[voyageur]

The Department of Homeland Security hopes to train a posse of 400,000 truck drivers in the next few years who have volunteered to serve as highway spies looking for terrorists.
Time article.
Truckers attend classes to learn how to spot suspicious behavior. They are discouraged from "profiling"; however, the message doesn't seem to be getting through:

After the session in Little Rock, two newly initiated Highway Watch members sat down for the catered barbecue lunch. The truckers, who haul hazardous material across 48 states, explained how easy it is to spot "Islamics" on the road: just look for their turbans. Quite a few of them are truck drivers, says William Westfall of Van Buren, Ark. "I'll be honest. They know they're not welcome at truck stops. There's still a lot of animosity toward Islamics." Eddie Dean of Fort Smith, Ark., also has little doubt about his ability to identify Muslims: "You can tell where they're from. You can hear their accents. They're not real clean people."

That kind of prejudice is hard to undo, but it's a shame Beatty's slide show did not mention that in the U.S., it's almost always Sikhs who wear turbans, not Muslims. Last year a Sikh truck driver who was wearing a turban was shot twice while standing near his tractor trailer in Phoenix, Ariz. He survived the attack, which police are investigating as a hate crime.

10,000 truckers have been trained so far.

[eklipse]

Let paranoia reign!

[Spliffdaddy]

10,000 workers trained.

9.5 million commercial drivers license holders

3.08 million "long haul" truckers

and one hate-related crime with personal injury.



whoa. look. the sky is falling.

[voyageur]

I wonder about the wisdom of the government encouraging minimally trained private citizens to act as its amateur spies.

[cpt kangarooski]

Originally posted by voyageur:
I wonder about the wisdom of the government encouraging minimally trained private citizens to act as its amateur spies.

Perhaps we should ask the East Germans for advice regarding the subject. IIRC something like 1 in 4 people informed to the Stasi

[Dr.HermanG.]

Is it any different than a neighborhood watch?

OMFG!11!! My neighbors might be spying on me

[Zimphire]

Originally posted by Dr.HermanG.:
Is it any different than a neighborhood watch?

OMFG!11!! My neighbors might be spying on me

[itai195]

You sure are proud of that photo aren't you zimph? I think I'll report you to the proper authorities; wearing an aluminum foil hat is kind of unusual.

[andi*pandi]

well, I for one am disconcerted to see that even after being "trained" the truck drivers didn't know the difference between Sikhs and "Islamics."

What the heck kind of training was it?

[Zimphire]

Originally posted by itai195:
You sure are proud of that photo aren't you zimph? I think I'll report you to the proper authorities; wearing an aluminum foil hat is kind of unusual.

Lost of tin foil threads in this forum.

[PacHead]

When was the last time our homeland was threatened by people coming here inorder to commit terrorism ? We caught some Germans here sent to commit acts of sabotage back then, and now we have to be aware of islamic terrorists who are here, or trying to come here trying to commit mass-murder against Americans or anybody else for that matter.

This is not about "ratting" out anybody or falsely accusing anybody, it is about repsonsible citizens reporting highly suspicious behavior, which could in turn help foil or diminish the effects of any barbaric actions which the primitive enemy wishes to inflict upon us.

Some people don't seem to realize that we are indeed at war, and the war won't be over for quite awhile. I would characterize these people as extremely naive. Where is your backbone people ? The islamic terrorists aren't going away, and they will continue to try and plot against us, until we eliminate them all. They have declared a world war against us, and it would be extremely foolish for anybody not to take this seriously. What more proof than 9-11 do you need ? Another 9-11 ? Two more 9-11's ?

The plane that was brought down over Pennsylvania, when the passengers realized they had to take some action is an example of an extremely courageous act. If the same people who mock these added security measures were on that plane, it would probably not have been brought down, as they'd still be sitting in their seatbelts, waiting to perish.

[BlackGriffen]

Originally posted by PacHead:
When was the last time our homeland was threatened by people coming here inorder to commit terrorism ?

You're really poorly informed if you think that terrorism is an exclusively American problem. I'll list a few off the top of my head:

• England and the IRA
• Japan and the nerve gas attacks in their subways
• The Philippines and Islamic rebels
• Columbia and the drug trade.

BlackGriffen

[tie]

No big deal, I don't think it is part of any slippery slope. For once, I agree with Zimphire and PacHead. (Which however makes me think I must be wrong. )

[voyageur]

Originally posted by tie:
No big deal, I don't think it is part of any slippery slope. For once, I agree with Zimphire and PacHead. (Which however makes me think I must be wrong. )

I would agree except for two things.
1) If I were a Muslim trucker. How does it feel to be "not welcome at truck stops"?
2) The US's penchant for holding "suspected terrorists" without recourse to the usual legal channels.

