Steve Watson
Infowars.com
May 10, 2012

TSA agents at Fort Lauderdale Airport ordered a family to get off a plane they had already boarded, saying that their eighteen-month-old child was on a no fly list as a terror suspect.

The child’s parents said they believe they were flagged up and ordered to leave the JetBlue flight because they and their daughter are of Middle Eastern descent.

“It’s absurd. It made no sense. Why would an 18-month-old child be on a no-fly list?” the girl’s father told ABC affiliate WPBF News.

The parents, who wish to remain anonymous, are both US citizens, born and raised in New Jersey, which is where they were headed before being ejected.

The family said that after they were “humiliated, embarrassed and picked on” they were marched off the plane, and ordered to stand in the terminal for half an hour by TSA agents.

“We were put on display like a circus act because my wife wears a hijab.” the father said, referring to his wife’s traditional head scarf.

The TSA agents then eventually said that the family could re-board the flight without offering further explanation as to what had occurred. The family declined the offer and left the airport, saying they felt too ashamed to get back on the plane after the incident.

The parents say that even though they are US born citizens, they now fear that if their identities were revealed, their safety could be threatened because they have been associated with terrorists by the TSA. They plan to contact an attorney and possibly pursue legal action.

When WPBF contacted JetBlue for an explanation they were told that it was a TSA issue. However, when the TSA were contacted they said they were not investigating the incident and that it was the airline’s responsibility.

The secret government “no fly list” of suspected “terrorists” who are banned from flying to or within the United States more than doubled in 2011.

The figures, revealed three months ago, highlighted the fact that the list now contains around 21,000 names, close to 11,000 more than it did just one year ago.

The exponential growth in names added to the list is said to have been sparked by the failed underpants bombing incident on Christmas Eve 2009.

An anonymous U.S. counterterrorism official told the AP that after the 2009 incident, a new standard was set meaning someone no longer has to be considered a threat only to aviation to be placed on the no-fly list. People who are considered a broader threat to domestic or international security can also be added, the official stated.

The government has refused to reveal details of who is on the list and the reason they have been flagged.

“The news that the list is growing tells us that more people’s rights are being violated,” said Nusrat Choudhury, a staff attorney working for the ACLU’s national security project. “It’s a secret list, and the government puts people on it without any explanation. Citizens have been stranded abroad.”

In lawsuit against the government, the ACLU is representing American citizens who believe they have been put on the no fly list without explanation. Currently, those who submit a letter to Homeland Security asking to be removed from the list have no way of knowing if their request has been reviewed without attempting to board another flight, according to the ACLU.

The ACLU also contends that huge numbers of Americans are opposed to the measures employed by the DHS and the TSA in the nations airports and train stations, but that many have not registered official complaints for fear of being placed on the watch list.

The no-fly list and the CAPS II system used by airlines pales in comparison to the separate government master “terrorist watch list” that reportedly now has over one million names on it.

Reports have confirmed that the watch list contains the names of thousands of innocent Americans, including children, lawyers and even a retired Air National Guard brigadier, now a commercial pilot for a major airline.

In some cases credit reports have been used in calculating the risk score, while the list has also been used to target political activists opposing the death penalty and the Iraq war. Some, including former White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel have suggested restricting the constitutional rights of those placed on the list.

We have previously highlighted the fact that a miniscule amount, less than 0.01% of Homeland Security cases are terrorism related.

Once again we are reminded that the terrorist threat to America is vastly over hyped and is being used by a criminally controlled government as an excuse to police the world and foment a domestic police state to crush any dissent amongst the American people.

The watch list represents a subversion of the first and fourth amendments, is inherently flawed and, it can be argued, is harmful to the security of the nation.

The chairman of a House technology oversight subcommittee warned in 2008 that the database used to produce the government’s terror watch lists is “crippled by technical flaws,” and the system that eventually replaced it may be even worse.

In a letter to the inspector general at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC) warned that the upgrade “if actually deployed will leave our country more vulnerable than the existing yet flawed system in operation today.”

Despite this and the fact that it is already far too expansive to be in any way effective, there have been calls to apply the watch list to Amtrak trains as well as checkpoints at subways, malls and sports stadiums.

As we have consistently highlighted, restricting the movement of more innocent Americans and implementing more draconian police state measures will do nothing to increase security and serves only to foster a constant state of fear and unease.

1. Big Sis No-Fly List More Than Doubled In 2011
2. Bloomberg: Deny Second Amendment to People on Terror Watch List
3. Tennessee Fusion Center Puts ACLU On Terror List
4. 1,600 names suggested daily for terror list
5. Terrorist Watch List Hits One Million Names
6. US no-fly list doubles in one year
7. Pennsylvania Homeland Security Puts Anti-tax Protesters On List of Terror Threats
8. Lawsuit planned after protesters put on terror list
9. 15 More Cities on Homeland Security Terror-Risk List
10. Internal Passport: Terror Alert Overload Leads To Call For “No Ride List”
11. The Cost Of Defying Obamacare: $2,250 a Month And IRS Goons Pointing Guns At Your Family
12. Anti-terror laws used to spy on family

Aaron Dykes
Infowars.com
May 8, 2012

Sex, alcohol and wild, power grabbing TSA agents. A hip hop video from rapper Sean Paul plays out a fantasy celebrating the TSA’s sick policy of molesting law abiding passengers as a “sexy” patdown inspection between female passengers and agents, all while he watches sipping on a signature cognac.

The song/chorus message “She doesn’t mind”, blatant propaganda in heavy rotation that has been seen on You Tube alone at least 58 million times, gives away the system’s behaviorism at work to sell submission– reassociating the invasive TSA patdown/porno-scanner ordeal the public is fed up with, and trying to instead connect it with a sexy-on-the-surface image of the government’s Big Brother society to the younger crowd, a sort of second rate James Bond: a license to grope, in the name of perverted power.

“She don’t mind at all,” sings Sean Paul, giving his own woman permission to be pimped-out an anonymous other, or others, as the entire TSA staff comes in to grope and grab when it is her time to step through the security gate, writes Altamese Osborne. The video’s director Evan Winter stated, “We’ve all been through security, we all know it starts to feel a little personal [...] We decided to take it a little ways extra and make it so that we get a little sexy with going through security.”

And while it may be glamorized in over the top fashion here, it’s not far from the reality that has made TSA a controversial agency under fire. It seems they are trying to make the TSA’s real scandals & exploits acceptable to the public as they roll out security checkpoints on highways, bus and train stations, and prepare to invade your life.

Despite statements from TSA claiming that no groping or “squeezing” is going on, the TSA has been caught “selectively” screening attractive passengers (like Baywatch star Donna D’Errico, pop icon Rihanna and plenty of ordinary women) in often very intimate secondary patdowns. Scandals have included sending women back again through the scanners to gawk at their features, commenting on sex toys on luggage inspection notes, exposing women’s breasts in checkpoint lines, trading photos of naked celebrity scans, forcing mothers to pump breast milk in a public bathroom, undressing grannies in private room patdowns, downloading child porn, selling sex in hotel rooms, and on and on.

