Rand Paul bill to “Abolish” the TSA opens the door for the Security Industrial Complex?
June 17, 2012 by Jack Blood
Filed under Police State
Be careful what you wish for, You just might get it. Upon review we are finding that most, if not not ALL of Sen Paul’s “solutions” play into the hands of Elite control structures. So, if given a choice would you rather have Blackwater (Academi) or Wackenhut (G4S Secure Solutions -USA) guards searching you or the TSA? Like it or not at least the TSA has some accountability to the Constitution.
Private "security" in Airports - The "lesser of two evils" again?
He’s On a Losing Streak
Wow. Rather than “abolishing” the TSA, as Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) was promising to do just a few weeks ago, he’s now seeking to “privatize” it – not only a bait-and-switch but exactly the non-solution for which Rep[rehensible] John Mica (R-Fl) is crusading. One of the two bills Rand’s introduced “would require that the mostly federalized program be turned over to private screeners and allow airports — with Department of Homeland Security approval — to select companies to handle the work.” Whether it’s Mica’s or Rand’s proposal, both leave the Feds in charge of bungling security at airports. Yes, the deviants pawing you at checkpoints will receive their paychecks – which your taxes will continue to finance – from “private” companies, but the TSA (or, per Rand’s bill, its über-bureaucracy, the DHS) will dictate every move they make, from groping you to stealing your mouthwash.
Some airports already sexually assault passengers under this “private-public partnership” (when foreign governments practice this arrangement, we call it “fascism”). San Francisco’s is one of them. If you’ve ever flown through there, you can testify that from the passenger’s standpoint, there’s absolutely no difference whether Uncle Sam or a “private” company taking detailed orders from Uncle Sam employs the deviant with his hands down your pants.
No wonder the second bill Rand’s offering would “establish a passenger bill of rights.” Um, Rand? We already have a Bill of Rights; it’s appended to the US Constitution, which never, ever even remotely allows the Feds to interfere with our travels in any way, let alone gate-rape us at airports. Indeed, its Fourth Amendment specifically prohibits “unreasonable search” – and believe me, the TSA’s searches are as unreasonable as they get. No other regime anywhere at any time, no matter how brutal or totalitarian, has sexually molested its citizenry as a condition of travel.
Rand, no offense, but I’ll take that Bill of Rights over yours any day.
TSA tentatively okays private screeners in Orlando
By Joe Davidson
The Transportation Security Administration has given preliminary approval to a plan that would allow Orlando Sanford International Airport to use private security screeners.
Eye Opener
Screeners employed by private companies are already used at 16 airports under the agency’s Screening Partnership Program. Republicans have pressed for greater use of private screeners and welcomed last week’s announcement.
“I hope this opens a new era of reform for TSA operations, not only at Orlando Sanford but across the nation,” said Rep. John L. Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “It’s critical that TSA get out of the business of running a huge bureaucracy and human resources operation and refocus its attention on security, analyzing intelligence, and setting the highest risk-based security standards. TSA needs to focus on going after terrorists — not little old ladies, veterans and children.”
Democrats and the union representing TSA officers, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), have opposed privatization of the workforce that screens people and luggage at the nation’s airports.
In February, AFGE President John Gage told Congress: “The mission of corporations is to make profits from the shareholders and that is in direct conflict with the single focused mission of air travel security for Americans.”
At a House hearing earlier this month, TSA Administrator John Pistole rejected an assertion by Rep. Mike D. Rogers (R-Ala.), chairman of the Homeland Security transportation subcommittee, that TSA “could reduce its ranks by 30 percent to 40 percent and still be able to do the job just as effectively.”
Said Pistole: “No, I don’t agree with that. That’s a huge number.”
TSA said the Orlando plan for private screeners will not become final until the agency approves “a proposal that does ‘not compromise security or detrimentally affect the cost-efficiency or the effectiveness of the screening of passengers or property at the airport.’ There will be no immediate change to operations or the federal workforce” at the airport.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye