Federal Air Marshals Wasting Time and Resources Monitoring Passengers Almost at Random
July 29th, 2018Obviously, the chances of this stopping a terrorist incident are somewhere between slim and none. So, if it’s not going to stop an incident, what is it going to do?
Is the purpose of this to facilitate a “terrorist” incident, by distracting personnel away from actual threats?
Hmm.
Via: Boston Globe:
Federal air marshals have begun following ordinary US citizens not suspected of a crime or on any terrorist watch list and collecting extensive information about their movements and behavior under a new domestic surveillance program that is drawing criticism from within the agency.
The previously undisclosed program, called “Quiet Skies,” specifically targets travelers who “are not under investigation by any agency and are not in the Terrorist Screening Data Base,” according to a Transportation Security Administration bulletin in March.
The internal bulletin describes the program’s goal as thwarting threats to commercial aircraft “posed by unknown or partially known terrorists,” and gives the agency broad discretion over which air travelers to focus on and how closely they are tracked.
…
Several air marshals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly, told the Globe the program wastes taxpayer dollars and makes the country less safe because attention and resources are diverted away from legitimate, potential threats.
What struck me as the main takeaway from this article is the fact that anyone can be targeted for an in-depth look. Everybody knows their information is stacked high and deep somewhere but they don’t worry about it. I run into this attitude a lot, that why should I care what they collect, I’m not doing anything wrong. My guess is this piece is just to normalize the idea that not only do you not have privacy, but you can be looked at with scrutiny even if you’re not under investigation, the hell with the 4th Amendment.
Maybe what’s coming is with enough computer power and surveillance, the authorities can turn anyone into a criminal, and levy fines against them that can’t easily be fought in court. That’s already happening with the traffic cameras.