1. The TSA Is Still Groping Children In Airports
2. Six Year Old Suspended For Singing ‘I’m Sexy And I Know It’
3. Rape-victim who refused TSA groping found ‘guilty’ of refusing order
4. Ron Paul Targets TSA Groping, Immunity
5. TSA Gives Rapists And Illegals The Green Light While Groping Children
6. Ventura Threatens To Vacate US Over TSA Groping
7. Canadian sues claiming groping, strip search abuse at U.S. border
8. DNA “Genetic Patdown” Introduced to Airports by DHS
9. Did Russia’s sexy spy, Anna Chapman, seduce an Obama official?
10. TSA: No Fondling, Groping Or Squeezing Is Taking Place At Airports
11. TSA launches groping at high school proms, other public places
12. TSA Wants To Expand Groping Of Vaginas

CIA Bomb Plot: Get Ready for New Intrusive Airport “Security”

Diabetic Girl’s $10,000 Insulin Pump Ruined By Radiation From TSA Body Scanner

CIA Bomb Plot: Get Ready for New Intrusive Airport “Security”

Diabetic Girl’s $10,000 Insulin Pump Ruined By Radiation From TSA Body Scanner

Agents coldly refer to kids as “suspects” and scream at parents who attempt to diffuse situations

Steve Watson
Infowars.com
April 26, 2012

Two notable incidents this week indicate that despite a “change in policy” last year, the TSA is still conducting enhanced patdowns on children as young as four years old.

At a Kansas airport, a four year old girl was called a “suspect” and ordered to undergo a full patdown by TSA officers after hugging her grandmother during the screening process.

In a Facebook post, which has since been removed pending a formal complaint, the girl’s family noted that agents accused the child of potentially having a handgun in her possession when she ran to hug her grandmother during the screening process.

The TSA agents then threatened to shut down the entire airport unless the “suspect” was subjected to a full patdown. According to the family’s account, the agents were shouting at the girl, ordering her to co-operate, causing her to start screaming and kicking at them. The TSA workers even attempted to take the girl away from her family and frisk her in a separate room.

“…they didn’t explain anything and she did not know what was going on,” the girl’s grandmother said. “She saw people grabbing at her and raising their voices. To her, someone was trying to kidnap her or harm her in some way.”

In a separate incident, at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, the TSA forced a seven year old mentally handicapped girl to undergo an enhanced patdown because her use of crutches dictated that she could not walk through metal detectors.

The girl’s parents attempted to alleviate her anxiety by asking the TSA agents to calmly introduce themselves and explain what they were doing. However, the agents would have none of it and instead “were exceptionally aggressive,” according to the girl’s father.

After he began recording footage of the screening with his iPhone, one of the agents “started screaming at me and cursing me and threatening me,” he told The Daily.

“They’re harassing people,” said the father, Dr. Joshua Frank. “This is totally misguided policy.” Added Mrs. Frank: “They still attack her like she’s Osama bin Laden. It’s not fair.”

The family ended up missing their flight altogether because of the incident.

The TSA has defended agents in both incidents, issuing almost identical statements saying that they followed the correct procedures.

As we have previously reported, the TSA has revised its policy on patdowns of children on two separate occasions, yet the procedures have continued regardless.

The two new incidents this week highlight the fact that until it is written into law to make the grope-downs illegal, there is no safety net against TSA tyranny.

We cannot simply take the word of an agency that has repeatedly lied to the public about its actions over and over again.

FLASHBACK: Busted: TSA lied about promise not to grope children

FLASHBACK: No ‘enhanced’ pat-downs for kids, TSA says

1. “Outraged and Disgusted” Congressman Introduces Legislation To Bar TSA From Groping Children
2. Rape-victim who refused TSA groping found ‘guilty’ of refusing order
3. TSA: No Fondling, Groping Or Squeezing Is Taking Place At Airports
4. TSA Gives Rapists And Illegals The Green Light While Groping Children
5. TSA Says It Will Stop Groping Grannies
6. 4 Year Old Girl Accused By TSA of Having Gun, Subjected to Full Body Pat Down
7. TSA Subjects Indian Ambassador To US To Glass Cage, Enhanced Groping
8. Big Sis promises to grope children less… after repeated promises to STOP
9. Family Misses Flight After TSA Gives Pat-Down To Girl With Cerebral Palsy
10. TSA Lied to Lawmakers: Still Conducting Pat Downs on Children
11. Busted: TSA lied about promise not to grope children
12. Chinese couple forced to flee after 8 children found by one-child enforcers

ABCnews.com | Multiple airport screeners have been arrested for taking bribes and allowing loads of illegal drugs to slip in through LAX.

Of all the many complaints about airport security and the TSA, one of the most common is that they make little distinction between plausible security threats and passengers unlikely to be doing anything wrong.

And a recent incident in Wichita, Kansas has reinforced that argument, as a four-year-old girl was apparently subjected to a humiliating ordeal after she hugged her grandmother while she was waiting in line.

The girl was accused of having a gun and declared a ‘high security threat’, while agents threatened to shut down the whole airport if she could not be calmed down.

Man walked through radiation firing machines with metal objects knowing he would not be stopped

Steve Watson
Prisonplanet.com
March 7, 2012

Google/YouTube has placed restrictions on yet another video that exposes the fraudulent claims of the TSA and highlights how the federal agency’s security theatre is part of a wider social manipulation agenda.

Engineer Jon Corbett of the popular blog TSA Out of Our Pants! posted a video yesterday that demonstrates how the TSA’s radiation firing body scanners can easily be bypassed.

The video shows Corbett carrying a metal case through the scanner, away from his body in his side pocket. Corbett explains that because metallic objects appear as black on the image the scanners produce, the machines do not pick up such objects if they are obscured by the background, which is also black.

Watch the video:
http://www.youtube.com/verify_age?next_url=/watch%3Ffeature 3Dplayer_embedded%26v%3DolEoc_1ZkfA

Corbett has been rallying against the TSA for some time and has had several run ins with agents at airports. Corbett was also the first person in the country to sue the TSA for invasion of privacy. His case is still ongoing and is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“The scanners are now effectively worthless, as anyone can beat them with virtually no effort.” Corbett writes on his blog. “The TSA has been provided this video in advance of it being made public to give them an opportunity to turn off the scanners and revert to the metal detectors. I personally believe they now have no choice but to turn them off.” he adds.

Within hours of the video being uploaded, blogs and news sites, including Yahoo News and the Mail Online had begun to pick up an the video, saying it was sure to go viral.

Now, despite the fact that the video contains no nudity, violence, abuse or other explicit content, YouTube has placed it behind an age restriction wall, meaning anyone who wants to view it on YouTube has to login or sign up for an account and verify their age.

“This video is not intended to teach anyone how to commit criminal acts, nor is intended to help “the terrorists” — if I could figure this out, I’m sure they’ve long figured it out, and by exposing it to the public, we now have an opportunity to correct it.” Corbett writes on his blog.

This means that the video has been restricted for no reason other than the fact that it is critical of the TSA and the government.

Corbett also explains in the video that multiple experts have already pointed out that the scanners can be easily bypassed and are next to useless at detecting explosive material and even metallic objects, meaning that standard metal detectors are more effective than the costly and potentially health threatening radiation firing scanners that are being rolled out in greater numbers across the country.

The same type of censorship has previously been applied by YouTube to other videos that have been critical of the TSA.

