PhoneBoy Says

Alternatively, the government has labeled anyone opposing abortion, illegal immigration, or members of the "alternative media" as "domestic extremists." Such designations were made infamous by the leaked "MIAC Memo," a shortened reference to the "strategic report" issued by the Missouri Information Analysis Center dated 20 February 2009. Careful research will show that the memo, which was a law enforcement work product that was actually limited in its intended dissemination, was rebuffed by DHS officials and later "retracted." Government officials downplayed its intent after the publication went "viral." It was defended as a training aid that was overblown and taken out of context.

Subsequent assurances have been made by the federal government that no such designations exist, at least not in the context of surveillance or other oversight measures of anyone but enemies who pose actual threats to our homeland. These assurances have been parroted by the corporate media shilling for Napolitano and others, who further imply that assertions to the contrary are nothing but conspiratorial nonsense that have no basis in fact. Visits to politically polarized Internet forums and web sites will find pundits and posters disparaging anyone who would fall for such conspiratorial nonsense. They demand proof through publication of the existence of closely guarded and classified memos, lists, and documents that detail such designations. Absent of such proof, they vociferously contend that it simply does not exist.

To provide insight to those who are concerned over the direction our current leadership is taking our national security, perhaps we should refer to DHS source document IA-0233-09 dated 26 March 2009 titled "Domestic Extremist Lexicon." It is an eleven page document prepared by the Strategic Analysts Group and the Extremism Radicalization Branch, Homeland Environment Threat Analysis Division.

via homelandsecurityus.com

It all started with The Patriot Act…

The Transportation Security Administration is feeling public heat these days over its combination of whole-body scanners and heavy-handed pat-down searches, and deservedly so.

There's no question that reform is needed to curtail TSA's excesses. We especially applaud the Electronic Privacy Information Center's efforts to increase public awareness about the body scanners. But will the heat now being generated produce the kind of light we really need?

Consider, for instance, the all-too-common response that we need to accept the indignity and invasiveness of the body scanners and pat-down searches in order to be safer. That response assumes that body scanners actually make us safer — a dubious assumption that we explore below.

via eff.org

If these machines were truly effective, you know who'd be using them? The Israelis. And you know what? They don't. And yet, somehow, the security in Ben Gurion International Airport hasn't been breached in 8 years.

TSA: Don't you have normal operating procedures at your work?
Me: Yes
TSA: How would you like it if somebody came to your work and disrupted your procedures? How would you like it if people took pictures of you at your work?
Me: I don't work for the government. Government agencies need to be accountable to the public, and therefore suffer disruptions like this.
TSA: Not all parts of the government are accountable to the public, especially the TSA.
Me: Wow. No, ALL parts of the government are accountable to the people, especially the TSA. I'm not sure what type of country you think we live in.

via erratasec.blogspot.com

via youtube.com

The "Freedom Frisk."

I think on this day, for the first time in my life, I can speak for all of America and perhaps for all of mankind, when I say that if proctological examinations ever become part of airport security, that's where I draw the line.

via blogs.suntimes.com

Don't give them any ideas, Roger. Given the way things are going, that seems like the next logical step.

y worst nightmare took place yesterday. Worse than events that have taken place and that I have survived in my short 28 years of living. Worse than my wildest of dreams could conjure.

My son was taken from me.

Taken.

My son was taken from me by the TSA agents at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson airport yesterday.

He was taken away from me and OUT OF MY SIGHT because his pacifier clip went off when I carried him through the metal detector.

According to the Transportation Security Administration website, "We will not ask you to do anything that will separate you from your child or children."

Bullshit TSA.

You took my son. MY SON.

via liveleak.com

As a parent, this account is nothing short of horrifying.

Edit: I guess I got caught up in all the anti-TSA rhetoric going around. The TSA posted the actual CCTV footage of this incident, which paints a very different picture of what happened. That said, everyone needs to be vigilant to ensure that something like what this woman described doesn't happen. Ever.

via youtube.com

Unnamed TSA agent: "You know why we're doing this."

The debate over security scanning and pat-downs has reached such a fever pitch, it seems that people are forgetting that the enemy isn't the Transportation Security Administration -- it's al Qaeda.

I don't want my children or grandchildren getting on a plane that's going to be blown apart in the sky. That's what this comes down to.

If people have constructive suggestions to make, please make them. But to threaten to shut down the system is irresponsible.

They are putting people in danger by trying to intimidate the TSA into backing down on their security measures.

via nypost.com

Nobody is threatening to shut down the system, as near as I can tell. Individuals are standing up for their constitutional rights, preferring not give up essential liberties to obtain temporary safety.

A revolt is apparently growing at the grassroots level — being fanned by politicians and right-wing talking heads — against the new procedures being used by the TSA to ensure that people with bombs and weapons don't get on airplanes with you and me and our loved ones. If you ask me, it's ridiculous. The revolt, I mean.

Are people's memories so short that they have forgotten that it was just last Christmas when a man with a bomb hidden in his underwear was caught on a flight to Detroit?

Have we forgotten the "shoe bomber"?

Have you turned on the television lately? As I write this, bomb-sniffing dogs have located a suspicious package at Logan Airport, and the cargo area has been cleared.

And people are complaining about TSA pat-downs?

via creators.com

No, lady. I am complaining about the fact the TSA now feels the need to violate our constitutional rights to do their job. I draw the line at being forced to choose between walking through a potentially unsafe imaging machine or having my "junk" touched. Or possibly both, should the TSA screeners find a "problem" that needs "resolution."

The Ben Gurion International Airport in Israel, which is in a much more "unsafe" part of the world than any US airport, hasn't had a problem in 8 years. They've done this without touching people's junk, putting them through full body scanners, or require you to take off your shoes.

It would appear that the Department of Homeland Security is not only prepared to enforce the enhanced security procedures at airports, but is involved in gathering intelligence about those who don't. They're making a list and most certainly will be checking it twice. Meanwhile, legitimate threats to our air travel security (and they DO exist) seem to be taking a back seat to the larger threat of the multitude of non-criminal American citizens who object to having their Constitutional rights violated.

As I have written before, it has nothing to do with security and everything to do with control.

via canadafreepress.com

As we say on No Agenda: New. World. Order. SHUT UP SLAVE!!!!!