‘Homeland’ security coming to hotels, malls

[kpete]

Source: Raw Story/Agence France-Presse

‘Homeland’ security coming to hotels, malls

By Agence France-Presse
Sunday, December 26th, 2010 -- 6:40 pm
WASHINGTON – The United States is stepping up security at "soft targets" like hotels and shopping malls, as well as trains and ports, as it counters the evolving Al-Qaeda threat, a top official said Sunday.

A year after a foiled plot to bomb a US-bound passenger plane, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told CNN's "State of the Union" program that other places and modes of transportation must now be scrutinized.

"We look at so-called soft targets -- the hotels, shopping malls, for example -- all of which we have reached out to in the past year and have done a fair amount of training for their own employees," Napolitano said.

Since an attempted bombing on a packed Saturday night in Times Square in May, New York, for example, has installed hundreds of security cameras as part of a plan to triple the number of cameras to 3,000.

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/homeland-security-coming-hotels-malls/

[Duer 157099]

1. Maybe some day "homeland security" will come to health care

After all, that is where the greatest threat to life in this country exists.

[RandomThoughts]

5. They are trying to get power and control.

That is the motive, the substitute for the feelings of love that would care about helping people with things like health care.

[egoclothes]

21. They=many Democrats who go along with all this!

[RandomThoughts]

25. Of coarse.

Many are Democrats also.

still sad.

Not worried about it, pretty plain to see whats happening, been watching it for years.


Figured best to post about it so people will at least understand, sometimes understanding can give some comfort when in hard situations.


They haven't listened, they think they are correct, and use things like having lots of military stuff or luxury to defend that.

Here is the thing, if they are correct, then the world is terrible, and existence is evil. And if that is the case everyone is in bad shape anyways, so they chose to hide and get as much as they can on the way, trying to not rock the boat.

That is why the despair doctrines exist.

:shrug:

The best parts is the proof. I know they are unjust, so I don't have to worry about guilt on the subject, and wont carry that, what else could I do, I believe they have a choice like anyone else.

[robinlynne]

90. Don't forget that someone makes a lot of money with every step up.

[2Design]

11. +1000

[Ruperto31]

53. This country has become unloveable.

There is nothing left to love. Think about it. What did we love? Freedom and democracy. They are gone. We are spied on, monitored, felt up at the airport (and soon, at the hotels and malls), put on watch lists, wiretapped, held without charges, and ruled by two right-wing parties who work for a tiny ruling class: the owners of Wall Street, big business and the banks.

Nothing left to love.

I have some nostalgia for the place where I grew up. But that's all. And that place is only a memory.

[molly77]

85. Duer157099

Or Big Ag. or Big Pharma or EPA. America , how could we have nastier food air and water. Maybe the money spent on Homeland Security should be spent in shoring up OSHA and small family farms. Stopping environmental pollution by coal fired power plants. ...instead of selling renewable carbon credits so Wall Street can make money and coal fired plants can keep on producing pollutants.

[corpseratemedia]

124. +50 million

[Ruby the Liberal]

2. This is what Israel does

I have been searched going into malls, restaurants, shops. They have guards at the entrances of all 'soft targets' paid for by the owners, not the state.

Seems like overkill here though.

[Name removed]

22. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[shanti]

86. and there's where the jobs will be

unbelievable :(

[MadMaddie]

110. Israel may not be perfect but they have it right with Airport

Security.

[treestar]

57. And during the TSA hysteria of a month ago

Many a post indicated we should do things the Israeli way!

[rainlillie]

102. Exactly!

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

77. Israel is 8,000 sq. miles. The US is almost 4,000,000 sq. miles.

[gaijinlaw]

87. Ditto in Jordan

Hotels, shopping malls all had x-rays, metal detectors and pat-downs. I will say that at least the security personnel were way more polite than any TSA baggadoosh I've ever encountered.

[NYMdaveNYI]

116. I’ve witnessed that firsthand as well.

Getting into the airport there is the security equivalent of a prostate exam.


Although they are under constant threat of bombings, they let their fear get the best of them...

[Ruby the Liberal]

118. Never experienced feeling violated (TSA), but very lengthy interrogations

at times in the airports in Tel Aviv for traveling alone to meet family there. Lots and lots of questions about my background, education, plans while in the country, knowledge of the country, etc...

