Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says terrorists will continue to look for U.S. vulnerabilities, making tighter security standards necessary. “[Terrorists] are going to continue to probe the system and try to find a way through,” Napolitano said in an interview that aired Monday night on “Charlie Rose.”

“I think the tighter we get on aviation, we have to also be thinking now about going on to mass transit or to trains or maritime. So, what do we need to be doing to strengthen our protections there?”
Napolitano isn’t the only one who’s suggested that advanced scanning machines could be used in places beyond airports.

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, introduced legislation this past September that would authorize testing of body scanners at some federal buildings. Napolitano’s comments were in response to the question: “What will they [terrorists] be thinking in the future?” She gave no details about how soon the public could see changes in security or about what additional safety measures the DHS was entertaining.

It seems the No Agenda crew has called another one. As for Napolitano……after you big guy!




  1. brm says:

    So we should scan her every time she walks.

    ’cause that’s a whole lotta mass… transporting.

    du-dum-dum

    (ladies and gentlemen, I’ll be here all week)

  2. Nobody says:

    Why stop there – suicide bombers in Iraq have used cars for their attacks. Shouldn’t everyone be required to go through a scan before getting into their car?

    Of course it would mean an enlargement of the TSA, equipping every family with their own checkpoint.

  3. Counterweight says:

    I was just directed to an article from another blog and the writer states citizens are being required to pass through scanners and/or pat downs when REENTERING the country AFTER flying.

    Can this be true? You get OFF an airplane and they check to make sure you didn’t have a bomb strapped to you dick? I don’t understand…

    http://noblasters.com/post/1650102322/my-tsa-encounter

  4. RSweeney says:

    People, not things, are the problem.
    To look for things is madness. There are simply too many and they are too changeable.

    We must look for terrorists as people and ignore those others we KNOW to be harmless.

    But then, that doesn’t match this administration’s world view, so it won’t happen until 2012 at the earliest.

  5. nicktherat says:

    see you en tea

  6. tdkyo says:

    #3
    A very good read!

  7. Lou Minatti says:

    That’s a bad Photoshop. Everyone knows Janet’s packing a male organ.

  8. ikelleigh says:

    How long before domestic terrorists start blowing up shit in their own country because they are getting sick and tired of this shit? Hopefully soon…

  9. foobar says:

    #7 Her vagina makes you forget about her penis.

    I keep thinking “Those aren’t pillows!!!”.

  10. bobbo, sure are a lot of whiney bitches here says:

    Anyone complaining about TSA security needs to offer up an alternative as part of their bitch fest. Otherwise, you are just being mindless. You don’t want to be mindless do you?

    So, to all you bitchers: what is your alternative?

    Silly Mindless Hoomans.

  11. foobar says:

    Urban Dictionary:Gate Rape

  12. Troublemaker says:

    To bobo, the idiot

    More people die in the US every year from dog bites than terrorist acts. Maybe we should outlaw dogs.

    Better yet, we should outlaw morons like you, that fall for the all dumb BS that the fascists running this country throw at them.

  13. McCullough says:

    bobboo….on board with this? Just where does it end? Be specific.

  14. What? says:

    Lieberman is such a Nazi.

    His fear packed speech of last week, meant to scare your constitutional rights right out of you, was an embarrassment, and sounded like Goebbels warning of the enemy from within and without.

    Fear mongering is the penultimate refuge of a scoundrel.

  15. LowTechNo says:

    Lomax:
    People with nothing to hide have nothing to fear from O.B.I.T. machines.

    Senator Orville:
    (scoffs) Are you that perfect, Mr. Lomax?

    Lomax:
    The machines are everywhere! Oh you’ll find them all, you’re a zealous people. And you’ll make a great show of smashing a few of them. But for every one you destroy, hundreds of others will be built.

    And they will demoralize you, break your spirits, create such rifts and tensions in your society that no one will be able to repair them! Oh, you’re a savage, despairing planet, and when we come here to live, you friendless, demoralized flotsam will fall without even a single shot being fired.

    Senator, enjoy the few years left you. There is no answer.

    You’re all of the same dark persuasion! You demand – insist – on knowing every private thought and hunger of everyone: Your families, your neighbors, everyone — but yourselves.

    http://hulu.com/watch/63079/the-outer-limits—original-obit

  16. foobar says:

    Adam Savage goes through TSA security with his 20 inch razor blades.

