A running commentary from those who favor government control is that Homeland Security and the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) are necessary for our survival as a country and as a people.

Really?

Then why is only one city in the Western Hemisphere listed in the top 64 cities worldwide that are at "extreme risk" for a terrorist attack? Oh, and that city is in Columbia (Cali, Columbia. #59).

Pro-police state folks would say that Homeland Security is the reason why no U.S. cities are in the those top 64, but that begs the question, what about the other cities in all of the other countries in the Western Hemisphere that aren't on that list? Homeland Security and the TSA aren't policing those countries, are they?

As The Telegraph noted, not even Paris made this list:

"Paris is ranked 97th in the world, up from 201st at the start of the year prior to the Charlie Hebdo attacks." (hat tip to here for the source)

Add to this the TSA's 95% failure rate when it comes to finding the very weapons they're looking for, and it's easy to see that the TSA is not improving safety in the U.S., much less the hemisphere.

What do you think, is the TSA just a scam to control us or is it necessary?

Id rather have it than not

TSA is not present everywhere but most places with international airports have their own version of it,,,

Governments will always create a need for their existence.... and power over the people.

Their best weapon against us is FEAR!

Me too. Maybe it's a necessary evil.

times change and threats change,,,sometimes fear is a necessary survival instinct,,,

No, it is just another ' government department ', ineffective, inefficient, waste for money .
* Only works in theory* Unless there was going to be a complete overall, which will NEVER happen, I really don't see the point *

an overhaul is coming,,,,,,

obarry making himself king for life?

nope, there are things that not even a President knows,,, until they know


but an overhaul is coming,,,thats all

I'm a libertarian, not an anarchist.

"those who favor government control" lead

It is axiomatic, if the government doesn't control it, the thugs will.
Prohibition proved this.
Drug War proves it still.
And the 4 skyjackings of 09/11/01 prove it to. We didn't stop the thugs. So they killed ~3,000 of us.

I'm not necessarily advocating for the TSA.
But I think airliner security is a legitimate province. Whether it should be government, or private (such as the individual air carrier).

If security wasn't such a good idea, why do they put locks on doors?

Nope, Minister Fairycon.

prohibition doesnt work, prohibition is what gave organized crime the rise that it had. if people were free to be able to do what they pleased it wouldnt have been such a big issue. prohibition is what fuels the black market. same thing with the drug war, if everyone was able to grow their own marijuana plants, how would these drug cartels make money? drug cartels make their money because of prohibition, because people are forced to go to the black market to purchase their drug of choice. and i still believe what we were told of 9/11 is complete BS, the most experienced airline pilots could barely pull off what those guys did. and were supposed to believe that those guys who trained on cesna planes were able to pull off those kids of maneuvers? i call BS. and i know a bunch of people will say im "crazy" and call me every name in the book, and my repsonse to that is simple. Operation Northwoods, a declassified government document.

Operation Northwoods

Operation Northwoods was the code name for a set of proposals by the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1962 intended to create a pretext for a war on Cuba. The operation called for a series of false-flag terrorist attacks by the Pentagon against US ships and aircraft, and Cuban refugees. 1

Skeptics of the official account of 9/11 were quick to point to Operation Northwoods as evidence of the intent of US military officials to carry out false flag operations such as 9/11/01.
s u m m a r y
title: Operation Northwoods, Justification for U.S. Military Intervention in Cuba
Reproduces the 15-page document in the form of plain text.
site: www.ratical.com page: www.ratical.com/ratville/CAH/Northwoods.html
s u m m a r y
title: Northwoods: A Plan For Terror To Justify War
authors: Jared Israel
Reproduces photostats of the documents.
site: emperors-clothes.com page: emperors-clothes.com/images/north-int.htm
Publication of the Documents

Operation Northwoods was developed in secret and remained secret for thirty-five years, being declassified in late 1997. Following that, its contents were publicized in increments.

