Thursday, August 8, 2013

Coming to a train station near you....or a Football game, or a concert......

The Transportation Security Administration has expanded its duties beyond simple security checks at American airports. Now, unsuspecting citizens can be searched at different transportation hubs across the country.
The TSA, created after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, is now comprised of 56,000 people working in 450 U.S. airports.
The agents, who are permitted to search citizens in other places, such as Amtrak train stations, are part of the TSA’s Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) squads, which was formed in 2005, partly as a reaction to the 2004 Madrid train bombing, The New York Times reports.

VIPR teams are allowed to branch out from the TSA’s normal airport jurisdiction to train stations, music festivals, highway weigh stations and sporting events.
VIPR teams were present at the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, as well.

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