  17. ECA says:

    OK,
    reality check…

    WHAT WERE/WAS the targetS for 9/11..

    most were military or gov buildings..
    the World trade building(WTB) was probably hit for a few reasons.
    WTO does not equal WTB(look it up, if you dont know)
    AND the towers were USED AT ONE TIME as the highest point to receive terrestrial signal from the LONGEST RANGE..by the CIA and others. And PROBABLY were STILL BEING USED..

    USE of planes? was easier then TRYING to carry 2-3 TONS of explosives up an elevator.

    NOW..
    lets open a brain cell or 10,000. HOW to commit terror in the USA.
    Do you need a PLANE? NOPE.
    Do you need a train? NOPE.
    Can you use a car? Probably
    Can you do it afar? Probably
    Can you take out MORE people then DIED in the towers, yes I say, yes..
    will it take 1
    Will it take 2
    Will it take 3 people to do?
    COULD YOU DO IT IN MASS..
    could you do it in a Pass.
    could you do it from your A$$?

    yes I say, YES…

    WHO are going to get these persons to think?
    If not from their drink..

  18. chuck says:

    Did you know: since January, travelers from the following country are required to go through the full-body scanners or enhanced pat-downs:

    Afghanistan, Algeria, Cuba, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.

    So, it seems only fair that the United States is now added to this list.

  19. CrankyGeeksFan says:

    #10 – The backscatter device would not have detected the Christmas Day 2009 bomber.

    Michael Chertoff, former Secretary of Homeland Security, owns a company that represents Rapiscan, the maker of the backscatter device.

    The head of Rapiscan’s parent co., OSI Systems, went with President Obama to India to further business development. Most of the newly installed machines were bought with federal stimulus money.

    The Rapiscan backscatter machine has “classified” parameters that, in my opinion, don’t allow for all the health risks to be weighed. This is according to the UCSF doctor who wrote the letter to the White House warning of potential health risks.

    Wonder if Rapiscan’s device is FCC approved? He-He just kidding. Something John C. Dvorak would say.

    #3 – Pretty soon it will be schools (replacing metal detectors) , state goverment buildings and public events such as football games.

  20. bobbo, hoisted on my own petard says:

    #13–McCullough==fair enough call out. Of course NO ONE likes what is going on. I don’t like it either. But before I emote like a little girl, I meet my own challenge==what would be a better alternative?

    I have posted several times that “we would be better off” to just let the terrorists blow up a skyscraper every 10 years than the path we have taken. That I still believe is true, but its is an artificial contruction: a hypothetical to help one analyze the situation. Artificial because the terrorists would not be limited to one skyscraper every 10 years.

    A minimum response I supposed would be to lock the cabin door and have air martials and passengers on high alert? Would that “work” in any meaningful way? It certainly would have been “a response” but would anyone be satisfied with a crashed airplane the result of a brought on board bomb? I don’t think so.

    So–in our more contentious, more layered, more contested, more adversarial, more faced with idiotic/religiously motivated self sacrificing terrorists==just what is the “right”/most minimal but still effective thing to do?

    I don’t see any alternative to what is being done now with the belief that more effective technology will come on stream later. STRIKE THAT: just thought of two alternatives that have been presented: 1==the Israeli method. That involves each passenger profiled as a worthy candidate be interviewed for one hour to judge their response. I don’t think that would work. 2==offer the alternative of iris identification “fail safe” ID that allows those who qualify via this method to bypass the TSA routine. I’m all for that but it avoids the issue the rest of us would still have.

    What can be demanded now is that TSA screeners indeed be trained to best deal with the conflict they have been injected into and that the scanners be maintained so as to not over radiate people.

    Again, I don’t like it either but until I can propose an alternative I’m not going to mindlessly bitch.

    Reality–it too is a bitch, but WHAT YOU GONNA DO?

  21. bobbo, hoisted on my own petard says:

    McCullough–and you asked “Where will it end?” as in buses, trains, auto’s, your front door?

    It will end where the public draws the line as defectively perceived by our elected officials.

    I could see it being extended to trains. Lots of death/fire/destruction there. I don’t see it with the rest==numbers too small.

    How about any large public gatherings?===isn’t that already very much in place? Metal detectors showing up everywhere as cheaper than backscanners?

    It is rather interesting sociology/politics: people bitching no matter what you do so what is the “man’s” response? I think it is to go the way they feel the bitching is most valid. Don’t want nude pictures taken or being groped compared to a plane falling out of the sky??? I don’t even think reasonable people can disagree on that which is why the people bitching here without a remedy are being mindless, or if not mindless, just tools or stooges of the Anti-Obama for everything brigade.

