TSA Screenings Aren’t Just For Airports Anymore

Three federal air marshals in bulletproof vests and two officers trained to spot suspicious behavior watched closely as Seiko, a German shepherd, nosed Vetter’s trousers for chemical traces of a bomb. Radiation detectors carried by the marshals scanned the 57-year-old lawyer for concealed nuclear materials.

When Seiko indicated a scent, his handler, Julian Swaringen, asked Vetter whether he had pets at home in Garner, N.C. Two mutts, Vetter replied. “You can go ahead,” Swaringen said.

The Transportation Security Administration isn’t just in airports anymore. TSA teams are increasingly conducting searches and screenings at train stations, subways, ferry terminals and other mass transit locations around the country.

“We are not the Airport Security Administration,” said Ray Dineen, the air marshal in charge of the TSA office in Charlotte. “We take that transportation part seriously.”

The TSA’s 25 “viper” teams — for Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response — have run more than 9,300 unannounced checkpoints and other search operations in the last year. Department of Homeland Security officials have asked Congress for funding to add 12 more teams next year.

According to budget documents, the department spent $110 million in fiscal 2011 for “surface transportation security,” including the TSA’s viper program, and is asking for an additional $24 million next year. That compares with more than $5 billion for aviation security.

TSA officials say they have no proof that the roving viper teams have foiled any terrorist plots or thwarted any major threat to public safety. But they argue that the random nature of the searches and the presence of armed officers serve as a deterrent and bolster public confidence.

“We have to keep them [terrorists] on edge,” said Frank Cilluffo, director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University in Washington. “We’re not going to have a permanent presence everywhere.”

U.S. officials note that digital files recovered from Osama bin Laden‘s compound in Pakistan after he was killed by U.S. Navy SEALs in May included evidence that the Al Qaeda leader had considered an attack on U.S. railways in February 2010. Over the last decade, deadly bombings have hit subways or trains in Moscow; Mumbai, India; Madrid; and London.

But critics say that without a clear threat, the TSA checkpoints are merely political theater. Privacy advocates worry that the agency is stretching legal limits on the government’s right to search U.S. citizens without probable cause — and with no proof that the scattershot checkpoints help prevent attacks.

“It’s a great way to make the public think you are doing something,” said Fred H. Cate, a professor at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, who writes on privacy and security. “It’s a little like saying, ‘If we start throwing things up in the air, will they hit terrorists?’ ”

Such criticism is nothing new to the TSA.

The agency came under fresh fire this month when three elderly women with medical devices complained that TSA agents had strip-searched them in separate incidents at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Lenore Zimmerman, 84, said she was ordered to pull down her pants after she refused to pass through a full body scanner because she was afraid the machine would interfere with her heart defibrillator.

TSA officials denied the women were strip-searched, but they announced plans to create a toll-free telephone number for passengers with medical conditions who require assistance in airport screening lines. TSA officials said they also are considering a proposal by Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) to designate a passengers advocate at every airport.

The TSA’s viper program hasn’t drawn that kind of attention, although it is increasingly active.

In Tennessee in October, a viper team used radiation monitors and explosive-trace detectors to help state police inspect trucks at highway weigh stations throughout the state. Last month in Orlando, Fla., a team set up metal detectors at a Greyhound bus station and tested passengers’ bags for explosive residue.

In the Carolinas this year, TSA teams have checked people at the gangplanks of cruise ships, the entrance to NASCAR races, and at ferry terminals taking tourists to the Outer Banks.

At the Charlotte train station on Dec. 11, Seiko, the bomb-sniffing dog, snuffled down a line of about 100 passengers waiting to board an eastbound train. Many were heading home after watching the Charlotte PanthersNFL team lose to the Atlanta Falcons after holding a 16-point lead.

No one seemed especially perturbed by the TSA team.

“It’s probably overkill,” said Karen Stone, 26, after a behavior-detection officer asked her about the Panthers game and her trip home to Raleigh.

“It’s cool,” said Marcus Baldwin, 21, who was heading home to Mebane, near Burlington, where he waits tables to help pay for computer technology classes. “They’re doing what our tax money is paying them to do.”

“I’m mostly curious,” said Barbara Spencer, 75, who was heading home to Chapel Hill after watching her grandson perform in a Christmas play. She asked the officers whether a terrorist threat had required the extra security. No, they replied.

Vetter, the lawyer, had attended the game with his son, Noah. They jogged for the train after Seiko had finished his sniff, but Vetter had bigger worries on his mind. “The Panthers blew it,” he said.

And it all makes perfect ‘sense’.

– It’s Official: The US IS Now A FASCIST MILITARY POLICE STATE!

