critic of the TSA (the rest of the TSA screeners also knew him by name), the officer growled, “Take your damn shoes off or I’m gonna arrest you.”
Not even giving Jones the option to leave the airport, the cop continued with threats to arrest Jones and prevent him from flying as the radio host threatened to file a lawsuit for civil rights violations.
One of Jones’ primary concerns regarding the removal of shoes was the fact that he had caught athletes foot from that very process in another airport years previously, meaning that he now carries a spare pair of socks to change into when he boards the aircraft.
Eventually agreeing to remove his shoes, Jones then walked towards the metal detector as the cop leaned over to talk to the TSA agents. After Jones had already passed through the metal detector, a ‘beep’ was sounded and TSA agents began laughing. Jones later said it was obvious that TSA screeners had set the metal detector off themselves, possibly by order of the officer, so that they could harass Jones further. Other travelers have reported that TSA agents routinely set off the metal detector themselves in order to manufacture a justification for further harassment.
The officer continued to detain Jones as he talked to other cops. Despite the officer seemingly wanting to take further action, TSA management, presumably aware of the potential scandal that could ensue, said they were happy to let Jones go on his way.
Jones is now considering a civil rights lawsuit against the TSA for discrimination. As we have previously documented, journalists who are critical of the TSA are routinely targeted for harassment.
CNN reporter Drew Griffin was put on a TSA watch list immediately after he filed reports critical of the organization back in 2008. Conservative radio host and Breitbart Editor Dana Loesch is also habitually groped by TSA screeners whenever she travels.
Following the national opt out day protest in 2010, the TSA was forced to admit that it had kept records on Alex Jones and Matt Drudge, another prominent TSA critic, but refused to release details even after a FOIA request by former Congressman Bob Barr.
Political figures who have been critical of the TSA such as Rand Paul and Ron Paul have also been singled out for harassment and interrogation by the federal agency.
Video of the entire confrontation was recorded and will be added to this story later.
*****
(Activist Post) We have chosen to highlight United States agencies; however, this top 10 list has global impact, as the U.S. has now proven to be the enforcement division of the overarching globalist agenda of centralized control.
One could argue that every government agency serves the purpose of stifling freedom and wasting taxpayer money. Yet, the 10 listed below go the extra mile for their sheer corruption, draconian regulations, and ultimate impact upon the largest number of citizens.
The main criteria for inclusion in the top 10 is the amount of money spent by the taxpayer according to official budget declarations, and then attaining the highest level of doing exactly the opposite of what they were supposedly created for.
Here is the countdown to the top 10 most dangerous U.S. government agencies to the freedom, prosperity and health of its citizens . . . .
#10 – Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – annual budget $8.5 billion: Their record of ignoring environmental damage and the health effects on humans from major events such as 9/11, the Exxon and Gulf oil spills to the worst case, Fukushima, is unparalleled.
Rather than investigate and warn of real dangers, they have gone after farmers for dubious claims of water contamination, while treating milk spills as they should have treated oil spills.
Even worse, the EPA has concluded that there is no law preventing it from doing “research” on Americans. A recent lawsuit over the EPA’s work with airborne pollutants will put this claim to the test in Federal court. Their illegal human experiments could break the Nuremberg Code (source: The Washington Times).
#9 – Internal Revenue Service (IRS) – annual budget $13.3 billion: Cries of “End the Fed!” continue to get louder, while more people are beginning to wake up completely and couple this with “End the IRS!” In fact, the two were developed together 100 years ago making the private Fed and the government IRS fraternal twins in creating a system of indentured servitude through dollar devaluation and arbitrary tax collection, respectively.
The Fed enslaves through stealth, while the IRS uses force to impose itself through ever-expanding regulations and the threat of fines and imprisonment. As the collection division, the IRS rakes in a staggering $2.3 trillion annually.
Despite that massive amount, the IRS has a distinguished record of ignoring the shenanigans of major corporations and federal employees, while focusing harshly on the average private citizen and small businesses in particular. Thankfully, there is some momentum toward abolishing the IRS throughFairTax legislation. Now would be a good time, as the IRS will be empowered even further when the healthcare overhaul takes effect. #8 – Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) – annual budget $13.5 billion: Despite massive funding to help people in dire need of assistance, FEMA has failed spectacularly in the cases of Katrina and Sandy, even hindering the ability of people to make it on their own, asgun confiscation was ordered against the population affected by Katrina.
The mechanics of offering aid to legitimate victims of Sandy are still being debated by the U.S. government. Additionally, there is a disturbing amount of evidence that suggests FEMA would be instrumental in enslaving large populations following an economic collapse or civil unrest. FEMA centers are now open knowledge and if implemented will likely resemble the squalor and horror that refugees encountered when jammed into the New Orleans Superdome following Katrina.
#7 - Department of Justice (DoJ) – annual budget $28 billion: This includes the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) which has its own annual budget of $8 billion. The “Department of Justice” is perhaps the most Orwellian oxymoron of all government agencies. For decades they have pursued a failed War on Drugs that targets small-time users while ignoring the true drug criminals. In fact, they’ve even armed the drug gangs as revealed in the Fast and Furious scandal. We have a Justice Department more concerned with going after whistleblowers of crimesthan the criminals themselves.
The FBI deserves a whole section unto itself given their recent behavior. The only “terrorists” they’ve caught since 9-11 are the ones they have created with their own material support. Further, the FBI is increasingly using illegal surveillance tactics for peaceful activists like Occupy demonstrators and others.
It has recently been revealed that the FBI was actually spying on Occupy protesters at the behest of banks, not the government, even refusing to tell Occupy leaders that there were assassination plots against them. Finally, it must be noted that no bankers have gone to jail from the immense fraud that led to the financial collapse of 2008 and beyond; no one significant has gone to jail for torture and other war crimes; and government corruption has been all but legalized.
#6 - Spy Agencies: The nation’s 17 spy agencies, including the CIA and the National Security Agency (NSA) – annual budget $55 billion? Many of the intelligence accounts are classified, so we can’t really know the true total, but we do know that the budget for spy agencieshas doubled since 9/11. The NSA has grabbed the most attention as of late with plans to expand into their new $2 billion data mining center in Bluffdale, Utah set to launch in September of this year. Whistleblowers like William Binney have stated that the agency is already spying on its own citizens domestically.
As the war on terror increases its scope through drone surveillance on American soil, the NSA’s budget will only increase, while increasing the danger posed to large sections of the U.S. Constitution. The CIA of course has long been implicated in usingassassination rings to topple foreign governments and political opponents, while being at the center of the Guantanamo Bay and rendition torture apparatus. With the arrival of no-holds-barred legislation like NDAA 2013, the intelligence regime becomes more dangerous than ever.
#5 – Department of Education (ED) – annual budget $70 billion: The way that America has chosen to educate its youth is the beginning of the justifications for the abuses of every other federal agency. The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America, as Charlotte Iserbyt has called it, has resulted in a once independent, entrepreneurial nation becoming a collectivized horde of selfish, but not individualistic, youth.
There is much less attention paid to vocational skills, and much more attention paid to training the next bunch of public officials or bureaucracy enforcers. Furthermore, the public school system is clearly engaging in prisoner training with the actions of children becoming criminalized at an ever-greater pace. With the recent CT school shooting, we can expect that this will now become part of the curriculum as justification for the surrounding police state will be taught as a logical consequence in the face of such random threats of terror.
#4 - Department of Homeland Security (DHS) annual budget $100 billion (3,000 page PDF): – Much like the Department of Defense, the activities of DHS are all-encompassing including the goon squad of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which has employed untrained, low IQ, and criminal elements including pedophiles to reach into the pants of men, women and children.
The TSA is also responsible for introducing cancer to its employees and the public through its backscatter radiation naked imaging machines. And now they are set to hit the streets across America with their spin-off VIPR teams. DHS has set up the ultimate framework for tyranny, including secret lists, secret arrests, activist surveillance, biometric immigration measures, control of cyberspace, Orwellian telescreens and PSA’s that increasingly portray average citizens who are engaged in normal activities as worthy of suspicion and interrogation. They are sure to be on the front lines of any gun control and confiscation initiatives, as they clearly have been stockpiling their own ammunition in ever greater numbers.
#3 – U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) – annual budget $155 billion: If there is one agency that is administering the globalist directives of Agenda 21, it is the USDA. They have recently begun putting dubious embargoes on small farms, which is leading to economic and literal starvation of people and animals alike. Through their trickle down directives, farmers can even be charged in a different county after being cleared of wrongdoing in a previous case.
This is the hallmark of bureaucratic tyranny. The USDA has been instrumental in clearing Dow Chemical’s GM soy, giving Monsanto’s GMO crops special ‘speed approval,’ and covering up pesticide damage to humans and bee populations. But in true absurdist bureaucratic style, the same organization that has consistently overlooked the health and economic threats to countless millions of people decided to fine a family $4 million dollars for selling bunny rabbits.
#2 – Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) – annual budget $892 billion - This gargantuan structure includes the FDA, CDC and the National Institutes of Health among others. The FDA has its own annual budget of $4.5 billion. This agency has approved prescription and over-the-counter drugs that knowingly have killed hundreds of thousandsof people annually, has increased irradiation of the food supply, and has covered up vaccine injuries, But if you want Big Pharma, you can get it from a vending machine, thanks to the FDA. No surprise, the FDA has ties to Monsanto and ties to Bayer. Now our food is being made and modified by the largest pesticide manufacturer, while any move to label GMO is shut down by the agency.
The FDA has additionally approved AquaBounty’s GE Salmon despite a statement by The Center for Food Safety, that its “bad for the consumer, bad for the salmon industry, and bad for the environment.” Among other gems are dangerous animal feed additives, approving dangerous anti-viral drugs for infants, and policing food safety in foreign nations.
As for the CDC, or Center for Disease Creation as some natural medicine practitioners have coined the agency (budget $11 billion), they have encouraged vaccination to such an extent that some have questioned whether their mandated vaccine schedule is part of a compulsory sterilization program.
#1 – Department of Defense (DoD) – annual budget ??? – Officially $613 billion This agency is in desperate need of returning to its more honest original name: The War Department. In addition to being the recipient of the highest percentage of the federal budget, the DoD’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) division almost deserves a category of its own. Many of DARPA’s projects fall into the money pit of “black budget” secret projects not even subjected to presidential and congressional oversight. With DARPA’s “mad science” reputation, it is no doubt one of the top recipients of the $50 billion annual black budget, making this one of the most dangerous federal agencies to both the economy of the U.S. and to world peace. Overall, the Department of Defense as the coordinator for anything that falls under “national security” is responsible for openly killing millions and eviscerating the Constitution … and there is no sign that they are letting up any time soon.
(Ron Paul) -As I prepare to retire from Congress, I’d like to suggest a few New Year’s resolutions for my colleagues to consider. For the sake of liberty, peace, and prosperity I certainly hope more members of Congress consider the strict libertarian constitutional approach to government in 2013.
In just a few days, Congress will solemnly swear to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against ALL enemies, foreign and domestic. They should reread Article 1 Section 8 and the Bill of Rights before taking such a serious oath. Most legislation violates key provisions of the Constitution in very basic ways, and if members can’t bring themselves to say no in the face of pressure from special interests, they have broken trust with their constituents and violated their oaths. Congress does not exist to serve special interests, it exists to protect the rule of law.
