Posted on 12/26/2011 3:52:36 PM PST by upchuck
The Transportation Security Administration isn't just in airports anymore. TSA teams are increasingly conducting searches and screenings at train stations, subways, ferry terminals and other mass transit locations around the country...
The TSA's 25 "viper" teams — for Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response — have run more than 9,300 unannounced checkpoints and other search operations in the last year. Department of Homeland Security officials have asked Congress for funding to add 12 more teams next year.
According to budget documents, the department spent $110 million in fiscal 2011 for "surface transportation security," including the TSA's viper program, and is asking for an additional $24 million next year. That compares with more than $5 billion for aviation security.
TSA officials say they have no proof that the roving viper teams have foiled any terrorist plots or thwarted any major threat to public safety. But they argue that the random nature of the searches and the presence of armed officers serve as a deterrent and bolster public confidence.
But critics say that without a clear threat, the TSA checkpoints are merely political theater. Privacy advocates worry that the agency is stretching legal limits on the government's right to search U.S. citizens without probable cause — and with no proof that the scattershot checkpoints help prevent attacks.
"It's a great way to make the public think you are doing something," said Fred H. Cate, a professor at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, who writes on privacy and security. "It's a little like saying, 'If we start throwing things up in the air, will they hit terrorists?'"
Last month in Orlando, Fla., a team set up metal detectors at a Greyhound bus station and tested passengers' bags for explosive residue.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Like any other government agency, the TSA is scrambling for a” reason to be”. Let’s face it, the reason for the WoT is over, bin Laden is dead, the government is still incompetent and looking for another scapegoat.
TSA is nothing more than a Bush administration jobs program for the chronically unemployed, and now they are expanding.
That's because Jr Bush did it, and anything Jr did is not open to question, even though he is/was a liberal R.
Amen, brother.
All of the nuke’m all garbage spouted around here is knee jerk. I can appreciate the frustration, but we are giving up more and more liberties every day.
Thanks for pointing that out in a very understandable way.
I think too much of the nation is asleep. It doesn’t matter if a Republican or a Democrat is in office. They just don’t care.
Being stopped on public roadways for no reason is already a common occurrence. DWI checkpoints, ICE checkpoint on I-10 in Texas east of El Paso well within the territory of the U.S. and not at a border crossing. Now this crap.
By the way, anyone know what a NASCAR race has to do with transportation?
Read that, thanks. What a shame that can't be posted here. Really good article.
I hate to sound cynical of the situation, but I am. Just like the NYC stock trading interests, the government can create an event that can easily work to advance certain special interests and create profits.
If one wants to create a buying opportunity for insiders, one creates a negative financial event to encourage the outsider sheep to sell. If you want to create an event to scare the public into buying into TSA scanners, duct tape and supporting more govt control you hire an underwear bomber. When the message is easily manipulated and controlled, the determination of outcome is a piece of cake. We need to be more skeptical than naive.
Programed events always result in programmed outcomes.
You can debate all you want, while the tyrants and traitors laugh at you while putting the finishing touches on the police state that America has become. The time for talk is over. Death to tyrants and traitors.
VIPER=Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response
Beyond stupid.
Your right we should focus on Israeli’s /s
If we cherish these freedoms and have any hope of restoring & preserving them, then we need to act like we do.
I'm sure they worked long and hard to come up with something appropriately threatening.
I don’t recall any Israeli’s dying while serving in the US military. Jews, yes; Israeli’s, no.
Some 6 months ago or so, I was "randomly selected" out of a crowd departing my commuter train at Union Station in Chicago while going to work for a 'Mandatory voluntary random search.'
When I asked "what is a mandatory voluntary random search" two agents attempted to take me by my arms and usher me off to a pre-setup spot to do a "random search."
Sorry folks, I don't put up with this crap, so I yelled as loud as I could and wrangled myself free from these two individuals dressed in black uniforms and caps (which did NOT say TSA) and yelled "If it's voluntary get your G-D F'ing hands off of me!" People stopped and looked, wondering what was going on, but no one offered to help.
I continued on my way to work and as irritated as I was by it the rest of the day, I hadn't thought much about it these past months. Honestly can't say whether this was one of their "VIPR" teams, and don't remember what the emblem on their hats looked like or said, but I'm guessing that's what they were now.
I believe I've seen these same uniforms and setup several times since at Union Station in Chicago, but they haven't bothered me. I'll have to keep an eye out now.
Would love to know if any other IL/Chicago Area Freepers have noticed these folks during their commute through either Union or Northwestern stations...
I'm fairly certain that if enough Americans simply pushed back and refused to fly, the airlines would have brought a stop (or at less slowed it) to this tyrannical over-reach. But what they saw was that after a little bit of complaining, everyone just falls into line. So now they creep forward a little bit more, then a little bit more... IMO this whole DHS-TSA is as much about teaching the population to display fealty to government & to show obedience, as it is about stripping away our liberties. ("Security" barely factors into it.)
I hear you. A few years ago most folks I knew thought that I was nuts about this stuff, now they see it with their own eyeballs, yet the “Normalcy Bias” still keeps them thinking “it won’t really get worse” & “we must need this for our protection...” It is very sad & I just don’t see enough folks getting up in arms enough to actually do anything.
I don’t call it “cynical,” it is being willing to be honest about what you see and hear. False flag operations have been used for years to justify the erosion of our liberties in the name of “security.” Unfortunately the “Normalcy Bias” prevents the vast majority of folks from realizing what is happening in plain sight.
“I just don’t see enough folks getting up in arms enough”
That’s because we’re carrying concealed, noob. I haven’t flown in years and have been making a lot of other changes, like a lot of other people.
For every action there is a reaction , step on my toes and see what happens .
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