November 18, 1997: The John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Review Board declassified about 1500 pages of previously secret military records, including the Northwoods documents. 2
November 6, 1998: The National Security Archive published "Appendix to Enclosure A" and "Annex to Appendix to Enclosure A" of the Northwoods documents online.
November 29, 1998: CNN airs "Episode 10: Cuba" as part of its televised Cold War documentary series. 3
Late April, 2001: James Bamford's book "Body of Secrets" is published. Billed as an expose on the NSA, the book functioned primarily to highlight Operation Northwoods.
April 30, 2001: The National Security Archive published the Northwoods documents online in a form that included the memoranda.

With the release of "Body of Secrets" and the Northwoods memoranda in the spring of 2001, mainstream media such as ABCNews.com began to publicize the operation, just a few months before the 9/11 attack.
e x c e r p t
title: Friendly Fire
authors: David Ruppe

Code named Operation Northwoods, the plans reportedly included the possible assassination of Cuban �migr�s, sinking boats of Cuban refugees on the high seas, hijacking planes, blowing up a U.S. ship, and even orchestrating violent terrorism in U.S. cities.

The plans were developed as ways to trick the American public and the international Community into supporting a war to oust Cuba's then new leader, Communist Fidel Castro.
site: abcnews.go.com page: abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/jointchiefs_010501.html

Discussion of Operation Northoods continued to percolate thorough popular culture after the 9/11 attack, sometimes drawing parallels to other events, such as the assassination of JFK.
s u m m a r y
title: OPERATION NORTHWOODS

if they were considering doing it back then, what makes you think they wouldnt consider it again.

and cuba was only doing what? building russian nuke platforms/silos on the Island, only 90 miles away from the US...

im not talking about what cuba was doing, im talking about how our own government considered carrying out terrorist attacks against innocent americans to make the public want to go to war with cuba. im not saying cuba has never done anything wrong. but what im saying is if our government had considered this in the past, what makes you think they wouldnt consider it in 9/11/01 esp. considering bush was considering invading iraq before 9/11 ever even happened.

As shown in the report last week... TSA failed miserably..

If they can't do their job then why do they exist?


Multiple failures by the Transportation Security Administration highlight the need for change at the agency, security expert Anthony Roman said Tuesday.

A new Department of Homeland Security Inspector General report released Monday found that the TSA had failed to identify 73 employees with links to terrorism.

The news followed last week's reports that checkpoint screeners at U.S. airports failed to detect mock explosives and weapons in 95 percent of undercover tests. That led to the reassignment of the acting TSA director, with the acting deputy director leading the agency until a new acting administrator was appointed.

Roman called it a failure at every level.

"Just about everything is going wrong there," the founder and CEO of the security and investigations firm Roman & Associates said in an interview with CNBC's "Closing Bell."

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102746539

exactly, not only cant they protect us from the very things that they are being paid to protect us from, but they HIRE TERRORISTS to work for them. i would say that alone is enough to justify we dont need them.

I don't think it is necessary.
I don't think it's effective.
I don't think it's a scam to control us.
I do think it's an attempt to placate people with a false sense of security.

I don't think if the TSA were abandoned then all of a sudden airlines wouldn't continue or implement their own security standards.

I think airlines have a greater interest and motive in keeping paying passengers, multimillion to billion dollar aircraft and fleets, low insurance rates, and highly trained pilots safe, compared to politicians pushing things like the TSA.


I kinda disagree.
I don't believe governments create needs, just take advantage of them when they come to light and enough people bytch and moan.

I'd change it to "Politicians will always take advantage of any situation possible to prove they are relevant, doing something, so are deserving of their position and power."

Governments create nothing. Only take and redistribute inefficiently.
On a big enough scale, the inefficiency is hidden because what is accomplished is beneficial to enough people to hide it.

lol, his daddy didn't finish the job, so of course he wanted to...Saddam needed to be taken out... your trying to connect the dots that aren't even there...

And despite the fact that I'M the one that cited that specific example as something that doesn't work, you still think it's necessary to state this?

"Miserably"? Alright.

BUT !!

Completely?
Perhaps not.

Simply knowing they're there, may have discouraged 09/11/01 style skyjack terror.

We don't know if the TSA discouraged anyone.

What we DO know is; there has not been any 09/11/01 style skyjackings in TSA's jurisdiction since the TSA took station.

There's clearly room for improvement, and even privatization.
But abandoning airline security would probably be unwise.