FAA investigating “extremely dangerous” incident

Steve Watson
GCN Live.com
May 17, 2012

A mystery object, thought to be a military or law enforcement drone, flying in controlled airspace over Denver almost caused a catastrophic mid air crash with a commercial jet Monday.

The pilot of the Cessna jet radioed air traffic controllers to warn them that “A remote controlled aircraft” had flown past his plane far too close for comfort.

“Something just went by the other way … About 20 to 30 seconds ago. It was like a large remote-controlled aircraft.” the pilot said in the transmission that was captured on the live air traffic audio website liveatc.net.

The craft was reported as being about 8,000 feet above sea level, or about 2,800 feet above the ground, at the time the pilot reported the seeing it. It did not show up on radar.

The type of drones used by NATO typically fly at 10,000 feet and below. Other tactical military drones can fly up to 18,000 feet.

Denver 9News reports that the Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident, which it has described as potentially “extremely dangerous.”

“The threat is there from a collision standpoint,” an FAA spokesman said.

In a statement to USA Today, the agency said: “The FAA is investigating the incident and will try to positively identify the object the Citation pilot reported, where it came from and who was operating it.”

Aviation expert and former NTSB investigator Greg Feith told 9News that he believed the object could have been either a military or police drone.

“We have something in controlled airspace that poses a danger,” Feith added.

Watch the report:

As we reported yesterday, the federal government is rolling out new rules on the use of the unmanned drones this week, with the Federal Aviation Administration announcing procedures will “streamline” the process through which government agencies, including local law enforcement, receive licenses to operate the aircraft.

Congress recently passed legislation paving the way for what the FAA predicts will be somewhere in the region of 30,000 drones in operation in US skies by 2020.

Privacy advocates have warned that the FAA has not acted to establish any safeguards whatsoever, and that congress is not holding the agency to account.

In addition, a recently uncovered Air Force document circumvents laws and clears the way for the Pentagon to use drones to monitor the activities of Americans.

Constitutional and legal expert Judge Andrew Napolitano, and his Fox News colleague Charles Krauthammer have both warned that the drones could become a literal shooting target for Americans protesting their illegal use for surveillance by the government and the military.

—————————————————————-

Steve Watson is the London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.net, and Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham in England.

Agents then demanded pat-down to make sure fruit juice, insulin was “not an explosive”

Steve Watson
GCN Live.com
May 8, 2012

A sixteen year old diabetic girl was forced to walk through a TSA body scanner by screeners while wearing an insulin pump, resulting in the expensive equipment being broken, and putting her health in jeopardy.

Savannah Barry, who suffers from type one diabetes, meaning she has to wear an insulin pump at all times, says that TSA screeners spoke to her rudely and displayed complete ignorance with regards to her medical condition.

“They need to get with the program and have some education across the board for TSA,” she told an ABC affiliate in Salt Lake City after the incident last week.

“I went up to the lady and I said, I am a type one diabetic. I wear an insulin pump. I showed her the pump. I said, what do you want me to do? I usually do a pat down – what would you recommend?” Miss Barry said, adding that she also showed the TSA screener a doctor’s note explaining that the $10,000 piece of medical equipment should not be put through a radiation firing body scanner.

When the screener told her to walk through the scanner anyway, miss Barry said she questioned the request. “Are you sure I can go through with the pump? It’s not going to hurt the pump? And she said no, no you’re fine.”

“When someone in a position of authority tells you it is – you think that its right.” she added.

Miss Barry’s mother called the makers of the insulin pump, who told her that they could not guarantee that it would function correctly after being exposed to the radiation from the body scanner. The company advised that miss Barry should come off the pump as soon as the plane landed and switch to insulin shots.

“My life is pretty much in their hands when I go through a body scan with my insulin pump on. Coming off an insulin pump is rough. You never know what is going to happen when you are not on the insulin pump,” miss Barry said.

To make matters worse, after she had walked through the body scanner, other TSA screeners stopped her and demanded a full pat down because she was carrying insulin and fruit juice to control blood sugar levels.

“She said, because we don’t have the machines to scan the juice to make sure this is not an explosive we do have to do a full body pat down and search your through your bags,” miss Barry said.

“At that point I was really frustrated because what I really wanted was the pat-down in the first place,” she added.

“When they saw her juice, they panicked and they didn’t know what to do,” said miss Barry’s mother. “A diabetic is going to need a source of sugar, preferably liquid. I can assure you she’s not going to blow up a 737 with an insulin pump and three Capri Sun Juice(s),” she added.

“It’s unacceptable and I don’t want other people to feel the way that I felt. I was humiliated, absolutely humiliated,” said miss Barry.

The TSA says it is reviewing the incident and refused to comment further.

It seems that the TSA has still not learned its lesson regarding insulin and diabetics. Last year we reported on a similar incident where a screener confiscated a pregnant woman’s insulin and ice packs, claiming they were “at risk for explosives.”

As we highlighted at the time, the TSA’s own website clearly states that insulin and all standard supplies associated with diabetes are permitted through the checkpoint.

—————————————————————-

Steve Watson is the London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.net, and Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham in England.

Aaron Dykes
GCN Live.com
May 8, 2012

Sex, alcohol and wild, power grabbing TSA agents. A hip hop video from rapper Sean Paul plays out a fantasy celebrating the TSA’s sick policy of molesting law abiding passengers as a “sexy” patdown inspection between female passengers and agents, all while he watches sipping on a signature cognac.

The song/chorus message “She doesn’t mind”, blatant propaganda in heavy rotation that has been seen on You Tube alone at least 58 million times, gives away the system’s behaviorism at work to sell submission– reassociating the invasive TSA patdown/porno-scanner ordeal the public is fed up with, and trying to instead connect it with a sexy-on-the-surface image of the government’s Big Brother society to the younger crowd, a sort of second rate James Bond: a license to grope, in the name of perverted power.

“She don’t mind at all,” sings Sean Paul, giving his own woman permission to be pimped-out an anonymous other, or others, as the entire TSA staff comes in to grope and grab when it is her time to step through the security gate, writes Altamese Osborne. The video’s director Evan Winter stated, “We’ve all been through security, we all know it starts to feel a little personal [...] We decided to take it a little ways extra and make it so that we get a little sexy with going through security.”

And while it may be glamorized in over the top fashion here, it’s not far from the reality that has made TSA a controversial agency under fire. It seems they are trying to make the TSA’s real scandals & exploits acceptable to the public as they roll out security checkpoints on highways, bus and train stations, and prepare to invade your life.

Despite statements from TSA claiming that no groping or “squeezing” is going on, the TSA has been caught “selectively” screening attractive passengers (like Baywatch star Donna D’Errico, pop icon Rihanna and plenty of ordinary women) in often very intimate secondary patdowns. Scandals have included sending women back again through the scanners to gawk at their features, commenting on sex toys on luggage inspection notes, exposing women’s breasts in checkpoint lines, trading photos of naked celebrity scans, forcing mothers to pump breast milk in a public bathroom, undressing grannies in private room patdowns, downloading child porn, selling sex in hotel rooms, and on and on.