Last month, Mike Adams of Natural News produced an animated video that highlighted how the TSA is using invasive enhanced pat downs, even on children, purely as a show of power and even a form of punishment for those opting out of the body scanners. Within hours the video had been restricted by YouTube.

New policy could serve as springboard for fresh legal challenge against federal agency

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Thursday, December 8, 2011

The FBI’s new definition of what constitutes rape, set to be implemented next year, could ensnare TSA agents and outlaw pat downs because it defines penetration, “no matter how slight,” using any part of the body as a rape offense.

“The FBI’s definition of “rape” is about to get a long-awaited update, for the first time since 1929,”reports the New York Daily News.

The new definition, approved by the the FBI’s UCR subcommittee Advisory Policy Board back in October and set to be officially adopted by the FBI in 2012, states rape is, “penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.”

Crucially, the new definition removes the word “forcible” from the language.

Could the new definition of rape, which brings the FBI into line with guidelines already being used by law enforcement across the country, serve as a springboard for a new legal challenge to TSA pat downs, which in some cases have amounted to sexual molestation?

There have been numerous documented cases wherein TSA agents have physically penetrated the vagina or anus of a traveler during the course of a pat down. As we reported last year, TSA screeners are now being trained to physically put their hands down fliers’ pants as part of the pat down procedure.

The last major challenge to TSA authority came when the Texas legislature attempted to institute an invasive groping ban. The TSA responded by threatening to enforce a de facto no fly zone over Texas and the bill was ultimately shot down.

Earlier this year, journalist Amy Alkon wrote on her blog of how a TSA worker physically penetrated her vagina over and over again during a search.

“I sobbed even louder as the woman, FOUR TIMES, stuck the side of her gloved hand INTO my vagina, through my pants. Between my labia. She really got up there. Four times. Back right and left, and front right and left. In my vagina. Between my labia. I was shocked — utterly unprepared for how she got the side of her hand up there. It was government-sanctioned sexual assault,” wrote Alkon.

Alkon screamed “you raped me” to the TSA agent following the molestation, but when she went public with the ordeal the TSA threatened her with defamation charges and a $500,000 settlement demand, ordering her to remove the blog post.

An Ohio woman, blogger Erin Chase, also told Fox News last year of how a TSA agent touched her labia during a pat down at Dayton International Airport.

Former Miss USA Susie Castillo also revealed how a TSA worker touched her vagina during a pat down at Dallas-Fort Worth airport back in April after she refused to go through a body scanner.

The pat down controversy has erupted once again in recent days after three elderly women with medical problems claimed they were forced to undergo a strip-search at New York’s JFK International Airport.

HEADLINE NEWS

1. FBI’s new definition of rape ensnares TSA agents as serial rapists
2. Prosecutor Wants WikiLeaks Boss Arrested For Rape
3. Female Blogger Threatened With Defamation Suit For Blogging About TSA ‘Rape’
4. Does TSA Behavior Fall under Definition of Terrorism?
5. Will G20 Police Succeed In Covering Up Reports of Rape and Torture?
6. More Senior Military Sources Confirm Rape and Sodomy At Abu Ghraib
7. TSA – Sexual Assault
8. Another TSA Employee Accused of Rape
9. Abu Ghraib abuse photos ‘show rape’
10. Billionaire Citigroup mogul Saudi prince held in rape investigation
11. States Rebeling Against TSA: Texas The Latest To Legislate For Banning Grope-Downs, Naked Scanners
12. IMF chief ‘feared political opponent would pay a woman more than $1m to allege rape’

Cancer Surges In Body Scanner Operators; TSA Launches Cover-Up

Final Senate Version of TSA Bill Authorizes Invasive Groping

Infowars.com
June 27, 2011

Beginning at 4 PM CST, Alex Jones will be at the Texas state capitol in Austin with supporters of an anti-TSA groping bill that has languished after the intervention of the feds and threats to close down commercial aviation in the state.

Infowars.com will post video here all afternoon of the rally. Refresh your browser to see the latest video.

LAUREN SAGE REINLIE
News Herald
June 26, 2011

A woman has filed a complaint with federal authorities over how her elderly mother was treated at Northwest Florida Regional Airport last weekend.

Jean Weber of Destin filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security after her 95-year-old mother was detained and extensively searched last Saturday while trying to board a plane to fly to Michigan to be with family members during the final stages of her battle with leukemia.

Her mother, who was in a wheelchair, was asked to remove an adult diaper in order to complete a pat-down search.

“It’s something I couldn’t imagine happening on American soil,” Weber said Friday. “Here is my mother, 95 years old, 105 pounds, barely able to stand, and then this.”

Full story here.

Alex Sundby
CBS
June 27, 2011

The Transportation Security Administration defended on Sunday the actions of its airport security officers at a northwest Florida airport after the agency came under criticism for requiring a 95-year-old woman to remove her adult diaper during a pat down.

The incident took place June 18 at Northwest Florida Regional Airport near Pensacola, Fla., while Jean Weber of Destin, Fla., escorted her mother, who suffers from leukemia, to Michigan to live with family members before moving into an assisted living facility, CNN reports.

“She had a blood transfusion the week before, just to bolster up her strength for this travel,” Weber told CNN.

Weber didn’t identify her mother to the cable news network.

Read entire article

New Documents Prove TSA “Mischaracterized” Safety Aspects Of Full Body Scanners

TSA Tyranny Withdraws Support from House Version of TSA Anti-Groping Bill (HB41)

The new language concedes the debate on the fundamental constitutional question at stake.

TSA Bill Replaced With Toothless Resolution?

Thanks to the efforts of Speaker Joe Straus and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst to sabotage a bill that would have specifically banned invasive TSA groping in Texas, the legislation has seemingly been replaced with a toothless resolution that does nothing to reign in the federal agency’s abuse of power and instead merely recommends that Congress takes up the issue at the national level.

Texans to Launch ‘Citizen Filibuster’ Over TSA Groping

Steve Watson
Infowars
June 23, 2011

With much fanfare this week, TSA head John Pistole announced before the Senate that the agency is changing its policy to stop airport screeners intrusively searching young children. However, we heard almost the exact same announcement last November, yet pat-downs on children have continued regardless.

At a meeting of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee in Washington, Pistole told the members that TSA agents will be instructed to make “repeated efforts” to resolve security screenings without conducting pat downs on children younger than 10 years old.

Pistole added that the policy change was spurred by the emergence of the video of 6-year old Anna Drexel, of Bowling Green, Ky., who was subjected to a full grope down by a TSA agent in early April. As we reported at the time, the girl’s parents were forced to watch on in disbelief after being warned by TSA agents not to make a scene or face trouble.

During the hearing, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul had harsh words for Pistole about the TSA’s procedures:

“This isn’t to say we don’t believe in safety procedures,” Paul said. “But I think I feel less safe when we’re doing these invasive exams on a 6-year-old. It makes me think that you’re clueless, that you think she’s going to attack our country, and that you’re not doing your research on the people who would attack our country.”

Pistole responded by claiming that “terrorists around the world have used children as suicide bombers” and that children must be treated by TSA agents according to “risk based security assessments.”

The Drexel incident represents just one among many others recently where children have been repeatedly touched in intimate areas by TSA agents in the name of security.

