Date: 11/19/2010
Transcript
News Anchor: Should the TSA be prohibited from touching you, or taking an x-ray image of your body, or what about doing away with the government screeners and having private companies decide who can and who cannot get on your flight? With us from Phoenix, Arizona tonight is Republican Congressman Ron Paul of Texas. He’s pushing his new American Traveller Dignity Act which, among other things, tells the TSA, “Hands off”. And in Washington, Frances Townsend is our CNN national security analyst who served as the homeland security advisor in the post 9/11 Bush White House. She also serves currently on the Homeland Security Advisory Board.
Congressman Paul, to you first. Here’s among the highlights of your new legislation: It would prohibit physical contact by the TSA; it would prohibit x-rays of somebody’s body; it would prevent using the millimeter waves that are used in some of the high-tech scanners and prevent the government from taking images of an individual’s body even if covered by clothing. You view this as intrusive and abusive government power, but my question is, what about someone out there who says, “What, sir, happens if we take away these tough new screenings, and we have another 9/11?”
Ron Paul: Well, in taking it away, you’re implying that nothing else would happen. If you took out the government out of it, that would put the responsibility on the airlines. And the airlines would still be very concerned. Matter of fact, they actually have a little bit more leeway because they can screen their passengers a lot differently. And you can have agreements with the airlines. So you might have better screening with private companies, but even contracting out to a private company, as long as they have the same obligation to pursue the same thing the TSA is doing, that won’t do any good. That’s just another boondoggle for the private companies that are going to work with the government. It might be Chertoff that might get the contract to do the screening. No you want the private owners… you can’t provide perfect safety. This notion that the government’s role is to provide safety, it isn’t. It’s to protect our rights. But here we’re being told that we go to the gate, we buy a ticket, and you’ve lost your right, you sacrificed your right. Where did that come from? That’s about the most absurd thing I ever heard. And the American people aren’t for this, they’re tired of what they’re seeing and what’s happening at our airports.
News Anchor: Well, Frances, you hear the Congress there, his political committee sent out an email today talking about these naked porno scanners that people are made to go through at airports. And, of course, today I received other press releases. Senator Tom Udall wants to have a hearing after Thanksgiving. The Homeland Security Committee Chairman wants to have a hearing soon, he says maybe this TSA should not have these powers. Now that this clearly has become a big political story in our nation, do you have concerns that politics might undermine security?
Frances Townsend: Well, look. John, you know, this is a classic case where the government fails the common sense test. We’ve seen the threat from Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. This is the group that was behind the Detroit attempted bombing, the underpants bomber. This is the group that was behind the recent cartridges in the belly of the plane loaded with explosives. So the threat is very real, and I think as we come into a time of increased travel, the government is rightly concerned. There are a couple of questions about how and why they’re doing this. The government has the authority to implement these security procedures, but they also have an obligation to be advocates and to explain to the American people why these are necessary, why there isn’t a less intrusive means that they could use and how this will protect us and keep us safer. And frankly, they haven’t really done a very good job at that. But let’s remember, the threat is very real, and so we want them to be successful in keeping explosives off planes, and we are rightly debating the government’s policy about how they’re trying to do that.
News Anchor: Well, congressman, lets come back to you and where you would draw the line. And I want to show the pictures as we have the conversation. www.DenverPost.com put up some photos, and we’re just showing some video of the intrusive searches. This is from www.Denver.com. Now the government says this is absolutely necessary. You see the body scanners, and you also see as the photos go on, some of the touching and the padding that obviously you view, sir, as a violation of people’s rights. I want you to listen here to the Homeland Security secretary, Janet Napolitano. She says it’s necessary, and it does not, in her view, cross the line.
Janet Napolitano: They in no way resemble electronic strip searches. All they do is (?) in a private area away from the gate with an image that is neither retained nor transmitted. We’ve built privacy screens into the machines.
News Anchor: And, congressman, the head of the TSA, John Pistole, says using these screenings, they’ve already come up with some things that, in his view, have kept dangerous things off the airplane. So if we went with your approach, how do we make sure that somebody does not get on a plane with something that can’t be there.
Ron Paul: Well, so far, they haven’t been sure. You know, before 9/11 the government was in charge; they spent 45 billion dollars on intelligence gathering, and they got through anyway. And now we’ve given them 80 billion dollars, so how can you expect the government to do any better? Now, for the secretary, I’d like to ask her, you know, has she gone through a scanner and looked at herself on a scanner? Has she been probed and prodded? And Frances, have you done it too? I think everybody should.
Frances Townsend: Absolutely. Congressman, I have done it.
Ron Paul: Did you look at your image?
Frances Townsend: I did not look at my image.
Ron Paul: Well, look at your image when somebody else is doing, go look at your image.
Frances Townsend: Well, frankly Congressman, I’d much rather prefer they have an image of me rather than they touch me, and I’d like the understand what the …
Ron Paul: Have you had the prod? I mean, some people have to be prodded. The people are being forced to it. You haven’t gone through the prodding process?
Frances Townsend: Oh, I most certainly have.
Ron Paul: I want every member of Congress to do it, and every member of the cabinet to do it, and they might have a different feeling about this. But the whole thing is, we are dealing with 9/11, we’re dealing with Al-Qaida, and that has to do with a major problem with our foreign policy. And if we don’t understand why we are creating more people who want to hate us, believe me, taking away all our liberties won’t solve our problem. Spending more money on intelligence gathering and also taking away more of our liberties and having 6,000 of our people killed over in the Middle East… every time we kill a civilian over there to the tunes of 10s of thousands, we make more enemies. We won’t solve our problems by abusing the rights of American citizens. That’s what my beef is.
