'This Is Not Right' (Principal put on Terrorist Watch List)

[Mrs. Overall]

http://www.komotv.com/stories/37150.htm

DES MOINES, WA - Cecilia Beaman is a 57-year-old grandmother, a principal at Pacific Middle School in Des Moines, and as of Sunday is also a suspected terrorist. "This is not right," she told us. It's not right!"

This past weekend she and several other chaperones took 37 middle school students to a Heritage Festival band competition in California. During the stay she made sandwiches for the kids and was careful to pack the knives she used to prepare those sandwiches in her checked luggage. She says she even alerted security screeners that the knives were in her checked bags and they told her that was OK.

But Beaman says she couldn't find a third knife. It was a 5 1/2 inch bread knife with a rounded tip and a serrated edge. She thought she might have lost or misplaced it during the trip. On the trip home, screeners with the Transportation Security Administration at Los Angeles International Airport found it deep in the outside pocket of a carry-on cooler. Beaman apologized and told them it was a mistake.
"You've committed a felony," Beaman says a security screener announced. "And you're considered a terrorist."

Beaman says she was told her name would go on a terrorist watch-list and that she would have to pay a $500 fine. "I'm a 57-year-old woman who is taking care of 37 kids," she told them. "I'm not gonna commit a terrorist act." Beaman says they took information from her Washington drivers license and confiscated and photographed the knife according to standard operating procedure. "They said 'no' and they said it's a national security issue. And I said what about my constitutional rights? And they said 'not at this point ... you don't have any'."

[Writer]

1. This woman needs to be on every televised news program

within 24 hours. Her story underscores the real implications of The Patriot Act.

[indepat]

3. One wonders if those whose politics are "right" will be accorded similar

treatment.

[rodeodance]

8. sorry -slots filled with jacko trial!! no time left for real news.

[converted_democrat]

2. This isn't good.

:cry: Our great country no longer exsists. Sad isn't it?

[rodeodance]

6. they need to get a grip!!!!! a butter knife and they treat her as a

terrorist.. There is no commonsense being used. They 'follow precedures' and are not allowed to think for themselves and fear losing their jobs.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

14. warzn't a 'butter knife'...

Waz one o them big ugly BREAD KNIVES! Nasty serated edges! you could saw sumbodys head rite offin their shoulderz! :sarcasm:

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

29. You could put an eye out with one of those things...

[rodeodance]

4. TSA says they have no record. Something is fishy here!!--why take all

the information and not have a record. Wonder what happens the next time she tries to board a flight?


......KOMO News did reach a spokesperson with the Transportation Security Administration for comment. They said they did not have record of Beaman's confrontation but did admit that TSA screeners are, by design, becoming more strict.

Despite continued warnings to passengers, TSA screeners say travelers continue to bring banned items in their carry-on luggage. Knives, guns, and other weapons are found and confiscated daily.

Fines issued for knives and other sharp objects range from $250 to $1,500. Fines issued for firearms discovered in carry-on luggage range from $1,500 to $7,500.

The TSA web site also indicates firearms violations will be referred for potential criminal prosecution. The same site does not propose the same criminal referral for knives like the one Cecilia Beaman was carrying.

[Jack Rabbit]

10. I wonder if they'll get a record of the incident

That the federal government is a bloated bureaucracy is hardly news to anyone. Like any bloated bureaucracy, information travels very slowly. This story probably has to go though several layers of management before Ms. Beaman is officially a certified terrorist.

The good news is that somebody between the screener and the records department could react to this thing as we are reacting to it and the whole thing will be forgotten without Ms. Beaman becoming public enemy number one. The bad news is that if there were a real terrorist to watch, he might do something terrible before the word gets out to all screeners who ought to be watching for him.

[shanti]

20. these fines...

sound like just another money making venture for the government :eyes:

[Wickerman]

5. You have no Constitutional Rights

"TSA recognizes that most passengers who carry prohibited items do so without any ill intent. TSA does not impose fines on the vast number of passengers who inadvertently carry prohibited items. Dealing with any prohibited item, however, adds time to the screening process both for the traveler who brought the item and for other travelers as well."

If the TSA does not impose fines on most folks who make a simple mistake, why did they do so on this woman? Obviously, she fits the terra-ist profile; :eyes:

[Hobarticus]

18. Cold-blooded killah...I can see it in her eyes!!!

[Jim Sagle]

35. She's the lead singer of that notorious Hip Hop group Red Faced Killaz.

[quiet.american]

7. Meanwhile, they've RELAXED restrictions on Saudis coming into the U.S. n/t

[renaissanceguy]

9. Who or what gives them any authority

to label someone a terrorist?! I suppose if they can do it, I can label anyone a terrorist and have them sent to Gitmo.

http://www.cafepress.com/liberalissues.14744291

[TreasonousBastard]

11. 500 BUCKS FOR A BREAD KNIFE!!!!!

