Amerika's security state

[P(D)enny La(i)ne]

First, we got the TSA full body scanner nonsense.

Now, it looks like the other shoes are beginning to drop.

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

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.”

thehill.com/homenews/administration/130549-next-step-for-body-scanners-could-be-trains-boats-and-the-metro-

And now it looks like portable "pre-crime" behavior scanners are on the way.

This is a must-watch.

[skyward]

Anyone with half a brain has to realize just how profoundly SAD this is... It seems to be so much of a waste.

Watch out for that child

Any person who is cracked in the head beyond repair would pretty much do anything they're told or instructed, and they'd probably find ways around these shiny-new payed for with hard earned US taxpayer money scanner machines so shamelessly plugged by the gov't. *cough* Chertoff *cough*

Yeah, at a White House press conference they mentioned anal cavity concerns, isn't that just wonderful. Someone in the airline marketing departments has got a tremendous task ahead of themselves to try to get passengers to swallow this mess.

And court houses? Didn't someone blow up a courthouse from the outside?

Sad, sad, sad world. Just shameful. How many people so far have been revealed to have bomb making ingredients on their person so far??? Zero out of how many scans and patdowns? Is it really necessary? I guess if you're out for profit and you're supplying the machinery, but boy oh boy, it really is getting sad.

[JoJo]

Great article from Karl Denninger:

To The Administration: Stop Being Douche-Nozzles

An important point about the "underwear bomber":

The underwear bomber was on a plane bound to the US without a valid passport and was known to be a threat. DHS cleared that plane into US airspace knowing that it had an undocumented and threatening foreign passenger on board. Who made that decision and why?

A good question that remains unanswered.. Now, were I of the conspiratorial mindset, (ahem) it seems that those shiny new scanners were conveniently available almost immediately after..

[eyesbleed]

If this had anything to do with security, they would have found a way to scan or check all the cargo that's loaded on all passenger flights.
But that's not happening.

This is all about harassing & intimidating middle class americans & has nothing to do with real security.

[skyward]

Nov 24, 2010 18:03:56 GMT -5 eyesbleed said:

If this had anything to do with security, they would have found a way to scan or check all the cargo that's loaded on all passenger flights.
But that's not happening.

This is all about harassing & intimidating middle class americans & has nothing to do with real security.

And $$PROFIT$$. The denigrating and dehumanizing aspect is probably just viewed by them as a necessary evil. Typical.

You know, we all realize that there needs to be some sort of protection for those who fly, but the question must be asked, to what extent?

Is there a 100% fool-proof way to prevent a lunatic terrorist from destroying a building or an airplane or a train? I guess it depends, to what extreme are you willing to go to prevent it, how much liberty will you give away?

And even then, I think they'll always be able to find a way to create mayhem... So, what is the real point to all this new TSA crap.

Like they mentioned at the WH press conference, they can still shove a plastic bag of materials up their bum and they can't detect the stuff, so is that next in line?

Wouldn't it be better for citizen's liberty to put Marshalls on planes to monitor suspicious activity and act in a timely manner to detain and pat down anyone who behaves erratically on a plane as opposed to making everyone on the plane feel like a criminal prior to boarding?

I don't know what the best answer is, in this case, but I certainly don't think they have found it.