News Anchor: The congressman makes his case passionately, Frances, on this question. The debate over just what just the powers are, what the screening should be will continue, obviously, and the Congress will be dealing with this when it returns in January without a doubt, if not right after thanksgiving, but the question of should the government do this or should it be contracted out? And to the degree of what other technology is out there, what’s the answer?
Frances Townsend: I actually think it doesn’t matter. If you can do it more efficiently by contracting it out, that’s fine. But you have to set the standards. And quite frankly it’s easy for the congressman to criticize the government, whether it’s this administration or prior administration. But I don’t hear any suggestion about how he would improve it, how, if he had responsibility for protecting the American people, what exactly he would do to ensure their safety and security?
Ron Paul: Can I answer that?
News Anchor: Sure.
Ron Paul: The airlines, the private owners do it. Private owners have a better ability to do this than government bureaucrats. It just doesn’t work, that’s the problem.
News Anchor: It’s now a national conversation, we will continue it. Congressman Ron Paul, we appreciate your time tonight. Frances Townsend as well.
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you know what the problem with this world is, its that there are to many people like the news reporter woman, there are many people who have waken up and see things the way they truley are like most of us waching this video, but you would be suprised of how many people share similar belifes to this news reporter woman because they have been so brainwashed and manipulated from mainly the media so that thats how they think. we need to somehow wake these type of people up to the truth.
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Terrorists
Searching
Americans
They all deserve a fair trial, then a quick and painless hanging.
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I’m with The Congressman 100%. The woman is a typical no-brain hypocrite government employee. Here goes our tax dollars… going to feed these big mouth brainless people. Dr. Paul said it from the beginning about the possible solutions how to deal with these. But instead of listening, she used fear as excuse to protect us to keep us safe. Only thing they are protecting is their job. Hypocrite and bureaucrat!
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who is scanning tsa staff if they take bomb and pass it on to terriost?
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This has to be the dumbest woman on Earth
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I am perfectly OK with all this IF – AND ONLY IF – all government officials, PERSONALLY, must accede to these procedures – IN FULL VIEW – of the other travelers. No short cuts, no exceptions for ANY official, elected or otherwise.
Level playing field anyone? Paul is right. At least on this.
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Janet Napolitano is a whore for the MIC. It is her job to whore for their goods.
The DHS should be disbanned as they are nothing but a parasite intruding upon our freedom. Go Ron Go!! Fran, you slut!
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This is simply a violation of the 4th amendment. I want to see some Probable cause before they take anymore pictures of Americans. Plain and Simple.
The constitution reins supreme on this issue.
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I would rather have a dog poking his nose up my crack then some TSA thug touching my junk.
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IF a terrorist wanted to suicide bomb americans, they would just do it, if terrorists wanted to go derail a train, there is absolutely nothing that can stop them, they would go out onto a remote area of track and blow that sucker over… There are all kidns of illegal heavy duty weapons in america… terrorists would have made a giant bomb by now and could have killed so many people, my question is, why does it only happen in a manner that fits agenda of all this tyranny!
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How about getting all this stupid bullshit out of the airports?
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Grab your local newspaper, see the rapes, robberies and murders and then ask those people where was the government to protect them?
The Government CAN’T protect you and doesn’t want to.
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if we do just what some always do , simply deneil and if you have to catch a plane take erotic oil and ask the man o…./ and close your eues and think that your favorite celeb it
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if we do just what some always do , simply deneil and if you have to catch a plane take erotic oil and ask the man o…./ and close your eues and think that your favorite celeb it
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These scanners are increasing the risk of soft tissue cancer. Our government is killing us with these machines.
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WE DO CHANGE GLOVES, SLAVE!
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WE DO CHANGE GLOVES, SLAVE!
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Fran is very NAZI like and a wind bag
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Fran is very NAZI like
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This is the begining of slavery.
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This is the begining of slavery.
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This is the begining of slavery.
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This is the begining of slavery.
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that bitch should get a strip search
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that bitch should get a strip search
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that bitch should get a strip search
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Ron speaks sense!! No one is asking the question what makes other nations hate USA. USA must’ve done some terrible things in the past for the so called “terrorists” doing all that shit. See Jacque Fresco and the Zeitgeist
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Ron speaks sense!! No one is asking the question what makes other nations hate USA. USA must’ve done some terrible things in the past for the so called “terrorists” doing all that shit. See Jacque Fresco and the Zeitgeist
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I was listening to talk radio and they interviewed a person who was a recovering child predator. He was in a half way house. And he said that talking to others with his same disease who are recovering are disturbed that their sins they know that is sick and wrong, and are trying to stop, they have faced criminal charges on and have severe repercussions in society…..how is it that our government can do the same thing in public and laugh about it like the Nazis did to the Jews as they were coming in naked to the concentration camps? He said they were documenting this data to help their cases. Now that is SCARY!!!!!!!!!!
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RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAULRON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAULRON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL RON PAUL
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Yes I know that, but now you’re just talking around the issue, cos you knew you were blowing smoke out of your ass
It’s not that he actually cares. But if he really thinks he’s gonna hit Americas heart with that “We have rights!” bs, he’s sorely mistaken as we all know just how ready Americans are at giving up their rights.
Touching on the health issue more in-depth, would maybe have scared some of them at least and made them question this technology.
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That you’re not talking out of your ass, lame-o =)
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Kay show me proof, retard.
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Free Publicity on Tv has many and Always changing rules according to maintaining ratings, and owners agendas…
Ron Paul always Tempers Emotions and Questions.
Because without being subtle, calm, and careful of the tongue- People are EASILY Offended in these generations. Words make testicles shrivel, and vagina’s dry up…
People are mostly spineless today, ready to watch, looking to be offended, always afraid to act on what is moral, right and just…afraid to make a Scene…
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