“The libertarian leader Ron Paul used the issue to demand privatization of airport security systems. Apparently he has forgotten that we had private security before September 11, and that the private screeners let a bunch of people get on an airplane with box cutters”
_____________________

At the time, getting on a plane with a box cutter wasn’t illegal.

Why does masaccio hate rich people?

Clearly, the use of “security” in boarding passengers re-enforces helplessness in the general public. As we all know there is a deficit in security involving cargo.

Since 9-11 the democracy bar has been lowered dramatically. I do believe that this latest TSA bullshit is the tipping point. The 98%’ers need to organize against the current owners of our bodies and the economy.

I find it amazing that the government/corporate union requires us to summit to molestation for our own safety but allows 50,000 Americans to die every year from lack of health care.

In my very working class neighborhood everyone knows it is time to put our collective foot down.

They didn’t even notice the box-cutters, in a system that was supposed to detect metal weaons. (AFAIK, box-cutters don’t have stainless-steel blades. The metal detectors should have caught them. Hell, the FBI had been warned and sat on its collective rear end.)

which is why that story about box cutters was circulated – liability issues

http://www.edwardjayepstein.com/nether_fictoid9.htm

But they walk Congresscritters around the scanners and the rest of security, because they’re Important People and would never be carrying explosives or guns….

I want Boehner and all the other elected and appointed officials, and the first-class travellers, all of whom are so important and necessary to the proper functioning of the economy and the world [/s], to get the same security treatment that the rest of us do. Every time they travel.

From the article Tatere links to:

Actually, it was their imagination, not established facts, that informed the world that the hijackers had used plastic knives and box cutters to commandeer the two airliners that had destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Not a scintilla of evidence had been found then— or to date— that either plastic knives or box cutters were used by any of the ten hijackers who crashed United Airlines flight 175 and American Airlines Flight 11 into the World Trade Center. No box cutters or plastic knives were found in the debris. Nor were the cockpit voice recorders ever found from Flight 11 and Flight 175. No witnesses, either passengers or crew members, on either flight 11 or flight 175 ever reported any hijacker having a box cutter or a plastic knife.

Well, well, well. Funny how this never got reported and blared about 24/7 the way the original lie did.

Then-current FAA policy allowed passengers to carry small knives. I traveled with a Leatherman in my hand luggage frequently during the 90s.

“Of course, it is just madness to suggest that we would be better off if a Blackwater XE or its ilk took over the naked picture/groping business. We would lose control of the people doing the smutty work, and lose our ability to sue for the abuses that would follow.”

Huh??

THE TSA CONTRACTS OUT TO PRIVATE COMANPANIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.covenantsecurity.com/csw/csw_locationsNew.aspx

The Pervert Scanners and the Pervert Pats must be stopped. We know they don’t work, and we know the Israeli system does. I heard Sheila Jackson Lee lie about the need for it yesterday on TV. When Bob Schieffer asked Hillary Clinton asked about it today, she did not voice support for the scam, and when pressed, said she wouldn’t go through it if she didn’t have to.

Michael Chertoff coming from his particular job in Government then selling these machines at close to $100,000 each to the Government is the worst case of the Military-Industrial Complex I’ve ever heard. It should obviously require a Bribery prosecution for both Chertoff and the law enforcement officials who haven’t busted him for the Conflict of Interest, starting with AG Holder and Pres. Obama.

I don’t want to get bogged down in 911 conspiracy mythology, but I have also heard/read over the years that the “terrorists” didn’t have box cutters or plastic knives. Hard to say for sure but wouldn’t surprise me.

I used to travel pretty frequently with a fully-loaded swiss army knife back in the days when I was backpacking frequently. There was never a problem getting it thru security back then. IMO there really shouldn’t be a problem getting it thru security now.

Cargo is the more likely “unsafe” area of air transport where more security is required, but as has been repeated here ad nauseum recently, it won’t scare the proles into stupidly giving away their rights and freedoms as much as TSA porn-cancer-creating scans will.

And so, on it goes….

