TSA Re-Starts Vehicle Searches

The announcement of the commencement of acts of war by the President has the TSA busy, as the agency looks for more ways to control previously-trustworthy American citizens.

One of the first things we'll notice, is more TSA presence at airports (or at least the bill for the agency's mandates, as our local law enforcement is called to do the TSA's bidding, instead of other duties). The airports will see a whole lot more police presence, as the TSA has determined that it's again a good idea to perform warrantless searches of random vehicles.

That the searches are warrantless is a necessity of the procedure: "How can you have 'random checks,' and also have 'probable cause?'" one of our ANN readers noted. [Warrants cannot issue without probable cause and specificity, according to the 4th Amendment --ed.]

More dogs

The TSA will be using more unpaid, involuntary labor. Sniffer dogs will be employed extensively. The dogs take a lot of breaks, but, unlike the employees, don't complain about working conditions. [Like the TSA's employees, though, they can't unionize -ed.]

As we covered days ago, the TSA's penchant for symbolism over substance was immediately highlighted, as TFRs were issued to keep aircraft from flying lower than 3000' AGL at the two Disney theme parks. "It's because these are potential targets of symbolic value," admitted William Shumann, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

Terrorists -- and all non-law-enforcement/non-military/non-scheduled pilots in the country are now suspected terrorists -- are also not allowed to fly within 35 miles of the nation's three other 'important' civil airports, all of which, not coincidentally, are within easy camera-range of the New York City press corps. (The Capital is already under similar flight restrictions.)

What will happen if the nation's alert status goes to "Red" has not been revealed.

FMI: www.tsa.gov; www.faa.gov