In one case, the TSA defended the actions of two of it’s agents who were photographed conducting a full body pat down on an eight-month old baby at Kansas City International Airport, saying they were adhering to procedure.

All of these incidents and more have caused a wave of public resentment directed toward the TSA. Therefore, according to Pistole, influencing the agency to “change” it’s policy.

But hang on one minute here, haven’t we heard this before?

Back in November 2010, in response to a flood of complaints following the introduction of the TSA’s “enhanced” pat-down procedure, which instructed agents to touch around breasts and genitals, Pistole announced that the agency had “eliminated pat-downs for children under 12″.

“We’ve heard the concerns that have been expressed and agree that children under 12 should not receive that pat-down,” Pistole said on NBC’s Today Show.

On November 17, Pistole testified to Congress that “children 12 and under are exempt from the enhanced pat-down”:

Indeed, the only “change” to the TSA’s policy is that it now says it will “make every effort” to exempt children under 10, where as before it said all children under 12 were unequivocally exempt.

This is why this week’s announcement will ultimately once again mean nothing. Until it is written into law to make TSA grope-downs illegal, there is no safety net against TSA tyranny.

We cannot simply take the word of an agency that has repeatedly lied to the public about its actions over and over again.

The mainstream media, of course, has uniformly failed to bring attention to this fact, instead packing their articles on the issue with talking points about Osama Bin Laden.

Meanwhile in Texas, lawmakers acting to outlaw TSA pat-downs entirely have said that the policy “change” will not affect their efforts in any form.

“That’s a step in the right direction,” said Rep. David Simpson, R-Longview, adding, however, that he still plans to go forward with his bill, which is scheduled to be considered by the House on Friday. “This legislation is going to protect people’s dignity, and it’s an effort to protect their freedom to travel.” Simpson said.

In addition, a lawmaker in yet another state, Idaho, has expressed a desire to follow the lead of Texas and introduce legislation to make intrusive TSA searches a felony.

FLASHBACK: Busted: TSA lied about promise not to grope children

FLASHBACK: No ‘enhanced’ pat-downs for kids, TSA says

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars
Thursday, June 23, 2011

With a bill that would ban invasive TSA pat downs in Texas set to be heard by the state legislature on Friday, the federal agency has indicated that it will take legal action to prevent the law being implemented, indicating that the government could once again resort to threatening Texas with a blockade that would impose a de facto “no fly zone” over the state.

The House version of SB 29, a bill that would punish any TSA agent who “touches the anus, sexual organ, buttocks, or breast of the other person, including touching through clothing,” with a year in jail or a $4,000 fine, was initially shot down last month despite passing the Texas House unanimously after the Justice Department resorted to threats of financial terrorism in resolving to impose a federal blockade to prevent flights operating out of Texas airports.

The DoJ threat to impose a federal blockade against Texas has not been withdrawn, but Robert Mann Jr., president of R.W. Mann & Company, Inc., an airline industry consulting firm in Port Washington, New York, told Forbes that the threat was “not viable,” labeling the idea that the feds would shut down an entire state a “non-starter”.

Following a gargantuan lobbying effort on behalf of pressure groups, Governor Rick Perry was forced to add the legislation to a special session earlier this week and the bill is set to be heard on Friday. State Senator Dan Patrick, the leading sponsor behind the bill, is already confident that the legislation has enough votes for passage.

But although the bill looks like it will sail through, the TSA is determined to turn the vote into little more than a symbolic gesture, by promising to pursue legal action to derail Texas’ efforts to make TSA groping a felony.

“We will carefully review the bill that the legislature brings forward,” the TSA announced in a statement. “Should a bill pass that limits the ability of TSA and its employees to perform its responsibilities and jeopardizes the safety of the public, we will take whatever legal action is appropriate to ensure travelers are safe when they fly from Texas or any other state.”

The agency is expected to argue that the groping ban is a violation of the Supremacy Clause to the US Constitution, which according to TSA lawyers gives the federal government authority over the states. However, the Supremacy Clause merely states that the Constitution is supreme, not that the authority of the government is supreme. Indeed, if anything the Supremacy Clause works in favor of the anti-pat down bill because it reinforces the protections guaranteed by the fourth amendment against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office has written a letter to Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who many blame for putting pressure on Texas Senators that led to the mothballing of the original bill, calling for language to be added to SB 29 specifying that the invasive pat down is only an offense if it is deemed “constitutionally unreasonable”.

Abbott sees the addition of this amendment as a way of avoiding a constitutional fight with the feds, but others will merely see it as a watering down of the bill since the legislation already makes it clear that the search is an offense if it is not backed up by “probable cause,” in other words substantive evidence that a crime is about to be committed that provides reasonable grounds for the TSA to violate an individual’s 4th Amendment rights.

Aside from all the constitutional minutia, the fact is that a police officer, an FBI agent, a park ranger, or anyone else in a position of authority cannot legally stick their hands down an individual’s pants without probable cause in any situation, so why should the TSA be any different?

Meanwhile, lawmakers in Idaho are set to follow Texas’ lead by resurrecting their own legislation that would ban invasive pat downs in the state.

“Rep. Phil Hart, R-Athol, told IdahoReporter.com said he may address search methods in the next legislative session, set to begin in January.” “I do plan on revisiting the issue,” said Hart, who previously attempted to push through a bill that would have limited the use of naked body scanners in the state last year.

Tara Servatius
American Thinker
June 20, 2011

Americans must to 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 TampaGreyhound 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.

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.

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.

In a massive flex of muscle most people didn’t know the TSA had, the agency led dozens of federal and state law enforcement agencies in a VIPR exercise that covered three states and 5,000 square miles. According to the Marietta Times, the sweep used reconnaissance aircraft and “multiple airborne assets, including Blackhawk helicopters and fixed wing aircraft as well as waterborne and surface teams.”

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 locallaw 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.

The TSA had received no specific threats about the Tampa bus station before the April sweep, reporters were told.

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.”

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.”

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.

Think the TSA was just restricted to airports? Think again.

Image: Wikipedia Commons

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Wednesday, June 15, 2011

If you’re still living under the delusion that the TSA is just restricted to airports then think again. A joint VIPR “security exercise” involving military personnel has Transportation Security Administration workers covering 5,000 miles and three states, illustrating once again how the TSA is turning into a literal occupying army for domestic repression in America.

The TSA, in alliance with a whole host of federal, state, local agencies as well as military personnel, is currently conducting a massive “security exercise” throughout Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia.

“The participating teams are composed of a variety of TSA assets including federal air marshals, canine teams, inspectors and bomb appraisal officers. They will be joined by state and local law enforcement officials to supplement existing resources, provide detection and response capabilities. The exercise will utilize multiple airborne assets, including Blackhawk helicopters and fixed wing aircraft as well as waterborne and surface teams,” reports the Marietta Times.

Although the exercise is couched in serious rhetoric about preparedness, it relates to “no specific threat” and the details are nebulous to say the least and seems to revolve around little else than testing out high-tech surveillance equipment and reminding Americans who their bosses are.

“In addition to using three helicopters for aerial inspection, the exercise made use of the Ohio Highway Patrol’s camera-equipped Cessna Caravan, which is capable of transmitting close-up, detailed real-time images of objects on the ground taken from more than five miles away,” reports the Charleston Gazette.

