Next step for TSA, trains, boats, metro

Next step for body scanners could be trains, boats, metro
By Jordy Yager - 11/23/10 02:09 PM ET

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.

Napolitano’s comments were in response to the question: “What will they [terrorists] be thinking in the future?” She gave no details about how soon the public could see changes in security or about what additional safety measures the DHS was entertaining.

The recently implemented airport screening methods have made John Pistole, who heads the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the focus of growing public ire.

On Monday, Pistole said he understood peoples’ privacy concerns and that the TSA would consider modifying its screening policies to make them “as minimally invasive as possible,” but he indicated the advanced-imaging body scans and pat-down methods would remain in place in the short term, including during the high-volume Thanksgiving period of travel.

Lawmakers from both parties have received hundreds of complaints about the new methods — some have likened the pat-downs to groping — and have called on Pistole to address the privacy concerns of their constituents, who were not informed about changes ahead of time.

Many lawmakers say the public should have been informed before the pat-downs and body-imaging techniques were put into practice. As a result, any move to implement new security screening measures for rail or water passengers is likely to be met with tough levels of scrutiny from lawmakers.

Pistole, who spent 26 years with the FBI, told reporters Monday that he rejected the advice of media aides who advised him to publicize the revised security measures before they took effect. Terrorist groups have been known to study the TSA’s screening methods in an attempt to circumvent them, he said.

Napolitano said she hoped the U.S. could get to a place in the future where Americans would not have to be as guarded against terrorist attacks as they are and that she was actively promoting research into the psychology of how a terrorist becomes radicalized.

“The long-term [question] is, how do we get out of this having to have an ever-increasing security apparatus because of terrorists and a terrorist attack?” she said. “I think having a better understanding of what causes someone to become a terrorist will be helpful."

DHS and intelligence officials are not as far along in understanding that process as they would like, Napolitano said, adding that until that goal is reached, steps need to be put in place to ensure the public’s safety.

“We don’t know much,” she said. “If you were to try and devise a template about what connects this terrorist to this terrorist and how they were raised and what schools they went to and their socioeconomic status, or this or that, it’s all over the map.

“I think there’s some important work that’s being done on that but … the Secretary of Homeland Security cannot wait for that.”

 

Homeland Security exists to strike terror into the heart of citizens, to make them feel powerless and vulnerable.

Next thing you know, you're on the no-transportation list, why? maybe because your negative comments regarding the government make you a potential terrorist.

 

This is a losing battle.

Basic Chemistry 101 taught in every high school.

2 liter bottle of concentrated Sodium Hydroxide and Water (Drano/ Lye) eats aluminum. Aluminum is what our planes are made of... No timer, no electronics, just 2 liter soda bottles filled with this clear toxic concoction that cracks open as pressure drops at elevation... Damage done...

The traveling terrorists are patsys... All this TSA crap is not going to stop air freight. Air Freight is the problem. A $22 Shipment of 4 - 2 liter bottles is impossible to stop without toxic screening of each and every parcel.

So much like the $10 security fee for passengers they will need to screen each and every air parcel.

Their goal was to disrupt our commerce.... bankrupt us.. create internal conflicts and paranoia... Seems to me they fired a few shots and we've done the rest to ourselves for them giving them a relatively effortless win.

 

That was Osama Bin Laden's last laugh... he and his boys threaten us a little and we destroy ourselves financially out of paranoia.

No wonder they believe we are soft and stupid. Hell, we've even going to let them build a triumphal monument at the 9/11 attack site... out of our PUSSY, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS attitudes.

 

I don't see it as paranoia. It's a well orchestrated scheme. The terrorists merely opened the door of opportunity for big government to put its tyrannical policies into high speed.

If you step back and look at all the things making news- the call for big gov to step in and ban people from the radio, ban tv stations, this thread, to control content on the internet, and on and on, they've lost control of how information is presented and they are losing control of their power as a result.

So, they are lurching hard and fast to shut people up. For as much hay as the media as made of the Tea Party, it symbolizes everything they fear, the loss of power and the ability to "control the people".

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzK9kMxDcG0&feature=related

 

A trip down memory lane, a trip that has now simply vanished from the memories of the main stream media. This (not main stream) is from the Democrats & Liberals WatchBlog. As of today, they have not discussed the TSA and the "elitist, paranoid ideologues who have demonstrated their utter lack of thought and regard for America time and time again".

March 28, 2007

Abolish the Patriot Act
The Patriot Act is the driving force behind this administrations belief that they have some sort of divine power to ignore the United States Constitution and our civil rights.

The Patriot Act gives them a means to usurp power from the other branches of government and ignore the rule of law.
Let’s get rid of it.

The Patriot Act of 2001, also known as “The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001”has nothing whatsoever to do with “Patriotism” and even less to do with “uniting” or “strengthening.”

This act has increased government secrecy, trampled on civil liberties and is used to justify the kidnap, torture and indefinite imprisonment of foreign citizen’s. It is also used to justify the illegal information gathering of its own citizens by this administration. The FBI, the Justice Department and many agencies whose very purpose is to protect Americans rights, have used the Patriot Act to circumvent the constitution and violate the very laws they vowed to uphold.

The Patriot Act should be abolished.
This administration has demonstrated time and again to be both power-mad and incompetent. Why would we want them to have the ability to take our rights away behind closed doors and without oversight?
Why would Americans regardless of party affiliation want Cheney, Bush and Gonzalez to have the right, through signing statements that ignore the rule of law to have their own little theocracy that goes against what America stands for.

We’ve already allowed our government to be bought and sold out from under us by large corporations and MIC. Can we afford to allow it to suffer any longer under these three stooges?

Why would any American citizen want laws changed and dictated in secrecy by these three elitist, paranoid ideologues who have demonstrated their utter lack of thought and regard for America time and time again.
I don’t want my rights dictated by three men who could change their middle names to “mistakes have been made.”
We need to stand up and as a country respond with a rousing “no shit!”

We have had to live with their mistakes long enough.

We need to take this power away from this administration before any more abuse can occur. We’ve seen enough already.

The Patriot Act has fueled this inept and corrupt administration long enough. We must strip them of this shield and allow Congress and the Senate to baby-sit these idiots until we can get rid of them.

 

While we're at it, let's turn back the Executive Branch's "Executive Order" powers.

Odumbo has basically stated, "... If Congress can't give it to me, I'll just do it by Executive Order" ("It" being, ANYTHING HE FRICKIN' WANTS.)

The Executive Order power makes the President more like a DICTATOR than leader of the Republic! THEY MUST BE STOPPED!

 

Yes, they sure do have short memories and damned selective as well. When it's the right abusing authority, OMFG, we must protest, but when the coin flips and it comes up radical lefty, hey, just go along with the program.