80% of airport's screeners

Follow the money.

So many people. So stupid or corrupt. Even today.

In Logan yesterday,the Boston Globe reported that a man said
he was not even checked and boarded a plane.

The Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts could do a better job.

I want to hear about the makers of the law, who thought that legal aliens would even be OK.

I've flown twice since Sept 11. The only thing I have noticed is longer lines at the check-in counter. I haven't been searched to any degree greater than before the events of that day.
I did, however, take all sharp or pointy objects, except for pens or pencils, out of ny carry on baggage.

War is a Racket: Government Editorial Keywords: WAR, ORGANIZED CRIME
Source: Federation of American Scientists
Published: 1933 Author: Major General Smedley Butler, USMC
Posted on 09/30/2001 11:02:07 PDT by notsofree

War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.

I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.

I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.

There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.

It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.

I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.

I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.

During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.

Things never change. What is the real reason for our invasion of Afghanistan? This might explain. On 12th February 1998 a hearing before the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific of the Committee on International relations 105th Congress took place.

Speaking to the Subcommittee was Mr John J Maresca, the Vice President of International Relations, Unocal Corporation. An excerpt:

Asia is a different story all together. It will have a rapidly increasing energy consumption need. Prior to the recent turbulence in the Asian Pacific economies, we at Unocal anticipated that this region's demand for oil would almost double by 2010. Although the short-term increase in demand will probably not meet these expectations, we stand behind our long-term estimates.

I should note that it is in everyone's [everyone meaning Big Oil] interest that there be adequate supplies for Asia's increasing energy requirements. If Asia's energy needs are not satisfied, they will simply put pressure on all world markets, driving prices upwards everywhere.

The key question then is how the energy resources of Central Asia can be made available to nearby Asian markets. There are two possible solutions, with several variations. One option is to go east across China, but this would mean constructing a pipeline of more than 3,000 kilometers just to reach Central China. In addition, there would have to be a 2,000-kilometer connection to reach the main population centers along the coast. The question then is what will be the cost of transporting oil through this pipeline, and what would be the netback which the producers would receive.

For those who are not familiar with the terminology, the netback is the price which the producer receives for his oil or gas at the wellhead after all the transportation costs have been deducted. So it's the price he receives for the oil he produces at the wellhead.

The second option is to build a pipeline south from Central Asia to the Indian Ocean. One obvious route south would cross Iran, but this is foreclosed for American companies because of U.S. sanctions legislation. The only other possible route is across Afghanistan, which has of course its own unique challenges. The country has been involved in bitter warfare for almost two decades, and is still divided by civil war. From the outset, we have made it clear that construction of the pipeline we have proposed across Afghanistan could not begin until a recognized government is in place that has the confidence of governments, lenders, and our company.

Read the whole speech here: US interests in the Central Asian Republics

Posted by Freeper, notsofree

I flew once, to get back home, since the 9/11. I fly a lot. Used to, anyway. UAL and AMR can go to hell. They hired the security dimwits, they ran the screening that failed to stop people ON AN FBI WATCH LIST. They decided bad security was an acceptable risk, and they (their management and shareholders) should pay the ultimate price: liquidation. And the management should be banned from the airline business. They played cheap with my ability to get home to my kids. In China, they would be up against a wall with a blindfold and a last cigarette. They would be getting off easy just going bust.