TSA ‘COMING TO A HIGHWAY NEAR YOU’

From Dateline Zero

Rep. Blackburn has been trying to push for legislation that would forbid TSA agents from using the word “officer,” in an effort to begin rolling back their reach. Her problem is that the agency was intended to replace private airport screeners — and not to become federal-level police.

While criticizing the agency’s reach, Blackburn has been told by folks at the TSA that their acronym stands for “Transportation Security Administration,” and not “Airport Security Administration.” This hints at the direction they would like the agency to grow.

Rep. Blackburn explains how future plans for the TSA were on display in her state of Tennessee recently: “Many of my constituents discovered this first hand this past fall as those familiar blue uniforms and badges appeared on Tennessee highways. In October Tennessee became the first state to conduct a statewide Department of Homeland Security Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) team operation which randomly inspected Tennessee truck drivers and cars.”

Rep. Blackburn continues: “VIPR teams which count TSOs [Transportation Security Officers] among their ranks, conduct searches and screenings at train stations, subways, ferry terminals and every other mass transit location around the country. In fact, as the Los Angeles Times has detailed, VIPR teams conducted 9,300 unannounced checkpoints and other search operations in the last year alone.”

Her biggest grievance seems to be that the TSA is comprised of “federal employees with zero law enforcement training” who would be “roaming across our nation’s transportation infrastructure with the hope of randomly thwarting a domestic terrorist attack.”

My problem is that the agency shouldn’t have been created in the first place. In other words, would it make everything better if TSA officers received law enforcement training? I don’t think so.

But still, Rep. Blackburn’s heads-up as to the direction the TSA is going is duly noted.

Even more unsettling comes Rep. Blackburn’s further warning that TSA officials are also asking to be granted federal powers of arrest.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn’s op-ed can be read at Forbes.com: “The TSA Is Coming To A Highway Near You”