Submitted by Charlton Stanley (Otteray Scribe) guest blogger
This has not gotten much national press….yet. I had been hearing of these events through the aviation grapevine, but did not know for sure it was actually happening until the story of Gabriel Silverstein broke on the AOPA (Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association) news web page. Mr. Silverstein is a New Jersey businessperson who was returning from a business trip to California with his husband. He had filed a flight plan, and landed his Cirrus SR22, a small private aircraft, in Oklahoma for a fuel stop. At that time, he was subjected to a ramp check. By Federal Air Regulations, a ramp check is supposed to be done only by an FAA official. On a standard ramp check, the pilot has to produce documents showing the airplane is airworthy, is registered, and has the paperwork on board as required under Part 91 of the Federal Air Regulations. The pilot must show his or her pilot’s license and medical certificate. The Oklahoma ramp check was brief, and he went on his way. He had to stop for fuel again in Iowa City. Upon arrival, he went into the FBO (Fixed Base Operator) office to pay for his gas, take a break and file a new flight plan. When he returned to his plane, he found it surrounded by officers, being searched without his permission, and with no explanation. The officers said “Probable Cause” was the K-9 dog had “hit” on the baggage compartment. The officers ordered him to be quiet, and if he asked any more questions, he would spend the rest of the day in the back of a police cruiser in handcuffs.
CPB captions this as being at their Air and Marine Operations Center
One officer handed Mr. Silverstein a business card identifying him as being with the Department of Customs and Border Protection. Mr. Silverstein says the brown uniforms and shoulder patches he saw that day were identical to the one worn by the officer on the right in this stock CPB photo. On their web page, the CPB identifies this location as being at their Air and Marine Operations Center. I think we can safely assume this is not the main operations room, but only part of the operation.
Geography was not my favorite subject in school, but last time I looked, both Oklahoma and Iowa are a long way from any international border.
More Border Patrol and Homeland Security goodness over the jump, including a video interview with Mr. Silverstein.
This link is to the AOPA news page. There is a video interview with Mr. Silverstein where he gives his explanation of what happened (sorry, I can’t get it to embed). Since AOPA first broke that story, they have followed up with another account: Fresh reports of aircraft searches, CBP has little to say
Two CBP Air Interdiction officers stopping a small twin-engine plane on a runway.
Reason given? “Suspicion.”
James Fallows of The Atlantic has also covered the story in some detail. The pilot accounts he reports are chilling. Apparently, the simple fact that one is flying from west to east across the country is enough to arouse suspicion and bring out these guys to greet you.
In one incident, the officers wanted their dog to jump up on the wing of an airplane. The owner said he would allow it if the officer would take personal responsibility and sign a document attesting that he would pay for repainting the plane if the dog’s paws scratched the paint, and it would have to be witnessed by all the other 19 officers present.
Some of the pilots detained for these “ramp checks” report that when CPB agents can’t find anything, they seem to become increasingly angry and frustrated.
There has been at least one report where an agent started taking inspection plates off an airplane. That is illegal, since those inspection panels should only be removed (and replaced) by an FAA certified and licensed aircraft technician.
The CPB has developed a huge electronic net called the Air and Marine Operations Surveillance System (AMOSS). According to an online statement:
“AMOSS utilizes extensive law enforcement and intelligence databases, and tracking and communications networks to provide a single display that is capable of tracking over 24,000 individual targets.”
The CPB admits to monitoring FAA and military radar systems, but its full capability is unknown.
There are increasing numbers of heavy-handed searches. In one incident, a 70 year old glider pilot was forced down and arrested after flying over a nuclear plant, despite the fact no flight restrictions are shown on any chart, there are no NOTAMS (Notice to Airmen), and no listed TFRs (Temporary Flight Restrictions). Additionally, gliders, being unpowered aircraft, have the right of way over all other air traffic except balloons. Glider pilot Robin Fleming is interviewed here by AOPA:
When his case went to court, the charges were dropped, provided he sign a statement agreeing to not sue the law enforcement agencies and officers involved in his illegal arrest and detention.
This is just another chapter in the growing police state the US is becoming in the name of the “War on Terror” and the “War on Drugs.”
The floor is open for discussion and additional stories if any aviators out there have them. Personally, I would love to get a response from the CPB explaining just what they hope to accomplish by these draconian stops with no probable cause other than a general aviation plane is flying from west to east.
I am offering an open invitation to Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Acting Commissioner Thomas Winkowski to log on and explain themselves.
“The leak of NSA information is particularly troubling for Booz Allen because of its close relationship with the CIA and other American intelligence agencies. As the Guardian noted, Booz Allen Vice Chairman Mike McConnell served as director of national intelligence under the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush. McConnell was also a Booz Allen employee before taking the DNI job.
Other Booz Allen employees with high-level ties to the intelligence community include James Woolsey, who has been both a CIA director and a Booz Allen vice president at various times in his career; Melissa Hathaway, a former Booz Allen executive who served as an aide to McConnell during his time in government; and Dale Watson, the former assistant director of the Counterterrorism Division of the FBI who began working at Booz Allen after his retirement from the FBI in 2002. ” International Business Times
I was just wondering where that misplaced shipment of racist dildos went to . . .
Karl Smith the white pilots are not dealing drugs, stealing, robbing cars and houses or carrying guns and killing each other.Until those black kids figure out that it is wrong to commit crime they will be targeted.
