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Unions join government propaganda campaign to compel citizens to submit to strip searches & groping

Unions are joining the Department of Homeland Security's domestic propaganda campaign to persuade citizens that electronic strip searches and physical groping of their private parts are good for them.

American citizens, they argue, must submit to being peeped at and felt up by uniformed personnel if they wish to exercise their right to travel.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is urging the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to protect TSA workers from the people. 

A November 17 AFGE news release calls for the TSA to wage a propaganda "public education" campaign to promote the state-sponsored sexual groping "pat-downs."

TSA has launched a video and other literature to propagandize the public to submit. The Orwellian title of the campaign is "Helpful Hints for Holiday Travelers."

MSNBC reports that the National Treasury Employees Union "has launched a campaign in support of the TSA to educate the public about the critical role played by TSA officers in helping secure the safety of air travel."

Of course, the public already knows this - the issue here is how the unions are working hand-in-glove with government agents to propagandize the public to submit to the electronic strip searches and physical groping of their genitalia by uniformed personnel. 

Taiwanese animators lampoon 'don't touch my junk'

It's bad enough that the Department of Homeland Security's clumsy "security" over-reach alienates the average citizen the way it has, but it's all the worse when the rest of the world starts laughing at us.

Fundamental to any sound security policy is careful consideration of domestic and international response to the measures being applied. Those measures will never please everybody. But when security officials are so tone-deaf and defiant, they undermine the intended results of their policies. That's just what's happening today with the new Transportation Security Administration electronic strip search/"pat down" policies.

No government propaganda campaign to justify the policies will serve a useful purpose. DHS and TSA are now a laughingstock. Too many people just don't take the clumsy and intrusive security policies seriously any more. The last scene of this video, with the terrorist laughing at us, is right on the mark.

Perhaps it has something to do with the government's refusal to profile those most likely to be motivated to commit terrorism, and to make all citizens pay the price for the government's timid political correctness. There's good reason to mock the TSA's ham-handed policies. But in truth, this is no laughing matter at all. Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano is responsible for this mess. She has undermined public confidence. She should resign.

Big Sis: Trust us. We know what's best for you.

More truth-telling - maybe too much - from satirist Oleg Atbashian at the People's Cube. 

Government propaganda campaign to make public submit to strip searches

A US government propaganda campaign aimed at the domestic population is in the works.

The perceptions-and-behavior-modification campaign is designed to neutralize the American public's opposition to the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) move toward electronic strip-searches and invasive groping of airport passengers.

Caught off-guard by the widening public backlash to the excessively intrusive "security" procedures at the nation's airports, the Department of Homeland Security is trying to disarm the public of its opposition.

(Photo: A Muslim TSA guard, wearing sharia-compliant head covering, gropes a Catholic nun during a "security" search at a US airport.)

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano isn't off to a very good start, saying that the electronic strip-searches and the invasive groping of passengers who refuse a strip search are necessary because of the Nigerian terrorist who arrived in the United States with explosives in his underwear in December 2009.

However, what Napolitano did not say was that the CIA had specific advance warning of a possible terrorist attack by that very individual - in the form of an urgent face-to-face meeting that the terrorist's father requested with the CIA station in Abuja - and that the CIA and TSA failed to ensure that the terrorist was placed on the TSA's no-fly list.

Because of that government failure, the TSA is now forcing the entire traveling public to submit to electronic strip searches, be groped in the breasts, genitals and buttocks by TSA personnel, or be arrested or fined.

Napolitano began the propaganda campaign against the American public with a November 15 op-ed in USA Today. Starting off with the example of the Christmas bomber and the need for a "layered approach" to screening terrorists (without mentioning the CIA's failure at the outermost layer), Napolitano says the strip-search machines are necessary, safe and preferred:

"As part of our layered approach, we have expedited the deployment of new Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) units to help detect concealed metallic and non-metallic threats on passengers. These machines are now in use at airports nationwide, and the vast majority of travelers say they prefer this technology to alternative screening measures.

"AIT machines are safe, efficient, and protect passenger privacy. . . .

"All images generated by imaging technology are viewed in a walled-off location not visible to the public. The officer assisting the passenger never sees the image, and the officer viewing the image never interacts with the passenger. The imaging technology that we use cannot store, export, print or transmit images." (Emphasis added)

Much of Napolitano's points are of debatable accuracy or truthfulness, and a lot of the public isn't buying her argument, or her euphemisms such as "pat downs." (I've been through the "pat downs" and think the term "heavy petting" is more accurate.)

It's propaganda time

So now, the government finds itself having to launch an aggressive propaganda "public education" campaign to manipulate public perceptions, attitudes, and behavior. Here's what AP is reporting right now:

". . . airports have been urging the government to engage in an aggressive public education campaign regarding the new screening, said Debby McElroy, the [Airports Council International-North America] executive vice president.

"'TSA is trying to address a real, credible threat, both through the advanced imaging technology and through the pat-downs,' McElroy said. 'We think it's important that they continue to address it with passengers and the media because there continues to be a significant misunderstanding about both the safety and the privacy concerns.'"

The government's domestic propaganda campaign is just beginning. As far as Homeland Security is concerned, we must submit - or else.

Rapping to the death throes of Iran's Islamic Republic

When a regime is too inflexible to cope with the cultural rebellion of the young people under its domination, the system cannot be expected to survive for long.

In a youthful country like Iran, we are seeing signs that the dictatorship of the Islamic Republic is on its last legs. Especially because this youthful cultural rebellion, thanks to the Internet, cannot be contained.

The regime's latest crackdown has focused on repressing Tehran's underground rap culture.

Tehran police chief Hossein Sajedi-nia explains that his forces arrested "boys and girls" and seized "Western musical instruments" as well as alcohol, which is officially forbidden under Iran's sharia law.

But the police chief noted the real dangers: the organized efforts of the cultural underground and the rap fans' ability to share music and communicate with one another online, both at home and abroad.

Like other Iranian underground bands and their fans, the rappers work hard to camouflage their presence from authorities. "These boys and girls used deserted and crumbling buildings, and camouflaged the place by hanging dirty curtains in order not to arouse suspicion," Sajedi-nia said.

In addition to citing the standard rock/rap behavior that challenge and defy established morals, the police chief said the artists were spreading a subversive message, in his words, "portraying a bleak picture of society."

Internetted musical underground

This blog has long advocated strong international support for Iran's youthful rock, rap, hip-hop and punk underground.

The rappers are far from isolated - and herein lies the danger for the regime. "These bands recorded underground clips and released unauthorised songs on satellite and cyber networks," said Sajedi-nia, according to Agence France Presse.

Where is the Voice of America's Persian service?

Agence France-Presse notes that despire the official repression, Iran's "underground bands have still managed to get their music heard by using home computers to get it aired over the Internet or on Persian-language satellite channels broadcasting from abroad."

This is an extremely important point: Foreign Internet media companies, radio channels and satellite TV channels are vital to leveraging and magnifying the cultural rebels in Iran. Which brings us back to the question, Where is the Voice of America in all this? What is wrong with VOA's Persian-language service and why is it not providing accurate, timely, and full coverage of the repression of Iran's young people, whose expressions seem far more like a voice of America than VOA itself.