Amtrak Officials Back Schumer's Proposal For No Ride List
Primary tabs
The officials at Amtrak have supported the asinine proposal by NY Sen. Charles Schumer to create a "no ride" list for Amtrak, despite the obvious fact that anyone could take out a train bridge or tracks without EVER BOARDING A TRAIN!
The proposed "no ride" list as suggested by NY Sen. Charles Schumer (D) is foolish beyond belief, as the most significant difference between airplanes and trains is that airplanes fly high up in the sky and trains travel along a fixed path at ground level. This obvious fact needs to be pointed out to Mr. Schumer as he does not appear to comprehend that in order for a terrorist to blow up an airplane, they must actually be on board the airplane physically or have a really nice jet pack to fly up and board the plane mid flight.
However, since trains travel on fixed tracks at ground level, it is NOT NECCESARY FOR A TERRORIST TO BE ON BOARD A TRAIN IN ORDER TO BLOW UP A TRAIN!!
This may seem like something a preschooler could figure out, yet this obvious fact seems to be missed by Mr. Schumer who makes false promises of security with his "no ride list" idea.
It is fine for people who are intellectually challenged to engage in simple work such as dishwashing, landscaping and other jobs where there is no probable risks of harm to self or others. However, having people who are intellectually challenged working as state senators as Mr. Schumer is doing is just downright dangerous. Ignorant fools like Mr. Schumer would be funny and worth a laugh if only their actions were not so damaging to the civil liberties of the U.S. people.
My suggestion is for Mr. Charles Schumer to respectully resign from his post as NY state senator and join Elliot Spitzer as a cohost on a new CNN talk show. Maybe they could call it "Double Trouble Dems". He would be much less dangerous to our civil liberties there!
There are plenty of train tracks and train bridges throughout the U.S. that could easily be sabotaged by even a developmentally disabled kindergardener terrorist with an underwear poop bomb without them ever having boarded a train!
So the point is that it would be so easy to sabotage the miles of rail that the terrorists would have done so already. More likely the reason that the trains were not yet attacked is that most Amtrak passengers are either elderly, disabled or impoverished and thus low priority targets for terrorism (more likely a potential recruitment pool!! ; ).
However, the ever encroaching neoliberal fascist U.S. government would want to know where and when train people are going and to be better able to restrict activists from traveling on trains. In addition, the "no ride list" provides Amtrak officials (including bully conductors) greater leverage to prevent people whom they dislike from being able to ride the rails, enabling government sanctioned discrimination.
Here's the latest on the propsed "no ride" list;
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
"Following New York Senator Chuck Schumer’s call for a “no ride list†that would mimic the notoriously sweeping, oppressive and ineffective “no fly list,†Amtrak has publicly backed the idea, which would officially create a Soviet-style internal passport for American citizens and make the presence of TSA workers conducting grope downs at train stations ubiquitous.
Approving of Schumer’s proposal, Amtrak Spokesperson Cliff Cole released the following statement;
“Amtrak is committed to the safety and security of our passengers and remains a safe way to travel. All countermeasures add value in creating an overall security posture in protecting a rail system that operates in an open environment. The creation of a “do not ride†list is no exception. It would, however, have to be developed in close coordination with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and implemented in a way that respects civil rights and allows for the rapid flow of persons and trains, necessary for effective mass transit. “
Of course, the notion of TSA goons ‘respecting civil rights,’ is a complete oxymoron, as their behavior has become synonymous with harassment, perversion and criminality. Latest examples include the disgraceful sexual groping of a 6-year-old girl, as well as yesterday’s ludicrous image which showed TSA agents at KCIA airport checking a baby’s diaper for “poop bombsâ€.
The “no ride list†move is part of a long-planned agenda to force Americans into accepting an internal passport that they would need to display at security checkpoints littered across the country at so-called “soft target†locations like subways, malls and sports stadiums. Every single form of transport is slated to be included under an internal passport system that would treat Americans similarly to how Israeli troops treat citizens in occupied Palestine.
