On Monday January 24, 2011, the AP reported that, "Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura sued the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration on Monday, alleging full-body scans and pat-downs at airport checkpoints violate his right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures." Millions of passengers in the United States are sympathetic to Ventura’s efforts, and would like the TSA to terminate its heavy-handed security policy which involves body scanners, and TSA agents giving people of all ages aggressive and humiliating pat-downs.
Back in November, a Memphis pilot named Michael Roberts also sued the TSA because of its intrusive security procedures. Roberts gave an interview to journalist Kevin Gosztola in November, voicing his frustrations that the freedoms and dignity of the American people are being trashed by the TSA. Gosztola:
Roberts, who has been running FedUpFlyers.org and receiving feedback from pilots, TSA workers and travelers, seconds this idea that Americans are too compliant and says that, while his colleagues and other travelers agree with what he is doing but say they can’t stand up because "they have to travel for work" or they’ve "got a family to feed." He says they "hate what’s happening" and "absolutely do not agree with it." But, the way it works, the ability to travel or put food on the table, is being held over their heads and it makes people who want to act out afraid of fighting back.
This, Roberts contends, is "terrorism." It’s the definition of terrorism, which Roberts characterizes as "coercion by fear." The government is using "psychological stress and manipulation to make people comply with their abusive demands." (Gosztola: Why the Battle Against TSA Groping and Body Scanners is Justified; November 20, 2010).
Roberts’ characterization of the TSA’s policy as terrorism is echoed by many others, including Paul Craig Roberts, who worked in the Reagan administration, and is a former editor of the Wall Street Journal. Roberts wrote in November in an article called, "TSA Gestapo Empire," that the U.S. government manufactures the threat of terrorism in order to make the American people accept unconstitutional and dictatorial policies such as forcing people to go through unnecessary and humiliating security procedures at airports. Roberts wrote:
With such expensive counter-terrorism activities, both in terms of the hard-pressed taxpayers’ money and civil liberties, one would think that bombs were going off all over America. But, of course, they aren’t. There has not been a successful terrorist act since 9/11, and thousands of independent experts doubt the government’s explanation of that event.
Subsequent domestic terrorist events have turned out to be FBI sting operations in which FBI agents organize not-so-bright disaffected members of society and lead them into displaying interest in participating in a terrorist act. Once the FBI agent, pretending to be a terrorist, succeeds in prompting all the right words to be said and captured on his hidden recorder, the "terrorists" are arrested and the "plot" exposed.
The very fact that the FBI has to orchestrate fake terrorism proves the absence of real terrorists.
If Americans were more thoughtful and less gullible, they might wonder why all the emphasis on transportation when there are so many soft targets. Shopping centers, for example. If there were enough terrorists in America to justify the existence of Homeland Security, bombs would be going off round the clock in shopping malls in every state. The effect would be far more terrifying than blowing up an airliner.
Indeed, if terrorists want to attack air travelers, they never need to board an airplane. All they need to do is to join the throngs of passengers waiting to go through the TSA scanners and set off their bombs. The TSA has conveniently assembled the targets. (Roberts: TSA Gestapo Empire; November 23, 2010).
A lot of people in America have trouble accepting the fact that leaders of the United States government are practicing terrorism and techniques of fear against them. As a result, dictatorial policies, nasty pat-downs, and everything under the empire’s sun is justified by these ignorant and fearful people as being necessary for “security.” They argue that if people don’t do what TSA agents say then they will cause further discord and chaos, and only make matters worse. Better to just shut up, and believe you’re in good hands. Why sue? Why be a troublemaker? That has always been the position of the herd-mind.