[andi*pandi]

Originally posted by PacHead:
This is not about "ratting" out anybody or falsely accusing anybody, it is about repsonsible citizens reporting highly suspicious behavior, which could in turn help foil or diminish the effects of any barbaric actions...

being alert is all well and good, but those truckers quoted in that article didn't seem to responsible. Seems like they'd be the type to report anyone with dark skin as being suspicious. Or anybody "foreign" sounding/looking.

Besides the bigotted aspects of that, irresponsible reporting would bog down the system and we might miss an actual terrorist needle while filtering thru the haystack of innocents.

Inefficient.

[PacHead]

Originally posted by BlackGriffen:
You're really poorly informed if you think that terrorism is an exclusively American problem. I'll list a few off the top of my head:

• England and the IRA
• Japan and the nerve gas attacks in their subways
• The Philippines and Islamic rebels
• Columbia and the drug trade.

BlackGriffen

And you're really drawing some huge conclusions and assuming alot, since you are attributing words and thoughts to me which I have never typed. Of course I am aware that terrorism exists other places in the worlds.

But what's your point really ? You list a few other terrorist groups, but what are you suggesting ? That we not take our terrorism seriously, because other people have been afflicted by terrorism also ?

Those things you listed can hardly compare to 9-11.

The IRA ? In the past 30-40 years, only some hundred have died as a result of their terrorism.

The Japanese wacko cult sarin attacks ? How many people died in that ? A handful, I believe 12 in Tokyo. The leader was executed no ?

The things you are listing cannot be compared to 9-11 in anyway or shape or form.

The terrorists who are out to get us are not trying to kill a handful of people, they are trying to commit genocide. Hey, let's not go after muslim terrorists, because the English have been dealing with the IRA for decades ! What a wonderful logic.

Those other terrorists you list are kindergarden level compared to Al-Qaeda. Killing 10 or 20 people in a pub is not the same as killing thousands in a few hours, while taking a major blow to the whole economy. It was a declaration of war, and anybody trying to detract from this or minimize the intentions of the muslim terrorists who attacked us is not going to succeed.

The fanatical terrorists know that they will have an extremely hard time with trying to repeat any attack with commercial airliners, so they are exploring other methods, and we should be on the lookout for these.

[PacHead]

Originally posted by andi*pandi:
being alert is all well and good, but those truckers quoted in that article didn't seem to responsible. Seems like they'd be the type to report anyone with dark skin as being suspicious. Or anybody "foreign" sounding/looking.

Besides the bigotted aspects of that, irresponsible reporting would bog down the system and we might miss an actual terrorist needle while filtering thru the haystack of innocents.

Inefficient.

There are not too bright people everywhere, and just because the article managed to find one of them and quote them is not a sufficient reason to say that this is a bad program. There are bad cops out there also. Should we dismantle the police force ?

[Zimphire]

Originally posted by BlackGriffen:
You're really poorly informed if you think that terrorism is an exclusively American problem.

[voyageur]

Originally posted by PacHead:
There are not too bright people everywhere, and just because the article managed to find one of them and quote them is not a sufficient reason to say that this is a bad program. There are bad cops out there also. Should we dismantle the police force ?

An entity like the police force is easier to oversee than a posse of amateur volunteers.

[itai195]

I don't necessarily have a problem with training people to be vigilant. It's what they are allowed to do, and what's done with the information they collect that I'd worry about more.

[Randman]

I wish more truckers were trained to keep an eye on the road first and foremost.

[Zimphire]

Originally posted by Randman:
I wish more truckers were trained to keep an eye on the road first and foremost.

Not to mention not throwing out "**** bombs" a long the road.

[BlackGriffen]

Originally posted by PacHead:
And you're really drawing some huge conclusions and assuming alot, since you are attributing words and thoughts to me which I have never typed.

Not reading this post any further. Upon careful rereading the quote I excerpted in the post you're replying to (which was about all of that post I read), I realized that my sleep addled brain stuck a 'y' in front of "our" to make "your."

My mistake, I apologize.

BlackGriffen

[alphasubzero949]

Originally posted by Randman:
I wish more truckers were trained to keep an eye on the road first and foremost.

Agreed. It's not the trucker's responsibility to do Homeland Security's job. There has been no terrorist attack since 9/11 (which could have been orchestrated by Bush and his cronies). None. Zero. Zip. Believe the right-wing controlled media all you want (no, they're NOT liberal...go do some research on the parent corps). The same tactics used by Communist/fascist regimes are now being deployed here using fear as the medium (despite the neo-Nazi conservatives in here who think that the liberals are Communists). How can a trucker differentiate between a terrorist and an ordinary citizen? Does "Middle Eastern looking" qualify as a "possible terrorist?" Truckers are meant to haul goods, not to be the gestapo for the government. If anything this further shows how much of a joke DHS is when they have to ask truckers to do their dirty work.

[Zimphire]

Originally posted by alphasubzero949:
Believe the right-wing controlled media all you want