The way your stringent home protection system is progressing, it will not be long before everyone has to completely disrobe before being allowed to board any aircraft, but does anyone ask themselves how this situation came about.
America’s avid support, previous and ongoing, for dictatorships and colonists most certainly does not help, but then going into other people’s Countries and bombing and shooting the local inhabitants indiscriminately, doesn’t cut it either.
I have mentioned, in previous comments, that the UN was brought into being, after the second World War, to help keep the peace, but it has never been allowed to, and, when it is, it is only permitted to operate when the situation in hand doesn’t interfere with American, and general Western, interests.
You could all help yourselves stay safe by keeping your armed forces within your own borders, and use the UN as it was meant to be used; the chances are that these inconveniences, for which all Americans and Europeans are having to suffer when using air travel, may slowly become a thing of the past.
Either align yourselves and your armed forces within the UN or abandon it completely as a peacekeeping body.

fearnotruth, November 25:
“TD, how in the hell can you continue to post ER’s pieces in the face of all this
derision - is it entertaining?
Christ, if the man isn’t a rich asset he’s as much of a useful fool as Sarah Palin!”

You haven’t been paying attention. The guy announced from the start that he is one of the idiots-or-frauds that call themselves “liberal” and vote for the other wing of the Dictatorship Two-Party.

And TD has that and worse. Have a look at the s(*&% that a certain Ruth Marcus writes. Downright Nazi stuff.

Oops!

That should be “as in” the Mueller book “Overblown.” A good, rational read.

Also read “Trapped in the War on Terror” by Ian S. Lustik.

Bingo, Leefeller!

The people who “assess” the threat are the ones who profit from telling us we’re in constant danger. Search Wikipedia for “Homeland Security Advisory System” and read the whole entry. Note that the color code has never fallen below yellow—and that before an election it mysteriously rises to orange.

No politician is going to admit that this whole thing is Overblown (as is the John Mueller book by the same name), lest there’s an actual attack and he gets voted out of office for being “soft on terrorism.”
Regarding the DHS, TSA and other agencies “protecting” us, your computer virus / airplane-window analogies are on the money. The only way we’re going to stop this by costing someone money—like the airlines.

Personally, I never fly when I can drive … on a crumbling highway system that would be in better repair had we not been blowing our money on superfluous security measures.

Finally, regarding the “TSA agents are only doing their job” baloney: What kind of pervert would take a job rifling people’s personal effects, downloading files from their laptops, wanding and strip-searching them … and now, viewing them through X-ray machines and patting down their privates? These people would be contributing more to society if they were washing dishes or drawing welfare checks.

Lee,
” I remember Archie Bunker saying; “To stop hijackings, all you need to do is issue everyone a gun!....”

Well, Archie was right. I still remember pistols in holsters and men checking their rifles to be places with the overcoats in the cabin. I was a teenager then. Back then, there were probably numerous pieces on board that we just never gave a moments notice to. It’s not that life was different; I think it was more that the majority of people felt more connected and actually felt like they were a part of
something.

Over the last 50 years, the interstate and the television have pried apart that constructively confining tendency that small communities had to keep their members functionally bound to one another and what is left, where once there was a proud ship, floats now only a million small pieces of wood, each one the victim of the weather; no rudder, no sails, and the compass lying on the ocean floor.

Nature had created this wonderful means of social connection, which was a model, of sorts, for our connection to the divine, and rather than embrace those connections, those people in positions of power kept wanting more power and, not surprisingly, the systems of connection for everyone else eroded as well, both of them.

But yeah, back then, if anyone had ever tried to pull an Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab event with his underwear, he would have immediately turned around to find about a dozen 38 Specials all pointing down at his head; that’s if the other passengers hadn’t already dragged his ass into the aisle and given him some additional coloring.

You know, I am starting to put all this terror stuff together!

Maybe the virus threat on my computer is done by the same people who sell me my virus protection?

Flying is starting to sound like the old mob protection racket. some guy with no neck saying ....... “Hey youes got some nice windows here, it would be a shame if they got broke,... we’s can make sure that never happens”.

Back in the day when people were hijacking airplanes with guns, I remember Archie Bunker saying; “To stop hijackings, all you need to do is issue everyone a gun!........ Maybe today all they need to do is, issue everyone who boards an airplane, a new change of underwear, better yet make everyone wear a hospital gown and first class gets to wear a toga.