– Ron Paul Furious Over The NDAA (‘Indefinite Detention Bill’): ‘This Is A Giant Step – This Should Be The Biggest News Going Right Now – Literally Legalizing Martial Law’

– Max Keiser And Gerald Celente On MF Global Bankruptcy Implications – The JP Morgan Connection – Goldman Sachs – CME (‘Chicago Mafia Exchange’) – Gold, Silver – Syria, Iran – Entire Financial System Collapsing, One Big Global Ponzi Scheme – False Flag, WW III – Bank Holiday, Economic Martial Law – ‘YOUR MONEY ISN’T SAFE’

– Jesse Ventura Conspiracy Theory: Police State (And FEMA Concentration Camps) – Full Length Video

– FEMA Camps On 72 Hour Notice AND Military Authorized To Arrest = VERIFIED (Video)

Full-body scanner health ‘concerns’:

– US Government Glossed Over Cancer Concerns As It Rolled Out Airport X-Ray Scanners

– TSA Full Body Scanner Radiation Safety Tests Were Rigged

– TSA Body Scanners Show Radiation Levels 10 Times Higher Than Expected

– Inside TSA Body Scanners: How Terahertz Waves Tear Apart Human DNA

– Review of the TSA X-ray backscatter body scanner safety report: hide your kids, hide your wife

– Dr. Russell Blaylock: Body Scanners More Dangerous Than Feds Admit

– Airport Body Scanners: Why You should REJECT ‘Routine’ NON-Diagnostic X-ray

– How Body Scanner Terahertz Waves Can Tear Apart DNA

– Full-Body Scanners Emitting ‘High-Energy’ Radiation Increase Cancer Risk

– US prisoners forced to submit to radiation experiments for private foreign companies

More on the DHS, TSA:

– Fascism We Can Believe In: Blackout On DHS Backscatter Vans And Body-Scanners

– TSA Threatens To Make Texas A No-Fly Zone – Hundreds Rally At Texas State Capitol Building – Texas Legislature, Federal Government Clash Over Airport Pat-Down Bill, Texas Backs Down

– And NOW … TSA Forgets To Tell Cops About ‘Terrorist’ Drill, Police Evacuate Airport And Seize ‘Terrorist’ With Fake Bomb

– TSA Full Body Scanner Radiation Safety Tests Were Rigged

– Police State: TSA Agents Search BABY As Possible Terrorist

– Former Governor Jesse Ventura on The View: ‘The Federal Reserve Runs The Country’, ‘I Call Homeland Security The GESTAPO’, ‘Last Year Alone The Government Classified 16 Million Documents Top Secret’

– TSA Body Scanners Show Radiation Levels 10 Times Higher Than Expected

– Rep. David Simpson: If We Don’t Fight, TSA-Like Security Coming To ‘Sidewalks,’ ‘Football Games’

– Unconstitutional: After Touching Your Junk, TSA Now Wants To Scan And Harvest Your DNA

– Police State Update: TSA Pat Downs, Bag Searches AFTER Passengers Get Off Trains (Video)

– TSA Source: Undercover TSA Agent Successfully Smuggled A Gun Past Full-Body Scanners

– (FOX NEWS) Inside Job: ‘The US Government Escorted The Underwear Bomber Through Security Without A Passport To Board The Plane’, Say Two Attorneys, Eyewitnesses Who Were On Site

– Former Governor Jesse Ventura Sues Homeland Security And TSA For Sexual Assault Over Unconstitutional Body Scans And Pat-Downs

– The TSA’s State-Mandated Molestation

– Inside TSA Body Scanners: How Terahertz Waves Tear Apart Human DNA

– Indian Ambassador To US Outraged Over ‘Humiliating’ TSA Search

– Massive TSA Fraud

– Another TSA Outrage

– TSA Takes Full Control Of Passenger Watch Lists

– Former Assistant TSA Administrator Admits That Airport Security Checkpoints Violate The Fourth Amendment

– Review of the TSA X-ray backscatter body scanner safety report: hide your kids, hide your wife

– Dr. Russell Blaylock: Body Scanners More Dangerous Than Feds Admit

– TSA: Top US Government Officials Exempt From Screenings

– Airport Body Scanners: Why You should REJECT ‘Routine’ NON-Diagnostic X-ray

– Rep. Ron Paul on CNN: ‘We Don’t Solve Our Problems By Abusing The Rights Of American Citizens!’

– US: Full-Body Scanners Popping Up At Courthouses

– Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano Proposes Full-Body Scanners For Trains, Boats, Metro

– Rep. Ron Paul to TSA: Stop Irradiating Our Bodies and Fondling Our Children!

– US: The TSA Is Totally Out Of Control

– Passenger Becomes Internet Sensation For Telling US Airport Security ‘Don’t Touch My Junk’

– Wednesday, November 24, 2010 is NATIONAL OPT-OUT DAY!

– New Jersey Lawmakers Seek to Stop Airport Security Scans

– German Protesters Strip Down In Airport To Protest Full-Body Scanners

– World’s largest pilot union shuns full-body scanners, warning cites radiation risk

– TSA: 500 Full Body Scanners By The End of the Year, 2,000 Planned

– Pilot to TSA: ‘No Groping Me and No Naked Photos’

– How Body Scanner Terahertz Waves Can Tear Apart DNA

– The Full Body Scanner Invasion; New Scanners Break Child Porn Laws

– US prisoners forced to submit to radiation experiments for private foreign companies

– Full-Body Scanners Emitting ‘High-Energy’ Radiation Increase Cancer Risk

– TSA lies exposed: Full-body scanners do save and transmit images, secret documents reveal

– Israeli Airport Security Expert: Full-Body Scanners Are Waste of Money