A "shocking" development

What the non Muslim traveling public looks like to the TSA Mall Security goons

from Want Some Torture With Your Peanuts?

Hat Tip to Libertarian Punk

Just when you thought you’ve heard it all...

A senior government official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has expressed great interest in a so-called safety bracelet that would serve as a stun device, similar to that of a police Taser®. According to this promotional video found at the Lamperd Less Lethal, Inc. website, the bracelet would be worn by all airline passengers (video also shown below).

This bracelet would:

• Take the place of an airline boarding pass

• Contain personal information about the traveler

• Be able to monitor the whereabouts of each passenger and his/her luggage

• Shock the wearer on command, completely immobilizing him/her for several minutes

The Electronic ID Bracelet, as it’s referred to, would be worn by every traveler “until they disembark the flight at their destination.” Yes, you read that correctly. Every airline passenger would be tracked by a government-funded GPS, containing personal, private and confidential information, and would shock the customer worse than an electronic dog collar if the passenger got out of line.

Clearly the Electronic ID Bracelet is a euphemism for the EMD Safety Bracelet, or at least it has a nefarious hidden ability (thus the term ID Bracelet is ambiguous at best). EMD stands for Electro-Musclar Disruption. Again, according to the promotional video, the bracelet can completely immobilize the wearer for several minutes.

So is the government really that interested in this bracelet?

Apparently so.

According to this letter from DHS official, Paul S. Ruwaldt of the Science and Technology Directorate, office of Research and Development, which was written to the inventor whom he had previously met with, Ruwaldt wrote, “To make it clear, we [the federal government] are interested in . . . the immobilizing security bracelet, and look forward to receiving a written proposal.”

The letterhead, in case you were wondering, is from a U.S. Department of Homeland Security office at the William J. Hughes Technical Center at the Atlantic City International Airport, or the Federal Aviation Administration headquarters.

In another part of the letter, Mr. Ruwaldt confirmed, “In addition, it is conceivable to envision a use to improve air security, on passenger planes.”

Would every paying airline passenger flying on a commercial airplane be mandated to wear one of these devices? I cringe at the thought. Not only could it be used as a physical restraining device, but also as a method of interrogation, according to the same aforementioned letter from Mr. Ruwaldt.

Would you let them put one of those on your wrist? Would you allow the airline employees, which would be mandated by the government, to place such a bracelet on any member of your family?

Why are tax dollars being spent on something like this?

Is this a police state or is this America?

UPDATE: Lamperd Less Lethal Inc., the Canadian company that designed the EMD Safety Bracelet, has responded to the controversy as follows:

We wish to clear up any misconceptions regarding the EMD Safety Bracelet for Airline Security.

The bracelets remain inactive until a hijacking situation has been identified. At such time a designated crew member will activate the bracelets making them capable of delivering the punitive measure - but only to those that need to be restrained. We believe that all passengers will welcome deliverance from a hijacking, as will the families, carriers, insurance providers etc. The F-16 on the wing-tip is not to reassure the passengers during a hijacking, but rather to shoot them down. Besides activation using the grid screen, the steward / stewardess will have a laser activator that can activate any bracelet as needed by simply pointing the laser at the bracelet - that laser dot only needs to be within 10 inches of the bracelet to activate it.

* * * * *

UPDATE: From CheifBo in the comment section

I would like to inform all interested in the truth about Lamperd's involvement in this project [EMD safety bracelet]. I have personally been involved in the research and development of state of the art training programs and weapon systems with Lapmerd Less Lethal for the past eight years and have found them to be of the highest of integrity and concern for human life and the preservation of peace. Their mission is to develop and distribute the best products in the world when it comes to Law Enforcement, Security and Military applications within use of force. Having been a sworn law enforcement officer for nearly 27 years and a police trainer in Use of Force Management since 1993 I have observed alot of devices and gimmicks that have come and gone as the catch all in securing America.

Lamperd agreed in principal to assist in the development of this product for the patent holder [inventor]. Once this is established, then more research is placed on the actual application of the device. We conduct our training hands on, we do not farm it out as others do. So before we are ready to place a product on the market we know what it is expected to do and how it is expected to perform. We also go through great lengths to put in place a training program that will school even the novice in safely using any product used in applying force in any situation. I think alot of the readers have jumped the gun when it comes to this issue and this certain product. Lamperd is a publicly traded company that keeps its shareholders informed on its latest products and projects. I admire them for this and so do thousands of police, military and security personnel from all around the world that we have trained. Please feel free to peruse their internet site for continuing updates on products and its mission at www.lamperdlesslethal.com and be safe out there.