In the malls, restaurants, they typically just wand you down and have you open all purses/bags for a visual search.

They, I trust. The clods with the TSA? Not so much.

[NYMdaveNYI]

122. Yea,

by “security equivalent of a prostate exam” I was referring to the 30-minute interrogation.

[Brickbat]

3. God, am I ever tired of this shit.

[RandomThoughts]

6. That is the intent, so they can feel they beat you.

They must make you suffer in some way to feel they have control over you. Or you have to capitulate and help them do the same to others.

They want feeling of power.

They are slipping away and losing control, and that is translating into wanting power.

[Brickbat]

7. Very true.

I live out in the boonies, and so am able to avoid most of this.

[Auggie]

17. I think they're trying to rationalize this "war"

[DeSwiss]

46. "They are slipping away and losing control, and that is translating into wanting power."

BINGO!

[defendandprotect]

68. Well, Homeland Security can certainly buy $$$ a lot of fascist cooperation...NYC, for one...

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. Aw not this shit again.... we might as well all jump on a slide, get

under the lens and let the microscope do what it does.

[grasswire]

8. our director of homeland security is apparently a paranoid fearmonger

I think she makes us look weak. Compare this attitude to that of the Brits when they were being bombed in WW2. They went about their daily business. Stiff upper lip and all that. Pip pip, cheerio. None of this lily-livered hand-wringing.

[Bobbieo]

12. The woman has been brainwashed! She's not the lady I voted for as Gov. of Arizona.

[timtom]

13. Nah. She's just pushing the agenda she was hired to push.

[cui bono]

65. Yes, but they had a different end result in mind.

The desired result here is for them to show us who is boss. To exert control over us and keep us scared so that we will allow them to take away our freedoms and civil liberties. To make us submit so that they can then do whatever the fuck they want and they will know even if we complain we will comply because that's what we've done so far. It will not stop until we resist.

[somone]

9. The homeland is everywhere

[defendandprotect]

69. Think the uniform is more Nazi like ... a little like Mussolini's guys ... as I recall?

[PufPuf23]

10. More people will die or be harmed by the policy than protected.

This trend is a waste of $ and in your face police state control.

The money should go to WPA/CCC/CETA jobs for infrastructure and retraining, universal medical care, proper regulation of a mixed capitalist-socialist economy (REALITY), and cheap education.

The lack of progressive taxation and the regulators and lawmakers that support the status quo are just as cruel and wasteful, regardless of the face of the ruling elect.

Our foreign expenses in military and aid would be more effective if the USA was a fair and honest broker rather than favoring mulit-generational globalist elites and their toads.

[Odin2005]

14. I am so sich of this Fascist crap!

[RC]

15. Stop the wars. Stop selling gun and ammunition to both sides.

Stop interfering with the governments of other nations.
Rein in the multinational corporations. Make white collar crime equal prison time, times the money stolen. One year for every ten-thousand dollars.
Pay attraction to the needs of the citizens in this country.
Watch terrorism go away.

[RKP5637]

29. The war profits are too great to give up. They will never stop this BS. n/t

[defendandprotect]

70. Boston Globe: "From the Pentagon to the Private Sector"

Published on Sunday, December 26, 2010 by The Boston Globe
From the Pentagon to the Private Sector
In large numbers, and with few rules, retiring generals are taking lucrative defense-firm jobs
by Bryan Bender



http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2010/12/26/defense_firms_lure_retired_generals/?page=full

[ronnie624]

97. Cashing in on their rank and "service" to "our country",

getting highly paid to drum up business for war profiteers. It doesn't get much more disgusting to me. This is what Smedley Butler meant when spoke of war being a racket.

And the waste is phenomenal. The $109 million frittered away on the Fire Scout boondoggle would have paid for a lot of visits to the doctor.

[tekisui]

16. I *heart* fascism!

Enough!

[sarcasmo]

18. Homeland Security power grab in shape of a Police State.

[atomic-fly]

19. love that they are so into saving lives....

unless you are uninsured and poor....grrrr

[ramapo]

20. Sounds like the USSR

The "Homeland" label has always struck me like something right out of the Politburo. Of course, the omnipresent surveillance cameras that Americans are happily accepting are also another sign of a "benevolent" police state on the rise.

[RKP5637]

26. Yep, exactly! Fear used as an enabler for the "benevolent" police state. The dream

of any gov., absolute control of the masses and indoctrination.

