Ms. Smith
While the TSA can't explain why invasive patdowns without probable cause are legal, that isn't stopping TSA from future plans to track all your daily travels, anywhere you go, f
istration (TSA) from acting in late February to seal a $50-million deal to purchase new uniforms for its agents--uniforms that will be partly manufactured in Mexico.
Soon after this new investment in TSA uniforms, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano warned Americans that the lines are already lengthening at airports due to the sequester.
"We are already seeing the effect on the ports of entry, the big airports for example," Napolitano told Politico on Monday. "Some of them had very long lines this weekend."
"Look people, I don't mean to scare, I mean to inform," Napolitiano said."If you're traveling, get to the airport earlier than you otherwise would. There's only so much we can do with personnel and please don't yell at the customs officers, the TSA officers. They aren't responsible for sequester."
On Feb. 27, the agency announced that on Feb. 22 it had awarded a one-year contract to VF Imagewear, Inc., which owns the Lee brand and Wrangler Hero, to provide the uniforms. “This contract will address the requirements of the TSA, Office of Security Operations, TSA Uniform Program,” the award states.
The TSA employs 50,000 security officers, inspectors, air marshals and managers. That means that the uniform contract will pay the equivalent of $1,000 per TSA employee over the course of the year.
This is not the first time VF Imagewear has been commissioned to make TSA uniforms. The company secured a $98 million contract in 2010 that expired on Feb. 17, 2013.
The latest contract will run until Feb. 17, 2014, with a one-year optional transitional period. By next year, the DHS hopes to have TSA and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) secure their uniforms with a single combined contract.
TSA's new $50-million one-year uniform contract was announced just two days before the automatic, across-the-board spending cuts, known as the sequester, took effect. The cuts, according to CBO, amount to $44 billion in reduced spending in fiscal 2013.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. (AP Photo)
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has said the sequester will force furloughs at the TSA, and has warned of increased waiting times at airports.
The TSA provides uniforms to new employees, but requires its employees to buy their own replacements.
“You will be measured for your new uniforms at your first orientation session,” the fact sheet says. “TSA will provide your initial uniform issue consisting of 3 long sleeve shirts, 3 short sleeve shirts, 2 pairs of trousers, 2 ties, and one belt, sweater, socks, and jacket.”The TSA says its officers are responsible for providing their own black leather shoes with non-slip soles to wear with their uniform. The TSA may authorize an annual uniform allowance for officers to assist with uniform replacement expenses but officers will be responsible for cleaning, maintaining, and replacing worn uniforms.
In a statement to CNSNews.com, the TSA said the uniforms will be "manufactured in the U.S. and Mexico."
Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the TSA is required to procure uniforms made in the United States. However, uniform products made in Mexico, Canada or Chile must also be considered due to the North American Free Trade Agreement and the U.S.-Chilean Free Trade Agreement.
"TSA's contract with VF Imagewear for TSO uniforms, which has some manufacturing facilities in Mexico, complies with the law," the TSA said.
Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) has called on the TSA to make its uniforms in America. According to Speier, VF Imagewear in the past has sewn the TSA uniforms in Mexico, representing roughly 40% of the total cost of producing the uniforms and 80% of the labor.
“Make it in America is a common sense policy,” Speier said in 2011. “When it comes to U.S. government contracts, we have a right to demand that taxpayer dollars are used to create American jobs, not foreign ones.”…
the order, however, seemingly in a response to the fact that vendors were unhappy with the “insider threat” term used in the original. The move also serves as a way of circumventing a congressional demand that the TSA immediately cease all attempts to acquire such technology.
When the order was originally issued back in June, many believed that it represented a push by the TSA to crack down on leaks from potential whistle-blowers on the inside of the agency.
It asked a contractor to develop software that was capable of monitoring the emails, the web browser history, and even the keystrokes of TSA employees. It also required the ability to track the movement of documents and feed all the information through a central command center.
read more http://www.infowars.com/tsa-reissues-order-for-software-to-spy-on-employees-communications/…
charge to “end the TSA” and put a stop to the needless and humiliating groping of toddlers and grandmothers.
Earlier this year, Paul was detained by the TSA after refusing to submit to an invasive pat down after already having passed through a body scanner. The incident prompted national headlines and caused the Senator to miss his flight.
“It’s time to END the TSA and get the government’s hands back to only stealing our wallets instead of groping toddlers and grandmothers,” says Paul in the statement.
The accompanying article sent out to Campaign for Liberty members encourages recipients to sign a petition in support of Rand Paul’s ‘End the TSA’ bill.
The legislation would forcibly privatize the TSA and kick government out of airport security entirely. A recently passed bill actually allows airports to replace TSA screeners with private security but they have to go through a complex TSA permission process to do so, meaning only a handful of small airports have applied to evict the TSA.
Financial contributions are also being sought to launch a “full, targeted media campaign to convince representatives and senators to either get on board or be held responsible for this continuing outrage.” A previous ‘End the TSA Money Bomb’ started by Congressman Ron Paul following his son’s treatment at the hands of the federal agency has already raised over $1.6 million dollars.
The email points out that the TSA’s invasive and dangerous body scanners have been proven to be completely useless, most recently by engineer Jon Corbett who was able to fool the device by simply sowing an object into a side pocket.
The email lists a handful of recent TSA outrages amidst the deluge that occur on a weekly basis.
- A TSA agent patting down a young girl at New Orleans’ Louis Armstrong International Airport in 2011. The video shows a cooperative family, and when the girl’s mother asks, “Can’t you just re-scan her?” the agent replies, “No” and proceeds to grope the poor child;
- A cancer survivor in Charlotte was forced to remove a prosthetic breast;
- A young mother of a two-week-old infant in Florida was harassed to open the bottles of baby formula she was traveling with on her flight, which would have spoiled the only food available to the infant;
- Detroit TSA officers ignored a man’s warning about a colostomy bag, breaking it and forcing him to board a plane covered in urine.
A d v e r t i s e m e n t
Read the full text of Rand Paul’s statement below. Donate to the ‘End the TSA’ cause by clicking here.
Sometimes our liberty slips away silently, and it is almost hard to notice what went wrong and where. The one fortunate thing about the TSA is that they certainly don’t fit that definition.
The American people shouldn’t be subjected to harassment, groping, and other public humiliation simply to board an airplane. As you may have heard, I have some personal experience with this, and I’ve vowed to lead the charge to fight back.
Please read the email below from my friend Matt Hawes at Campaign for Liberty. Campaign for Liberty is leading the fight to pressure Congress to act now and restore our liberty. It’s time to END the TSA and get the government’s hands back to only stealing our wallets instead of groping toddlers and grandmothers.
I hope you will join Campaign for Liberty in this fight.
In Liberty,
Senator Rand Paul
*********************
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 regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show and Infowars Nightly News.
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