So the good Mr Robinson believes that all that fascist crap makes it impossible of even harder for any professional to blow a plane when he wants? Obviously he believes also in the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus, too, not to mention some religion. And I bet he also believes that the Obama administration is better than Bush’s.

TD, how in the hell can you continue to post ER’s pieces in the face of all this
derision - is it entertaining?

Christ, if the man isn’t a rich asset he’s as much of a useful fool as Sarah Palin!

Could that TD itself be an asset?

If Digging for Truth is really what you’re about, lets get to the bottom of the
phony Global War Of Terror.

The evidence is crashing over you like a tidal wave and you still keep posting
articles that cite, as a serious terrorist threat, Al Queda in the Arabian
Peninsula.

And we get incredible stuff like this:

1 November 2010 Last updated at 14:07

Bombs tip-off ‘came from former al-Qaeda member’

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11666272

Jabr al-Faifi has been identified as a former Guantanamo Bay detainee

After leaving Guantanamo he went through a rehabilitation programme in Saudi
Arabia and then rejoined al-Qaeda in Yemen before turning himself in to Saudi
authorities, AFP news agency reports.

_______________________________________

Perfect portrait of an agent provocateur - one needn’t even speculate:
how can the media be taken in by such transparent characters? No need to
speculate at all. We have it from the source.

2 things to never forget:

1. “Deception is a state of mind and the mind of the state.” - James Jesus
Angelton - Director of CIA Counter Intelligence (1954-74)

2. “The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the
major media.” - William Colby - Director of the CIA (1973-76)

JuniorGMan as Mahatma Gandhi so wisely said, ‘Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is still the truth.’ It’s also a fact that every revolt starts small and gets bigger and bigger.

PatrickHenry, November 25 at 12:18 am Link to this comment

It’s a good thing the TSA and its procedures were not around while my Grandma was alive, she would have slapped the shit out of the searcher and ended up in jail.
***********
LOL!
Damn! I would have paid good money to see that!

Another credulous journalist heard from. (See Ruth Marcus’ Washington Post column in this same issue.)

In a speech in November 2004, Osama bin Laden said the United States would bankrupt itself over 9/11. Well, he was right. Once they all have been purchased and deployed, these scanners will have cost taxpayers $250 million—a healthy cut of which, no doubt, will have gone to former DHS secretary Michael Chertoff, whose PR firm in fronting the company that makes them.

And before they’re even all deployed, the bogey man will have devised another way to scare us.

As a reality check, let’s ask ourselves why—after nine years of our not checking cargo—multiple airplanes haven’t been blown up by bombs in the hold. Just a thought for those who buy into the malarkey that we’re in constant danger of being killed by terrorists.

As another reality check, for a couple years I operated a Web site that focused on violation of our Fourth Amendment rights. Finally, having discerned that Americans really don’t care, I pulled the plug and went on to something else.

Face it: Those of you on this page who do care—not just about a TSA pervert fondling you private parts, but about the basic rights you have to give up in order to travel by air—are in the small minority.

It’s a good thing the TSA and its procedures were not around while my Grandma was alive, she would have slapped the shit out of the searcher and ended up in jail.

Gordy, November 24 at 6:08 pm Link to this comment
“Why do all these fearmongers assume that terrorists have such a hardon for planes anyway!?”

Because the airline industry is a small testable sample of the population. The misanthropes pulling all this crap, meanwhile, can assess the FEAR impact on the rest of the operation without it setting off the cattle into an uncontrollable stampede; and we all know it’s about control.

So, we shouldn’t be surprised, then, to wake up some morning to find the news reporting that a municipal water supply managed to get contaminated with flesh eating bacteria or that even after the Senate passes this S.510 bullshit, we’ll still have an escalation of the threats to the food supply. That’s next. It’s OK, though, for them to keep telling us the sky is falling while they prepare for their next deception and/or mass murder.

I like to think that there is a God who will at some point just say he’s had enough of this crap and just blast the Vatican, the City of London, Washington DC, and the entire squad of social misfits attending the next Bilderberg meeting right off the freakin’ map with a bunch of well placed lightning bolts. Maybe aliens will help out, who knows?

It is interesting to note, though, that as the spiritual development of mankind reaches new heights in awareness and creativity, we always seem to also manifest these pathetic parasites to counter whatever positive direction the rest of us were headed in. Is this a test of sorts? If we get through this nonsense, will we then be presented with yet another group of misanthropes that never learned how to “play well” and who aren’t happy unless they are putting flies in the ointment or just destroying things? These are people who, as children, were content with lighting toads on fire or crushing kittens underfoot. And now they want to play “Masters of the Universe”. They make me puke.