It was Boston Logan Airport that allowed the boxcutters on right? That’s why I think there should be a nationwide boycott of Boston Logan until the Pervert Scanners and Pervert Pats are removed. I’m in Massachusetts, and this is a small enough state such that everyone needing to fly can go somewhere else. We can’t boycott big enough to close down air travel, but the people can boycott Boston Logan until it goes out of business or stops supporting this fascist money grab/grope.

One would like to believe that any semi-sentient being could see exactly what you’re saying, but, alas, Jabba-the-Aisles RushGlennSarah continuum seems to blow the feeble minds of many proles…. and they willingly bow before the gods of mammon and give away their rights without a squawk.

That they don’t search the luggage underneath shows that this isn’t really to protect anyone, it’s to remove rights. I don’t know that there were box cutters, the whole thing is suspicious. I used to wear my Swiss Army knife hanging with my keys from my belt loop, but I stopped when the post 9/11 fascist reforms swept in.

I thought the terrorists who hijacked United Flight 93 had knives.

Wonder what the changers are that we will all be shown via an terrorist attack how much we need the scanners/patdowns?

“Apparently he has forgotten that we had private security before September 11, and that the private screeners let a bunch of people get on an airplane with box cutters.”

Before nineleven it was legal to carry a box cutter onto a plane, or a knife, or a remote control as long as it fit in your pocket.

which would have been picked up by a metal detector. the fact is, before nineleven it was legal to carry shit like pocket knives, or a pack of razor blades, or your car keys, onto a flight. prohibiting such items is what is preventing attacks. There is not a shred of evidence that strip search scanners do anything more than normal metal detectors to prevent attacks. before nineleven the worst attack on a civilian aircraft was the pan am 747 over lockerbie wich was carried out by means of a bomb with a pressure sensitive fuse in a suit case loaded into the belly of the plane.. the second worse, just FYI, was the US navy shoot-down of an Iranian Airbus carried out by US tax payer paid for surface to air missles. It has been proven that the navy’s act of terrorism was a major factor in the libyan decision to blow up a pan am flight.

What is a surprise is that they [Libertarians] were able to seize upon a civil liberties issue while the Democrats were instructing us that government gets to look in your pants or grope you…

And Log Cabin Republicans made significant headway regarding DADT, while the Democrats seemed to be doing nothing, or even quietly working against its repeal.

And Democratic leaders, despite the tepid reassurances of late, still seem fixated upon getting their hands on Social Security monies.

Seriously – could we be witnessing another ideological swap between the Democrats and Republicans? Such things don’t happen overnight, which could explain why Progressives seem to have more in common with Libertarians than with Democrats, and why so-called moderate Democrats seem to be indistinguishable from so-called moderate Republicans.

And the Ubercitizens, or as I like to say, the “impecuniously-challenged”, have their own Lear Jets and may even enjoy watching the rest of us get molested.

My brother proved to me that one could carry a large knife, in this case a Buck Model 110, which is a folding knife with a 3-3/4 inch blade and a working length of nearly eight inches. All one needed to do was to simply hurry thru the metal detector.

I hasten to add that this was, of course, before “9-11 changed everything”…

The porno scanners would not have been able to detect the underwear bomber’s liquid ingredients to make a bomb and terrorists are always changing and adapting their methods to reduce the chance of discovery and increase the chance of success. Besides, it’s damned awkward to assemble a bomb in flight without drawing attention, as the hapless Mr. Abdulmutallab discovered, and iirc, he was missing a blasting cap, which made it virtually impossible to detonate the damn thing, if he had managed to assemble it.

“Psssstttttt, hey buddy. You gotta a spare blasting cap? doesn’t make it as an effective alternate Plan B, does it? I daresay that we’ll not likely see this extremely sophisticated plan again.

I don’t know about y’all, but I’m finding it increasingly difficult to keep from laughing at these fierce terrorists that increasingly seem to be FBI/CIA dupes who have been set up to fail and get busted just to keep fear alive, and in Mr. Abdulmuttalab’s case, to fill Chertoff’s pockets, briefcases, and grocery bags bank accounts with untraceable amounts of casheesh for kickbacks lobbying fees from the manufacturer.

And one more time, our brilliant and political savvy el presidente, says “Carry on. We don’t want you (i.e., Chertoff) feeling like you have to be looking over your shoulder while you’re doing your job and wondering if you need to be lawyering up.”