I also urge my colleagues to end unconstitutional wars overseas. Stop the drone strikes; stop the covert activities and meddling in the internal affairs of other nations. Strive to observe “good faith and justice towards all Nations” as George Washington admonished. We are only making more enemies, wasting lives, and bankrupting ourselves with the neoconservative, interventionist mindset that endorses pre-emptive war that now dominates both parties.
All foreign aid should end because it is blatantly unconstitutional. While it may be a relatively small part of our federal budget, for many countries it is a large part of theirs–and it creates perverse incentives for both our friends and enemies. There is no way members of Congress can know or understand the political, economic, legal, and social realities in the many nations to which they send taxpayer dollars.
Congress needs to stop accumulating more debt. US debt, monetized by the Federal Reserve, is the true threat to our national security. Revisiting the parameters of Article 1 Section 8 would be a good start.
Congress should resolve to respect personal liberty and free markets. Learn more about the free market and how it regulates commerce and produces greater prosperity better than any legislation or regulation. Understand that economic freedom IS freedom. Resolve not to get in the way of voluntary contracts between consenting adults. Stop bailing out failed yet politically connected companies and industries. Stop forcing people to engage in commerce when they don’t want to, and stop prohibiting them from buying and selling when they do want to. Stop trying to legislate your ideas of fairness. Protect property rights. Protect the individual. That is enough.
There are many more resolutions I would like to see my colleagues in Congress adopt, but respect for the Constitution and the oath of office should be at the core of everything members of Congress do in 2013.
The TSA’s naked body scanners have created mass congestion and humiliation within every major airport at which they are installed, but leading radiation experts say that they are also causing mass waves of cancer — the exact number of which is impossible to calculate. You may or may not remember, but in November of last year a bombshell report linking the scanners to cancer actually led to a TSA press response in which they promised to re-test the scanners through independent trials.
As you may have guessed, they of course decided not to proceed with the testing after promising to do so. If they had actually done so, of course, then it would reveal to travels just how much radiation they are being blasted with when travelling through the ‘harmless’ scanners.
It was actually back in 1998 that radiation experts, much like one leading radiation expert I spoke with in a video below, actually projected that the scanners were causing cancer deaths thanks to the emission of radiation. This of course was back in 1998, long before the widespread usage of the scanners. With these machines being rolled out nationwide and having millions pass through each year, the estimate of 100 or so deaths per year back in 1998 can actually be expanded to the thousands (if not more). Even John Hopkins scientists warned similarly that the scanners can wreak havoc on the body.
I spoke with Dr. Edward Group, a practicing radiation expert of over 20 years and the founder of Global Healing Center specifically to address the dangers of the TSA’s naked body scanners:
(DailyMail) -A 12-year-old girl who uses a wheelchair was left in tears after TSA agents detained her for nearly an hour at a Texas airport after saying they found traces of bomb residue on her hands, her mother claimed today.
Shelbi Walser was travelling to Florida with her mother, Tammy Daniels, for treatment for her brittle bone disorder when she was stopped at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in Texas.
A TSA agent swabbed Shelbi’s hands and she tested positive for explosives. But the wheelchair, which is likely to have transferred any substance to her hands as she pushed it, was never tested, her mother said.
Tears: Shelbi Walser, who suffers from a brittle bone condition, is filmed crying after TSA agents at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport detained her for an hour after detecting explosive residue on her hands, her mother said
A video of the December 8 incident shows Shelbi sobbing as officials detain her in front of hundreds of travellers at security, but refuse to allow her mother to get close enough to comfort her.
Daniels told Fox that they even called a bomb specialist to the scene, while other passengers reportedly spoke out in support of Shelbi and offered her tissues and candy.
‘It was frightening. I kinda got mad.’
Ordeal: Her mother said she was not allowed to get close to her crying daughter to comfort her
Bizarre: They had to wait for an hour in front of hundreds of travellers while the TSA called a bomb expert
After nearly an hour, Daniels said agents suddenly told them they were free to pass through the security checkpoint but offered no explanation for the incident.
