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Federal air marshals have begun following ordinary US citizens not suspected of a crime or on any terrorist watch list and collecting extensive information about their movements and behavior under a new domestic surveillance program that is drawing criticism from within the agency.
The previously undisclosed program, called "Quiet Skies," specifically targets travelers who "are not under investigation by any agency and are not in the Terrorist Screening Data Base," according to a Transportation Security Administration bulletin in March.
The internal bulletin describes the program's goal as thwarting threats to commercial aircraft "posed by unknown or partially known terrorists," and gives the agency broad discretion over which air travelers to focus on and how closely they are tracked.
[...] But some air marshals, in interviews and internal communications shared with the Globe, say the program has them tasked with shadowing travelers who appear to pose no real threat — a businesswoman who happened to have traveled through a Mideast hot spot, in one case; a Southwest Airlines flight attendant, in another; a fellow federal law enforcement officer, in a third.
Since this initiative launched in March, dozens of air marshals have raised concerns about the Quiet Skies program with senior officials and colleagues, sought legal counsel, and expressed misgivings about the surveillance program, according to interviews and documents reviewed by the Globe.
"What we are doing [in Quiet Skies] is troubling and raising some serious questions as to the validity and legality of what we are doing and how we are doing it," one air marshal wrote in a text message to colleagues.
Source: http://apps.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/graphics/2018/07/tsa-quiet-skies/?p1=HP_SpecialTSA [Ed Note: Not available for all browser modes]
Also at CNN, Fortune, The Verge, and The Hill.
(Score: 2, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday July 31 2018, @02:28AM (4 children)
You don't even bother to read responses to your posts, let alone keep track of the people you are responding to.
That, from my own post, does not contradict anything you have said about the welfare system. Literacy - check your local community college for help with that concept. I am very much aware that the welfare recipient who tries to better him/herself is penalized for taking a job, unless that job pays far more than welfare provides. The system has been built to encourage people to rely on welfare. So, again,
BTW - where do you think the bodies come from that fuel the prison for profit scheme that the US is so famous for? The bodies don't come from families that instill honesty and work ethics into their children. The majority of those bodies come from single mom families, who have been instilled with the proper semi-subservient attitude necessary to push social workers into releasing money. Single mom families most certainly teach reliance on government, as opposed to self reliance. Mom can't be Mom and Dad at the same time, very effectively. Worse, if Dad is in the pen, his only lessons for his children consist of failed methods of "beat the Man".
We're gonna be able to vacation in Gaza, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran and maybe Minnesota soon. Incredible times.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 31 2018, @04:07AM (1 child)
"have been instilled with the proper semi-subservient attitude necessary to push social workers into releasing money" uhhh, now you're drifting off the deep end. Nothing like a little criticism to get you to reveal your true feelings.
Welfare was not designed the way it is, it was morphed from something helpful into something twisted because conservatives had to make sure no undeserving people abused the system. I'm glad you're not a full blown RWNJ but I really wish you'd realize that you have quite a bit of culture war propaganda stuffed away in that melon.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday July 31 2018, @02:26PM
May I suggest that you revisit the administration of William Jefferson Clinton, aka, Slick Willy, to see what he did with welfare? See, this is part of our problem in America - your side blames all the evils of government on the other side, while the other side blames all the evils on your side.
Can we all just grow up, and examine the evidence? NEITHER SIDE KNOWS WHAT IN HELL IT IS DOING!!
Ditto with immigration reform, Medicaid, social security - the list goes on and on.
You want to whine and moan about the Republicans? That's cool - but you had better be looking critically at the Dems as well. Otherwise, you're just another partisan horn blower.
We're gonna be able to vacation in Gaza, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran and maybe Minnesota soon. Incredible times.
(Score: 2) by unauthorized on Tuesday July 31 2018, @11:01AM (1 child)
Why do you assume it's not the economy who is doing it and the welfare isn't compensating for a problem that the free and independent market has created because it creates an efficient pseudo-slavery model like it always does? Ah right, religion. The free market is our lord and savior and Adam Smith is his one and true son that came to save us from the red devil.
Welfare applies to everyone, and only some population groups exhibit the behavior you describe. Therefore it is not welfare that is the root cause, if it did then you would see a more uniform distribution among populations who receive welfare. It might compound an existing maladaptive social behavior among some social groups, but the problem is already there to begin with.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday July 31 2018, @02:39PM
I'm glad that you can see the possibility of negative feedback loops in all of this. And, I'll maintain that single parent homes are one of the contributory feedbacks in the loop. No, of course not all kids from single parent homes are bad. And, of course not all kids from two parent homes are good. But - I wonder - has anyone ever done a survey to see how many of each are incarcerated? Hmmmmm - - -
https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/pji02.pdf [bjs.gov]
Please click the link, there are more interesting bits of information on that page, like racial and ethnic breakdowns of prison population. But those are the highlights you can't deny - single parent homes, and abusive parents really put the hurt on people who may or may not be prone to break the law anyway. Bottom line? Kids need a mom, and kids need a dad. The prison population pretty much proves that. Someone might make a case that if a kid can't have both a mother and a father, then maybe they need Mom more than they need Dad - but I've seen no evidence of that, whether empiric evidence, or psychobabble evidence.
We're gonna be able to vacation in Gaza, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran and maybe Minnesota soon. Incredible times.