Backscatter
I really don’t know what I’ll do the next time I fly. I just know that the “security” checks we’re subjected to are invasive and ridiculous.
Have you read John Tyner’s blog? He’s the guy who spoke those now-legendary words when the TSA flunkie told him how he was going to feel him up. I’m sure it’s a topic I’ll discuss with John Fugelsang during our regular Thursday morning get-together today. He’s in Charlotte, NC today, which means he had to fly. I wonder if he met any new TSA friends?
How did we wind up with these backscatter machines anyway? Did Congress vote to authorize this latest invasion of our privacy?
I’ve been talking about how we MUST get involved… more than by just signing online petitions. If the teabaggers can do it, surely we – the “educated elite” can take the initiative to speak out.
Today, in an informative and interactive segment, I’ll be joined by Beth Becker and Neal Rauhauser, a couple of friends who are involved with ProgressiveCongress.org and the new Progressive Congress News site. They’ll explain to us how to not only keep up on proposed legislation, but to make sure our elected representatives know how we stand on each and every vote they’ll cast.
As you follow along, you’ll want to visit VisibleVote.us and download the correct app for your phone, or bookmark it on your computer.
Our future depends on it!
While I agree with some of the things the Israeli consultant (formerly head of El Al security) said, I have read that both the ‘shoe bomber’ and the ‘underwear bomber’ went through European airports where the security was handled by an Israeli company.
P.S. For what it’s worth – (I certainly can’t vouch for the source.)
FROM THE INTERNET: …The firm in charge of security at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport is the Israeli-owned International Consultants on Targeted Security (ICTS)…
…When a Michigan passenger, attorney Kurt Haskell, reported that a
“well-dressed” Indian man arranged for Umar Mutallab to perform a
“walkaround” without a passport in Amsterdam, ICTS was one of only a few
entities that could have permitted this security breach to take place…
..ICTS also handled security for London’s bus system during their 7-7 “Muslim bombing,” while doing the same at Charles de Gaulle Airport when “shoe bomber” Richard Reid boarded a plane in Paris on Dec. 22, 2001…
P.S. SEE ALSO: “Israeli firm blasted for letting would-be plane bomber slip through” ~ By Yossi Melman, Haaretz (Israel), 01/10/10
• Screening system developed by ICTS International should have flagged Nigerian passenger as security threat.
(excerpt) The Israeli firm ICTS International (not to be confused with ICTS Europe, which is a different company), and two of its subsidiaries are at the crux of an international investigation in recent days, as experts try to pinpoint the reasons for the security failure that enabled Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to board Northwest flight 253 and attempt to set alight explosives hidden in his underwear.
A Haaretz investigation has learned that the security officers and their supervisor should have suspected the passenger, even without having early intelligence available to them.
At this time, ICTS and the Dutch security firm G4S are hurling recriminations at each other, as are the authorities at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, the Federal Aviation Authority and U.S. intelligence officials….
ENTIRE ARTICLE – http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israeli-firm-blasted-for-letting-would-be-plane-bomber-slip-through-1.261107
P.P.S. BY LINH DINH, CommonDreams.org, 11/27/10: …Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the underwear bomber, could expect to fly from Amsterdam to Detroit without a passport. With the right string pulled, who needs a stupid document? Before boarding, Abdulmutallab was spotted by an American couple, lawyer Kurt Haskell and his wife, Lori. This shabbily dressed, 23-year-old Nigerian was accompanied by a suited, Indian-looking man around 50-years-old. The odd pair caught the Haskells’ attention. Speaking in American accented English, the Indian-looking man intervened with the ticket agent to get Abdulmutallab onboard, “He is from Sudan, we do this all the time.” Who are “we,” Haskell would wonder later, if not the U.S. government?
Abdulmutallab then tried to blow up the plane, but eighty grams of PETN couldn’t explode without a blasting cap. Bumbling Umar didn’t know that, however, so only his crotch was martyred…
…Not amused, Kurt Haskell wanted to know who this Indian-looking man was. When the F.B.I. visited him four days after the incident, Haskell asked if they had brought the Amsterdam security video so he could help to identify this enabler of terrorism, “but they acted as though my request was ridiculous.” There was no follow up investigation. Someone did bother to phone Haskell, however, to warn him, rather menacingly, that it was “in [his] best interest to stop talking publicly” about this episode…
SOURCE – http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/11/25-0
Wish they wouldn’t refer to it as “junk” — ewww!
But it is outrageous — AND a way that corporations can make money AND ex-members of the Homeland Security Dept. We should be calling our Congress Critters and demanding sense. All the other countries look at America with our crazy flying policy — and then our crazy healthcare — and think we truly are nuts. Meanwhile how much money are we wasting? Outrageous indeed.