...So MUSLIM terrorists attack us, and we are turned into CRIMINALS because we want to use aircraft to travel. While MUSLIM MEN are the perps, The anti- Americans insist we all have to be turned into perps so we do not hurt MUSLIM feelings. The lisping Obot talking point machine says that profiling MUSLIMS would be racist and that will make things worse. Maybe the twits should be worrying about treating Americans as CRIMINALS who only crime is wanting to travel as Humans instead of livestock...



...And if you want to stop the terrible carbon footprint of air travel, why not make it so vile to do so your eco-madness aims are met without having to be the bad guy who bans it through law!!

Update...

from http://hotair.com/archives/2010/01/05/breaking-michael-yon-arrested-at-seattle-airport/

Thank goodness our Homeland Security people are on the job after the EunuchBomber botched attack on Christmas Day. We certainly don’t want to have independent war correspondents passing through our airports without revealing their annual income:

Got arrested at the Seattle airport for refusing to say how much money I make. (The uniformed ones say I was not “arrested”, but they definitely handcuffed me.) Their videos and audios should show that I was polite, but simply refused questions that had nothing to do with national security. Port authority police eventually came — they were professionals — and rescued me from the border bullies.

When they handcuffed me, I said that no country has ever treated me so badly. Not China. Not Vietnam. Not Afghanistan. Definitely not Singapore or India or Nepal or Germany, not Brunei, not Indonesia, or Malaysia, or Kuwait or Qatar or United Arab Emirates. No county has treated me with the disrespect can that can be expected from our border bullies.

Jazz Shaw wonders what the hell is going on:

Very strange. Even if you’re into profiling, Yon would hardly fit one you’d be interested in. Of course, his passport, by now, doubtless has a list of countries stamped into it which could give an inspector pause, but that’s no excuse. Very, very strange. I expect this one will be high profile enough that you’ll see an apology coming from the government.

Unless there is more to this story, an apology would be the least owed to Yon. When an American citizen with a valid passport presents himself for travel, there should be some reasonable screening to verify identity and to determine whether there is a physical risk, ie, weapons and the like. Why should border security be interested in Yon’s annual income? How does that relate to national security and border protection? Unless this is an arm of the Internal Revenue Service, it doesn’t, and Yon was right to refuse to answer the question.

Instead of hassling American citizens about their income or watching the ice melt, how about paying attention to actual security and intelligence issues? Please?

Who is Michael Yon?

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/

Michael Yon is a former Green Beret, native of Winter Haven, Fl. who has been reporting from Iraq and Afghanistan since December 2004. No other reporter has spent as much time with combat troops in these two wars. Michael’s dispatches from the frontlines have earned him the reputation as the premier independent combat journalist of his generation. His work has been featured on “Good Morning America,” The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, CNN, ABC, FOX, as well as hundreds of other major media outlets all around the world.

Michael had previously written a critically acclaimed memoir, Danger Close. He was authoring another book when two of his friends died on consecutive days in Iraq (one of them being Winter Haven native Scott Helvenston). Following accounts in the American press, Michael became concerned that we were losing the war. At the same time, friends in the military said that the media was not telling the whole story. Not wanting to take sides in the increasingly acrimonious argument over the war, Michael simply wanted to learn the truth for himself, and to report without fear or favor. He decided to go to Iraq, financing his trip from his own pocket for more than half a year, then eventually receiving generous contributions from readers of his online magazine: MichaelYon-Online.com. As early as February 2005, Michael described the violence in Iraq as a civil war. In 2006, he said we were losing in Afghanistan. In 2007, he was the first reporter to claim the success of “the Surge.” When he first voiced these opinions, they were extremely controversial. Now they are conventional wisdom.

In 2008 Michael published his second book, Moment of Truth in Iraq, which is packed with exciting and heart-rending tales from the battlefields.

Even as main stream media is quietly pulling their reporters from Iraq in the wake of a weakened economy, Michael is preparing to return to Afghanistan in 2009, and from his observations and insight, Afghanistan is going to be much worse than anything we saw in Iraq and the conflict there could continue for decades.

Reporting from a war zone is very rough on equipment, Michael is constantly having to have his equipment repaired and replaced. Without the continued support and contributions of readers it will be impossible for him to continue his mission in Afghanistan and reporting on the victory in Iraq.

...A REAL reporter (as in a reporter who reports stories, vs. a "MSM "reporter" who is a Obot spin doctor).

...Land of the free? MY A$$.