‘It’s okay, you didn’t do anything wrong, we’re going to get you on your way,’ an agent can be heard telling Shelbi in the video as she cries into her hands.
The youngster and her mother made it just in time for their flight.
But Shelbi said that a check of wheelchair could have revealed the TSA’s mistake much earlier.
‘It could have come off fertilizer, because we have chickens,’ she told WFAA. ‘It could have just come off the ground, because I roll through everything.’
Enraged: Shelbi said they should have checked the wheelchair as she had probably rolled through something
Annoyed: Her mother, Tammy Daniels, said the TSA needs to reconsider how it treats children
Her mother added that she had been left outraged by the way her daughter was treated.
‘I am by no means undermining our safety in the air,’ she said. ‘After 9/11, by no means am I doing that. But when it comes to children, common sense is not in a textbook.’
But the TSA defended the incident in a statement.
‘We are sensitive to the concerns of passengers who were not satisfied with their screening experience and we invite those individuals to provide feedback to TSA through a variety of channels,’ it said.
‘We work to balance those concerns with the very real threat that our adversaries will attempt to use explosives to carry out attacks on planes.’
Scene: The TSA said they try to balance considerate screenings with the threats of air travel
The video is just the latest to bring the TSA’s responses into question.
Last month, Representative Ralph Hall of Texas claimed his 17-year-old niece had her dress pulled down after she was taken aside to be screened at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta.
The incident happened two years ago but came to light under the Freedom of Information Act after it was caught on surveillance camera. Hall has called for the agent to be fired.
And last year, two other wheelchair users, Jason and Jennifer Steitler from Florida, claim they were forced up from their wheelchairs and groped under their girls by agents at Greater Rochester International Airport in New York.
(RT)Being absent from a federal no-fly list might not mean you won’t be hassled the next time you enter an US airport. The Transportation and Security Administration is constructing a new list of known “low risk” passengers.
The news comes as the TSA is still trying to figure out how to operate its PreCheck program, a project that lets frequent-flyers bypass the stringent security screenings that other passengers who put through while boarding flights in the US.
“As part of the effort to identify individuals that are low risk, TSA also is creating and maintaining a watch list of individuals who are disqualified from eligibility from TSA Pre[check]TM, for some period of time or permanently, because they have been involved in violations of security regulations of sufficient severity or frequency,” reads an excerpt from the Federal Register.
“Disqualifying violations of aviation security regulations may involve violations at the airport or on board aircraft, such as a loaded firearm that is discovered in carry-on baggage at the checkpoint, or a threat to use a destructive device against a transportation conveyance, facilities or personnel,” the bulletin continues, noting that the TSA Pre[check]TM Disqualification List “will be generated by TSA’s Performance and Results Information System (PARIS).”
In February, the Associated Press revealed that the number of names included on the federal no-fly list created after the September 11 terrorist attacks has doubled in size in just 12 months. While around 10,000 individuals were barred from flying in 2011, information made available to the AP in February of this year suggested that the number of persons unable to board planes now amounts to roughly 21,000.
“The news that the list is growing tells us that more people’s rights are being violated,” Nusrat Choudhury of the American Civil Liberties Union told the AP for their report. “It’s a secret list, and the government puts people on it without any explanation. Citizens have been stranded abroad.”
In October, a Louisiana man was told he was added to the federal no-fly list while awaiting a connecting flight in Hawaii. He had managed to fly from the mainland US to the Pacific island with no problem, but once arriving in Oahu was told he would be prohibited from boarding another plane.
“I was very, very vocal about the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and I did contact my representative” about it, Wade E. Hicks, Jr told radio host Doug Hamann of the incident. “I do believe that this is tied in some way to my free speech and my political view.”
While criticism of the government was never fully considered a good enough reason to remove someone’s air travel privileges, the development of a new “low risk” roster could classify a whole new group of persons who would have otherwise been left off the no-fly list.
