Ponce
2nd March 2011, 05:09 PM
TSA Criminality Epidemic: “Behavioral Detection” Officer Faces Charges Of Helping Drug Dealers Through SecurityPosted.
by James adap2k on March 2, 2011 at 2:53pm in TSA Awareness Project - Stop Irradiating
Steve Watson
Prisonplanet.com
March 2, 2011
Yet another TSA officer has been arrested on suspicion of abusing her position and engaging in illegal activity, adding to a long history of cases indicating that TSA workers are prone to criminal behavior.
“Behavioral detection” officer Minnetta Walker was arrested Tuesday by federal agents at Buffalo Niagara International Airport on charges that she provided information to suspected drug traffickers and helped them get past security checkpoints with minimum scrutiny, reports The Buffalo News.
Investigators say that Walker helped traffickers move large amounts of cash through the airport, escorting them through security lines, directing them away from the naked body scanners and patdown security lines, and ensuring their luggage bypassed screening areas.
According to the Affidavit in support of the Complaint, Walker also allowed at least one person to fly under a false identity and even waited with others at the aircraft departure gate, ensuring that they were able to avoid random secondary screening.
She also did this while off duty, but still in her TSA uniform.
Walker faces up to five years in prison, a fine of $250,000 or both for “conspiring to defraud the United States by interfering with and obstructing security measures”, and faces a further one year prison sentence, a fine of $100,000, or both for “aiding and abetting another individual in entering an aircraft and airport area in violation of federal security requirements”.
Walker has pleaded not guilty. The TSA has refused to comment on the case.
The most sickening part of the case is that Walker’s role as a “behavioral detection” officer is to walk around the airport seeking out potential criminals by analyzing their behaviour. Clearly it takes one to know one, if Walker is found guilty, of course.
“TSA screeners generally do not question the activities of a [behavioral detection officer],” FBI Special Agent Gary P. Jensen said in court papers. “This places Walker in a unique position to help individuals bypass security procedures and to detect the presence of law enforcement activity.”
While Walker was allegedly helping drug smugglers to waltz through security unhindered, the general public continues to be groped and prodded and forced through naked x-ray body scanners in the name of security.
As we reported yesterday, the next generation of body scanners, set to be trialed and rolled out in airports, will use deep penetrating ionizing radiation to literally see inside the bodies of travelers.
The justification is to crack down on drug smugglers, yet if they are simply allowed to walk through security unhindered by TSA agents, clearly the plan is somewhat flawed.
The full strength x-ray machines present a clear and present danger to the health of millions, who will be subjected to radiation usually used only in hospitals and surgeries to examine bone fractures and to produce brain scans.
The most recent studies estimated that CT scanners cause 29,000 cancers and kill nearly 15,000 Americans every year. If similar devices are employed in airports many many more will be exposed to the radiation they emit.
http://snardfarker.ning.com/forum/topics/tsa-criminality-epidemic?groupUrl=tsaawarenessprojectstopirradiati ngourbodiesandfond
by James adap2k on March 2, 2011 at 2:53pm in TSA Awareness Project - Stop Irradiating
Steve Watson
Prisonplanet.com
March 2, 2011
Yet another TSA officer has been arrested on suspicion of abusing her position and engaging in illegal activity, adding to a long history of cases indicating that TSA workers are prone to criminal behavior.
“Behavioral detection” officer Minnetta Walker was arrested Tuesday by federal agents at Buffalo Niagara International Airport on charges that she provided information to suspected drug traffickers and helped them get past security checkpoints with minimum scrutiny, reports The Buffalo News.
Investigators say that Walker helped traffickers move large amounts of cash through the airport, escorting them through security lines, directing them away from the naked body scanners and patdown security lines, and ensuring their luggage bypassed screening areas.
According to the Affidavit in support of the Complaint, Walker also allowed at least one person to fly under a false identity and even waited with others at the aircraft departure gate, ensuring that they were able to avoid random secondary screening.
She also did this while off duty, but still in her TSA uniform.
Walker faces up to five years in prison, a fine of $250,000 or both for “conspiring to defraud the United States by interfering with and obstructing security measures”, and faces a further one year prison sentence, a fine of $100,000, or both for “aiding and abetting another individual in entering an aircraft and airport area in violation of federal security requirements”.
Walker has pleaded not guilty. The TSA has refused to comment on the case.
The most sickening part of the case is that Walker’s role as a “behavioral detection” officer is to walk around the airport seeking out potential criminals by analyzing their behaviour. Clearly it takes one to know one, if Walker is found guilty, of course.
“TSA screeners generally do not question the activities of a [behavioral detection officer],” FBI Special Agent Gary P. Jensen said in court papers. “This places Walker in a unique position to help individuals bypass security procedures and to detect the presence of law enforcement activity.”
While Walker was allegedly helping drug smugglers to waltz through security unhindered, the general public continues to be groped and prodded and forced through naked x-ray body scanners in the name of security.
As we reported yesterday, the next generation of body scanners, set to be trialed and rolled out in airports, will use deep penetrating ionizing radiation to literally see inside the bodies of travelers.
The justification is to crack down on drug smugglers, yet if they are simply allowed to walk through security unhindered by TSA agents, clearly the plan is somewhat flawed.
The full strength x-ray machines present a clear and present danger to the health of millions, who will be subjected to radiation usually used only in hospitals and surgeries to examine bone fractures and to produce brain scans.
The most recent studies estimated that CT scanners cause 29,000 cancers and kill nearly 15,000 Americans every year. If similar devices are employed in airports many many more will be exposed to the radiation they emit.
http://snardfarker.ning.com/forum/topics/tsa-criminality-epidemic?groupUrl=tsaawarenessprojectstopirradiati ngourbodiesandfond