[Diclotican]

33. ramapo

ramapo

It looks more and more that compared to the advanced equipment the US survilvance state have as their tools now, is making the KGB looks like a crude tool compared... And the scary part is that most americans would happely accept this as part of "Making the country more safe"... And the history of KGB is a history, where it first was made as a protection agains enemies, outside or inside the country.. But after a while, the list of "enemies" was greater than the whole big apparatours of KGB was able to handle, so ten of thousands was arrested, sometimes just put in "administrative custody" in remote parts of the country, where they had to longer for years at end.. US are not there yet, and it is still some time left, to at least try to stop th worst things about what a police state can do...

Even to I fear it is to late... The slippery slope to a police state is there for all to se, if you want to se it..

How low have this mighty nation really sunk since 2000.... Osama Bin Laden must (if he still is alive) be really happy about the whole thing, excactly as planned.. Scare the hell out of americans, so they are willing to loose their freedom, for some sence of "security":..

Diclotican

[ramapo]

100. Osama succeded beyond his wildest dreams

Few Americans realize it but Osama was the winner on 9/11. He has cost this country trillons of dollars and it can be argued as sent us down the road of national insolvency. Much like Reagan's strategy against the USSR, Osama, whether he planned it or not, did the same to the US.

Like you said, Americans gladly give up their freedoms today, all in the name of being "safe".

Osama turned this country upside down politically, financially and socially. Quite an amazing accomplishment for such a tiny number of people.

[TBF]

107. Nonsense, it is the creators of Osama who have benefitted. nt

[Diclotican]

126. ramapo

ramapo

True, it is amazing how mutch damage to a country, like US, a smal group of people indeed can do, when they want to.. And is helped greatly by the opponont side... With an evenhanded administration, who did the right things, instead of wisping up all form of "scary" stuff that for the last decade have scaring, and scaring americand out of their right mind....

Osama turned indeed US upside down, in all form of the name, and it is amazing not many americans have discovered this little fact.. US is "broke", and it happend the last decade or so....

Diclotian

[dotymed]

113. IF Osama was responsible for 9-11....

just sayin....the boogieman must have a name...

[JDPriestly]

60. Homeland is actually a translation of Heimat, It is a German word

and a German concept. Actually, it is closely associated, shall we say, with the NAZI movement. Hitler talked about Heimat incessantly.

It is adopted from the NAZIs. Sorry, but that is what it is.

[leveymg]

74. I believe the other origin is in the South African usage of "homelands"

to denote racially segregated political entities.

Either way, it's epistemological origins are totalitarian and should be abandoned.

[Psephos]

23. DHS is a metastasizing federal bureaucracy...no different from any other bureaucracy.

They start out thinking they serve us.

After a while they start thinking they serve themselves as well as us.

And then, after that goes down ok, they drop the pretense that they serve us except as a necessary pain in the butt they must endure to keep the money and power intact.

This is hardly a new lesson.

[dotymed]

103. That is the goal of

all jobs, whether it is the making and keeping of a police state or termite control, they must create a demand for their service. Especially if they are an entity whose "job" has become to intimidate a populace.
We can witness that in Mexico. The Army under the Calderon administration kills and intimidates the people openly. They are their own investigators of course.

[Bobbieo]

24. You mean 'Wal-Mart Greeters' are going to be replaced by tit-pinchers and crotch grabbers?

[lib2DaBone]

27. If the American people can't see the gradual creep of fascism...

.. they are either brain-dead or asleep.

The DEA and TSA are out of control and costing us BILLIONS $$$.. while schools close, firefighters are laid off and kids go hungry.

Our priorities are WAY out of whack in this country.

[RKP5637]

28. IMO most Americans are completely asleep at the wheel. It's a clueless apathetic lot. n/t

[krabigirl]

44. Sad thing is, most people ARE asleep at the wheel. Completely.

[The Straight Story]

45. Meh - we have many folks who want to tell adults who they can have a beer with, citing safety

Over second hand smoke (as though people were forced to go to a bar) - those same people drive their cars, spewing worse chemicals, all over the place (and to those same bars).

Freedom? Nah - we need to look out for your safety and you obviously cannot be trusted to make the right choices.

They played the right and the left over fear and giving up freedoms and both sides are rushing to do it.

Complain about it though and you get labeled a libertarian...