The exercise seems to be about little more than a show of force by the TSA in light of a massive resistance against their agenda, particularly in Texas where a recent bill that would have banned invasive TSA grope downs almost passed and is set to be up for debate again.

Michael Cleveland, federal security director for TSA operations in West Virginia admitted as much when he said the event was about letting, “people know we’re out here.”

As we have documented, TSA grope downs and body scans are now being rolled out on highways, street corners, train stations, bus depots, public buildings, at sports events, and even at local prom nights as part of the VIPR (Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response) takeover of the country.

The TSA has also announced its intention to expand the VIPR program to include roadside inspections of commercial vehicles, setting up a network of internal checkpoints and rolling out security procedures already active in airports, bus terminals and subway stations to roads and highways across the United States.

These internal checkpoints, run by Homeland Security, the Department of Transportation, and the TSA, involve trucks being scanned with backscatter x-ray devices in the name of “safety” and “counter terrorism”.

Since the launch of the Department of Homeland Security’s “See Something, Say Something” program, the DHS has also released promotional material which depicts would-be TSA agents conducting searches at public events, including a Buccaneers football game.

Homeland Security is also developing technology to be used at “security events” which purports to monitor “malintent” on behalf of an individual who passes through a checkpoint.

Forget the airports, the TSA has already spread its tentacles to invade almost every public facet of American society.

President Obama’s election campaign promise to create a domestic “security force,” that is “just as powerful, just as strong” as the US military is now coming to fruition as the TSA expands to turn American into a checkpoint-festooned hellhole where constant fearmongering about terror threats is the justification for the construction of a Sovietized police state.

FoxNews.com
June 11, 2011

Detroit – A Detroit father said agents with the Transportation Security Administration singled out his special-needs son for a pat-down while the family was headed to Disney World, MyFoxDetroit.com reported, an incident that the TSA admitted was a “case of bad judgment.”

David Mandy said agents at Detroit Metro Airport took his son Drew, 29, and asked him about the padding underneath his pants, which turned out to be adult diapers. Drew, who is severely mentally disabled, had trouble understanding the agents’ orders because his family said he has the mental capacity of a 2-year-old.

When the father tried to intervene and explain Drew’s disability, he said the two agents said, “Please, sir, we know what we’re doing.”

Read more

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
June 11, 2011

No longer is there an excuse. If you elect to fly, you are endorsing the sort of behavior the man below suffered. If you fly because your business requires it, I feel sorry for you. But if you fly because it is more convenient than driving or taking a train or a bus, you’re encouraging the TSA to abuse the mentally disabled and molest six year olds.

This will not stop until the airlines fear bankruptcy due to lost business. Millions of people must refuse to fly and look for other ways to travel. Faced with going out of business, the airlines will refuse to allow the feds to run their Gestapo humiliation program.

If you continue to fly, you are to blame for the TSA abusing the mentally disabled, pregnant women, and children.

TARYN ASHER
WJBK | myFOXDetroit.com
June 10, 2011

ROMULUS, Mich. (WJBK) – The Mandy family says they were on their way to the happiest place on earth (Disney), but had to go through hell to get there.

“I realize they’re trying to keep people safe, but come on, does he look like a terrorist?” said Dr. David Mandy.

The family was going through security when two TSAagents singled Drew Mandy out for a special pat down. Drew is severely mentally disabled. He’s 29, but his parents said he has the mental capacity of a two-year-old, which made the experience that followed at metro Detroit’s McNamera Terminal that much harder to deal with.

“You have got to be kidding me. I honestly felt that those two agents did not know what they were doing,” Mandy told us.

Dr. Mandy claimed they asked Drew to place his feet on the yellow shoe line, something he didn’t understand. They proceeded to pat his pants down, questioning the padding which was his adult diapers. When the agents asked Drew to take his hand and rub the front and back of his pants so they could swab it for explosives, his dad stepped in and tried to explain that Drew was mentally challenged.

Dr. David Mandy: Special Needs Son Harassed by TSA at Detroit Metropolitan Airport: MyFoxDETROIT.com

Governor Jesse Ventura joins Alex to discuss a wide range of topics including the tyrannical TSA takeover of the nations transport hubs.

Terin Miller
Wall St Journal
June 8, 2011

A former Transportation Security Administration supervisor at Newark International Airport was sentenced to 30 months in prison Tuesday for accepting bribes and kickbacks from a coworker who allegedly stole money regularly from passengers during security screenings.

Michael Arato, 42 years old, of Ewing, N.J., had previously pleaded guilty on the charges.

When Arato was the supervisor at a security checkpoint inside Newark’s Terminal B between September 2009 to October 2010, he allowed a subordinate to steal between $10,000 and $30,000 in cash from travelers, according to documents and statements made in court. In exchange, the subordinate would “kick up” a portion of the stolen money to Arato, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for New Jersey said.

Video surveillance captured Arato accepting about $3,100 in bribes from the subordinate in the furtherance of the scheme. Arato also admitted he regularly stole from passengers traveling through his checkpoint.

Full article here

Admits it is not illegal to film at TSA checkpoints

Steve Watson
Prisonplanet.com
June 6, 2011

The TSA has responded to the release of a video that went viral last week showing a woman becoming very upset and screaming for help after being touched on her breasts by TSA agents in Phoenix.

The video, shot by the woman’s son Ryan Miklus, also featured constant threats from TSA agents falsely claiming he was breaking the law by filming the ordeal.

The agents also threatened to confiscate Mr Miklus’ luggage, even though he had been through the screening process.

Watch the video:

Last week, Matt Drudge picked up our report on the incident, and linked it on the Drudge Report, sending it viral and making it the second most read news article on the internet last Thursday (June 2).

This exposure has forced the TSA to respond to the incident on it’s official blog.

The notorious “Blogger Bob” writes:

TSA takes all allegations of improper screening seriously and investigates each claim to the fullest. After reviewing this passenger’s time at the checkpoint, we found that our security officers acted properly and neither the CCTV footage nor this YouTube video support any of the allegations levied. Real violations of our protocols are worth every ounce of our energy to investigate, but this alleged incident does not meet that threshold.

This incident has also raised many questions about whether or not passengers can film at checkpoints. This topic is currently under review, but you can read this blog post on our current policy for photography at checkpoints.

The blog post the TSA links to explains that there is no law to prevent people from filming at TSA checkpoints, provided you are not interfering with the screening process. As Mr Miklus’ video clearly shows, he is standing away from the agents and is not impeding the TSA agents at all.

The TSA official Blog, manned by “Blogger Bob”, has been consistently used by the agency to issue misleading and outright false information in an effort to legitimize the unconstitutional actions of the TSA.Ryan Miklus appeared on the Alex Jones show on Friday to discuss the incident in more detail. Watch the interview below:

FoxNews.com
June 6, 2011

Dozens gathered at the Capitol in Austin on Saturday demanding a stop to TSA officers “touching their junk” at the airport.

Rally attendees are hoping to call attention to a recently proposed Texas bill that would limit TSA searches and enforce criminal charges for TSA officers if they touch someone inappropriately. The bill passed unanimously in the House, but died in the Senate.

The U.S. Attorney’s office was furious with the bill, threatening to cancel flights in Texas if the bill passed, arguing that TSA agents would not be able to do their jobs properly. The Senate heeded this warning and voted against the bill.



