Patting Down the TSA Security Farce

As a regular traveler - domestically as well as abroad, I have experienced my share of TSA security and customs lines. I'm in favor of law and order, public safety and national security. But after careful observation and analysis, I have reached the conclusion that the increasing intrusion on airline passengers by the TSA, purportedly intended to increase security, is abusive, ineffective, unacceptable, even unnecessary.

Last June I flew from Los Angeles to the small airport of San Jose to attend my nephew’s college graduation. On my return, I was directed by TSA to one of those full body scanners. Reluctantly, I submitted but nonetheless voiced my concern about the potential health hazard from the exposure to the scanner’s so called “low level" radiation. Apparently, the TSA team wanted to show me who was in charge, because not satisfied with the intrusive scan, the female TSA official handling me was also instructed to pat me down. I asked, “Why are you doing this? Didn’t you just scan me?” There was no reply. My husband, who was directed to a regular line, had to wait several minutes until they were done with me. I felt humiliated, dehumanized and undignified by this unwarranted Gestapo style treatment. Especially, since after scanning, patting was absolutely unnecessary.

Recently, upon scrutiny by some members of Congress, TSA admitted that their assurances of scanner’s radiation safety were unsupported by any study. Later, I read a November 2010 article in Time magazine citing several studies showing that low level radiation exposure can cause otherwise borderline healthy cells to turn into malignant cells. Also, the web article “Americans 'likely' to get cancer from airport scanners” at http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=231837 presents troubling findings about this issue.

A few days ago I travelled to Japan. Everyone went through the regular security lines, no scanners and no patting. You would think security would be much more stringent when traveling abroad in a 400 passenger jetliner than on a commuter plane. As expected, all travelers were checked for any metal objects such as knives, scissors, nail files, etc. No sharp metal objects are allowed inside the airplanes, right? Well, inside the plane all First Class and Business Class passengers, myself included, were supplied with metal cutlery which included fairly sharp knives. Does this makes any sense?

If we are so intent on fighting terrorism at its roots, why do you think we still haven’t found Osama bin Laden? Surely, with our technological prowess and sophisticated Intelligence this could have been accomplished a long time ago. But no, it seems we have even lost interest in finding him. Why? Because fighting terrorism is not what these terrorism task forces such as TSA are all about. So then, what is their purpose?

I propose that the so called "terrorist threat” is a farce, all part of a systematic and well orchestrated effort to accustom people to be oppressed and intruded upon which is aimed at slowly stripping us from our right to privacy and ultimately our freedom.

Our media is very good at dishing out propaganda which the uninformed public is very inclined to swallow. We are fed garbage every day and the so called “terrorism threat” is a great device for making the public fearful to the point of gladly giving their rights away. I've spoken to many well meaning people who truly believe these measures are absolutely necessary. But I concur with what Benjamin Franklin said over two hundred years ago, “Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”

It appears that even in Franklin’s days there was an elite group of “behind the scenes” power mongers, who want nothing less than absolute control and who hold great influence over our elected government officials. Could they be the ones promoting terrorism worldwide as the means to achieve their goals? These power mongers are obscenely wealthy and able to interfere with peace among nations by destabilizing governments and creating discord. They can fuel and perhaps even fund terrorism. Nothing else makes more sense, and this disturbing possibility sadly fits the state of domestic and world affairs.

Ask yourself, who benefited from the war in Iraq supported by claims of never found weapons of mass destruction? Who benefited from the financial crisis of 2007 and the subsequent financial institutions' bailout? These incidents caused the current economic collapse and the unprecedented unemployment rate since the Great Depression. And who benefits from having a whole nation so preoccupied with their next paycheck that they have no time or energy to scrutinize decisions made by their elected leaders? Take a careful look at the current US and South Korea provocation of North Korea. Why are we provoking? Again, who is benefiting?

Just another conspiracy theory? Well, all you need to do is to stop trusting the infallibility of our flawed democratic system and observe what is going on around you. Pay close attention to domestic and world affairs and question what you are being fed by our "free and impartial" media. Read different sources of information and use discernment, reason and common sense. Follow the money.

Once you are well informed, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to put the pieces together and figure it all out. Yes, it is hard to believe and even harder to accept, but the only way to protect our free future and that of our children is to become aware of this disturbing trend and oppose compromising our freedom with all our might, starting with the TSA security farce before it is too late.

You are not alone - there are countless others who feel powerless to do anything about it. But that doesn’t mean there is nothing you can do. One voice in the crowd is louder and more powerful than 1,000,000 silent men. Think about it.

The Hopeless "War on Terror"

As of January 1, 2007 the death toll in Iraq reached a total of 3,003 US soldiers in addition to 46,880 young Americans wounded, maimed and scarred for life casualties. See http://icasualties.org/ and http://antiwar.com/casualties/ current statistics.

As expected, US official estimates of Iraqi civilian casualties are kept considerably low but a scientific study by the British medical journal, The Lancet, reports an estimated war related death count of 655,000 innocent Iraqi men, women and children. This figure far exceeds that of Saddam's murderous regime.

It is painfully clear that the United States government miscalculated not only Saddam’s Hussein “weapons of mass destruction”, but also their ability to control, stabilize and restore Iraq. With blind arrogance our government ignored and downplayed the complexity of Iraq’s religious and political makeup and underestimated the determination of the Muslim world.

This grave error in judgment resulted in a 400% increase in terrorist attacks worldwide since 2004. See GlobalTerrorism Data Base at http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/ current statistics. The cost of war exceeds 355 billion and could top 2 trillion within three years as estimated by Columbia University economist Joseph E. Stiglitz. See http://www.costofwar.com/ for current figure. Meanwhile, our national debt is at an all time high; $8.6 trillion as of January 1, 2007. The share of each and every US citizen in this debt is $28,601.29 and rising. See http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/ for current statistics.

These figures are definitive proof that our government's strategy on the so called war on terror is not working. Couldn't this country put this staggering amount of money and resources to better use? The unconscionable amount of our taxpayers' dollars invested fighting terror in Iraq could finance the best national security at home money can buy, including building the best education and health care systems any country has ever seen.

It is time for our government to face the facts and acknowledge the ineffectiveness and futility of their so called “war on terror”, and that we, the citizens of these United States, join together and demand the expeditious withdrawal of our troops from Iraq.