I’ve said it before, this whole issue is like a business, and we are left observing what happens to a business under inept and irresponsible management vs. what happens to the long term bottom line and the quality of product when the employees are looked after and nurtured. The same thing could be said of our own bodies; we take care of it and it takes care of us. If we abuse it, it falls apart in a short amount of time. So just what part of natural law is it that these brain trusts can’t seem to figure out?

The bottom line is that I don’t think anyone really cares who runs the planet .... BUT JUST DO A GOOD JOB OF IT. If these people haven’t figured out how to drive the car yet, and they keep running off the road at every turn, get their asses out of the driver’s seat so that someone who DOES know can get the job done. Who here hasn’t seen these people who are the least capable, and always telling everyone that they have all the answers and need to be in charge?

If these people were actually doing a good job, the starving masses would have been fed decades ago and we could have educated the population to slowly down-populate the planet to a more sustainable level WITHOUT having murder people to do so. But NO, these clowns couldn’t manage a lemonade stand. We have a planet with such an abundance of resources and yet so many people are left merely trying to stay alive. Misfeasance, malfeasance; call it what you want, but these people need to get with the program or get off our planet.

Why do all these fearmongers assume that terrorists have such a hardon for planes anyway!?  In London terrorists successfully bombed the tube - no x-ray scanners there.  Does our future involve getting strip-searched on entering shopping-malls?

Gene, Gene, Gene,
“The device that Abdulmutallab was wearing is believed to have been designed and built by Osama bin Laden’s affiliate organization in Yemen, called al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP. This group has been increasingly active and makes no secret of its continuing desire to blow U.S. airliners out of the sky.”

Meanwhile, we keep learning how the CIA has been elbow deep in almost every one of these plots and the Yemenis insist there is no al Qaeda in Yemen. The Germans kept saying that the “cartridge bomb” was not a bomb, but a quick call from the White House “reminded” them that they needed to call it a bomb. Funny how that works. Then, it turns out that the device was built right here in the good ole’ USA. Wow.

Gene, find another line of work, will you? Or at least put the rest of the material for your articles on the table for discussion.

Bob, I want Gene’s job. It’s obvious that he either can’t or won’t do it. Do you have a link for a job app?

“But the chance that somewhere, somehow, AQAP or some other terrorist group eventually downs an aircraft would greatly increase.”

I constest the word ‘greatly’.  You say that they are ‘resourceful and determined’ (you say this in the paragraph after you described how they blew their own plans by boasting) yet your assessment of their strength seems to be oddly specific: they are resourceful and determined enough to get past the old security measures, but not these new ones. 

Poppycock.  Where there’s a will, there’s a way.  Any number of explosive devices could get past the current systems.  And not all possible attacks involve smuggling bombs onboard: planes can be shot out the sky or shot on the runway - use your imagination; the possibilities are endless. 

These ‘resourceful and determined’ terrorists are rare and the idea that they work in a global network is mythological.  Most of them are hopeless idiots or mere malcontents who have been mislabeled as terrorists.

Eugene writes:  >>Our terrorist enemies may be evil but they’re not stupid.<<

Our enemies are the corrupt political and military class that are running our
country. If we want to make Americans safer, pull out of AfPak, Iraq, etc. and shut our empire down.
It’s much easier to frisk Grandma.
I didn’t expect this kind of thing on TruthDig. I’ll continue to read Chris Hedges
and one or two more, but I’ve been growing tired of Eugene’s articles and will not
read them anymore. Maybe he should find a home at the Puffington Post.

And (as I read the thread) I join in the comments calling for Eugene to find another home, or jsut live at the Wshpo or where ever it is he plies his payola trade.  Mush mouth work.

And really, Truth Dig sinks.  Oh—and stinks too.

Off to read poor Dem fake liberal tired apologist mouthpiece Ruth Marcus.  Another who should remain at home at the Wapo.  Steno girl.

Poor Bob Sheer.  Not much of anything after all.

Poor Eugene.  Mincing along to the state supplied music..

And it shows.  In fact, it screams.

