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| Home Front: Politix |
| 2011-06-21 |
| I once told someone that, now that Bambi's in the whitehouse the Democrats will do everything they have wrongly accused Bush of doing. I wish I wasn't so right... Americans must decide if, in the name of homeland security, they are willing to allow TSA operatives to storm public places in their communities with no warning, pat them down, and search their bags. And they better decide quickly. Bus travelers were shocked when jackbooted TSA officers in black SWAT-style uniforms descended unannounced upon the Tampa Greyhound bus station in April with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies and federal bureaucrats in tow. A news report by ABC Action News in Tampa showed passengers being given the signature pat downs Americans are used to watching the Transportation Security Administration screeners perform at our airports. Canine teams sniffed their bags and the buses they rode. Immigration officials hunted for large sums of cash as part of an anti-smuggling initiative. I guess the Fourth Admendment doesn't exist anymore... pity. The TSA clearly intends for these out-of-nowhere swarms by its officers at community transit centers, bus stops and public events to become a routine and accepted part of American life. The TSA has conducted 8,000 of these security sweeps across the country in the past year alone, TSA chief John Pistole told a Senate committee June 14. They are part of its VIPR (Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response) program, which targets public transit related places. All of which is enough to make you wonder if we are watching the formation of the "civilian national security force" President Obama called for on the campaign trail "that is just as powerful, just as strong and just as well funded" as the military. In other words a security service to enforce the will of the government at the point of a gun. Much like the Gestapo of Germany and secret police of the Soviet Union. The VIPR swarm on Wednesday, the TSA's largest so far, was such a shocking display of the agency's power that it set the blogosphere abuzz. When did the TSA get this powerful? Last year, Pistole told USA Today he wanted to "take the TSA to the next level," building it into a "national-security, counterterrorism organization, fully integrated into U.S. government efforts." What few people realize is how far Pistole has already come in his quest. This is apparently what that next level looks like. More than 300 law enforcement and military personnel swept through a 100-mile stretch of the Ohio Valley alone, examining the area's industrial infrastructure, the Charleston Gazette reported. Federal air marshals, the Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Coast Guard, the FBI, the Office of Homeland Security and two dozen other federal, state and local agencies teamed up to scour the state's roads, bridges, water supply and transit centers under the TSA's leadership. What is remarkable about these security swarms is that they don't just involve federal, state and local law enforcement officials. The TSA brings in squads of bureaucrats from state and federal agencies as well, everything from transportation departments to departments of natural resources. Your papers PLEASE! The TSA had received no specific threats about the Tampa bus station before the April sweep, reporters were told. No warrant or cause for searching passenger's persons. Isn't there a law against that. The fourth something-or-other.... They were there "to sort of invent the wheel in advance in case we have to if there ever is specific intelligence requiring us to be here," said Gary Milano with the Department of Homeland Security in an ABC News Action television report. "This way us and our partners are ready to move in at a moment's notice." In case someone stages a Tea Party protest... Federal immigration officials from Customs and Border Patrol swept the station with the TSA, looking for "immigration violations, threats to national security" and "bulk cash smuggling." (How the bulk cash smuggling investigation related to national security was never explained.) "We'll be back," Milano told reporters. "We won't say when we'll be back. This way the bad guys are on notice we'll be back." No doubt the 'bad guys' are those damn conservatives and americans clinging to their guns and bibles. The TSA gave the same vague answers when asked about the three-state sweep this week. That sweep wasn't in response to any specific security threat, either. The purpose was to "have a visible presence and let people know we're out here," Michael Cleveland, federal security director for TSA operations in West Virginia told the Gazette. "It can be a deterrent." It might be -- if Americans are willing to live this way. |
| Posted by:CrazyFool |
| #12 GRU (Главное Разведывательное Управление) is Military Intel |
| Posted by: linker 2011-06-21 21:38 |
| #11 Vote the current bunch of clowns out ASAP. There might be a chance of restoring freedom. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2011-06-21 19:45 |
| #10 That is what I am afraid of Victor. I fear this will only end in blood. Sometime back, someone else posted there was no way back from where we are, to the America he grew up in (I paraphrase) without bloodshed. I tend to agree. With those TSA and multi-agency swarms (VIPR) that time may come sooner than we imagined. Things are slipping away. I never thought I would see my beloved nation devolve into a Fascist Police state and Communist hell hole. The younger folks I talk to just shrug and go on with whatever mindless entertainment they were at. Astonishing. |
| Posted by: Victor Emmanuel Flaing2315 2011-06-21 16:07 |
| #9 That is what I am afraid of Victor. I fear this will only end in blood. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2011-06-21 13:48 |
| #8 The people of America need to wake the fuck up before it is too late. It is already too late. |
| Posted by: Victor Emmanuel Flaing2315 2011-06-21 13:47 |
| #7 Maybe we ought to get Big Sis into one of those snappy black uniforms (with the double lightning SS pin). Somehow I think she'll fit right in. O crap - sorry for the image - the eye bleach is on the counter. And thanks moose for the clarification. Simularly I believe the KGB wasn't the only Soviet secret police - I think the GRU(?) was used for internal security. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2011-06-21 12:04 |
| #6 The Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei: Secret State Police) had as its official mission, according to the basic law of 10 February 1936, "The authority to investigate treason, espionage, sabotage cases and any criminal attacks on the Nazi Party." Though notorious, the Gestapo was on one of the sub agencies. In 1936, the police were divided into the Ordnungspolizei (Orpo or Order Police) and the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo or Security Police).[4] The Ordnungspolizei consisted mainly of the Schutzpolizei (Municipal police), the Gendarmerie (Rural police) and the Gemeindepolizei (Local police). The Sicherheitspolizei was composed of the Kriminalpolizei (Kripo) and the Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo). The Orpo was established as a centralized organization uniting the municipal, city, and rural uniformed forces that had been organized on a state-by-state basis. Eventually the Orpo embraced virtually all of the Third Reich's law-enforcement and emergency response organizations, including fire brigades, coast guard, civil defence, and even night watchmen. Oddly enough, the KRIPO survived the war and still exists. Ironically, those members of the KRIPO I've seen all looked like Gestapo agent Major Hochstetter in Hogan's Heroes. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-06-21 11:16 |
| #5 Hey, if the Dept of Education can have guns, why not the TSA? Inefficient to drag along the FBI and local police. Next, TSWAT and heavy weapons. Personnel carriers with Gatling guns like Obama's? Progressing nicely....a unionized, militarized national |
| Posted by: KBK 2011-06-21 11:12 |
| #4 Welcome to life under the leftist utopia that everyone thought the ONE would bring. Thanks for the change... People forget that all of the most oppressive and destructive regimes in history were on the left not the right. Stalin, Hitler, Obama... |
| Posted by: Bill Clinton 2011-06-21 09:10 |
| #3 I never thought I would see this come to the United States. We are truly becoming a fascist state. The people of America need to wake the fuck up before it is too late. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2011-06-21 07:44 |
| #2 ...it's all about equality. You can't use statistical data for refining these things because it might actually identify a specific group that may be the problem. We're all in one big interment camp now. We're all guilty till proven innocent. Oh, and they'll say - We were just obeying orders. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2011-06-21 07:34 |
| #1 It looks more and more like the TSA will bring about a shoot-out, somewhere, some time. Or maybe it will be a SWAT team for the Dept. of Education, searching for someone in default on their student loans. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2011-06-21 01:44 |