    With the Pukes denying continuation of the START treaty, NOTHING is beneath the Pukes in their quest for the WhiteHouse in 2012==except Palin.

    Ha, ha. Silly Evil Hoomans.

  22. MikeN says:

    They managed ok without these machines for 9 years. How about lets wait 9 more?

    Of course some of the biggest complainers now were saying nothing as the system was being rolled out.

  23. Noel says:

    Its really hard to crash a train or a boat into a building.

  24. ECA says:

    #24
    trains not a problem…just kill the track.
    This is as bad as removing AIR from a plane.
    Even if they use a monitoring system..the damage alone would take 1+ days to fix.

  25. deowll says:

    A lot of this crap is going to end because the money to pay for it is going to run out.

  26. gquaglia says:

    Sure, why not. There are still thousands more unemployable idiots that the TSA can give jobs to.

  27. Animby - just phoning it in says:

    # 22 bobbo, “I could see it being extended to trains. Lots of death/fire/destruction there.”

    Why would any terrorist take a bomb onto a train? BANG! You kill 50 – 60 people and cause a couple hundred thou in damage to the car. Much easier to blow up the track. Not likely to get caught and (BONUS) you walk away alive! Train derails destroying many millions of dollars of engines and carriages, kills or maims hundreds. And maybe you get lucky enough to derail the train next to a chemical plant or some such!

    No, we’ll get the train station scanners, probably, and like the airport scanners, they won’t catch a single terrorist.

    BTW, I’d love to see the methodology of that poll showing 80% of Americans approve of the scanners/groping. My mother thinks she was one of the pollees. She’s 87 years old and detest traveling any further than the mailbox. Let’s see a poll of frequent or even occasional fliers. First question: have you flown on at least two commercial flights in each of the last five years? Betcha that 80% declines greatly.

    Alternatives, Bobbo? Well, you hinted at one that would be a good start. An “OK Fly List.” Shouldn’t be any harder to put together than a “No-Fly List.” You’re a businessman who flies to Singapore and Hong Kong and Japan five or six times a year? Congratulations. you’re not a terrorist and we won’t treat you like one.

    Okay, I admit it, I’ve been in Afghanistan a couple of times in the past year. I’m in Jakarta right now – big Muslim population! I was Yemin once last year and Jordan twice. I routinely get flagged for extra screening. Why? Because I submitted to a thorough FBI background check and received a high level clearance and now travel on behalf of the US government to dangerous places to check on or manage US programs.

    By the way, when I took my flying lessons, I even learned how to LAND the plane!

  28. bobbo, hoisted on my own petard says:

    Hi Animby==hope you get back home soon. I’ve never been to Indonesia–all around it, but not there. Is it the society, the weather, the technology, the politics, or the assignment that has you down on the place? ((I know its not the ignorance, religion, filth, disease, and lack of comfort items–smile!))

    McCullough’s question was “where will it end?” and I think the Feds could extend it to Railroads because it is Transportation ((its in their name and that kind of link often overrides common sense)) and you can blow a train to make it derail killing hundreds. I agree, blowing the rails would make more sense so I personally will blog against invasive scanning at railroads because there will be more rational alternatives in the fuller context.

    I agree the poll methodology is suspect. But the poll is: What do Americans think? Its not: What do Americans who have flown recently think? You don’t really criticize one accurate poll because it doesn’t ask the question you are interested in. You criticize the use of that poll period. My position would be the same as posted though: if you are against the security check–whats your alternative? Kinda makes the poll, any poll, irrelevant except to create FUD which I think is actually the heart of this exercise.

    Happy travels.

  29. hmeyers says:

    In a way, Osama won.

    He successfully demonstrated that the United States bureaucracy will bankrupt itself by spending $100 billion per year on airline security for a threat that doesn’t exist.

    Meanwhile, 9/11 only occurred because the United States bureaucracy has long been forbidden from using “common sense”.

    But I rarely fly and don’t care about any of this, I think our culture is all screwed up and self-defeating and only through extreme idiocy will we hit rock bottom. Or not. It doesn’t matter much to me either way.

    It is more a form of entertainment and intrigue …

  30. Dallas says:

    The only way the Cheney administration created TSA jobs program gets curtailed is finally investing in high speed rail like the rest of the world does.

    In the mean time, the system Cheney put in place is all we’ve got because Americans like to suck on the oil tit from Saudi Arabia.

    We lost a decade of being able to ween this country away from the tit in investing in clean energy and high speed rail.

    The sheeple need to stop complaining because that’s what you elected into office – TWICE.

    [Actually Obama makes it thrice – ed.]


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