I’ve got a marvellous book called ‘Private Warriors’ by Ken Silverstein which was published in 2000. This book lays out (unintentionally) the whole prelude to 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq as well as civil rights abuses such as the porn machines and the strip searches: 

“One sub-component of RMO (Revolution in Military Affairs) is something Andrew Marshall (Pentagon) calls ‘Rapid Dominance’. In 1998 he funded a project on the concept with a review panel comprised of retired and active duty hawks from the defense establishment. At a conference that year, sponsored by the National Defense University, one member of Marshall’s study group, Harlan Ullman, defined the aim of Rapid Dominance: ‘To control the WILL AND PERCEPTION of adversaries from privates to princelings by applying a regime of shock and awe’. Other panellists talked excitedly of creating ‘bedlam brigades’ composed as ‘Defense News’ put it, ‘of highly mobile and lethal units that could be rapidly deployed and whose sole aim is to inject disarray and upheaval into an enemy’s command arrangements and forces’...‘One future weapon envisioned by the panel is called ‘Very long range artillery’ which would fire 1,000 pound warheads ‘with pinpoint accuracy’ producing ‘unexplained explosions or light shows that could take place over an enemy’s principle cities causing confusion and bewilderment AMONG CIVILIAN POPULATIONS.’ (pp. 16-17, ‘Private Warriors’).

In 2000 the entire pre-occupation of the Pentagon was to find a ‘threat’ that would enable them to keep funding levels at those that became the norm during the Cold War:

‘Since the collapse of Communism, Andrew Marshall has spent much energy hunting for a suitable ‘threat’ to replace the Russians. He first turned his attention to North Korea (very topical) with a 1991 ONA report concluding that in the event of war, Pyongyang’s troops would be rolling into Seoul within two to three days and US forces would be unable to do much to stop them. After it became apparent that North Korea was on the verge of collapse Marshall turned his attentions to China…” (p.14, ‘Private Warriors’).

The war on terror was their solution to their funding problem and the X-ray machines and the pat downs are just part of ‘Rapid Dominance’ and ‘Shock and Awe’. Their entire focus was always on creating ‘bewilderment and confusion among CIVILIAN POPULATIONS’- Including their own - to keep them docile and afraid to demand the truth or action, including trials and prosecutions, on that truth.

As the author put it in ‘The London Bombings’:

“The state corporate system has constructed a foreign policy that runs parallel to the mainstream claims about the war on terror. It has systematically brought the British (and American) state into collusion with criminal and terrorist networks in strategic regions. The hidden nexus that connects state, corporate and intelligence policy and the rationale behind it, therefore require independent investigation. The implications of this nexus for British (and American) democracy must also be considered. It is clear that extensive political reforms will be required to ensure that informed public opinion, rather than powerful vested interests, holds sway over policy making’ (pp.265-266, ‘The London Bombings’.

And just how likely do you think any of that is while the civilian population lives in fear of a terror threat which the intelligence services themselves control and run, and submits to meaningless x-rays and pat downs and other violations of their civil liberties? Read the ‘Patriot Act’ and the still to be passed into law Patriot Act II and be afraid. Your government is lying to you.

It is our own terrorists that brought off these
repeated, intentionally lame attempts to create what
isn’t there, as they have done before, and, given the
effectiveness with which the public can be swept
along by such half-truths and outright lies oft
repeated, the oligarchs are not done using the
tactic, or the corporate state and the wage-slave to
shield them from any accountability. We have a former
president, an admitted war criminal, and his criminal
administration walking free, major league terrorists
each and every one.  That CIA-asset bin Laden can’t
even play in the same ballpark.  But this has never
been about any real threats - they are all made-up. 
The real enemy is not in Asia.  It is the domestic
population that believes in equality and fair play
and a fairer distribution of our common wealth that
is the enemy of the State. The war on terror is a war
against our own people and a free society. 

Create the Problem, drum up the Reaction, and then
pull out the Police State Solution.  This is how
tyrannies operate, and the bureaucracy, the guy who
is “just” doing his master’s bidding, the capo, the
goon, can claim that he is not to blame, just
following orders, he needs to feed his family, you
see. The henchmen do not come down to street level,
they keep their bloody hands well-hidden, but always
there is someone who is willing. Some people beg for
their chains.

It is shameful that our leaders have played the fear
card time and again, itself an act of national
terrorism.  Americans have never had anything to
fear, and our greatest leaders have told us so, but
we have always had dangerous, barbarous clutching
men, a war-hungry and rapacious owning-class enemy in
our midst, that seeks control of the State’s revenue,
salivate for empire and the spoils of war, wrap
themselves up good and tight in the flag, and hide
behind laws and courts that have bought and paid for
to cement the disparity and injustice that defines
the would-be aristocracy’s inflated sense of their
own worth, distorted assumption of privilege, and
psychotic lack of virtue or morality.

