- Pacific
Federal air marshals are expanding their work beyond airplanes, launching counterterror
surveillance at train stations and other mass transit facilities in a three-day test
program.
As of Wednesday, the Transportation Security
Administration said, teams of undercover air marshals and uniformed law enforcement
officers were descending on bus stations, ferries and transit systems across the country
to protect them from potential terrorists.
"We just want to develop the capability to enhance security outside of
aviation," said air marshal spokesman David Adams.
Air marshals stepped outside of their usual role of flying undercover on airliners after
Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans. They were sent to keep order at Louis Armstrong
International Airport, where thousands of evacuees converged after the levees were
breached.
The so-called "Visible Intermodal Protection and Response" teams, or VIPER
teams, will patrol Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and Los Angeles rail lines; ferries in
Washington state; bus stations in Houston; and mass transit systems in Atlanta,
Philadelphia, Washington and Baltimore.
The teams will consist of two air marshals, one TSA bomb-sniffing-canine team, one or two
transportation security inspectors and a local law enforcement officer.
Adams said there is no new intelligence indicating that terrorists are interested in
targeting transportation modes.
Rather, the TSA is trying to expand the role of air marshals, who have been eager to
conduct surveillance activities beyond the aircraft, and tighten security at public
transit stations over the holiday.
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 individuals.
"TSA expects to find new ways to quickly deploy resources, in the event of an actual
threat, that adds complexity to security measures outside of the aviation domain,"
the agency said in a statement.
Thousands of air marshals were rushed into service after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The service has been shunted among different agencies since then, starting out at the
Federal Aviation Administration, moving to the TSA, then to Immigration and Custom
Enforcement and, recently, back to the TSA.
Though the exact number of air marshals is classified, pilots estimate that they cover
only a small percentage of flights. Efforts were made to expand coverage by cross-training
other law enforcement officers to perform air marshal duties, but Congress put a stop to
it.
Air marshals last week shot and killed a passenger in Miami who they said made a bomb
threat.
The Washington Post first reported the deployment of the VIPER teams. (12.14.2005, Melissa
McNamara) http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/12/14/terror/main1124533.shtml
"To Achieve World
Government it is necessary to remove from the minds of men their individualism,
their loyalty to family traditions and national identification" Brock Chisholm - Director of the World Health Organization
"A society whose citizens refuse to see and investigate the facts, who refuse to
believe that their government and their media will routinely lie to them and fabricate a
reality contrary to verifiable facts, is a society that chooses and deserves the Police
State Dictatorship it's going to
get." Ian Williams Goddard
The fact is that "political correctness" is all about creating uniformity. Individualism is one of the biggest obstacles in the way of the New World Order. They want a public that is predictable and conditioned to do as it's told without asking questions.
"The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first." Thomas Jefferson