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
December 4, 2012
The TSA is seeking permission from the Office of Management and Budget to conduct “security assessments” on highways as well as at 140 other public transportation hubs, including bus depots and train stations.
The request was buried amidst a deluge of jargon and published in the Federal Register on November 30.
If approved, it would allow the TSA to to “conduct transportation security-related assessments during site visits with security and operating officials of surface transportation entities.”
“Similarly, TSA wants to conduct on-site assessments with public agencies that run buses, rail transit, long-distance rail and less common types of service, such as cable cars, inclined planes, funiculars and automated guide way systems,” reports Government Security News.
On the face of it, the “security assessments” involve TSA officials telling transportation organizations what security measures they should adopt as part of the Highway Baseline Assessment for Security Enhancement (BASE) Program. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what measures the TSA is likely to recommend – more “security assessments” that require more TSA agents and more funding for the federal agency.
“TSA’s Highway BASE program seeks to establish the current state of security gaps and implemented countermeasures throughout the highway mode of transportation by posing questions to major transportation asset owners and operators. Data and results collected through the Highway BASE program will inform TSA’s policy and program initiatives and allow TSA to provide focused resources and tools to enhance the overall security posture within the surface transportation community,” states the federal filing.
In other words, get ready for TSA agents to be groping Grandma on the interstate.
Critics of the TSA will undoubtedly see this as another example of the federal agency extending its tentacles into forms of transportation other than airports and greasing the skids for airport-style security at highway checkpoints. Such measures have already been put in place at numerous train and bus stations across the country.
The TSA has already conducted checkpoint-style programs on highways before, notably in Tennessee last yearwhere Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) teams checked trucks at at five weigh stations and two bus stations in the state, as well as making trucks pass through x-ray scanners. TSA officials also used the checkpoint to try and recruit truck drivers to become citizen snitches under the First Observer Highway Security Program.
Tennessee Department of Safety & Homeland Security Commissioner Bill Gibbons justified the highway checkpoints by stating, “Where is a terrorist more apt to be found? Not these days on an airplane more likely on the interstate.”
After the presence of TSA screeners on the highway made the news, the TSA responded by claiming concerns were overblown, and that TSA workers were only, “supporting state and local personnel as they inspected vehicles to identify potential security threats.”
Now it seems the TSA is looking to run its own “security-related assessments” on highways without the involvement of law enforcement.
Last year, the TSA was responsible for over 9,000 checkpoints across the United States, a number set to increase thanks to the agency’s bloated budget and its expansion beyond anything vaguely related to transportation. Since its inception in the US after 9/11, the TSA has grown in size exponentially. The agency was slammed in a recent congressional report for wasting hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on security theater.
As Infowars has repeatedly stressed, any attempt to protest against the practices of the TSA by simply refusing to fly is largely pointless given the fact that the federal agency is expanding to cover virtually all forms of transport, as well as events that have nothing to do with transportation such as political functions, music concerts, and even high school prom nights.
(Infowars) -Advocacy group Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) has written to ranking members of the House Homeland Security subcommittee on transportation, demanding that funding for the TSA’s full body scanner program be halted until the agency complies with a now year old federal court order to hold public hearings on the program.
In its letter (PDF) to Representatives Mike Rogers and Sheila Jackson-Lee, EPIC noted “…given recent disclosures regarding the agency’s practice we believe funding for the body scanner program should be suspended until public rulemaking is completed.”
The group outlined the fact that during a recent House oversight hearing, the TSA contradicted earlier statements it had made regarding the reasons the agency was reportedly moving backscatter XRay scanners to smaller airports.
Indeed, it was revealed that the TSA had instead shipped 91 of the machines, worth millions of dollars, to storage warehouses.
“…the TSA website has failed to explain the contradiction between TSA’s announcement that it is moving backscatter machines to smaller airports and the revelation that the machines are all being moved to warehouses.” EPIC notes.
EPIC also notes that the real reason the machines were removed was because the TSA has failed to implement privacy software on the machines and that tests were potentially manipulated by the vendor, Rapiscan.