The Muslims are not terrorists, do not have WMDs, but
they do have one thing the “christian” US does not
have:  Honor

My love for you is diminished by your support of the status quo, as shown by this comment and those supporting every action of the current administration.

Goodbye, Gene

dora kilpatrick is right on the money.

TSA does seem to profile.  I personally watched them pull out and physically
search every young man appearing to be between the ages of 18 - 30 at the Santa
Barbara Airport in California one particular trip, actually several trips.  A main
objection many of us have when we witness this happening to our children is that
it is a very public event and it is very unnerving.
What is often forgotten is that originally at the time of 9/11, airport security was
following the rules correctly as proscribed.  Box cutters were no illegal items and
who would have ever guessed that individuals would be so cowardly that they
would expect to take a plane load of people with them when the committed a
protest suicide.  Unconscionable and very, very cowardly.
Back to my point, terrorists have become more sophisticated, but do we really
want to cower in a corner?  Do we really want to subject everyone to unnecessary
xrays?  There must be some common sense middle ground.

How can anyone possibly excuse this horror? A woman was forced to show her prosthetic breast. A man with a catheter was so roughly handled that it leaked urine all over him. Another woman described being treated like a piece of meat and having a female officer’s fingers thrust down her jeans back and front. This doesn’t just seem outrageous - it IS absolutely outrageous. And just remember Chertoff is making money out of this and Chertoff is a joint US/Israeli citizen. And he doesn’t give a damn about terrorism because he’s the man who let the dancing Israeli’s go after they were arrested driving around in vans packed with explosives on 9/11. They were Mossad operatives, so he let them go. How high is his commitment to fighting terrorism? I would give him zero out of 10. How high is his commitment to getting rich and literally giving the American public the finger? Ten out of ten on both counts. If Americans allow this to continue don’t say I didn’t warn you when you wake up microchipped in a detention centre. And don’t think it can’t happen in America because it already is.

Indeed it is “psy-ops” spin. I’m sure our leadership cares about the loss of airplanes or property, insurance settlements, bad publiciy etc. But human beings themselves?

    18 Vets a day commit suicide 365 days a year. The Ground Zero Fire Fighters, Police and workers had to fight for years against lies and obfuscation for a paltry settlement. Americans are going homeless daily.(Add your own.) In a “war” economy there are no civilians. You are a disposable statistic—and a threat.

    The reality is the intent to violate every civil right and criminalize every American. That’s what they did with their insane drug laws. Destroyed countless lives at a profit and slowly removed every human right to dignity. How long before X-Rays and strip searches are in place at shopping malls or to enter or leave a City. If they can make it pay (your tax dollars) they’ll do it. They already have teams driving the American Interstatea and highways to stop and search suspicious vehicles at will.

      The real message is:POWER. POWER to violate every human dignity and intrude without consequence into every life. YOU are a “thing” not a person. Guilty until proven innocent and no one is innocent. This is the mentality of the paranoid fascist state. Human reason and dignity is its greatest enemy.

      Are we suprised that a political hack is set to make a profit off the scam or a “journalist” steps up to pooh pooh the situation.

      “We the people—” are the only light left in this darkness. Shine.

donate travel money to afghan children who lost an arm or leg. these children
and other civilians care about the latest atrocity americans have to go thru.
it wld be also good in u.s wld reduce consumption by 90% and many euroaisian
lands by 70-90%.

demand building row boats to go to mexico or hawaii. do away with ?all cars.
reduce tanks by 99%.
fat chance.

how lucky cld we get if americans, et al, wld just refuse to ride planes??
my devil, this is the best thing that happened for climate change and for ruling
class’ warfare.
it can now increase its violence by twofold, since americans wld be safer than
ever flying in the air.
they may die from lack of health care, tho. which also may be a plus for
warlords and health of our planet!
all in all, warlords always win! tnx

Add it all up:

How many jobs does TSA provide?
Where would these people work if there was no TSA?

How much did stockholders and managers of airport security businesses make in profits and bonusus last year alone?

How much did manufacturers of “security” equipment make? (cameras, xray devices, uniforms, scanners etc. etc.)

Considering the total US “Security” business, what kind of money are we paying out for these “services”?
Add to that, all the money spent on “surveillance” equipment and technicians.