I hate to say it, but this is only going to stop if a hundred of these things happen a day and they all get publicized.

The average citizen just doesn't realize how bad it is, and won't until said average citizen gets caught up in nonsense like this. No one wants to believe that noise outside the door is the goose-stepping of hobnailed boots.

Years ago, I was coming back from a Chicago maintenance call and had a portable drill in my carryon. Even though I often carried a toolkit in addition to a laptop on these things, this was the first time they objected to the drill.

OK, all they did then was put the drill into a box and sent it down to the cargo bay as luggage. Aside from United losing the drill (which I found on a later flight) it was no big deal.

But now, how many business travellers and grandmothers have to be run through the mill before they catch one damn terrorist?

[sce56]

13. Last Year I had my 4" Crescent wrench in my laptop bag it was confiscated

I normally carry it with my leather-man knife which was in the checked baggage but they got separated and the TSA at LAX refused to let it through! I guess I could tear apart the whole plane with a 4" Crescent wrench!


http://web.archive.org/web/20030402135135/

[TreasonousBastard]

16. They thought maybe I could take out a window...

or disable the smoke alarm in the toilet. They didn't seem to think I really would, but the game has to be played.

OK, I'll go along with all that, but making it criminal and confiscating this stuff is just ridiculous.

We are now all criminals and terrorists until proven innocnet.

[uppityperson]

30. Confiscated pliers, missed pocketknife

No twisted nipples on that plane. Too bad they missed the folding pocketknife.

[sce56]

32. You reminded me of a trip we took to

The Big Island of Hawaii from Oahu in March 2002 My wife kept a paring knife in her purse to peel mangoes for snacking at work and forgot about it we flew to the Big Island and stayed at KMC in Volcanoes park where she found the knife in her carry on purse, this just 6 months after the Big Lie in NYC.

http://web.archive.org/web/20030402135135/

[reprobate]

27. BTW, how many terra-ists have they caught so far?

I mean besides the gramma.


Oh, that's right. it's national security secret.

[wildwww2]

12. There is a fucking dolt in charge of our country. He is the terrorist

these security screeners need to be aware of. Are we doomed to eternal stupidity? The real terrorist`s must love having idiot Bu$h as the leader of their adversary.
Peace
Wildman
Al Gore is My President

[nashville_brook]

15. First the came for the serated knives

and i didn't say anything, b/c...

then they came for the spoons... and the cow leapt over the moon.

[uppityperson]

17. Confiscate it, fine if nec, but she is not terrorist because of it

Wonder if she attends anti-war or anti-bush administration events.

[dArKeR]

19. I can't get the video to play

[ChickMagic]

21. When Derby and I went through our screening

in Las Vegas, Derby was told, "You are no longer a terrorist threat." I didn't hear it, but if I had, hoo boy! I'd have gone off on them.

[tinymontgomery]

22. Be interesting to know who she voted for

Be interesting to know who she voted for.

[prodigal_green]

23. Terrorist Watch List =

registered Democrat.

10:1 she's one of ours.

[pie]

24. We could still stop this

We could still organize and turn the clock back, one abomination
at a time. People power will still work.
Very soon this will not be true.

[Fridays Child]

25. What's Keith Olbermann's email address? He should see this.

Maybe he'll include it on the show.

[unblock]

26. hmmm, might any state be selectively disenfranchising on this basis?

i've long complained that taking away the right to vote on any basis that a government has to power to chose is a horrible recipe for corruption.

the differential sentencing for crack vs. powder cocaine is the classic example, but broad-brushing ordinary people as terrorists could also be used for the same purpose.

it's only a matter of time before many, many people have an innocent "oops" at the airport on their record, and some states might start to selectively (er, i mean, reviewed on a case-by-case basis) disenfranchise those who fit the profile of liberal/left/progressive/democrat/black/etc.

[GOPBasher]

28. "Not at this point ... you don't have any."!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, we're really living in a fascist country, now. :cry:

[Toots]

33. So much for innocent 'til proved guilty

No trial, no attorney, no due process. No constitution in
America.

[Roland99]

31. And why isn't she being sent to Gitmo ASAP?!?!

She has the info on bin Laden!


Beat her!!

[LibertyorDeath]

34. Well that sounds sufficiently retarded.

[Don1]

36. This just shows

that terrorists come in all shapes and sizes.

Please start watching your neighbors, especially the older senior citizen ladies. Report any suspicious activities to Homeland Security immediately.