TSA Now Storming Public Places 8,000 Times a Year

By Tara Servatius

Americans must decide if, in the name of homeland security, they are willing to allow TSA operatives to storm public places in their communities with no warning, pat them down, and search their bags. And they better decide quickly.

Bus travelers were shocked when jackbooted TSA officers in black SWAT-style uniforms descended unannounced upon the Tampa Greyhound bus station in April with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies and federal bureaucrats in tow.

A news report by ABC Action News in Tampa showed passengers being given the signature pat downs Americans are used to watching the Transportation Security Administration screeners perform at our airports. Canine teams sniffed their bags and the buses they rode. Immigration officials hunted for large sums of cash as part of an anti-smuggling initiative.

The TSA clearly intends for these out-of-nowhere swarms by its officers at community transit centers, bus stops and public events to become a routine and accepted part of American life.

The TSA has conducted 8,000 of these security sweeps across the country in the past year alone, TSA chief John Pistole told a Senate committee June 14. They are part of its VIPR (Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response) program, which targets public transit related places.

All of which is enough to make you wonder if we are watching the formation of the "civilian national security force" President Obama called for on the campaign trail "that is just as powerful, just as strong and just as well funded" as the military.

The VIPR swarm on Wednesday, the TSA's largest so far, was such a shocking display of the agency's power that it set the blogosphere abuzz.

In a massive flex of muscle most people didn't know the TSA had, the agency led dozens of federal and state law enforcement agencies in a VIPR exercise that covered three states and 5,000 square miles. According to the Marietta Times, the sweep used reconnaissance aircraft and "multiple airborne assets, including Blackhawk helicopters and fixed wing aircraft as well as waterborne and surface teams."

When did the TSA get this powerful? Last year, Pistole told USA Today he wanted to "take the TSA to the next level," building it into a "national-security, counterterrorism organization, fully integrated into U.S. government efforts."

What few people realize is how far Pistole has already come in his quest. This is apparently what that next level looks like. More than 300 law enforcement and military personnel swept through a 100-mile stretch of the Ohio Valley alone, examining the area's industrial infrastructure, the Charleston Gazette reported.

Federal air marshals, the Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Coast Guard, the FBI, the Office of Homeland Security and two dozen other federal, state and local agencies teamed up to scour the state's roads, bridges, water supply and transit centers under the TSA's leadership.

What is remarkable about these security swarms is that they don't just involve federal, state and local law enforcement officials. The TSA brings in squads of bureaucrats from state and federal agencies as well, everything from transportation departments to departments of natural resources.

The TSA had received no specific threats about the Tampa bus station before the April sweep, reporters were told.

They were there "to sort of invent the wheel in advance in case we have to if there ever is specific intelligence requiring us to be here," said Gary Milano with the Department of Homeland Security in an ABC News Action television report. "This way us and our partners are ready to move in at a moment's notice."

Federal immigration officials from Customs and Border Patrol swept the station with the TSA, looking for "immigration violations, threats to national security" and "bulk cash smuggling." (How the bulk cash smuggling investigation related to national security was never explained.)

"We'll be back," Milano told reporters. "We won't say when we'll be back. This way the bad guys are on notice we'll be back."

The TSA gave the same vague answers when asked about the three-state sweep this week. That sweep wasn't in response to any specific security threat, either.

The purpose was to "have a visible presence and let people know we're out here," Michael Cleveland, federal security director for TSA operations in West Virginia told the Gazette. "It can be a deterrent."

It might be -- if Americans are willing to live this way.

Click to expand...

Bus travelers were shocked when jackbooted TSA officers in black SWAT-style uniforms descended unannounced upon the Tampa Greyhound bus station in April with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies and federal bureaucrats in tow.

Click to expand...

GRtak said:

So if Jackbooted was not used you would take it seriously? The fact that a SWAT team is being used for intimidation and illegal searches are not enough for you? While they are a bother to say the least, the bureaucrats take the cake. Are they going to lock each passenger in a room and talk them to death?

When will you start to take them seriously? When they start searching cars at random? This is an agency that has no regaurd for the Constitution.

Click to expand...

