VIPER Teams Patrol Mass Transit Facilities, Look For Susupicious Individuals
more freedom for us!!! i knew a couple years ago from what the feds said that air marshals would eventually branch out to be federal police spying on people on street corners, malls, universities, everywhere...then they'll roll out the military on the streets to keep us safe...national police, not a good sign of freedom...
oh well, one more incremental step towards the freedom dictatorship. i wonder if they'll be looking for suspicious individuals in the white house or the federal reserve...probably not.
[align=left]VIPER Teams Patrol Mass Transit Facilities, Look For Susupicious Individuals[/align]
[align=left]Associated Press/LESLIE MILLER | December 14 2005[/align]
[align=left]Comment: More Charles de Menezes and Rigoberto Alpizar's in the making![/align]
[align=left]WASHINGTON - 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.[/align]
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.
VIPER Teams Patrol Mass Transit Facilities, Look For Susupicious Individuals
[align=left]TSA Vipers at the Local Train Station
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[align=left]Kurt Nimmo | December 15 2005
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[align=left]If you appear ??suspicious? or are of Costa Rican or Arab heritage or didn??t take your bipolar meds, you may want to stay away from airports, train stations, ferries, and mass transit in general. ??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,? reports the Washington Post. ??A viper [Visible Intermodal Protection and Response] 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 individuals. It is unclear how many viper teams will be on patrol through the New Year??s holiday, but air marshal officials confirm that they will be at seven locations across the country.?
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In the wake of what happened to Rigoberto Alpizar at the Miami International airport??summarily executed for the crime of suffering from a mental disorder and therefore considered ??suspicious???it is not a conspiracy theory to believe you may be murdered by ??plainclothes air marshals.?
??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.?
Of course, more than a few people are stressed out by the prospect of flying on planes or even embarking on trains in close proximity to strangers. It appears the only people employing deception will be the TSA undercover snoops. Ms. Clark??s remark on ??more complex layers of security? is telling: in fact, this ??security???killing mental patients in Miami and chasing down and executing South American train commuters in London??will eventually permeate the entire society and will not be confined to airports and train stations. It??s no coincidence that local police are increasingly militarized and trained to consider the populace at large as the enemy.
??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.?
In other words, the government admits there is no imminent terrorist event and thus no reason to turn airports and train stations and ferry docks into totalitarian microcosms. It should not be surprising that ??federal officials? are ??eager to conduct surveillance activities? on the populace at large. Of course, the eventual result of this will be a macrocosm of tyranny??not that the populace at large is particularly concerned because they are sufficiently conditioned to surrender their birthright liberties at the door, thanks to the al-CIA-duh asset Osama and the Seven Dwarfs, fantastically plotting our demise from caves in Afghanistan, sort of a larger-than-life scary campfire story designed to frightened into acquiescence a population instructed to suspend critical evaluation and judgment.
Finally, the TSA ??viper? (an apropos title) concept is a massive violation of the idea that local law enforcement will be responsible for their jurisdictions (and the next time some ??conservative? tells you about the right of the states to manage their own business without federal intervention and bemoans big government, you can laugh in his face). But then, as David Adams, spokesman for the Federal Air Marshal Service, told the Washington Post, sending out the spooks and thugs armed to kill mental patients and nervous people with dark skin, ??is part of our responsibility to assist in the non-aviation domain. The whole purpose is that people will not know when we??re going to be there or if we are going to be there. It??s a preventative approach.?
And Orwell??s Big Brother wanted you to know he was watching always through the telescreen. Our telescreen is a work in progress. In the meantime, you will be advised to get used to being watched, to being evaluated, sized up, and possibly chased down and liquidated, as was Rigoberto Alpizar.