Follow the money as usual.  And at the same time, follow the number of people working in this business who would be otherwise unemployed.

there is no fourth amendment protection, hasn’t been
for decades. anything is a pretext for police to stop,
detain and search you, your car, your house. there is
no liberty where some citizens, the police, enjoy a
presumption of infallibility.

Gee, Eugene, I think the sky is falling - obviously a terrorist act.

If the TSA’s of the world had followed already established procedures, none of the events you describe would have happened.

Subjecting passengers to degradation and humiliation does not make us any safer than we already were.

This reminds me of my childhood.

“Mommy, Mommy can I (insert whatever action you wanted to do)?

“No”

“But, Pleeeeze!  Everyone is getting to ________!

“I suppose that if everyone else was jumping off a cliff, you’d jump too?”

Think about it.

RE: On Sunday, AQAP boasted of putting two sophisticated bombs—
disguised as printer ink cartridges—into cargo…

http://publicintelligence.net/yemeni-officials-say-suspicious-packages-were-not-shipped-from-yemen/

Yemeni officials insisted security at their airport is up to international standards
and disputed claims the explosives originated in Yemen. “There is no proof that
the package came through the airport and I confirm that the package was not
from Yemen,” Fiaz Gazali, a senior security official at Sana’a airport told the
Observer. “UPS or FedEx has not landed a single plane in our airports for a long
time.”

there is a history here

Yemen seizes ‘Israel-linked’ cell

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/200106-The-Underwear-Bomber-Crushing-Freedom-With-Phony-Arab-Terrorism

Tuesday, 7 October 2008
BBC News

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has said the security forces have arrested a
group of alleged Islamist militants linked to Israeli intelligence.

The companies include Exxon Mobil, Total, and BP, the minister said, but did
not elaborate on the nature of the investments.

Recently, I took my 86-year-old mother home on a relatively short flight from Oakland to Seattle. She is a tiny woman, frail and virtually blind. The TSA folk were, as usual overly zealous in making sure “the theater” was open for business and as I looked-on in disgust and anger (as did quite a number of other’s) they “did their thing.” They even searched the Airport wheelchair. Several folks commented (perhaps a little too loudly for their own good) at how ridiculous this exercise was for an old woman.

OK, now that I’ve painted a picture for you, let me ask this question:

What would have stopped a terrorist from simply getting in line amongst the hundreds of people waiting for the TSA to shake-down my mom and simply set a device off right there? The loss-of-life and damage would probably be far greater than that of a plane going down. (Also, think of all the Republican “outrage” that someone actually got into the airport with a bomb!!!) 

If it’s so important that we “deter” terrorists from getting on planes, why not have us start the process at the freeway off ramp to the Airport? Just put a big fucking X-ray machine at the exit and scan EVERYTHING. This way we can make sure nothing happens BEFORE everyone must endure the stupidity of the TSA lines. Can’t be TOO careful can we?

Or, why not simply have everyone strip down naked? No carry-ons, no food, no medications, no nothing. After all, we certainly must protect ourselves from the “threat” of terrorism, right?

Also, because we don’t want profiling, why not include a body-cavity search? After all, if everyone has a hand up their ass, then we can claim we’re not a “prejudice” society, right?

I think you all get the point.

If someone is determined to get a bomb on board, it’s impossible to stop them. large
devices can be surgically implanted. Some forms of explosives can be molded like
plastic to resemble common objects like cell phones, lap tops etc. Then there’s also the
possibility of using nano technology to disguise explosives as paint, hair spray, or
cosmetics like lipstick. Even totally nude flights will be no protection. Our current
stategy is much like Mad magazines Spy vs. Spy. Our only hope is in giving people
more reasons to live for, than to die for. Making peace is the only answer. But that
requires an end to our political delusions, and feeding the egos of the populace with
narsicistic outrage. This is what happens when Grandma gets strip searched.

Mr. Robinson, apparently it is convenient for you to
cavalierly give up your 4th Amendment right to
privacy.

I’m wondering if you recall that one of the many
British abuses that fomented the American Revolution
had to do with writs of assistance—essentially
permanent search warrants that allowed officials to
search for smuggled goods. Perhaps you can explain
how modern TSA rules permanently authorizing searches
of every passenger differ from writs of assistance?

Also, since it’s short, perhaps a quick recollection
of the 4th Amendment is in order:

“The right of the people to be secure in their
persons, houses, papers, and effects, against
unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be
violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon
probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and
particularly describing the place to be searched, and
the persons or things to be seized.”

Too many people are flying and there are too many planes in the air.

