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Neocon Nuttery
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Title: Reporter Caught in Mysterious Airport Lockdown
Source: Wired News
URL Source: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/08/reporter-caught.html
Published: Aug 31, 2007
Author: Ryan Singel
Post Date: 2007-08-31 14:55:24 by Eoghan
Keywords: None
Views: 321
Comments: 18

Xeni Jardin, a technology reporter and co-editor of Boing Boing, found herself in the middle of an inexplicable, government ordered, 30-minute lockdown in Los Angeles International airport Wednesday.

I walked from the arrival gate towards baggage claim, and when I was about halfway there, all of a sudden about a dozen or more TSA personnel and private security staff appeared, shouting STOP WHERE YOU ARE. FREEZE. DO NOT MOVE. Not just at me, but all of the travelers who happened to be wandering through the hallway at that moment.

Some of the TSA guards then backed up against walls in the hallway, and sort of barked at anyone who tried to move a few feet away from their "spot," like towards chairs to sit down or whatever.

One TSA guard jogged ahead, back towards the arrival gates (United, this was Terminal 7). At first I assumed maybe it was some weird security drill? A few of us asked what was going on, and got terse answers, like, "Security review." WTF? 5 minutes passed. 10, 15, 20. The two teen Japanese tourists about ten feet behind me looked utterly dazed -- welcome to America, guys. I was really jetlagged and cranky, wanted to move a few feet and sit down, but the TSA lady nearest me kind of snapped at me to stop and stay frozen where I was when the order went out.

After 30 minutes, the TSA people said, okay, you may leave now. And everyone unfroze, and went and got their bags. No explanation.

Some of the Boing Boing commenters say that they've had similar experiences. I do not believe that, legally, Transportation Security Administration employees can enforce an order to make you halt when you aren't in a screening line. They don't have law enforcement powers*. That, of course, doesn't mean orders from people in U.S. government uniforms aren't intimidating.

That said, I've never heard of a situation like this and am baffled by what it was. Have any THREAT LEVEL readers had similar experiences or know what to make of the incident?

* UPDATE - An anonymous reader writes in to say that the Aviation and Transportation Security of 2001 allows the head of the TSA can authorize TSA employees to have law enforcement powers. See Section 114(q)(1). The reader notes too that there seems to be no way for citizens to know how to distinguish rent-a-screeners from TSA employees vested with law enforcement powers.

That said, I'm still highly skeptical of TSA screeners' powers to detain groups of individuals. That said, I am not a lawyer.

Poster Comment:

You have to wonder if these are shows the TSA occationally puts on when they sense they're losing "respect" from the cattle rows...

Post Comment   Private Reply   Ignore Thread  

#1. To: Eoghan (#0)

Some of the TSA guards then backed up against walls in the hallway, and sort of barked at anyone who tried to move a few feet away from their "spot," like towards chairs to sit down or whatever.

I can see it already..... I would have been arrested shortly after I told them to FUCK OFF!

The secret of contentment is knowing how to enjoy what you have, and to be able to lose all desire for things beyond your reach. Lin Yutang

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." --- William Casey, Director CIA (Quote from internal staff meeting notes 1981)

intotheabyss  posted on  2007-08-31   15:21:14 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

You have to wonder if these are shows the TSA occationally puts on when they sense they're losing "respect" from the cattle rows...

Yea, land of the sheep home of the slaves

The secret of contentment is knowing how to enjoy what you have, and to be able to lose all desire for things beyond your reach. Lin Yutang

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." --- William Casey, Director CIA (Quote from internal staff meeting notes 1981)

intotheabyss  posted on  2007-08-31   15:22:12 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

Just another reason why I won't ever fly an American carrier again. I will drive, hitchhike or take the freaking bus. Or stay home, more likely.

Sodie Pop  posted on  2007-08-31   15:38:36 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

Or stay home, more likely.

My personal favorite.

Join the Ron Paul Revolution

Lod  posted on  2007-08-31   15:47:07 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

I haven't flown on an American flight since 911

The secret of contentment is knowing how to enjoy what you have, and to be able to lose all desire for things beyond your reach. Lin Yutang

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." --- William Casey, Director CIA (Quote from internal staff meeting notes 1981)

intotheabyss  posted on  2007-08-31   15:48:10 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

Or stay home, more likely.

My personal favorite.

Mine also. In addition, I simply will not support their system. Period. And the best way is, stay home, NEVER visit Wal-Mart or any of the other major chains, and, drive as little as possible. Works really, really well for saving the wallet as well!

When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest.

richard9151  posted on  2007-08-31   16:01:34 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

In addition, I simply will not support their system. Period.

I try not to, but it's tougher up here.

Join the Ron Paul Revolution

Lod  posted on  2007-08-31   16:19:31 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

It's conditioning, the same way the fire departments drive in traffic with sirens blaring when they aren't responding to calls. In addition to training drivers (an emergency vehicle license is required over and above a driver's license for the weight class of the vehicle) it's also to "train" motorists how to open holes at intersections during peak traffic periods. I suppose there is some logic for the fire department doing it, but, our govt is just aping old Soviet people control tactics.

