Posted on 03/16/2013 8:50:08 PM PDT by usconservative
(CBS) — It was stunning for those who watched Thursday night as federal agents investigated a possible nuclear threat at Chicago’s Ogilvie Transportation Center.
CBS 2′s photojournalist Lana Hinshaw-Klann happened to be at the scene and used a cell-phone camera to record agents in action. Reporter Dave Savini looks into what agents were looking for and what they found.
Sources say the agents were members of the elite TSA VIPR team on the 5:04pm Union Pacific West line. They were carrying hand-held nuclear-detection devices that picked up a reading.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicago.cbslocal.com ...
IMHO, the key in the report is the VIPR team.
Most TSA inspection points are premised upon the volition of the public to allow themselves in the TSA inspection area and submit to screening. Granted, nobody is allowed on the aircraft without being screened. Nevertheless, it is feasible to simply turn around and walk away, not submitting to the inspection.
Meanwhile, if TSA inspectors / screeners encounter contraband, they afford the owner the opportunity to dispose of it on their own. They can throw it in a trash barrel, walk back out of line and do whatever they want with it, but only illegal activity such as carrying a concealed weapon without a permit or attempting to bring a bomb on board, results in the screening process being halted. They then call 911 or local law enforcement to handle the situation.
The VIPR team running through the terminal and searching people who are not in their search box, steps further out of the box of their legitimate authority.
This isn't reassuring either:
The TSA team passed by him several times before ending up on his train car. Finally, he got a clue when an agent questioned the man right next to him and asked, ‘Sir, do you have an explanation as to why I am getting a high isotope reading on your bag?’”
So this elite team passed by him "several times"? Then got the guy next to him? Totally staged or stooged. Either way it's just more security theater for the masses.
Somebody needs to research the attorney and his political connections/donations. How about the reporter?
Agree. This is nothing but a contrived, bs, public relations stunt.
The “happy that our men are vigilant” train riders go on their merry way feeling that TSA is keeping the world safe.
LMAO.
There in lays the rub!
Last I heard they are not bonded law enforcement.
Their alleged power is in question, they have no authority to effect an arrest, and their charter is limited.
They only do this to incite compliance, train the masses to comply.
I wonder if there is an implied consent clause somewhere in public transit systems or you could refuse to allow a search unless they got a warrant? Of course they could haul you in and and let your lawyer start the whole false arrest exercise, I suppose.
Not all isotopes have anything to do with nuclear radiation. There are isotopes of almost all elements. So a “high isotope reading” per se has nothing to do with nuclear radiation. But no one expects an agent of the government to know that. If he had asked about nuclear radiation, that would be another thing.
On the plus side, it’s good to know that they have such sensitive devices.
On the minus side, the media acted as they always do, calling it a “nuclear scare.”
There must have been a reason they were on the look out for an nuclear reading...
Dollars to donuts they were on alert for an something entirely different reason and this guy simply was at the wrong place at the wrong time...
I unfortunately had to ride the Metra trains when I worked at Sears Tower for about six months years ago... nothing, and I do mean NOTHING, the Metra does should EVER have the word "elite" in front of it.
LOL. Does anyone find it odd this guy, a lawyer, said/implied he did not know he would be picked up on Geiger counters? Hssn’t this been common knowledge for nearly 10 years that there are teams looking for nukes here?
The more I think about this, the more ticked off I get. We are being played. This is some ploy from Obama. Hopefully, it is only the sequester theater, and not something more sinister. Next I guess we’ll have park rangers rescuing journalists from poison ivy or FBI stopping a Golem...
I think Elite TSA is an IQ slightly higher than a brick.
While I agree @ your sentiments re: Metra (I've been riding the Southwest Service for 21 years now...) VIPR is part of the TSA.
I had my own run in with the "elite" VIPR team several years ago at Union Station. They were conducting "random voluntary searches" and attempted to "escort" me to an area to be searched.
By "escort" and "random voluntary" I mean they surrounded me with 4 goons and attempted to intimidate me into "volunteering" for their "random search."
I'm not a small man myself @ just under 6'2" and 230 pounds so not only was I not intimidated, I started yelling at them to get the (several expletives deleted) out of my way and pushed past them. Once past them I cursed them out some more and drew attention to them. Made the crowd of commuters stop and watch as I pointed them out and yelled about the un-Constitutionality of what they were trying to do.
IMO, this whole article was nothing but a "puff piece" designed to condition people into thinking we need morons like this.
The reality is we do not. How convenient that the guy who had the isotope test was a lawyer who could say nothing bad about the TSA VIPR team, and that there was a reporter right there to witness it all?
I mean c'mon. Who are they trying to "condition" here into thinking they're actually prepared for something like a dirty bomb on a train, us or the would-be terrorists?
Are we all supposed to be so stupid to believe that this is the first time in the 6+ years that ONE person in the TENS OF THOUSANDS who commute into the city daily on Metra has had this kind of test?
Really? I had one four years ago when my doctors found a spot on my left hip and thought I had bone cancer. No one from the TSA VIPR team detected any radiation or came through the METRA Train I've been taking Mon-Fri for the last 21 (or 22) years now.
The only logical conclusion IMO is that this PUFF PIECE is designed to condition the masses who are gullible and believe the lame-stream media that "VIPR" is needed.
As for the would-be terrorists that might use a dirty bomb on mass transit somewhere, they've gotta be laughing their asses off at this article thinking "how dumb are those American's anyway?!"
lol, I think, but don’t forget the growth-cycle thingy...;)
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