Thank you Max-1 …
Let’s boil down what we are saying …
Swarthmore mom
Welcome to das Reich! They even have the uniform color correct: brown. Now all they need are armbands.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2013/jun/09/nsa-whistleblower-edward-snowden-interview-video
The Guardian’s source for the leaks from the National Security Agency has outed himself as 29-year-old Edward Snowden, a GED holder high-school drop-out* who later tried to join the U.S. Army Special Forces and developed a knack for digital security systems, leading to his most recent position as a $200,000 a year NSA-contractor with Booz Allen Hamilton based in Hawaii. Snowden left the U.S. and stationed himself in Hong Kong in advance of his planned campaign of top secret document leaks, and is hoping to be granted asylum in Iceland, according to a Sunday bombshell report in The Guardian by Glenn Greenwald, Ewan MacAskill and Laura Poitrass.
According to their report, Snowden is currently in fear for his future and his life, but also at peace with the choice he has made to release the documents on U.S. electronic surveillance. He said he fully expects the U.S. government to seek punish him.
One thing the privacy-rights advocate seems not to have fully considered is the role of the media and, especially, of amateur Internet sleuths in the United States in making his life unpleasant and stripping him of all privacy in the months ahead. He is about to become one of the most highly-scrutinized public figures in the world.
Snowden said he voted for a third party in 2008, though he did not specify which third party he voted for — the Libertarian Party, the Green Party, the Constitution Party and others ran candidates that year — and had been wanting to be a whistleblower since before Obama was elected, but held off in hopes surveillance policies would change more than they have under the Democratic president.
“A lot of people in 2008 voted for Obama. I did not vote for him. I voted for a third party. But I believed in Obama’s promises. I was going to disclose it [but waited because of his election]. He continued with the policies of his predecessor,” Snowden said in an interview The Guardian posted online.
* The first version of The Guardian piece described Snowden as a high-school dropout, which raised a lot of eyebrows as the U.S. Army does not take people without either a high school diploma or a General Equivalency Diploma, with very rare exceptions. The paper later clarified that he holds a GED.” Atlantic Wire
voltaic:
if I remember correctly both dems and repubs voted for that hateful thing.
And both dems and repubs knew what was going on in regard to all you said right above.
I think the GOP is more to blame, they should have known better. Dem politicians for the most part are authoritarians as has been amply demonstrated in the last few years.
Both parties need a time out and the adults, if there are any left in the United States, need to take back the asylum from the inmates.
A big part of the problem is the b-crats, they are mostly democrat and I imagine they think they are supporting the cause. But they arent and I think they need some re-education on the role of government, civil liberties, individual rights and their role in the big picture.
These arrogant fuks at the heads of these agencies and the management 3-6 tiers down should lose their jobs, their pensions and never be allowed to work in government again.
Any congressman or senator who became a millionaire while in office had better prove how they made that money and they better prove it in a court of law or it gets confiscated and they go home with no pensions either.
This BS has been going on far too long, time for the pendulum to swing the other way.
G.Mason 1, June 9, 2013 at 3:33 pm
Revolution
We must revolt.
If we do not have a Revolution and remove the tyranny that now controls our government, we will lose it forever.
The only answer now is a Revolution of non violence. We must overthrow the fascist Big Brother
July 4th shall be the first protest
======================================
Identify your enemy.
It is that which does damage to public freedom.
Who ya gonna call?
You and everyone else can’t do anything without believing someone else.
If you can’t believe who wrote the document government officials take an oath to uphold, the U.S. Constitution, what has happened to you:
(James Madison). The security state is founded on your not believing that.
And you will suffer charges of blasphemy if you refuse to adhere to the Wartocracy.
All you have to do is be peaceful.
At all costs.
It will destroy them.
Bron,
You may not realize this, but the GOP instituted the “Patriot” Act, they allowed the phone companies to hand over info without a warrant and then gave the telecos immunity, they started wars over WMDs (lies, on top of ies), they started Guantanamo, they approved of torturing enemy “combatants”, they started offshoring of torture to black sites. Shall I continue? I’m not a Democrat since they are just as distasteful as GOP, and even have weaker spines (if any) when it comes to civil liberties, but to say that GOP only pushes policies that are not instituted is being partisan blind.
Why was CBP even involved in this to begin with? And the dog “hitting” on it. I wonder how many times this dog has false positives. Maybe that doesn’t matter if the hound’s name is “pre-text Rex”
Where was the reasonable suspicion this aircraft crossed an international border? Was that articulated? and what about this Business Card. I would have expected a commission card to be displayed. Anybody with a business card and a good tailor could claim to be a LEO. No commission card, no proper identification of the person being a LEO and hence questionable authority to do as they are doing.
Abuse is becoming more of a factor with these types of actions. Terrorists and drug runners are not everywhere.
The combination of more and more police state tactics, false flag
operations and hoaxes such as Sandy Hook, Boston Marathon, Aurora
Colorado movie theater, 9/11, “killing” of fake OBL – who actually died in December, 2001 etc. is partly why we see more nut case events such as in
Santa Monica ( which might well actually be another inside job).
Revolution
We must revolt.
If we do not have a Revolution and remove the tyranny that now controls our government, we will lose it forever.
The only answer now is a Revolution of non violence. We must overthrow the fascist Big Brother
July 4th shall be the first protest
Like the guy in the “antidote” video I posted above, the whistleblower true patriot has made a public statement about why he is resisting Big Brother:
(Guardian, includes video interview). Right on brother!!!!
Apathy is the steroids of Big Brother.
Interesting…. How close is the airport to 100 miles of the international border…. Give or take 100 miles from the posting Gene did earlier….. This is crazy….. Welcome to the Happy Police State….
OS, I have been to the EAA Convention in Oshkosh. That would dispel the myth, mostly regular folks who just love aircraft..and beer!
Landing safely though? Different story.