Full article here

Ryan Miklus talks to Alex about his experience with the TSA.

Alex Jones Channel
June 4, 2011

Ryan Miklus, the man who captured a video of his mother complaining about TSA molestation at the Sky Harbor airport in Phoenix, talks to Alex about his experience.

TSA On The Ropes; Budget Slashed, Texas Grope Ban Returns

ORLANDO, Fla. — A former Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent at Orlando International Airport could spend a decade in jail after being accused of stealing from passengers’ luggage.

Authorities said Elliot Iglesias stole $5,000 worth of laptops from travelers’ luggage while working at Orlando International Airport before he was eventually fired.

According to the arrest report, it happened in early March.

WFTV was there when Iglesias left the federal courthouse in downtown Orlando on Thursday.

“Do you have anything to say for yourself?” WFTV reporter Q McCray asked Iglesias.

He refused to answer questions after turning himself in to U.S. Marshals on Thursday.

He’s facing a grand theft charge.

Full article here

Keith Laing | Texas lawmakers may reconsider a bill to outlaw controversial airport pat-downs.

Keith Laing
The Hill
June 3, 2011

Texas lawmakers may reconsider a bill to outlaw controversial airport pat-downs, the sponsor of legislation that was shelved recently said this week.

Texas state Rep. David Simpson (R) said that Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst reportedly asked Gov. Rick Perry to include the measure in a special session of the Texas legislature. Dewhurst reported asked lawmakers to withdraw the bill when federal officials threatened to cancel flights to Texas if it passed.

But he has since had a change of heart, Simpson told fans on his Facebook page.

Read more

TheAlexJonesChannel
June 3, 2011

EXCLUSIVE footage of Alex Jones’ powerful speech on the steps of the Texas Senate chamber, rebuking those who betrayed liberty and worked to kill the bill that would protect passengers from TSA groping.

On May 25th, 2011 Alex went to the Texas capitol to protest the sabotaging and attempted sinking of the anti-TSA bill HB 1937 which the Texas house unanimously voted in favor of. Alex Jones and crowd chant from the steps of the Senate chamber, which the media reported was audible inside the chamber and temporarily halted the passage of other bills. HB 1937 would make it a felony crime for a TSA employee to reach under clothing or touch the genitals of passengers it screens. The bill presents a serious challenge to the assumed authority of the TSA agency, so it is no wonder why the establishment moved swiftly to intimidate Texas lawmakers andthreaten a flight blockade to stifle to the legislation.

Since the protest we’ve made progress. Supporters are trying to get the bill called to special session, as detailed by Kurt Nimmo in an article he wrote for infowars.com entitled ‘Texas Moves to Bring Back Anti-TSA Groping Bill‘.

VIDEO: Woman Screams For Help After TSA Molestation - Video of an incident recorded over the memorial weekend at Sky Harbor International in Phoenix, AZ, documents how the TSA deal with people who are traumatized by grossly invasive enhanced pat downs.

Agents threaten to confiscate son’s bags, have him arrested as punishment for filming ordeal

Steve Watson & Paul Joseph Watson
Prisonplanet.com
June 2, 2011

Video of an incident recorded over the memorial weekend at Sky Harbor International in Phoenix, AZ, documents how the TSA deal with people who are traumatized by grossly invasive enhanced pat downs.

After a woman refused to go through a full body scanner she was pulled aside and made to undergo the pat down procedure. When the TSA agent touched the woman’s breasts, she broke down into tears and screamed for a police officer.

When police officers arrived on the scene they led the woman away and told her that unless she would submit to the full pat down procedure she would not be able to fly.

“Why won’t you help me? You’re a police officer why won’t you help me?” the woman asks in the video.

All the while the woman’s son was filming the ordeal on his phone, having to constantly fend off threats from TSA agents falsely claiming he was breaking the law. The agents also threatened to confiscate the man’s luggage, even though he had been through the screening process.

Watch the video:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZdp13LFtOY&feature=player_embedded

The family was previously subjected to similar scrutiny from the TSA at Sky Harbor earlier in the year, prompting them to voice protest over violation of their Constitutional rights.

The previous incident was also captured on video (below) and was evidently remembered by some of the TSA workers who claimed to know that the whole family are routine troublemakers.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZwyUI1GIjKs

---

TSA Caving To Pat Down Pressure? - Paul Joseph Watson | TSA manager tells Alaska Senator that agency is considering changing its policies.

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
June 2, 2011


Image: Flickr Commons

 

Following pressure from lawmakers that resulted in the Department of Justice resorting to threats of federal blockades last week to stymie a bill in Texas that would have made TSA groping a felony, a top Transportation Security Administration official has indicated that the agency might be about to cave on its aggressive pat down procedures.

During a roundtable session in Anchorage Alaska hosted by U.S. Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, TSA Field Operations Manager Scott Johnson said the agency was “considering changes in its screening techniques,” reports the Associated Press.

Instead of groping young children and searching babies’ diapers, the TSA is looking at treating passengers differently based on their potential risk, a policy that would “rank populations of air passengers as more or less potentially dangerous.”

“There are probably people that we have to take a closer look at than others,” said Johnson.

However, subjecting individuals deemed suitable for a “closer look” by the TSA to more aggressive screening may have little to do with stopping terrorists considering the fact that the TSA apparently judges the biggest threat to be journalists who criticized the agency and were then put on a watch list as a form of punishment.

“This whole idea of risk assessment … trying to determine what’s high risk, what’s a low risk, how they manage that, I think was a good statement and a new policy that they have,” said Senator Begich, noting that body scanners which do not show intimate details of a person’s naked body are in the pipeline. However, worries about the radiation threat posed by such devices, an even bigger concern, were not addressed.

 

While routing out the globalist forces at the Texas Capitol behind killing the anti-TSA bill, Alex Jones happens upon the very state trooper who arrested him 14 years ago for refusing to thumbscan for a driver’s license.

Alex draws parallels between the biometric programs and the actions of the TSA, both working to dehumanize and control the population by design. See 1997 America: Destroyed by Design for Alex’s original thumbscan protest.

Aaron Dykes
Infowars.com
May 28, 2011

Exclusive footage of the Texas Capitol takeover Wednesday, when angry demonstrators led by radio host Alex Jones descended upon the Senate to rebuke threats used to quash a TSA bill that passed the House unanimously and was poised to clear the Senate with 30 of 31 senators supporting.

The bill’s sponsor Sen. Dan Patrick revealed that Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst was behind a move to kill the bill without “leaving fingerprints” on behalf of the Obama Administration. The Fedsthreatened to shut down airports in Texas if the TSA were challenged.

Supporters of the bill sent a message to the Texas Senate even after being barred from entry, shouting from the halls “criminals” and “treason” while decrying the tyrannical mission creep of the unconstitutional TSA, as well as the hostage tactics it has employed. The bill, HB 1937 [PDF], would have expressly declared it a crime for TSA or security personnel to reach into the pants or touch the genitals of passengers or other innocent bystanders.

Steve Watson
Prisonplanet.com
May 27, 2011

Utah looks likely to be the next state to follow the example set by Texas in attempting to make TSA grope downs a felony.

Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman has introduced a bill into the Utah House of Representatives that would ensure TSA agents would have to abide by the same Fourth Amendment limits that police do when performing searches on Americans.

“It is a work in progress,” Wimmer told the Utah Daily Herald. “What it would do right now is simply say TSA agents are not exempt from the requirement of reasonable suspicion or probable cause to pat down a citizen.”

Like the bill that was recently unanimously passed in the Texas House, Wimmer’s legislation would make it an offense to touch the private parts of the person on the receiving end of the pat-down.

As we reported yesterday, the man who was instrumental in working with the federal government to sabotage the Texas bill was Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, a former CIA agent and establishment insider considered to be the wealthiest man in Texas politics.

The bill stalled in the Texas Senate, after the Department of Justice sent a letter threatening to impose a no fly zone over Texas and shut down Texas airports. The warning was nothing short of a federal blockade and an act of financial terrorism.

Rep. Wimmer, a long time champion of states rights, told the Utah Daily Herald that it is untrue that the federal government has supremacy over the state of Texas in the matter.

“The absolute overbearing audacity of the federal government in threatening Texas while Texas is trying to protect their citizens should really offend any red-blooded American,” Wimmer said, adding that the issue has been transformed from solely a Fourth Amendment concern to an assault on the Tenth Amendment and states rights.

As a former police officer, Wimmer is adamant that TSA agents should be held up to the same standards as law enforcement officers, and that law abiding citizens should not be subjected to personal searches without reason.

“It does not feel like America when you are going through a TSA checkpoint at the airport,” Wimmer said.

Wimmer’s bill will be considered and debated in the new year when the 2012 legislative session begins in Utah.

Lawmakers in other states, including New Hampshire and California, have already looked into banning TSA gropedowns.

A number of other lobby groups, state and local authorities around the country have also resolved to either block the TSA body scanners or kick the TSA out of airports altogether, including New Jersey, where Republican state Senator Mike Doherty has vowed to push for legislation that will ban both the scanners as well as invasive groping techniques.

Should several more states follow the same example set by Texas, the TSA and the Justice Department will have a major job on their hands threatening half the country with no fly zones and convincing Americans that it is the prudent course of action.

Paul Joseph Watson and Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
May 26, 2011

Last night, Alex Jones went to the Texas State Capitol in Austin and joined a protest of citizens gathered to demand an end to TSA tyranny.

On his nationally syndicated radio show, Alex urged all within a reasonable distance of the capitol to take part in the demonstration. More than 200 people did so.

They implored their elected representatives to resist the federal government and its threat to shut down aviation in the state of Texas for daring to enact legislation to criminalize intrusive pat-downs currently conducted at airports. If allowed to continue this practice, federal government goons will be sticking their hands down the pants of citizens at malls, hotels, theme parks, and on streets across America.

The TSA has now turned into a literal occupying army threatening to completely change the character of American society from a beacon of liberty to a checkpoint-riddled, “show us your papers” Sovietized hellhole.

It is imperative that we not stand idly by while the federal government resorts to mafia-style threats of financial terrorism to crush the lawful and constitutional rights of local representatives to run their own state in the way they see fit.

For the whole story, see Paul Joseph Watson’s Financial Terrorism: TSA Holds Texas Flights Hostage.

Stay tuned for updated reports, coming soon at Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com.

Photo: David Baron.

Real Clear Politics
May 26, 2011

The Hill reports: “I walked through … right behind me there was a grandmother — little old lady, and she was was patted down,” Rep. Paul Broun (R-Georgia) said on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal.”

“Right behind her was a little kid who was patted down. And then right behind him was a guy in Arabian dress who just walked right through. Why are we patting down grandma and kids?”



Rep. Broun: Why Does TSA Pat-down Grandma and Not Arabs?

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
May 26, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nemphOb4bts&feature=player_embedded

Appearing on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” on Wednesday prior to the Texas Senate killing a bill that would have criminalized intrusive pat-downs, Rep. Paul Broun of Georgia said he is undecided on the PATRIOT Act because it is focused on Americans, not official enemies.

Broun is a member of the House Homeland Security Committee. During the interview he said the TSA is too politically correct when it selects passengers to molest at airports.

“We have to identify those people — we do that through human intelligence, we do that by trying to get into the inner circle,” he said. “Focus upon those individuals, not on the general public. Unfortunately, I think the Department of Homeland Security has been focusing on the general public and have been afraid of political correctness.”

“We’ve got to forget political correctness,” Broun added. “We’ve got to start focusing on those people who want to harm us as a nation.”

The TSA and the Department of Homeland Security do not profile Arabs because they do not pose a threat, despite nearly a decade of propaganda to the contrary. Crazed gunmen at meet and greets and drug cartels in American cities are far more of a threat to the security of the American people. So are rogue cops dumping the wheelchair-bound on sidewalks and pumping 60 bullets into veterans.

Mr. Broun and the political class in Washington are missing the point. TSA goons picking out old ladies and children to molest while ignoring folks in Arab garb has nothing to do with political correctness. It’s about training the American people to accept and submit to the state.

If we will consent to agents of the state sticking their hands down our pants – and those of our children – we will accept just about anything, including black-clad militarized cops at the mall and on street corners barking orders like they do in third world dictatorships.

The threat is not a handful of radicalized Muslims. It is the government and its desire to create a police state engineered to violently guarantee its monopoly on power.

Comment from INFOWARS website on a viewer
‘…I regularly pass through Bangkok Suvarnabhumi International airport and as a hub for flights to the middle east, observe Arabs passing through security, which they do with ease, especially the women, who do not have to reveal their faces from behind their niqab, while I am a white British male and have to remove my baseball cap, if I’m wearing one, my shoes and belt and be subjected to an official with a security wand and sometimes a pat-down. With no criminal record, not even a speeding ticket, I just don’t understand the discrimination, for that is what it is. Maybe I should dress up in the full Burqa, then I could sail through security unmolested.’
read more

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Thursday, May 26, 2011

Alex Jones’ spontaneous decision calling on Texans to protest the government’s egregious threat of a federal blockade if the Texas Senate passed an anti-TSA groping bill resulted in hundreds of protesters storming the Capitol in Austin yesterday afternoon.

As we reported yesterday, the TSA and the Department of Justice resorted to financial terrorism by threatening a federal blockade that would have closed down Texas airports if the Texas Senate had followed the House in unanimously passing a bill that would have made TSA groping in the state a felony.

“There’s never a dull moment at the Texas Legislature. The House and Senate were going about their regular end-of-session business on Wednesday when loud screams could be heard coming from the rotunda. Outside the chambers, a group of mostly men and a few women were screaming, “Cri-mi-nal! Cri-mi-nal!” and “Treason! Treason!” reports the Texas Tribune.

The quickly arranged demonstration was announced during Jones’ radio show just hours beforehand. Next time around, there would be 50,000 protesters in attendance, he promised.

Media reaction to the event was mixed, with some accurately reporting the protest and others resorting to the usual brand of sneering arrogance we’ve come to expect from the corporate press.

Despite the fact that the intimidation tactics of the federal government, which will surely backfire as a massive shot in the arm for the states’ rights movement, scuttled the anti-grope bill in Texas, there are numerous other states that are already debating or preparing to introduce similar bills.