[maryf]

49. "Our priorities are WAY out of whack"

They sure as hell are...we are being so terrorized by all this "security" by being propagandized into thinking we might be "attacked" that we let 47,000 people die due to lack of healthcare alone, 3,000 live without adequate shelter, and kids join the military because there are no jobs (only to come home with ptsd)...but we sure are safe! I'm more afraid of losing my job, house, health care, than I am of any terrorist...58% of the budget goes to the military...how much to homeland security? too much...

[PSPS]

30. Just another step toward insinuating the police state everywhere.

All the signs are there:

- Unemployment never going down. We have no domestic industries and no prospect for any, hence no future jobs that pay a living wage.

- "Entitlements have to be cut" plus "payroll tax holiday." Goodbye social security, aid to the poor & homeless.

- Rich don't pay taxes. "Taxes are for the lucky duckies." Media in 24/7 mode promoting plutocracy, the wealthy as our "betters," trickle-down, $250K/year as "middle class," etc.

- Infrastructure rot. Everyone sees this nationwide.

- Corrupt political system. Citizens United. Government now openly sells itself to highest bidder, including foreign governments and corporations. "Regulatory" agencies defanged and headed by corporate malefactors.

- Constant propaganda. Fox, AM hate radio, infotainment as "news," no coverage of anything critical of status quo.

I could go on, but you get the idea. I suspect Frau Napolitano is trying to be pro-active here, getting ahead of the curve. Eventually, things will be very bad and very incendiary. When you have most of the population in dire straits, civil unrest is the usual outcome. So the jackboots come out. We're witnessing that now.

[Dappleganger]

31. LOL, are they ever gonna have fun in FL.

People around here quite often carry if they have their CCW (as do I), and we can legally do it in malls and hotels.

[Edweird]

34. South Florida is already pretty much there. Gated communities everywhere

with rent-a-cops copying your ID. I regularly and customarily invite them to eat shit. If they let me in: fine. If they don't let me in: fine. I don't give my drivers license to security guards. I try not to be a trouble maker, but I stand up for what I believe. I can see this leading to a serious confrontation.

[lunatica]

32. Al Qaeda says, "Boo!" and the US shits itself

[tinrobot]

35. Just one more reason to shop local and avoid the malls.

[The Flaming Red Head]

36. Who is doing the spying? The cable guy, the Postman, Roto-Rooter

Somebody has to be doing it, and what kind of pension plan, benefits, wages are we talking about, and is it over and above your job in pest control or dog catcher, do you get a little extra check inside your pay envelope, and are we allowed to pay them protection money, just to make sure our block or business is a little safer than the rest, and does Obama and the CIA, NSA etc., what have yous, get a cut from the protection money. The whole thing sounds like a racket to me.

[BeFree]

38. Good question

Who is gonna be hired to do all this spying? Teabaggers? The Homeless? Welfare recipients?

Methinks there's gonna be a huge market in security companies soon enough. Ya think Halliburton is branching out?

What if a bunch of Haydukes get hired? Are we all gonna be having to show our papers everywhere we go? Maybe a name badge? Tattoo on the forehead?

[KG]

37. sounds like more hope and change to me.

:eyes:

[JDPriestly]

61. The whole point of Homeland Security is to provide jobs

for people who are ignorant but right-wing and authoritarian. These are not people who could teach school. They are firing teachers and hiring right-wing security guards.

This is the point to which our country has sunk. Shame on the Obama administration -- firing teachers and hiring security guards. Buying security equipment instead of funding education.

Utterly no values, that's where the Obama administration is -- utterly no values. The guys who make the security equipment profit from these sweetheart deals. That is the real motivation for this. Paying off the guys that own the companies that produce the security equipment.

[leveymg]

73. Jobs for a particular type. Security and surveillance are a major growth industry now

that primarily employs social conservatives and people with authoritarian, controlling personalities drawn to guns, handcuffs and restraints, wiretaps, barred doors, hard surfaces, urinalysis and the snooping/hunting/caging/killing way of life, in general. The system of security clearances also insures that these fields are dominated by a particular type of personality, unsuited to many professions, such as teaching and health care.

Social psychologists and psychoanalysts have long observed the perverse tendencies and frustrated-aggressive politics of authoritarian personalities.