It also helps them check the pulse of the country. If Americans push back they'll back down, which is why I was so disheartened at the response to the govt's crimes against the victims of Katrina.

Despite reports that FLA sportsmen who towed john boats and air boats all the way to LA were not allowed to launch and rescue trapped victims, and a trailer filled with donated bottled water was sent back home, and Cuba's offer of 100 doctors was declined, and many other obscenities that BushCo committed were known to us, the people of America didn't do a goddam thing.

We should have marched on New Orleans and took those gun toting Blackwater goons out in handcuffs and handed them to the goddam sheriff and demanded that he throw their asses in jail.

Instead of rescuers with first aid supplies, O2, insulin and Asthma inhalers on patrol those goons were swaggering about with M4's looking to shoot at anyone who didn't quake in fear of their approach.

When our govt sees this and other things that signal our timidity they raise the bar for the next test.

And, when the day comes to send our kids to China because that's the only way that they can save the banks, Americans will sit down with their kids for a heart to heart talk:

"It'll be fun, Johnny. You'll get lots of fresh air and exercise and it'll be just like summer camp, except you're never coming home!"

"I'm gonna get dat wascal wabbit, if it's the wast thing I ever do!"__E. Fudd

HOUNDDAWG  posted on  2007-08-31   16:33:32 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

"It'll be fun, Johnny. You'll get lots of fresh air and exercise and it'll be just like summer camp, except you're never coming home!"

You ever read that depressing short story posted here (heck, it might have been you), where the kid is used to get grandpa to reveal where his pre-ban stash of guns were?

"I might have to go do something less stressfull, like core pavement on a busy freeway, at night..."

Axenolith  posted on  2007-08-31   19:31:57 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

You ever read that depressing short story posted here (heck, it might have been you), where the kid is used to get grandpa to reveal where his pre-ban stash of guns were?

Well, I'm familiar with a variation of that theme!

"I'm gonna get dat wascal wabbit, if it's the wast thing I ever do!"__E. Fudd

HOUNDDAWG  posted on  2007-08-31   21:17:33 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

I haven't flown on an American flight since 911

I have once...and it was Thanksgiving Eve....DFW...they dropped my laptop not once not twice but three freaking times on the ground from about 3 feet up...made me wonder...had a male screener try to "make sure" it was just underwire...I can say though there was a woman screener there that stopped him quickly..maybe it was her lover, who knows I don't care...just appreciated her interference. I will say...NEVER again...won't do it. Tried to fly ONE more time after that when my mother died...they REFUSED to accept my cash money for the ticket..plastic or nothing...I drove.

Jan 20, 2009 The end of an Error! Don't let it be the beginning of another.. RON PAUL 2008

lizza76  posted on  2007-08-31   21:36:50 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

You ever read that depressing short story posted here (heck, it might have been you), where the kid is used to get grandpa to reveal where his pre-ban stash of guns were?

That's why I have cats instead of kids. We have an arrangement...I feed them and scoop their box; they keep their mouths shut. So far, so good. :-)

Remember...G-d saved more animals than people on the ark. www.siameserescue.org

who knows what evil  posted on  2007-08-31   21:39:55 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

Tried to fly ONE more time after that when my mother died...they REFUSED to accept my cash money for the ticket..plastic or nothing...I drove.

I flew with a friend to an out of state medical clinic. Both of us were receiving different treatments at the same facility. The catch is this fellow lost his arm decades ago in an accident.

We get up to the TSA goons to fly home and they spent the next 30 minutes poking and probing his fake arm to make sure it was not stuffed full of Explosives or Drugs.

I flew one other time after that. The guy who sat next to me almost had a $1,500 pair of custom binocular confiscated because he refused to have them crushed in his check on bags, yet there was a small amount fluid inside them that was part of how they worked. That fluid, combined with a good compass he also had, put him over the "fluid limit" and a bunch of high tech hunting gear nearly ended up in the same trash can along with the bottles of breast milk and and half empty coffee cups.

(Fun Fact: The guy did lose a $50 lighter. He told the TSA guy, "at least keep it. Don't throw it out." Nope, nothing doing. All those lighters are destroyed as "explosive devices" and are treated with the same care as pipe bombs. Feel safe yet?)

I almost missed the last leg of my connection because I had to go though 3 TSA checkpoints just to transfer from one airline to the other.

When it came time to go home I had the options of riding back with family or flying. I was very ill at the time, but jumped at the chance to drive home. 2 days of driving was worth it. It took me 3 days to de-stress from flying down. Besides a stiff back I arrived home by car none the worse for wear.

Edit to add: What about Train travel? Is it as much of a hassle?

"The more I see of life, the less I fear death" - Me.

Pissed Off Janitor  posted on  2007-08-31   22:24:20 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

What really goes on...

Airport cops' 'milf' sex code

“Yes, but is this good for Jews?"

Eoghan  posted on  2007-08-31   23:17:09 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

"at least keep it. Don't throw it out." Nope, nothing doing. All those lighters are destroyed as "explosive devices" and are treated with the same care as pipe bombs. Feel safe yet?)

I guess I can be confiscated because my colon is an "explosive device".

