Passengers were forced to enter train station by TSA goons who swarmed them on platform
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
The TSA has been caught in yet another act of deception after claiming that passengers who were subjected to an invasive pat down and bag search after getting off an Amtrak train in Savannah, Georgia earlier this month did not have to enter the station, when in fact according to firefighter Brian Gamble, TSA agents swarmed the platform as soon as passengers stepped off the train and ordered them inside the building.
“(Lt. Brian) Gamble, who also works part-time as a travel agent, tells AOL Travel News he was bringing a small group that included other firefighters and policemen to Savannah for a Valentine’s Day getaway. They were among 30 or 40 people getting off the train when he says TSA officers ordered everyone into the terminal.”
“They sent us all into a roped-off holding area and said ‘Y’all are going to be searched,’” Gamble says. “We were getting off the train. This didn’t make sense.”
In a lengthier personal account of the incident, Gamble, a firefighter, makes it clear that the train passengers were given no option to leave the station.
“When we got off in Savannah, there were TSA agents out on the platform that told us to go inside to get our (checked) luggage. So we were part of about 20 people that wondered inside. As soon as we went inside the door, there were about 14 TSA agents waiting and they ushered us into a roped off holding area. They stated we were all being searched, as well as our luggage. We told them we just got OFF the train. They said they didn’t care, that if we entered the building, we were subject to search. We told them we didn’t want to enter the building, that THEY told us to. (BTW our luggage was never inside – it was waiting for us on the train platform).”
After forcing women to pull up their shirts, the TSA agents proceeded to pat down two young boys, as seen in the video clip. When the firefighter started to complain he was told by a TSA supervisor, “calm down. This is for your own security”.
When Gamble informed a Georgia State Patrol officer of what was going on, the officer asked to see Gamble’s ticket and then said he and his group were free to go.
“I explained what was going on, he left for a few minutes and then came back and took six of us in our group and said ‘Sorry about that, go get your luggage, you’re good to go.’”
After Gamble’s video clip of the incident went viral on You Tube, the TSA was forced to resort to its usual tactic of wheeling out “Blogger Bob” on the TSA website in an effort to explain away the controversy. The blog states that Gamble and his group had encountered a fourth amendment-busting VIPR operation, a random search “where anyone entering an impacted area has to be screened.”
As we have documented, VIPR teams are now occupying America in the name of “security,” having expanded from airports, to train stations, to highways and now street corners. VIPR is quite obviously a 21st century Gestapo designed to indoctrinate Americans into accepting Soviet-style shake-downs, bag searches and groping of genitalia at checkpoints across the country – not just in airports.“It should be noted that disembarking passengers did not need to enter the station to claim luggage or get to their car,” claims the TSA blog.
This is of course a complete mischaracterization of the incident. As Gamble makes clear, the passengers were swarmed with TSA agents on the platform as soon as they stepped off the train, and were directly told that they needed to enter the station to pick up their luggage, even though it was waiting for them on the platform. The passengers didn’t want or need to enter the station, but they were ordered to do so by TSA workers.
The TSA has once again been caught lying about their conduct – fabricating stories in a crass attempt to justify their assault on the constitutional rights of the American people, who under the fourth amendment are supposed to be protected from “unreasonable searches,” which is precisely what the Savannah incident represented.
“Their apology is kind of lame,” said Gamble. “I thought this whole thing was very unprofessional and very shady.”
A TSA worker’s comment that he liked the smell of the perfume one woman was wearing was typically creepy given the fact that TSA employees have a propensity for predatory sexual harassment and criminal behavior.
“One guy went through (Traci’s) hand luggage and smelled her perfume and made comments about it smelling good. It was just not professional. It was just weird,” Gamble said.
The fact that the women subjected to the search also had their breasts fondled according to the firefighter is particularly prescient in relation to a House committee hearing in New Hampshire scheduled to discuss “a bill that would make it a sexual assault for an airport screener to touch or view a person’s breast or genitals without probable cause.”
An online poll currently running on the WMUR website shows that an overwhelming 92 per cent of respondents are in favor of the legislation.
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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show. Watson has been interviewed by many publications and radio shows, including Vanity Fair and Coast to Coast AM, America’s most listened to late night talk show.