[molly77]

88. JDPriestly

Get the clintons out of the Obama administration. Lanny Davis in Ivory Coast propping up another dictator. Same as Honduras. Illegal voted out president won't accept Obama's phone call asking him to step down. Clintons being best buds with the bushes is a "tell".

Details can be seen on Democracy Now online today's show.

[Lorien]

95. No, the whole point is to keep us afriad and get us accustomed to the idea

of living in a police State. No one in government gives a crap about jobs. If they did that high speed National rail system would be well under way.

[DeSwiss]

39. K&R

- That sound you hear is your freedoms being flushed down the toilet.......

[Peggy Day]

40. 1984 and we're paying for it.

It just makes me sick! We're giving up our freedoms for some fantasy of security?

[daleo]

41. How many trillion do they plan to spend?

Will they frisk people getting on a city bus? How about a 7-11?

[Lorien]

92. Everything that's set aside for Social Security and Medicare

that won't already be pissed away killing people in the Middle East.

[Name removed]

42. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[bengalherder]

105. Underwear Man=Portland Bomber

Some idiots can be talked into anything, just sayin'.

[krabigirl]

43. Sad. This sure is some "change."

[applegrove]

47. And the productivity of all those businesses goes down. Al Qaida certainly

knows how to throw a wrench in the whole economy. ***holes!

[maryf]

48. "As extremists struggle to circumvent tighter security at airports

and search for new avenues," she said "US officials were looking to step up broader measures."

One would almost believe she believes whats she's saying... K&R

[lovuian]

50. Police State and we have a Democratic President

what the heck is going on?????

[maryf]

51. double speak and misnomers...

planned obfuscation is part of what's going one, to keep us from seeing what is really going on (maybe a fascist coup of the most insidious kind?)

[Amonester]

52. At least, this will create more than 9,000 full time jobs **snark**

Come on, good people, those 3,000 cameras will need *new* employees WATCHING them 24/7, eh? Otherwise, what's the point? 9,000 new jobs watching each and everyone of the 3,000 screens, and that, on three shifts of 8 consecutive hours each day, plus all those part-time shifts on week-ends and hollidays!

Otherwise, if nobody watches each and everyone of these screens PERMANENTLY, what's the point?!?

:sarcasm:

[IDemo]

54. How long before "pedestrian" is considered a soft target?

[tularetom]

55. Well, THAT will sure jump start consumer spending

You'd think the merchants might have some objections to this dumbass idea. It seems to be hard enough for them to get customers into their stores as it is without having to be groped before they enter.

Napolitano is Obama's second biggest mistake. Not only has she turned out to be a nutcase fear monger but her resignation led to the appointment of that loony Brewer as governor of AZ.

[GoneOffShore]

56. Dept of Homeland Security sounds better in the original German:

Heimatsicherheitsministerium.

[NYMdaveNYI]

58. Ein Reich! Ein Police State!

[JDPriestly]

64. Ein Reich, ein Volk, ein Fuhrer -- that was the NAZI slogan.

and it was all for the Heimat. This all sounds so familiar. How in the world is it possible that our country is falling for this nonsense. It always ends badly.

[Kolesar]

71. Put a swastika on our flag because there are cameras in Times Square?--take a pill, dude

Or is this "just the perfect thread that you were waiting for to post your artistic gem? :sarcasm:

[NYMdaveNYI]

114. Take it up with the creator of that pic, not me, dude.

I’m not whining about the cameras in Times Square, buddy.

I live here in Manhattan, they’re not new. They’ve been there for years, on just about every street corner in Midtown.

They look like this



And they work, too. Without em we wouldn’t have caught Faisal Shahzad...

I just don’t like the idea of having to go through a TSA checkpoint when I walk into Starbucks, or get on the subway.

[Kolesar]

120. , dude.

lol

[Lint Head]

59. Total fascist theocratic control of this country and then the world.

That is the goal. Our future fellow countrymen will be nothing more than virtual chattel and technological slaves.

[Amonester]

62. This, and starving unemployed with cuts after cuts, who will eat the dead in daily rations

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1296155071179146825#">Soylent Green

A 'visionary' movie: $3,000 and growing, for ONE fresh tomato...

[Name removed]

63. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[JCMach1]

66. CCTV is coming to your town....

:(

[defendandprotect]

67. NYC installed 100's of security cameras; plan for 3,000 cameras -- !!

NYC has installed hundreds of security cameras as part of a plan to triple the number of cameras to 3,000.