"Satan / Cheney in "08"

tom007  posted on  2007-08-31   23:43:50 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

After reading these and other anecdotes I wouldn't fly now if my life depended on it.

I dream of a day when airlines go bankrupt. If there were no flights for politicians or corporate rats because their business alone could not keep airlines solvent, they'd have a new appreciation for folks who don't have to fly.

Unfortunately, trying to galvanize Americans behind a single goal for the common good is an exercise in futility. I dare say that if one rich, spoiled college kid had to forfeit a single Aspen ski trip to end the madness he or she would not sacrifice for the long term benefit of him/her self and others.

Thanks to public education in conjunction with TV, films and other pop culture rot our society is dominated by childish, selfish, contrary retards. Arrested development and class, race, political, demographic, geographic and religious warfare has fractured our society into so many selfish special interests with tunnel vision that it's probably impossible to assemble a plurality who would vote for clean air, clean water, political reform, transparency in food production or pharmaceutical testing, manufacturing or pricing, etc.,.

Of course the PTB and their lackeys in govt know better than to stop broadcasting professional sports competitions, beer or gasoline sales or any one comfort that could result in a spontaneous tantrum of a sizable majority. The last time they made that mistake was the proposal to tax social security bennies, and the resulting tidal wave was so fast and large that it actually scared Washington and they quickly rescinded it. And yet the masses never caught on and sensed their power to take our country back from lobbyists. Once the offending bill was dead it was back to sleep....

It's ironic that it was black folks on OJ's jury who used jury nullification to free a murdering psycho, and with a few exceptions whites still abet the tyranny and convict their fellow citizens for "crimes" that should have been killed by juries long go. Even though the Bernhard Goetz jury had the guts to deny the state a conviction for shooting those mischievous little scamps on the subway they still convicted Goetz for the gun charge. They simply didn't have the vision or courage to see that New York's Sullivan Law is unconstitutional. After many failed attempts to secure a carry permit (at a hundred dollars per application) Goetz decided to protect himself anyway. The jury could have overturned that law, if for no other reason, scatter brained comedienne Joan Rivers walked in and picked up her permit with no bureaucratic resistance at all. And, if the people are denied equal protection because they aren't Jewish, are not celebrities (former cokehead Don Imus swaggers about with a legally toted shootin' iron) or the wives of politicians or cops or Hassidic diamond merchants, then the law should be nullified.

Because the IRS actually brings no more than 50 prosecutions a year to court nationwide (about one per state) for income tax "crimes", the tax tyranny under which we suffer is an invisible jail entirely of our own making.

Just as with PROHIBITION and the enabling criminal statute known as THE VOLSTEAD ACT, if juries stop convicting their fellow citizens of tax charges then the govt will abandon the offensive "law that never was" before juries get in the habit of overturning bad law at the jury level.

This is another reason why Bush wants the power to summarily jail and torture people. By removing juries from the process the federal reserve can maintain their control much longer, at least until the major oil extractors kill the fraud($) and the whole wormy, MONOPOLY MONEY swindle collapses.

The abuse that people suffer at airports is the PTB's way of monitoring the pulse of America. When the day comes that a mentally retarded deaf child panics and runs in an airport only to be Swiss-cheesed, back to front with burst from an MP5, and the people do nothing but give thanks it wasn't them and resolve to follow all commands from authoritarians, that's the day the shadow govt will know it's time to spring the trap.

Shortly after we can expect them to announce that the bill of rights is an anachronism that is being exploited by "turrists", and pursuant to executive order number 666 the govt is no longer bound by it.

And, that's the day that I'll write "Hey, the TSA is a great bunch of guyz and galz doing a tough but honorable and necessary job protecting us from them evil "dewers" and I don't want annnny trouble!"

You think I'll go out on a limb and preach to a bunch of chickenshit assholes?

Not on your life, pal.

And I'll be glad that they abolish elections and Bush is serving as PRESIDENT-FOR-LIFE. If he's willing to sacrifice for us ingrates then we're damned lucky to have him!

Once they strap that rat cage to my face I too will scream "DO IT TO JULIA!", and I too will love Hermano Grande.

"Is our children learning?"__G. Bush

HOUNDDAWG  posted on  2007-09-01   14:35:22 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

they REFUSED to accept my cash money for the ticket..plastic or nothing

That is ridiculous

The secret of contentment is knowing how to enjoy what you have, and to be able to lose all desire for things beyond your reach. Lin Yutang

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." --- William Casey, Director CIA (Quote from internal staff meeting notes 1981)

intotheabyss  posted on  2007-09-02   12:52:25 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

That is ridiculous

yes it was..come to find out...the guy was the bag checker...he had no business being behind the counter...oh and we were escorted out of the airport by security because apparently you CANNOT wonder out loud WHY you have to pay with bogus plastic and not bogus cash....we were followed all the way out to our car, all the way off of airport property and all the way to the interstate!!!! I found it to be the most insensitive bunch of shit I have ever seen!

Jan 20, 2009 The end of an Error! Don't let it be the beginning of another.. RON PAUL 2008

lizza76  posted on  2007-09-02   19:33:51 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

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