EPIC also notes that during the House hearing, the TSA claimed it did not underestimate concerns for privacy among the public, despite the fact that there were national protests, petitions, complaints and a court order from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to undertake public rulemaking.
“TSA did not think the privacy concerns of the public warranted public comment on the initial implementation of the body scanner program, and despite a subsequent court order over a year ago to implement notice-and-comment rulemaking, TSA still has not undertaken a public rulemaking.” the letter reads.
As we reported in September, the court that previously ruled the TSA’s deployment of body scanners was illegal and demanded the agency comply “promptly” with the order to hold public hearings, has since backed off the issue, effectively allowing the TSA to continue to ignore its responsibility on the matter.
The court effectively caved to the agency’s appeals, allowing the TSA until the end of March 2013 to begin the public engagement process, meaning that by that time a full 20 months will have passed since the original court order, and almost four years will have elapsed since the agency officially rubber stamped the deployment of the body scanners.
In its latest letter to Congress, EPIC also notes that during the House oversight hearing, the TSA once again repeated claims regarding the capabilities of the body scanners that have been proven misleading. The TSA officials at the hearing claimed that images of passengers taken by the machines cannot be stored or printed.
“Documents obtained by EPIC make clear that the devices are capable of storing and transmitting images because the agency required this functionality as part of its own procurement specifications.” EPIC notes.
“The capability to store and print images may or may not be disabled through the current software, but the body scanners still have the capability to store and print images.” the group urges.
EPIC also notes that, despite claims to the contrary by TSA officials during the oversight hearing, surveys have shown that passengers are not aware that they can opt out of body scans.
EPIC further argues that “The option to opt out is meaningless if the agency fails to inform travelers that the devices will capture an image of the travelers stripped naked.”
In addition to restricting funding for the scanners, the advocacy group asks that Congress “Require TSA to make publicly available all results of tests performed on body scanners,” and “Require TSA to make publicly available an accounting of the money spent on airport screening technology as well as an evaluation by the agency as to the effectiveness of these techniques.”
EPIC has attempted on no less than THREE occasions over the past 12 months to get the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to enforce the law on the TSA. In its petition issued earlier this year, EPIC noted that the agency’s delay in acting poses risks to travelers, defies the Court’s authority, and is flat out unlawful.
The TSA had argued that it “should not have to stop every five minutes for comment and rulemaking”, and that it did not have the resources to do so in any case.
EPIC has previously argued in court that body scanners are “invasive, unlawful, and ineffective,” and that the TSA’s deployment of the devices violated the U.S. Constitution and several other federal statutes. The rights group is pursuing a case to completely suspend use of the scanners in airports.
(NaturalNews) As we enter the busiest travel season of the year, it is difficult not to think of the millions of innocent people traveling through U.S. airports that will be forcibly subjected to naked body radiation blasts, full-body groping and molestation, and other unconstitutional abuses by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA). And the worst aspect of this government-imposed tyranny is that it is wholly unnecessary in light of the actual facts surrounding terrorism and airport security.
Here are four little-known reasons why the TSA continues to be a completely useless entity, and why the bloated agency needs to be abolished immediately for the sake of protecting life and preserving freedom and liberty:
1) Virtually nobody is at risk of becoming a victim of “terrorism.” When the Bush administration first began beating the war drums following the 9/11 terrorist attacks back in 2001, it seemed as though the entire nation fell victim to the propaganda that terrorists were lurking behind every corner, and within every airport terminal. But the truth of the matter is that terrorism of the type that occurred on 9/11 is so rare that more people accidentally die every year in their bathtubs than the number that die from terrorism.
In fact, a report issued by the TSA back in 2011 reveals that not a single terrorist even tried to board an airplane that entire year. And the supposed terrorists like the so-called “underwear bomber” that were intercepted in years prior actually turned out to be CIA plants. All in all, the actual risk of falling victim to Islamic terrorism is so low that it is virtually inconsequential statistically.
