WND 08.08.2013
Officials with the Electronic Privacy Information Center appear to not be enthused about the strategy being adopted by the Transportation Security Administration to expand the reach of its famous airport pat-downs to highway checkpoints, bus stations, concerts, rodeos and other events.
Said the privacy organization Thursday, “The Transportation Security Administration has expanded its Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) program to perform warrantless searches at various locations, including festivals, sporting events, and bus stations.”
The organization, which has fought the government over the use of invasive body scanners or intimate physical pat-downs by federal agents on privacy grounds, noted that it had prevailed in a lawsuit in 2012 that “revealed the agency’s plan to deploy body scanners outside of the airport at bus stations, train stations and elsewhere.”
Two network reports have followed up on that report.
According to a report from Fox, there soon will be behavioral detection officers and search dogs in attendance at transit stations and other locations where the government wants to encourage security.
The report quoted EPIC expressing a concern that the problem with “searching people outside the airport is that there are no real legal standards or probable cause.”
They noted the federal response was that those who don’t want to be searched shouldn’t be at those locations.
RTAmerica also noted that the expansion comes even as complaints about TSA agent misconduct has shot up by 27 percent over the last two years.
Danny Panzella of Truth Squad TV said in the report that it appears TSA is heading for “anywhere where you have big crowds of people.” He charged that the agency’s concept of security is “based on intimidation.”
EPIC noted that several members of Congress have opposed the expansion of authority by the TSA, which uses “risk-based” profiling and “behavior detection” concepts to search individuals.
The New York Times even recently cited the move, explaining that there has been “little fanfare” as the agency “best known for airport screenings has vastly expanded its reach to sporting events, music festivals, rodeos, highway weigh stations and train terminals.”
While John Pistole, TSA administrator, says his mandate is to provide security for transportation – everywhere, civil liberties groups charge that the searches sometimes in fact could be defined as warrantless actions that violate the U.S. Constitution.
Said Khaliah Barnes, administrative law counsel at EPIC, “It’s something that is easily abused because the reason that they are conducting the stops is shrouded in secrecy.”
full story here
