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Wednesday, December 14, 2005

It isn't just paranoia anymore, part II
Posted by Jill | 9:01 AM

Every breath you take, every move you make, every vow you break, they'll be watching you:

Teams of undercover air marshals and uniformed law enforcement officers will fan out to bus and train stations, ferries, and mass transit facilities across the country this week in a new test program to conduct surveillance and "counter potential criminal terrorist activity in all modes of transportation," according to internal federal documents.

According to internal Transportation Security Administration documents, the program calls for newly created "Visible Intermodal Protection and Response" teams -- called "Viper" teams -- to take positions in public areas along Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and Los Angeles rail lines; ferries in Washington state; and mass transit systems in Atlanta, Philadelphia and Baltimore. Viper teams will also patrol the Washington Metro system.

A Viper team will consist of two air marshals, one TSA bomb-sniffing-canine team, one or two transportation security inspectors, one local law enforcement officer, and one other TSA employee. Some members of the team will be obvious to the traveling public and wear jackets bearing the TSA name on the back. Others will be plainclothes air marshals scanning the crowds for suspicious people. It is unclear how many Viper teams will be on patrol through the New Year holiday, but air marshal officials confirm that they will be at seven locations across the country.

"TSA is going to extend its outreach into other modes of transportation," said David Adams, spokesman for the Federal Air Marshal Service. "We think this is a very good approach to test our tools and quickly deploy resources in the event of a situation or a threat. It shows we could be at any of these places."

Air marshals will remain on flights this holiday season, while at several airports -- including Dulles International -- TSA is training dozens of screeners in behavior recognition techniques to identify suspicious passengers. Such training had, for the most part, been limited to air marshals. In addition, travelers will be able to take some sharp items previously prohibited, such as small scissors and tools, in carry-on luggage.

TSA officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the agency is expanding training for a limited group of screeners at other airports in preparation for the holiday travel season. Those airports serve Los Angeles, Miami, Dallas-Fort Worth, Cincinnati, New York, Houston, Detroit and Chicago. TSA spokeswoman Yolanda Clark said the techniques include taking notice of high levels of stress, anxiety or deception. "This is a part of a larger effort to add more complex layers of security that cannot be manipulated by those seeking to do us harm," Clark said.

Federal officials said there is no new intelligence indicating that terrorists are interested in targeting transportation modes. Rather, the Transportation Security Administration is trying to expand the role of air marshals, who have been eager to conduct surveillance activities beyond the aircraft, and provide a beefed-up law enforcement presence at bus, train and public transit stations over the busy holiday period.


Because they've done such a terrific job so far.

Anyone who believes this is not about terrorism, especially since there is supposedly no new intelligence indicating an escalated threat, is delusional.

We have an embattled, sociopathic president who has delusions of being a king/dictator. We have a Pentagon with unprecedented power that is already spying on everyone who expresses disagreement with Administration policy. We have an Attorney General who wants "sneak and peek" searches made legal lo unto eternity. And now we're going to have surveillance of our every move as we go to and from work.

This is no longer America. This is East Germany circa 1960; this is Stalinist Russia.

America is dead. The Constitution is dead. Freedom is dead. Only the wreckage of a failed experiment in democracy remains.
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