Posted on 09/13/2013 11:42:52 AM PDT by Nachum
Members of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) are reporting that they are being "stopped, questioned, and searched" without cause by armed agents from the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection agency and "other law enforcement agencies". An email went out to members detailing the searches and a request for donations. The letter does not address the legality of such serarches or the expansion of intrusion into Americans lives.
Below is the text of the letter
Dear _________,
Over the past few months, AOPA has received more and more reports of pilots like you being stopped, questioned, and searched – for no apparent reason – by armed agents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and other law enforcement agencies.
AOPA is fighting back. We’ve filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to find out why innocent pilots have been targeted. We’ve challenged the authority of CBP to search aircraft that don’t cross U.S. borders. We’ve demanded answers, and we’ve demanded a halt to these searches.
But it’s become clear that this is not a battle we can win by working directly with federal law enforcement agencies. Instead, the only way we’re going to stop these searches is by convincing Congress to get directly involved.
If CBP won’t call a halt to these searches on their own, then you and I need to enlist the support of our friends in Congress – and force these federal officials to answer for their actions.
Time and time again when we’ve needed help defending GA, our friends in Congress have gone to bat for us. And today more than ever, we need to make it clear that those who help us fight and win this battle will have our strong support when the next election rolls around.
That’s why I’m asking you to consider making a generous contribution to AOPA PAC today.
As the only arm of AOPA that can give direct support to candidates, AOPA PAC has a critical role to play in this fight.
By making a contribution to AOPA PAC right now, you can help enlist the support of Congress – including the 235 members who have joined the General Aviation caucuses in the U.S. House and Senate – to hold federal law enforcement agencies accountable, and put a halt to these government strong-arm tactics against pilots.
Remember, pilots like you and me represent only one-quarter of one percent of the population. If we don’t stand up for our rights as pilots, and our rights as citizens, no one else can or will.
And every dollar you give to AOPA PAC today will send a clear and unmistakable message to elected officials in Washington – that pilots across this country are committed to support candidates in the next election who help FIGHT for our freedom to fly today. In the must-win battle we now face, that’s a message that every elected official will understand!
We can’t allow federal law enforcement officials to treat pilots like suspects instead of citizens. And your gift to AOPA PAC today will go a long way toward enlisting Congress’s help to put a stop to these searches – and restore our rights as pilots and as Americans.
Thank you for helping AOPA draw a line in the sand against these aggressive law-enforcement tactics against pilots!
Lorraine Howerton Vice President of Legislative Affairs
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association 421 Aviation Way | Frederick, MD 21701-4798 | [1]www.aopa.org | 800/872-2672
More reports are coming in from pilots who have been subject to searches. More to follow.
Thanks to Army Air Corps
The list, Ping
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When I was home a local Boy Scout troop came on to the local private airport and started in conducting searches, questioning pilots like a TSA search. They were immediately kicked off the airport property and told never to come back in that capacity.
Perhaps they shoule be renamed Obey Me Scouts.
Boy Scouts?
You said home, so I assume this happened in Australia?
Wow.
I haven’t seen that blast email yet.
Disgusting.
What?
That doesn’t even make sense.
If these searches are illegal then I’d recommend the pilots call 911 when they’re confronted by these people and ask for local law enforcement to come help stop an illegal search. And if they won’t help then that makes a pretty sound 2nd Amendment argument.
Sorry no. It was before I came down here. There was an incident where this Troop came on to a private airport and started conducting TSA type searches. They were quickly bundled off the premises.
That wouldn’t happen in America. (Yet)
Yep.
Ya - I’m trying to research the story.
donations??
in the day of 61% taxes... “I gave at the office” seems inadequate
They let it drop that the reason he was searched was that his flight plan - going East from California with one fuel stop - matched a typical smuggler profile.
Really.
So going East to West...in a Bonanza or similar - now means you're a criminal to Janet Napolitano's DHS.
New Life in the Land of the Free, the Home of the Beaten.
Individual CAP squadrons occasionally have senior members who encourage their cadets in behaviors that render them officious - and thus obnoxious - around air ops areas, but until now I have not heard about any boy scouts doing something similar.
Mr. niteowl77
Aviation Ping List Please...
It’s things like this that sometimes turn me off the idea of learning to fly. I’ve sort of looked into it. EAA Oshkosh put the idea in my head.
Article:
Private pilots chafe at surprise searches
http://www.toledoblade.com/business/2013/09/09/Private-pilots-chafe-at-surprise-searches.html
The pilots’ group has filed freedom-of-information requests for documentation about the searches, but Mr. Hedges said the association has been told it would take at least six months to get a response — if pertinent records even can be found.
In a blog published last month by its editor, Robert Goyer, Flying magazine reported extensively on email and telephone conversations with an unnamed “law enforcement source … who is knowledgeable about aviation matters” who described his 2009 training to participate in a federal drug interdiction program targeting private pilots.
Flying’s source said he was taught that pilots were to be treated as though they had no right to refuse the search.
“What they taught law enforcement officers and agents was that all aircraft can be detained since they fall under the … authority of the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration],” Mr. Goyer quoted the source. “This, in effect, gives them complete search authority of any aircraft.”
Reference link
http://www.flyingmag.com/blogs/going-direct/detained-feds-what-should-you-do
According to a law enforcement source (http://www.flyingmag.com/news/feds-say-pilots-have-no-rights) we interviewed who went through the training for such interdictions, the stops are being made in a shotgun approach (lots of pellets, very few hits) to finding drugs.
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