Senator Schumer calling for “No Ride List”

In the wake of the killing of Osama bin Laden, New York Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer is calling for a “No Ride List” for train travelers, similar to the “No Fly List” created for airline passengers. The lists are designed for individuals suspected of terrorist activity or pose as a threat to the country’s national security.

The information seized from Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan discovered plans which included targeting railway trains that pass through major cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington D.C. and New York. Because of the lax in security at train stations, Senator Schumer said “that’s why I’m calling for the creation of an Amtrak no ride list. That would take the secure flight program and apply it to Amtrak trains.”

Rather strange that this was not set up in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks ten years ago, don’t you agree?

With nearly 150,000 miles of train and freight track in this country, one could certainly argue the possibility of monitoring and securing the railway system would be difficult. This stretch of train tracks doesn’t even count the subway systems in major cities.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is insisting that security will be stepped up in all public transportation eventually. What’s next? Do cab and bus drivers have to pat down passengers too?

More than likely, this means that if you wish to travel by plane, train or ship, you’ll be subjected to those invasive pat downs and body scanning machines. We’ve already seen this fiasco from the TSA at airports nationwide.

In general, most Americans understand the government’s role in protecting the country from suspected terrorists. What we don’t need in this country is to have every single form of public transportation controlled by the TSA and give them the right to basically sexually assault people including children. It is quite disgusting.

While Senator Schumer’s idea of a “No Ride List” is certainly debatable, a much better idea for DHS to impose is simple: Profile passengers!

TSA inspections despicable among travelers

The new measures enacted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration (TSA) at airports nationwide have become the talk of controversy over the last few weeks. Today, more than two million people will be traveling the day before Thanksgiving and will have to endure these new measures which include body-scanning machines and rather intrusive and intimate pat-downs by TSA agents.

I’d just like to say how thankful I am that I will not be in that crowd today.

Travelers are not happy with the new body-scanning machines because TSA agents are allowed to basically see people on “this side” of being completely nude; and the pat-downs they are finding as a simple violation of privacy rights.

Some of the outrageous and embarrassing stories among travelers that have surfaced recently include a breast cancer survivor having to remove her prosthetic breast during a TSA inspection; a victim of sexual assault, felt the pat-down so intrusive she felt that she was being assaulted all over again; another TSA agent broke the bag of a bladder cancer patient, leaving him soaked in his own urine; a three year old child was forced to surrender her teddy bear, to endure a full body pat-down; and on the more comical front, a guy stripped all the way down to his boxer shorts to avoid even being touched by an agent. The searches by the TSA are beyond despicable.

Interestingly, Government officials are apparently exempt from having to endure any of this airport nonsense. But what is more interesting is the conflict of interest between Michael Chertoff, the former Homeland Security Secretary and his relationship with consulting to Rapiscan Systems, one of two companies designing the new body-scan systems at airports. Chertoff, and some of our top legislators including Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts and Congressman Mike Castle of Delaware have monetary stakes in Rapiscan. Senator Kerry apparently has a value between $500,000 and $1 million in the scanning corporation, while Congressman Castle has about $65,000.

One has to ask the question if our federal legislators are actually supporting national security, or simply just going with the flow to make a fast buck on the process? Maybe they should rename Rapiscan Systems as “Grab and Scan”.

During a breakfast meeting with the Christian Science Monitor, TSA chief administrator John Pistole is quoted as saying “if passengers don’t undergo screening, then they don’t have a right to fly. I see flying as a privilege that is a public safety issue.” Apparently Mr. Pistole has never read 49 USC Section 40103, Provision II which clearly spells out “a citizen of the United States has a public right of transit through navigational airspace.”

Now the TSA of course will continue to insist that it is simply enhancing safety in national security in airports, while taking into consideration privacy among travelers. Is that right?

Did the TSA ever take into consideration other alternative solutions? Maybe, adopting the same model that enforced airport security in Israel, which was profiling passengers? Or what about bomb-sniffing dogs at airports?

Oh, I forgot, we can’t have bomb trained dogs at airports because that would mean a TSA agent wouldn’t get a huge paycheck, benefits and a largely inflated pension fund, paid for kindly, with American tax payer money.

Nevertheless, a majority of Americans have found new measures from the TSA as too extreme, and today, people nationwide are revolting and will be voicing their concerns by boycotting many airports.