Everyone to be spied on and watched -- terrorist and non-terrorist alike!!

We all become criminals!

And how much $$ does NYC get from Homeland Security for giving them this new ability to

spy on all of us?

[leveymg]

72. Downtown London is the most surveilled city on earth.

Unfortunately, it's not just the U.S. who are doing this.

[truebrit71]

80. True, but they have had actual terrorist bombings there....

...not because some dipshit tried to set fire to his nads on a plane, or because there was a suspicious package in Times Sqaure...

[PavePusher]

111. Umm, did you notice that we have a few buildings missing in N.Y.C.?

And that the attack that removed them was not the first attempt?

I don't think it's a particularly good excuse for 24/7 surveillance and shredding the Constitution, but we have had a number of actual and attempted attacks in the U.S. Competence only has to work once...

[truebrit71]

115. And those attacks had WHAT to do with malls and trains and hotels?

...Nothing.

[newtothegame]

75. It's ok under Obama. His 'history-making election' trumps all. nt

[lunatica]

76. I remember when Americans thought this would NEVER happen here

After I read a few books about the Holocaust as a young adult I knew it could easily happen here but I hoped it never would. Now I see it happening in a way that's just shameful. One terrorist flubs up a bombing of an airplane and our government shit their pants and see a terrorist in every American face.

[felix_numinous]

78. The paranoid delusional department

is a growing dis ease, but hey it's lucrative.

[truebrit71]

79. "Your Papers, Please!"

This is NOT the change I requested...

[Kelvin Mace]

81. I guess they want to finish off the economy

As I said in another thread:

This is Barney Fife security theatre.

Soon, you will not be able to eat a Big Mac without some extra from Deliverance sticking his finger on your prostate/cervix.

Let me make something clear. Once I have to get searched in order to go to the mall, watch a movie, or rock out to Springsteen, I will stop going to the mall, watching movies and rocking out to Springsteen.

Uh, guys? Orwell's 1984 was a cautionary tale, NOT the 28th Amendment to the Constitution!!

[Lorien]

94. +1 nt.

[KansDem]

82. "A year after a foiled plot to bomb a US-bound passenger plane, "

If this is referece to the "underwear bomber," then the questions need to be asked:

The awareness of US intelligence

On November 11, British intelligence officials sent the U.S. a cable indicating that a man named "Umar Farouk" had spoken to al-Awlaki, pledging to support jihad, but the cable did not reflect Abdulmutallab's last name.<61> Abdulmutallab's father made a report to two CIA officers at the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, on November 19 regarding his son's "extreme religious views",<4><62> and told the embassy that Abdulmutallab might be in Yemen.<6><19><33><63> Acting on the report, the suspect's name was added in November 2009 to the U.S..'s 550,000-name Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, a database of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center. It was not added, however, to the FBI's 400,000-name Terrorist Screening Database, the terror watch list that feeds both the 14,000-name Secondary Screening Selectee list and the U.S.'s 4,000-name No Fly List,<64> nor was his U.S. visa revoked.<19>

U.S. State Department officials said in Congressional testimony that the State Department had wanted to revoke Abdulmutallab's visa, but U.S. intelligence officials requested that his visa not be revoked. The intelligence officials' stated reason was that revoking Abdulmutallab's visa could have foiled a larger investigation into al-Qaida.<65>

Abdulmutallab's name had come to the attention of intelligence officials many months before that,<66> but no "derogatory information" was recorded about him.<41> A Congressional official said that Abdulmutallab's name appeared in U.S. reports reflecting that he had connections to both al-Qaeda and Yemen.<67> The NCTC did not check to see whether Abdulmutallab's American visa was valid, or whether he had a British visa that was valid; therefore, they did not learn that the British had rejected Abdulmutallab's visa application earlier in 2009.<9> The British did not inform the Americans because the visa application was denied to prevent immigration fraud and not for a national security purpose.<9>

On Christmas Day 2009, Abdulmutallab traveled to Amsterdam, where he boarded Northwest Airlines Flight 253 en route to Detroit. He had purchased his ticket with cash in Ghana on December 16.<114> Prior to boarding the plane eyewitnesses Kurt Haskell and Lori Haskell testified live on CNN that they witnessed a "smartly dressed Indian man" helping Abdulmutallab onto the plane.<115><116> They also testify that the ticket agent refused to allow Abdulmutallab on the plane because he did not have his own passport. <117>

New restrictions were imposed on U.S travelers, but the government was vague about many of them because it "wanted the security experience to be 'unpredictable'".<131> One day after she said that the system had "worked", Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano acknowledged that the aviation security system had indeed failed.<132>

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

I'm getting so sick of this shit...

