TSA now targeting travelers that complain about TSA and its unconstitutional procedures

Tuesday, April 19, 2011 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: TSA, travelers, health news

(NaturalNews) Not content with simply groping travelers' private parts and sending travelers through cancer-inducing naked body scanners, the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is now targeting travelers that appear visibly upset with TSA, or that otherwise complain about the agency's heinous security procedures while standing in the security line. And the Obama Administration has apportioned $1.2 billion in the 2012 budget to hire more "behavior detection officers" to help harass travelers that do or say anything contrary to TSA procedures.

According to a recent CNN report, TSA has created a list of 70 "behavioral indicators" that it says mark "high risk" travelers. One of these includes passenger attitudes that are indicative of being "[v]ery arrogant" or that express "contempt against airport passenger procedures." In the event that a detection officer observes such behavior, he or she is instructed to pull that passenger aside and send him or her through additional, annoying screening procedures.

Though TSA insists the practice does not discriminate based on race or religion, its claim that such "high risk" behavior warrants specific targeting is wholly invalid. After all, are actual terrorists really going to make a spectacle in the security line and draw attention to themselves?

"I think the idea that they (terrorists) would try to draw attention to themselves by being arrogant at airport security, it fails the common sense test," said Peter Bergen, a CNN National Security Analyst. "And it also fails what we know about their behaviors in the past."

Since it makes absolutely no sense that a real terrorist would exhibit some of the "behavioral indicators" that the TSA has established as high risk, it is clear that TSA is merely targeting individuals that question its authority in an attempt to silence them. This becomes especially evident when considering the fact that such procedures have not only never been proven to actually increase airport security, but they also routinely identify many innocent travelers as terrorists.

Sources for this story include:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/04/15/tsa.scr...