For safety’s sake or for more dignified screenings or the health of the upper atmosphere (oh my!) or just peace and quiet back home (if you live anywhere near an airport) the number and frequency of flights needs to be greatly reduced.

Only a small minority of people regularly fly.. yet the commercial airlines are heavily subsidized at all levels by taxes.. for facilities, security, wars to keep fuel cheap and more..  Smaller communities will even guarantee to pay airlines for seats that go empty in order to have the prestige of jet service.

All the while the airlines have busted the unions, reducing pay and benefits.. slashed customer service and comfort AND received bailouts or their own.. not the least of which was the payoff to the families of the Twin Towers victims.. that included a pardon for the airlines. Their lax procedures allowed the catastrophe in the first place.. They could have locked the cockpits and more at any time previous.. hijacking wasn’t invented on September 11th of that year. They should have been sued into the stone age, with the Attorney general leading the pack!

People who don’t fly regularly should not have to subsidize those who do.. ‘Oh no! without all these tax giveaways my flights to DC would cost 20 times as much!’ Maybe.. but you could use the monies you saved in taxes.. and fly less. Meanwhile the balance of us, including many that never fly and those that can’t afford to pay the taxes or the fares won’t be footing the bill for you..

But what about all those other industries that depend on regular and cheap (not if you factor in 9/11) air service? What about them? .. if they can’t also survive without direct tax subsidies they should also shrink to a self sustaining level.. Or grow bigger?! isn’t hands-off government supposed to be an elixir for business?

Put the airlines in charge of boarding security (and building and maintaining their own facilities) .. Let them charge their customers for the costs and make them totally responsible for any goofs they make.. I predict fewer incidents and complaints, fewer airport delays and many fewer flights!

If you’re worried about planes falling out of the sky (or being used as missiles) it’s a win-win concept simply from a statistical standpoint.

Adios!

It may eventually dawn on TSA that a bomber need not be scanned to cause a disruption of the airlines.

With the long queues awaiting scanning a bomber has simply to arrive at the pre-scanning area.

A boycott of scanner plays into another possible terrorist tactic.

A terrorist simply getting to the airport would be a failure of intelligence.

Thom Hartmann’s Column, entitled “Michael Chertoff, Bend Over, Please…” is the sane response to Eugene Robinson’s shallow rationalization of the government’s intrusion:
“If we are serious about stopping Middle Eastern zealots from attacking us, instead of blowing up our own Fourth Amendment right to be secure in our persons, let’s stop blowing up Middle Eastern countries.
When the Obama administration pulls our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and works hard to resolve the Israeli/Palestinian crisis, then I’ll believe our government really cares about our safety.
Until then, it’s just theatre - with a few millions in profit for Chertoff and his friends.
Michael Chertoff?
Come over here and bend over, please.”

Another in a long list of Robinson flip-flops. 

For roughly six years we were told by Eugene Robinson that renditions, preventative detentions, and tribunals were sure signs of “the worst constitutional crisis in American history”, that Guantanamo was synonymous with a gulag, that Iraq was lost, that Predators were a sort of airborne terror, that KSM and other terrorist killers should be tried in civilian courts — and what happened?  Suddenly the world was turned upside down and what was once bad is now tolerable.  Not a whimper from Mr. Robinson about why Predator drone attacks amounted to U.S. sponsored terrorism in 2005 but, Predator drone summary executions is quietly acceptable today. 

All of this is easily understood.  “That was then, this is now.”

“...the incident sensitized the TSA…”

The incident sensitized a spoiled, lazy public to demand the government do something to protect them. When scanners were introduced there was nary a peep of protest. In other words, progressives didn’t mind.

Now, anti-scanning has become a media “thing”, yet another virtual adventure into fake controversy played out on the Internet.

“We have not decided, and probably will not decide, to put this in the category of acceptable risks…”

Yes, we have decided, and the decision is that government—President Obama—must be infallible and also must not be allowed to do anything. Government is the problem, you see—either in what it does or in what it doesn’t do.

In either case, citizens are called on to rage against government (especially Democrats who tend to side with the populace), create confusion, and weaken it, thereby empowering corporations with money to invest in a “solution” and conservative organizations with a desire to advance their “cause” for a small campaign donation.

Progressives are doing their duty. Rove is proud of you.