Well, at least we now know that there is no doubt whatsoever that our fierce, brilliant, and political savvy el presidente fully supports fraudulent criminal conduct at taxpayer expense and the use of overexposure to radiation and sexual assault to condition, humiliate and degrade the flying public in the name of keeping them safe.

Obama has now rejected two golden opportunities to be a national hero with the bankster’s real estate forfeiture scam and the porno scanner/rape grope scam. Yup, no doubt about it. He’s not a crook even though he quacks like a crook and looks like a crook. His problem is messaging.

Brilliant!

The keyword search of ‘site:gsaadvantage.gov “Covenant Services Worldwide”‘ (remove the single quotes before you you use it) yields:

“Worldwide Security Services, LTD“:

GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION
FEDERAL SUPPLY SERVICE
AUTHORIZED FEDERAL SUPPLY SCHEDULE
ORDERING GUIDELINES

SCHEDULE 84
TOTAL SOLUTIONS FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT, SECURITY,
FACILITIES MANAGEMENT, FIRE, RESCUE, CLOTHING,
MARINE CRAFT AND EMERGENCY/DISASTER RESPONSES

Contract Number GS-07F-0505M
Contract Period: 09/01/02 through 08/31/2012
Special Item No. 246-54 Guard Services
Special Item No. 426-2A Canine Explosive Detection Services Teams
FSC Group: 63
FSC Class: 6350
Product Code: PSC S206
Business Size: Large

Book Salon up with Bob Cavnar’s Disaster on the Horizon High Stakes, High Risks, and the Story Behind the Deepwater Well Blowout hosted by Riki Ott

GWOT is one live test demo and product debut opportunity after another. It’s like the golden eggs are coming off a conveyor belt faster than they can be plucked off.

Here is the Covenant web site:
“After the events of 9/11, CAS was the only private contractor awarded multiple contracts for providing commercial screening services to the TSA under the privatization pilot program initiated by the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (ATSA).”

It would be good to get clear on this, because I admit it is confusing whether it is the TSA or contractors doing it. I suspect it varies from airport to airport.

They had stuff, though, that they used as weapons. I don’t know if it was box-cutters or just plain pocket knives, but those should have been seen by security.
I blame the FBI, for ignoring the information they were getting from their own agents and informants. If they’d paid attention, the hijackers would have been arrested before they got on the planes.

I always have a nail clipper and pocket knife or a pair of snips (and frequently all of them), except in courthouses.

All the security before 9/11 was just to prevent hijackings. You may be too young to remember when it was a big thing. (Usually they hijacked the plane to Cuba; once it was to Africa.) Also there was DB Cooper, and a few cases of a passenger causing a plane to crash.

these porno scanners just replace the existing measures with different ones. Like changing the lock on the front door and leaving the back door unlocked.

There were private customers for the porno scanners – shippers of cargo – but they fought against it and won.

I think the people who lost their lives on 9/11 would be appalled to know they left a world that will now molest their children at the airport.

Indeed. Our own National Anthem ends with the words, the land of the Free and the Hoe of the Brave. Guess not.

Wouldn’t it be instructive if the First Family submitted to the invasive/pornographic scans and pat-downs? Would President Obama perhaps object to having Michelle and his two little girls subjected to this?

I believe America is about a fundamental right to freedom of movement, and the freedom from invasion of privacy. Is this all gone now?

I am afraid it is so. We live in an authoritarian state, and arguing about elective politics–Democratic or Republican–is useless.

Vacationers from abroad might not want to come here–and spend money!–if they will be subjected to such outrageous searches. Business people might tell their employers “No way,” creating an HR nightmare. This is a crippling policy for airlines. Ham-fisted and stupid. Somewhere, President Obama ‘gets it’; just don’t expect him to do something smart about it, or anything at all.

Hey! They created a job in private industry with that $25 million. And we all know that only private industry can create true wealth! So don’t knock the Republicans porno machines.
/s

Perhaps this is why Republicans never propose jobs programs. Jobs for 15 million people at $25 million a pop would be a bit much.

On the other hand, it sure would broaden thier voting base!