Next Step for Body Scanners Could be Trains, Boats, Metro
November 24th, 2010Via: The Hill:
The next step in tightened security could be on U.S. public transportation, trains and boats.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says terrorists will continue to look for U.S. vulnerabilities, making tighter security standards necessary.
“[Terrorists] are going to continue to probe the system and try to find a way through,” Napolitano said in an interview that aired Monday night on “Charlie Rose.”
“I think the tighter we get on aviation, we have to also be thinking now about going on to mass transit or to trains or maritime. So, what do we need to be doing to strengthen our protections there?”
Napolitano’s comments, made a day before one of the nation’s busiest travel days, come in the wake of a public outcry over newly implemented airport screening measures that have been criticized for being too invasive.
The secretary has defended the new screening methods, which include advanced imaging systems and pat-downs, as necessary to stopping terrorists. During the interview with Rose, Napolitano said her agency is now looking into ways to make other popular means of travel safer for passengers and commuters.
Napolitano isn’t the only one who’s suggested that advanced scanning machines could be used in places beyond airports.
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, introduced legislation this past September that would authorize testing of body scanners at some federal buildings.
Related: Full-Body Scanners Popping Up at Courthouses
This may really be the tipping point – beginning of the end – so to speak. Government is trampling us at an ever quickening rate. Probably better leave soon, or won’t be able.
As one commenter at Zero Hedge put it (spelling and grammar corrected by moi), “the Elite are not creating new security arrangements to protect the Average Joe from terrorists; they are creating them to protect the Elite from the Average Joe. They can clearly see the rising level of anger, and as they are thoroughly outnumbered, they will need a robust security apparatus to maintain their advantage. Most of the recent bomb threats and failed bombings are nothing more than psyops to coax the Average Joe into the acceptance of a more robust security apparatus that will, eventually, be deployed against the Average Joe himself.”
Don’t know what’s going on, but I’m going to go real slow here (have been thrown off sending a comment 5 times now).
The TSA is attempting to UNIONIZE. Think about it. Do you think these humans with well paying jobs really want to feel you up?
Its a con peoples. Dya want Blackwater instead? Of course not, but make the people from TSA into the DEVILS OF THE UNIVERSE? What the fluck!!! These people are our brothers and sisters and are being directed from some MORON from above to feel your tits, balls, and ass. Yes, if you had a honky govmint job wouldn’t you do as ordered?
I think the PTB and what’s his name Chertoff that lying, flucking moron who just so happens to inhabit my lifespace and REALLY PISSES me off has crossed the line.
We all are under a very strong influence of Neptune right now. What this means to me is that we are psychologically UNDER WATER.
Its also evident that there is a LOT of CASH on the table here. Tom Delay has just been sentenced to jail. So I guess that jury isn’t UNDER WATER.
Think about it.
All this distraction demonizing the TSA. We should be looking at these humans and asking why are their bosses making them do these things? And in this economy, is it fair to ask the TSA people to quit their jobs, when there aren’t any others?
Just when TSA employees are trying to unionize, all this crap in the news.
The PTB CERTAINLY don’t want their minions to unionize. God forbid all those moron feeling you uppers just saying no, I won’t do it, and having their job protected by a union.
Imagine that over breakfast.
Happy thanksgiving.
This is taking the Theater of the Absurd to a whole new stratum.
Sometimes, when discussing high oil prices and their impact on the cost of flying, someone is guaranteed to say: “That’s OK, we can just take the train”.
From that statement alone, you can tell that they’ve never ridden on Amtrak. That benighted organ has very little spare capacity. Billions of dollars and years of upgrades would be needed to make it a borderline service. It takes 30 hours to take the train from Portland Oregon to Los Angeles – when the same journey can be done by car in 15 or less. The system is rickety at the best of times. Station stops are regular, and security at stations such as Klamath Falls is sparse. The idea that shlepping a few body scanners will make it a safer experience is a joke.
On my most recent trip, the train nearly derailed – the result of the engineer taking a curve slightly too quickly. We were delayed for 2 hours as a result.
If they cared a damn about passenger safety, they’d upgrade the tracks, or put down a fresh one.
As readers of cryptogon don’t need to be told, the notion that this is about safety is absurd.
Kevin, what do you make of the recent Mark Ames/Yasha Levine article? I linked it here:
http://www.idleworm.com/blog/2010/11/24/tsarist-conspiracies/
@dermot
I think that the crackpot Left sees Libertarians in as many places as the crackpot Right sees Jews.
According to that article:
…everywhere you look, the alleged victims’ stories often turn out to be false or highly suspicious, promoted by lobbyists posing as “ordinary guys,”
Oh really?
Retired special education teacher, Thomas D. Sawyer, is part of the Koch Libertarian Octopus???
https://cryptogon.com/?p=18833
The U.S. becomes more Sovietized by the minute and The Nation is squealing about alleged libertarians who don’t want their balls fondled by government agents. *sigh*
Nothing in that article about the three year olds being fondled. Here’s just one example:
http://www.newser.com/story/105351/tsa-pats-down-3-year-old.html
I guess those children are suspect on the Koch payroll too.
Ames & Levine did make a correction of sorts on this piece:
http://exiledonline.com/mark-ames-and-yasha-levine-respond-to-glenn-greenwalds-strange-attack-on-their-tsa-article-in-the-nation/comment-page-1/#comment-25929
But my question was relating to their main point about the TSA patdowns being a scam to pressure airports to privatise their security (moving from a federal security provider to a private one).
From a rock to hard place, in either case.