US Gulag: NY Times Confirms That TSA VIPR Teams are Patrolling American Towns

With little fanfare, the agency best known for airport screenings has vastly expanded its reach to sporting events, music festivals, rodeos, highway weigh stations and train terminals. Not everyone is happy.

US Gulag: NY Times Confirms That TSA VIPR Teams are Patrolling American Towns VIPER-articleInline

US Gulag: NY Times Confirms That TSA VIPR Teams are Patrolling American Towns VIPER-articleInline

T.S.A. and local law enforcement officials say the teams are a critical component of the nation’s counterterrorism efforts, but some members of Congress, auditors at the Department of Homeland Security and civil liberties groups are sounding alarms. The teams are also raising hackles among passengers who call them unnecessary and intrusive.
“Our mandate is to provide security and counterterrorism operations for all high-risk transportation targets, not just airports and aviation,” said John S. Pistole, the administrator of the agency. “The VIPR teams are a big part of that.”
Some in Congress, however, say the T.S.A. has not demonstrated that the teams are effective. Auditors at the Department of Homeland Security are asking questions about whether the teams are properly trained and deployed based on actual security threats.
Civil liberties groups say that the VIPR teams have little to do with the agency’s original mission to provide security screenings at airports and that in some cases their actions amount to warrantless searches in violation of constitutional protections.
“The problem with T.S.A. stopping and searching people in public places outside the airport is that there are no real legal standards, or probable cause,” said Khaliah Barnes, administrative law counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington. “It’s something that is easily abused because the reason that they are conducting the stops is shrouded in secrecy.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/06/us/tsa-expands-duties-beyond-airport-security.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3&hp&
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US Gulag: NY Times Confirms That TSA VIPR Teams are Patrolling American Towns

US Gulag: NY Times Confirms That TSA VIPR Teams are Patrolling American Towns

Anarcho-Capitalist Categorical Imperatives

Via AnCaps: Law & Enforced Unnatural Order