The increasing harassment of their members by Homeland Security has caused the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) to begin a political campaign against the agency.
Gotta have your KGB: The increasing harassment of their members by Homeland Security has caused the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) to begin a political campaign against the agency.
The link above takes you what looks like a fundraising letter sent about by the AOPA to its membership. The significance is that they are centering their campaign around the harassment by Homeland Security, which suggests that this harassment has become a very big issue within this community.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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Gotta have your KGB: The increasing harassment of their members by Homeland Security has caused the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) to begin a political campaign against the agency.
The link above takes you what looks like a fundraising letter sent about by the AOPA to its membership. The significance is that they are centering their campaign around the harassment by Homeland Security, which suggests that this harassment has become a very big issue within this community.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
It appears the pilots are asserting their Amendment IV Constitutional rights. I applaud them for it. I see this as a similar issue for passengers traveling within the US, which are currently subjected to TSA body scanning devices or hand pat down searches.
The IV Amendment reads, ‘The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probably cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be searched.’
My interpretation of the current TSA policy, on their security measures for airline passengers, is that they see their searches as being reasonable in light of the fact they are not allowed to profile passengers. I disagree with their policy because they should be searching only those passengers that have been shown to be a risk under the Amendment IV process. However, policy makers have decided these unlawful searches are required and expedient to the commercial airline business, apparently because they do not have the resources and time to search only those passengers who would pose a risk for commercial air travel.
Therefore current TSA policy is expedient to the government’s interests and not our Constitutional rights. Instead of raising our security as passengers (and for the pilots) the government has been treating all passengers as suspects, effectively lowering the standard of air travel and effectively disregarding our rights under the law.
DHS, TSA, et al are American fascist organizations. 1.5 billion hollow point bullets and counting.
Add in the militarization of local police and look at the everyday violation of rights by these local police. 107 year old men aren’t safe from them.
Flying magazine has been reporting on this for a while now: http://www.flyingmag.com/blogs/going-direct/isnt-america
And there was this piece in the Atlantic: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/05/annals-of-the-security-state-even-more-airplane-stories/276239/
The current most-plausible theory is the Feds have some secret interdiction program to nail pilots that may be bringing drugs out of CA and CO. For what it’s worth, that makes sense…but GET A FREAKING WARRANT, BOYS. What the hell happened to being “secure in our persons and property” except when there’s probable cause?
That’s not really a question, of course. I think we all know the answer to that one.
P.S…almost forgot this one: http://www.flyingmag.com/blogs/going-direct/pilot-arrested-charged-doing-nothing
Different cause but similar vein – in this case, a glider pilot riding thermals above a nuke plant (a *great* place for thermals, BTW) is detained for violating a nonexistent “no-fly zone”. Read the story and note one off-the-hook-nuts deputy making noise about shooting it down.
Good grief.
99.999 percent of these pilots did nothing wrong except get in an aircraft and fly, every once in a while a pilot gets caught with contraband stuff on board, but not often enough to justify warrantless searches, and in the case of the glider pilot, he spent the night in jail! the charges were dropped if he promised not to sue the authority’s.