[DFW]

83. Make the USA look like East Germany?

Wonderful, that's all we need.

[valerief]

84. We're gonna get groped at hotels and malls??? Geesuz H. nt

[siligut]

89. Now who has an interest in increasing control and fear?

If peace were offered on a silver platter these fools would turn it down. They won't rest until they have it all and are the best, and that will never happen. And so it goes.

[Lorien]

91. How about we get the fuck out of the Middle East so that no one

feels the need to bomb us? It would only save our Nation a few Trillion on top of ending all of these invasions of our privacy.

[iandhr]

93. after what happened in Mumbai?

Civil Liberties need to be protected. Cops need a warrant before they tap someones phone but this a real threat. Terrorists attacked hotels rail road stations.

[pauldp]

96. Terrorists can attack anywhere. C4 can go into anyones rectum.

Anywhere anytime. A bridge, a night club, a residential neighborhood. A deadly terrorist attack could happen anywhere, so I guess we must all bend over and be examined anywhere. However, the chances of being killed in a terrorist attack are less than being struck by lightning - far less.

After what happened in Mumbai we would be better served looking at the ISI's connections to LeT and perhaps questioning our support of the ISI, rather than groping people in hotels.

[iandhr]

99. agree

ISI is part of the problem

[sulphurdunn]

98. If the government actually gave a shit

about "homeland security" it could probably save a hundred thousand American lives annually merely by providing universal health care, improving the transportation system, creating a full employment economy, cutting the Pentagon budget, seriously regulating and taxing corporations and eliminating their right to bribe politicians. :patriot:

[cdsilv]

101. Read 'Little Brother' by Corey Doctorow......

...very prophetic about what is happening...

[blackspade]

104. More bullshit to enable the security state.

Al-Qaeda could have blown up a mall or, train at any point in the last 9 years if they had the capability.
That should be the focus, not this security state theater that they are pushing.

[fascisthunter]

106. the American Police State implemented through BS Fear of Terrorism

the police state is for the poor people when they all figure out how the rich screwed them over.

[rasputin1952]

108. As with every "fear mongering" attempt...

Americans will gladly give away what cannot be taken...Freedom.

The big conservative mantra is always "Security!". I recall when it was a, "Commie behind every tree!", and "Big Government!"...now the same government the conservatives have decided they despise and decry at every turn, uses the same to push for more "Security!. They used 9-11 until it finally blew up on them, the great bogeyman is terrorism today...the same assholes that want to protect everyone, can't find bin-Laden after trillions of dollars, 2 wars and many excursions. Hell, these assholes can't even stop gang violence on our own streets.

It's merely another way for conservatives to push for more government action against the citizens. For those who don't believe in incrementalism...take a gander at how it works negatively...x(

[MadMaddie]

109. Ummm if they are just getting to this now

what the hell was Junior and his jackboots doing during those 8 years?

I am not surprised and I really dn't know why anyone would be.

[PavePusher]

112. I'd like to bring Ms. Miss-the-point Napolean to the Constitution of the United States.

Specifically, to Amendments 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 10.

[BlueJac]

117. This shit pisses me off to no end.......

where in the hell did my country go?

[DireStrike]

119. Why do we have money for this bullshit?

[Habibi]

121. Well, then, bye-bye malls and hotels.

I'll shop locally at small stores, or online. I'll stay with friends or relatives or small-time B&Bs.

Sorry if that impacts the economy, but hey: this wasn't my idea.

[customerserviceguy]

123. When they make it a pain in the ass to go to either

I will be glad to stop. I can order whatever I want on line, and as far as accommodations go, there are bed and breakfast establishments that are too numerous for the jackboots to bother with.

[whogasa736]

125. cue that MTV Video

on YouTube Martial Law 1 & 2

Looks like it might get rough for citizens of USA in near future.

[Javaman]

127. If you think the TSA goons are pervs wait till you have to get "searched" by the mall cops.

oh that will be some civil suit lovin' times.