An important question that remains is whether the underwear bomber would have been detected by the naked body scanner. The TSA has said they are not sure (need to find that quote), but how can that be? They know what the device was and they or the manufacturers can surely test the staff’s ability to detect it. Without answering this question, mentioning that incident to justify the naked scanners is bogus and lends weight to the suggestion this is about money more than safety.

If it was the Bush administration feeling us up and subjecting us to Chertoff’s unsafe radiation machines, I’ll bet Eugene would be indignant. It’s just dandy with Eugene if Obama is doing it.
I do think Obama should lead by example: he and his wife and children should go through the groping and the radiation in full view of television cameras. Come on, Obama. Show us what a great man of the people you are.

I had the choice of scan or some guy’s hands all over me.  I chose the scan. I don’t care what they see, that’s THEIR lookout and stomachs turning.

But what ER misses is that we have had YEARS of incompetence.  In the Republican tradition, 99% of the people working security at airports work for contractors—either lowest-bid or sweet-heart deals.  I don’t even think they are required to be citizens because most of them are immigrants, many with poor command of English, but not Hispanic.

Low cost, not competence is the hall-mark of the airport security personnel employed by TSA.

Granny gets searched because she is either Al Qaeda or there are sick fucks out there who have no respect for others.

Take your pick.

False premise underlying this article is that 9/11 was perpetrated by Muslim extremists. How did they get the U.S. air defenses to stand down on 9/11? How did they plant the incendiaries that brought the three buildings down in controlled demolition?

What policies is our government engaging in that cause such hatred that people are willing to kill themselves and many innocents just to strike against us?

RE: TSA’s job isn’t to be adorable, it’s to be infallible +
Last Christmas, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly tried to bring down an
airliner by detonating explosives concealed in his underwear. The device did not
properly explode…

INDEED  The job is tough as hell,  especially when facing deeply embedded global networks
of CIA/MI6/Mossad/RAW operatives setting up and executing black-op false flags
almost weekly, while an equally extensive network of moles run protection for and
handle the patsies (like Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab).

All the while TSA and their foreign counterparts in the trenches think they’re really
looking for genuine terrorists, and little do they know they’re primarily a psy-op
theatre - their little role in the Global War Of Terror - to aggravate and drive deeper the ‘terror is everywhere’ message.

Eugene, thinking hard, asks:
>>“But what, specifically, is the alternative?” (to the Audacity of Grope)<<

Then writes:>>“Last Christmas, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly tried to bring down an airliner by detonating explosives concealed in his underwear. The device did not properly explode, but the incident sensitized the TSA to the danger of terrorist bombs that might make it past a metal detector—...”<<

It’s interesting to note what Eugene left out about the underwear bomber (everything relevant):

“...On November 11, British intelligence officials sent the U.S. a cable indicating that a man named “Umar Farouk” had spoken to al-Awlaki, pledging to support jihad, but the cable did not reflect Abdulmutallab’s last name. Abdulmutallab’s father made a report to two CIA officers at the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, on November 19 regarding his son’s “extreme religious views”, and told the embassy that Abdulmutallab might be in Yemen. Acting on the report, the suspect’s name was added in November 2009 to the U.S..‘s 550,000-name Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, a database of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center. It was not added, however, to the FBI’s 400,000-name Terrorist Screening Database, the terror watch list that feeds both the 14,000-name Secondary Screening Selectee list and the U.S.‘s 4,000-name No Fly List, nor was his U.S. visa revoked.

“...U.S. State Department officials said in Congressional testimony that the State Department had wanted to revoke Abdulmutallab’s visa, but U.S. intelligence officials requested that his visa not be revoked. The intelligence officials’ stated reason was that revoking Abdulmutallab’s visa could have foiled a larger investigation into al-Qaida.

“...He had purchased his ticket with cash in Ghana on December 16. Prior to boarding the plane eyewitnesses Kurt Haskell and Lori Haskell testified live on CNN that they witnessed a “smartly dressed Indian man” helping Abdulmutallab onto the plane. They also testify that the ticket agent refused to allow Abdulmutallab on the plane because he did not have his own passport…”

**Would you be able to board an airplane bound for the US without a passport?***

Each and every one of these *facts* has been documented at the following link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umar_Farouk_Abdulmutallab

So by following established rules and adding a little (un)common sense, there would have been no underwear bomber and granny wouldn’t be getting groped on her way to Thanksgiving dinner.

Why does Eugene feign ignorance and attempt to tell us unwashed masses to give up more liberty for false security?

There must be a good reason…

Did Chertoff deal him in over an Elite DC Dinner one drunken night?