TSA bus station exercise draws scorn from Iowa ACLU

A routine show of force by federal and local security officials has drawn the ire of Iowa civil rights activists, who contend the measures appeared to include broad intimidation of Hispanics.

An eye-witness report from a Latino activist says roughly 15 armed agents of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Transportation Security Administration and the Des Moines Police Department swarmed the downtown Des Moines Greyhound station shortly after 4 p.m. Tuesday.

Alex Orasco, a Mexico native and a board member for the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa who went to the bus station while the event was in progress, said agents boarded buses, interviewed station passengers and checked identification, all with an apparent focus on people who looked Latino. There appear to have been no arrests.

Federal authorities confirmed late Wednesday that the incident was a regular, random exercise let by a TSA VIPER team, an acronym that stands for Visible Intermodal Protection and Response. Local officials acknowledged that the agency has visited the Des Moines bus station several times before, on each occasion staying several hours.

Other exercises elsewhere have targeted train stations and airports.

?It?s just a visible deterrent,? Nico Melendez, a California-based spokesman for the TSA, told The Des Moines Register. ?It?s a spot check to make sure that nothing out of the ordinary is going on. Anybody that might consider doing something wrong, you never know when we might be out there.?

A similar exercise also took place the same day at a Union Pacific Railroad facility in Des Moines, the spokesman said.

Melendez said VIPER events don?t normally focus on immigration enforcement, but the Transportation Security Administration frequently includes personnel from other agencies in their events. It would not be unusual, he said, for members of those agencies to take the opportunity to ?enforce the laws they?re paid to enforce.?

The alleged focus on Latinos raises concern, however, among Iowa ACLU officials.

In Iowa and elsewhere, ?we?re getting increased reports of federal officials stopping Hispanics without cause just to check their papers,? local ACLU legal director Randall Wilson said. ?This latest operation appears to have been a show of force against the Latino community.?

ACLU officials issued a news release this afternoon encouraging ?Hispanics and others to report intimidating or harassing behavior by authorities.? You can reach them by emailing legal.program@aclu-ia.org or by calling 515-243-3576.

Click to expand...

Interrobang said:

First things first ...

Public Places ? Public Transport

Please carry on ...

Click to expand...

GRtak said:

[...]

Click to expand...

Interrobang said:

Another Blog post? By a member of the site with 1 (read: one!) Blogpost? The same blogpost? Just like the one on american thinker is a first (and only) blogpost? Story seemed dubious at first ... looks even more dubious now ...

Click to expand...

VIPR Teams Enhance Security at Major Local Transportation Facilities

News & Happenings

June 20, 2007

Following the Madrid train bombings, TSA stepped up its efforts to enhance security on rail and mass transit systems nationwide by creating and deploying Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) teams. Comprised of federal air marshals, surface transportation security inspectors, transportation security officers, behavior detection officers and explosives detection canine teams, VIPR teams over the past two years have augmented security at key transportation facilities in urban areas around the country, including New York City, Buffalo and Syracuse, N.Y., Los Angeles, Boston and Providence, R.I.

VIPR teams work with local security and law enforcement officials to supplement existing security resources, provide deterrent presence and detection capabilities, and introduce an element of unpredictability to disrupt potential terrorist planning activities.

Looking to expand the VIPR concept beyond the rail sector to other forms of mass transit, TSA has been reaching out to several high-volume ferry operators to provide additional security, particularly during the summer months when ridership is at its peak.

Just before Memorial Day 2007, VIPR teams were dispatched to the Point Judith (Block Island) Ferry Terminal in Rhode Island and the Cape May-Lewes Ferry in Cape May, N.J. Travelers taking the ferry to Martha's Vineyard out of Woods Hole, Mass. this summer can also expect to see VIPR teams in and around the ferry terminal.

When asked about benefits of VIPR operations around highly-traveled transportation systems in the greater-Providence area, Joseph S. Salter, TSA's federal security director for Rhode Island, said, "VIPR teams improve interagency communications and our ability to leverage resources quickly. Working closely with our transportation partners and law enforcement, we're ensuring resources are deployed efficiently and in a complementary fashion, providing an effective first line of defense against terrorism."

Click to expand...