2) Islamic extremism responsible for fewer than 0.003 percent of all U.S. murders. Similarly, fewer than 36 of all the murders that occurred in the U.S. between 9/11 and the end of 2010 could even be remotely linked to Islamic extremism, while the other 149,964 were completely unrelated to terrorism. This further illustrates how utterly miniscule the threat truly is from terrorism in the U.S., and how insanely off-balance and deranged the perpetual obsession with terrorism has become throughout the country.
3) Nearly $90 billion has already been wasted funding the TSA since 9/11. The average American is more likely to get attacked by a zombie or a power-drunk cop with a taser than by a terrorist, to put it another way, and yet the federal government continues to pump billions of taxpayer dollars into the TSA every year so the agency can molest grandmothers, children, and terminally-ill cancer patients. According to the figures, more than $90 billion has been injected to fund TSA operations since the agency’s inception following 9/11, even though there have been more than 25,000 airport security breaches that have taken place since 2001 under the TSA’s watch.
4) More people have died from driving to avoid the TSA than died in the 9/11 attacks. Many people have become so fed up with the TSA’s antics that they are now driving to their destinations rather than flying. But according to the figures, this uptick in vehicle use has led to an increase in about 242 driving fatalities every month. If you multiply this out over 11 years, this translates into nearly 32,000 additional deaths as a result of the TSA’s creation, which is nearly 12 times the number that died on 9/11.
If the TSA had never been created, in other words, fewer lives would have been lost in the years since 9/11, which further proves that this corrupt agency is not only useless, but also a detriment to American security.
(RT) A former TSA supervisor has been told he’s under federal investigation for blowing the whistle on security lapses at the Nashville International Airport in Tennessee.
Gerald Smith, a one-time agent with the Transportation Security Administration, told Nashville’s WSMV News in October that not only had many agents in the area airport repeatedly failed security tests, but that the TSA seemed reluctant to retrain those who weren’t up to snuff.
Smith spent seven years with the TSA before coming clean to WSMV when they interviewed him earlier this year to comment on documents involving the TSA’s Threat Image Projection, or TIP, program. The network obtained documents from 2009 through 2011 that showed that many TSA staffers that were tested using TIP failed to spot contraband being brought through airports in carry-on luggage. Should an agent fall below 75 percent in testing, they are required to be retrained within a month. Smith said that simply wasn’t the case in Nashville.
“If they are not catching these bags, what does that say?” WSMV chief investigative reporter Jeremy Finley asked Smith.
“That says that they might not catch the real thing,” the former agent responded.
“Do you want to be the one that’s being screen by those few? I don’t want to be. They need that training,” he said.
Now just weeks later, Smith has reached out to WSMV again to talk about the TSA’s security problem, but he doesn’t have an update that will make flyers feel more safe. According to Smith, he’s now been approached by the TSA and told he’s under investigation for reporting security flaws at Nashville International.
“After our investigative series aired, Smith received a letter from TSA that stated he is under investigation for disclosing information about security screenings, security training materials and identifying information on transportation security personnel,” WSMV reports.
“I guess if you’re the government and have unlimited resources, you can go after whoever you want to, but that doesn’t make it right,” Smith told the network.
“When I was contacted about coming forward, I did it for one sole purpose. The question I was asked was, ‘Do you have any security concerns at the airport?’ And my answer was yes.”
Now for speaking out on those concerns, Smith says he faces several violations relating to disclosing information, each of which could come with an $11,000 fine. Meanwhile, though, WSMV refuses to say who supplied them with the TIP documents.
Luckily for Smith, he may have a chance at staying unscathed: on Tuesday, US President Barack Obama signed congressional legislation that provides whistleblower protections effective immediately to TSA employees who report waste, fraud or abuse within the agency. Before now, TSA whistleblowers lacked the same protections other federal agencies have in place.