The feds cannot keep relying on mafia-like behavior to preserve the ability of their criminal army of minimum wage perverts to molest children, at some point down the line lawmakers will have the guts to stand up and say no, and at that point a wave of TSA resistance will sweep legislatures across the country.

Watch more videos of the protest below.

Becca Aaronson and Thanh Tan
Texas Tribune
May 26, 2011

Well, it’s true. There’s never a dull moment at the Texas Legislature. The House and Senate were going about their regular end-of-session business on Wednesday when loud screams could be heard coming from the rotunda. Outside the chambers, a group of mostly men and a few women were screaming, “Cri-mi-nal! Cri-mi-nal!” and “Treason! Treason!”

It didn’t take long for reporters to locate the ringleader: Alex Jones, the controversial radio host and filmmaker who describes himself as a staunch constitutionalist. He is also a supporter of the 9/11 truther movement, which has accused the government of orchestrating the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. So who’s his beef with now? The federal Transportation Security Administration — and the Texas Senate.

“Every one of [those senators] is an enemy of the Republic and the Republic of Texas!” he bellowed.

On Tuesday night, the Senate pulled down the so-called TSA “groping” bill. HB 1937 would have allowed Texas to criminalize “invasive” airport security searches by federal TSA agents if they “intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly” touched the anus, breasts or genitals of travelers. The bill was expected to pass until the U.S. Department of Justice intervened and sent a letter to the state threatening to cancel flights and close airports statewide if the legislation became law. In response, several senators dropped their support.

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
May 25, 2011

Image: Steuben (Flickr Commons)

DOJ resorts to economic terrorism, lawmaker compares fight to revolutionary war against Mexico

UPDATE: Alex Jones is now at the Texas State Capitol in Austin joining a protest where citizens are gathering to demand an end to TSA tyranny. We urge everyone in the area who cares about this massive issue to take part in the demonstration. The TSA has now turned into a literal occupying army that threatens to completely change the character of American society, from a beacon of liberty to a checkpoint-riddled, ‘show us your papers’ Sovietized hellhole. We cannot stand idly by while the federal government resorts to mafia-style threats of financial terrorism to crush the lawful and constitutional rights of local representatives to run their own state in the way they see fit.

An astounding Department of Justice threat to cancel airline flights to and from Texas, in addition to underhanded lobbying by TSA representatives, has killed efforts in the state to pass HB 1937, a bill that would have made invasive pat downs by TSA agents a felony.

HB 1937, a bill that would have made it “A criminal act for security personnel to touch a person’s private areas without probable cause as a condition of travel or as a condition of entry into a public place,” was headed for an imminent Senate vote in Texas having already passed the House unanimously 138-0, before the federal government stepped in to nix the legislation.

In a letter sent to Texas lawmakers, including to Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, Speaker Joe Straus, the House Clerk, and the Senate Secretary, U.S. Attorney John E. Murphy threatened to cripple the airline industry in the state if legislators did not back down.

“If HR [sic] 1937 were enacted, the federal government would likely seek an emergency stay of the statute,” Murphy wrote. “Unless or until such a stay were granted, TSA would likely be required to cancel any flight or series of flights for which it could not ensure the safety of passengers and crew.”

“We urge that you consider the ramifications of this bill before casting your vote,” Murphy added.

The fact that Murphy can’t even get the name of the bill correct is almost as disconcerting as the rampant mafia-like attitude of the DOJ in using de facto economic terrorism to shoot down the legislation.

Following a fiery debate in the Texas House last night, Senate sponsor Dan Patrick (R-Houston) pulled the bill, remarking that TSA representatives had been “lobbying” the Texas Senate in an effort to mothball the legislation.

“I will pull HB 1937 down, but I will stand for Liberty in the state of Texas,” Patrick said.

Patrick added that TSA officials had warned him passing the bill “could close down all the airports in Texas,” which he regarded as a ‘heavy handed threat’ by the federal government.

The staff of Rep. David Simpson said the DOJ had “thrown down the gauntlet” in using such stark language to oppose the bill.

“Either Texas backs off and continues to let government employees fondle innocent women, children and men as a condition of travel,” the staff wrote, “or the TSA [Transportation Safety Administration] has the authority to cancel flights or series of flights.”

“… 97 percent of people who go though the nation’s airports do not go through these offensive searches. And yet, a United States Attorney warns that flights to Texas could be shut down because TSA would not be able to ensure the safety of passengers and crew if agents could not touch genitals. Someone must make a stand against the atrocities of our government agents …”

In a point by point refutation of the DOJ letter, Simpson compared the battle against the TSA to the Texas revolutionary war against Mexico, writing, “Gentlemen, we find ourselves at such a watershed moment today. The federal government is attempting to deprive the citizens of Texas of their constitutional rights under the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article 1, Section 9, of the Texas Constitution. If we do not stand up for our citizens in the face of this depravation of their personal rights and dignity, who will?”

The fact that the Department of Justice and the TSA have resorted to threats of economic terrorism in addition to underhanded lobbying techniques again illustrates the fact that the federal government is increasingly behaving like a criminal enterprise with total disregard for the Constitution.

The TSA’s initial response to HB 1937 was to claim that it could not become law because it violated the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution (Article. VI. Clause 2), a law that the TSA claimed “prevents states from regulating the federal government.”

In reality, this was a complete fabrication.

“The statement is false. Ignorance from the TSA is unlikely, so I’ll call a spade a spade. They’re lying. The supremacy clause says nothing of the sort,” reported Michael Boldin of the Tenth Amendment Center.

Here’s the full text:

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding.

“So, in simple terms, what does the supremacy clause mean? Just what it says. The constitution is supreme. And any federal laws made in line with the constitution is supreme. Nothing more, nothing less,” writes Boldin.

As we have documented, TSA grope downs and body scans are now being rolled out on highways, street corners, public buildings, at sports events, and even at local prom nights.

Despite the fact that the federal government has resorted to thuggish intimidation tactics to kill the anti-grope down bill in Texas, this only marks the latest chapter in an epic states’ rights battle that has centered on the agenda of the TSA to become a literal occupying force in America, manning internal checkpoints that will litter the entire country.

Network World
May 24, 2011

While Texas pushes to outlaw TSA groping, EPIC files a lawsuit against Homeland Security for withholding documents about expanding the use of mobile body scanners into crowds of moving people.

After the Texas House of Representatives unanimously passed “Restrain-the-TSA” legislation, which would make invasive pat-downs a crime at Texas airports, it seemed to inject a bit of sanity into arguments of what is reasonable and unreasonable to expect from the Fourth Amendment’s “right of the people to be secure in their persons . . . against unreasonable searches and seizures.” Being sexually assaulted for simply choosing to fly is unreasonable.

The Texas legislation [PDF] proposes to charge TSA agents with a misdemeanor crime, face a $4,000 fine, and one year in jail for any airport inspection that ”touched the anus, sexual organ, buttocks, or breast of another person, including touching through clothing; or touched the other person in a manner that would be offensive to a reasonable person.”

The Washington Times reported that nine other states are seeking similar legislation to defend our Constitution. “Simply traveling or having private parts is not probable cause” for the TSA to think travelers have committed an offense worthy of being groped or being “ogled” in virtual strip-searches via naked body scanners.

Full article here