An internal passport for Americans is codified under the December 2004 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, which Congressman Ron Paul warned at the time would, “Allow the government to establish a Soviet-style internal passport system†that would subject “every citizen to surveillance and screening pointsâ€.
It’s also about isolating so-called “domestic extremists†under the terms of the MIAC report who will have their freedom of movement restricted and basic liberties such as Second Amendment rights stripped by the federal government. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants people on the “no fly†list, and by extension a “no ride†list, to also be on a “no buy†list and be prevented from purchasing firearms.
“Anyone, even a member of al-Qaida could purchase a train ticket and board an Amtrak train without so much as a question asked,†Schumer said on Sunday. “So that’s why I’m calling for the creation of an Amtrak no ride list. That would take the secure flight program and apply it to Amtrak trains.â€
Of course, anyone could enter a shopping mall or sports stadium with no questions asked, but does that mean America should be festooned with checkpoints staffed by TSA goons asking for people’s papers? Yes, according to Schumer and others who are aggressively pushing for TSA agents, who have continually proven to be prone to predatory criminal behavior, sexual molestation and abuse, to become a literal occupying Gestapo army as America sinks further into a Sovietized police state.
Schumer justified the idea by pointing to alleged evidence obtained from Osama Bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan, which the White House claimed divulged plans for Al-Qaeda to attack the US train system. The plot, described as “aspirational rather than operational,†was targeted against trains that travel at 500mph, none of which exist in the United States or indeed the world, and was set to center around a sabotage of railway tracks rather than the train itself, rendering Schumer’s call for a no ride list completely obsolete anyway.
As we have documented, VIPR teams are now already swarming America in the name of “security,†having expanded from airports, to train stations, highways and street corners.
The TSA is also already performing grope downs of passengers, including young children, inside train stations. In one case, passengers who disembarked from a train in Savannah, Georgia and were trying to leave the station after their journey were forced by TSA thugs to enter the terminal building in order to be subjected to pat downs. The TSA later lied about the sequence of events in an effort to dismiss criticism.
The no fly list that Schumer seeks to imitate for trains now contains well over one million names and is exponentially expanding. Reports have confirmed that the watch list contains the names of thousands of innocent Americans, including children, lawyers and even a retired Air National Guard brigadier, now a commercial pilot for a major airline.
In some cases, credit reports have been used in calculating the risk score, while the list has also been used to target political activists and anti-war protesters.
In 2008, the chairman of a House technology oversight subcommittee warned that the database used to produce the government’s terror watch lists is “crippled by technical flaws,†and the system designed to replace it may be even worse.
In a letter to the inspector general at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC) warned that the upgrade “if actually deployed will leave our country more vulnerable than the existing yet flawed system in operation today.â€
Critics have charged that the list is already far too expansive to be in any way effective. Expanding the list to include Amtrak trains, as suggested by Senator Schumer, would only add to this problem.
As Steve Chapman writes for the Chicago Tribune, “Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., wants to create a “no-ride†list for Amtrak, which makes even less sense than the “no-fly†list for airlines. And that’s saying something.
“The terrorist watch list is an odd creature. As the American Civil Liberties Union says, it’s “a vast and growing list of individuals whom the government deems too dangerous to fly, but are too harmless to arrest.â€
“If these people are truly, provably dangerous, why aren’t they in jail? Why are they allowed to venture into shopping malls, subway stations, the Willis Tower or Wrigley Field? It doesn’t make a lot of sense to let jihadists go anywhere except a plane or train.â€
The transparent haste with which Schumer, a putrid figure whose every action as Senator seems designed to eviscerate the constitutional rights of Americans, seized upon the dubious Bin Laden raid to push his anti-American police state agenda was a revolting display of public relations manipulation.
Internal passports enforced by TSA goons at security checkpoints have no place in America. Chuckie Schumer should be sent to North Korea, Zimbabwe, Uzbekistan or somewhere similar if he wishes to live in a country where citizens are forced to show their papers at every turn – and then he should be put on a no fly list to ensure he never comes back to disgrace the public discourse with this kind of garbage again."
article here;
http://www.infowars.com/amtrak-backs-schumer-proposal-for-no-ride-list/