.Marshals to patrol land, sea transport
WASHINGTON – Internal federal documents indicate teams of undercover air marshals and uniformed law enforcement officers will fan out to bus and train stations, ferries, and mass transit facilities across the country this week in a new test program to conduct surveillance and “counter potential criminal terrorist activity in all modes of transportation,” according to this report by Sara Kehaulani Goo published by the Washington Post.
According to internal Transportation Security Administration documents, the program calls for newly created “Visible Intermodal Protection and Response” teams – called “Viper” teams – to take positions in public areas along Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor and Los Angeles rail lines; ferries in Washington state; and mass transit systems in Atlanta, Philadelphia and Baltimore. Viper teams will also patrol the Washington Metro system.
A Viper team will consist of two air marshals, one TSA bomb-sniffing-canine team, one or two transportation security inspectors, one local law enforcement officer, and one other TSA employee. Some members of the team will be obvious to the traveling public and wear jackets bearing the TSA name on the back. Others will be plainclothes air marshals scanning the crowds for suspicious people. It is unclear how many Viper teams will be on patrol through the New Year holiday, but air marshal officials confirm that they will be at seven locations across the country.
“TSA is going to extend its outreach into other modes of transportation,” said David Adams, spokesman for the Federal Air Marshal Service. “We think this is a very good approach to test our tools and quickly deploy resources in the event of a situation or a threat. It shows we could be at any of these places.”
Air marshals will remain on flights this holiday season, while at several airports – including Dulles International – TSA is training dozens of screeners in behavior recognition techniques to identif
Yup! And you can just forget about seeing Railfans hanging around Amtrak plat forms from now on too. You get caught with a Video camera or even any camera,you can almost bet there will be trouble. Allan.
Link this with the renewal of the Patriot Act and yesterday’s news of the Department of Defense keeping dossiers of citizens involved in legal as well as “questionable” assemblies regarding the Iraq actions and paranoid could well be an understatement.
If you mean the guy they shot dead when no one but them reported hearing him claim to have a bomb in the backpack he had against his chest… yep.
It’s somewhat the same organization (TSA) that will now allow us to take small knives and scissors on planes because they supposedly need to spend more time looking for bombs than searching for knives.
Be a Good American, be afraid, very afraid, it’s becoming your Patriotic Duty.
I may be one in the minority here but I think it is a good idea to do so. Remember several years ago when a guy was killing people on freight trains. It would have been easy for him to slip on board a passenger train while stopped. And didn’t police catch a few “terrorists” on the Texas Eagle after 9-11 ?
We live in a much different world now than pre 9-11. Terrorism isn’t something that just happens in Israel anymore. Open your eyes, watch the news and read the paper. Airplanes may or may not be safer these days, but what has actually been done on trains to keep people safe and prevent attacks? If they bombed a train in Spain what makes you think it won’t happen here? There have been attacks in subways in Tokoyo and London. Where will the next subway attack be? Let’s get real people. We must be prepared and do something. Anything is better than nothing.
I admit the possibility of an overreaction from an officer is possible. But so too, is the possibility of an attack. The times have changed. This isn’t the care free 50s any longer (not that I remember the 50s, just from stories from dear ol’ mom and dad and others).
Remember the old adage, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Better to start protecting our trains now that AFTER a terrorist attack.
There was a time when a brakeman with a brake club solved ALL the problems with domestic passengers, no involvement from the feds was required. Alas… simpler times…
Randy
That’s why I keep my TV off now more than ever now. Too much TV is very bad for your mind. I live in a town that has 8 news Channels,and it does tend to get to you. To much news is NOT a good thing. Allan.
the security forces need a way to know that were railfans, I mean I don’t want to be harrassed, I haven’t been yet but I swear I saw the same police car drive by 3 times, after the third I moved on.
