Uncampaign News

Under the guise of national security (NS), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Transportation Security Administration (TSA) created a program called Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR), comprised of federal air marshals (FAM), surface transportation security inspectors (STSI), transportation security officers (TSO), behavior detection officers (BDO) and explosives detection canine teams (EDCT).

Like the tentacles of Cthulu, the TSA's operations have begun to slither out beyond air travel safety. The TSA used the 2004 train bombings in Madrid as an excuse to invade privacy on rail and mass transit systems across the nation. Looking to expand the VIPR concept beyond the rail sector to other forms of mass transit, in 2007 the TSA tentacles began probing several high-volume ferry operators (FO), to provide additional security services (ASS), particularly during the summer months when the number of peasants to be intimidated is at its peak.

When asked about benefits of VIPR operations around highly-traveled transportation systems in the greater-Providence area, Joseph S. Salter, TSA's federal security director for Rhode Island, a job that pays $106,468-$165,032, bullshitted (BSed), "VIPR teams improve interagency communications and our ability to leverage resources quickly. Working closely with our transportation partners and law enforcement, we're ensuring resources are deployed efficiently and in a complementary fashion, providing an effective first line of defense against terrorism."

In the latest development, Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security (TDSHS) ganged up with VIPR teams to set up simultaneous checks at truck weigh stations (TWS) across the state on Tuesday (TUE), in a coordinated effort to pretend like the agencies are enhancing traffic security (TS) on interstate highways (IH) in Tennessee (TN). Tuesday's VIPR operations were a mish-mash of various police departments and the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP), as well as the TDSHS.

Highly-paid federal and state agents pretended to carefully inspect trucks and other vehicles to identify security threats at each of these locations. In addition, the THP played with drug and bomb sniffing dogs during random, unwarranted searches of civilian vehicles. It is not yet clear why officials correlate drugs with terrorism, when any supposed links to terrorism are directly caused by prohibition.

Officials admitted that Tuesday's spectacle was not based on any credible threat, but rather was supposed to provide visible deterrence (VD) and show the people of Tennessee that the government is serious about transportation safety.