School Bus Drivers Join the Terror Watch

[Kadie]

School Bus Drivers Join the Terror Watch

By BEN FELLER, AP Education Writer
10 minutes ago



NORFOLK, Va. - The war on terror has a new front line — the school bus line.

Financed by the Homeland Security Department, school bus drivers are being trained to watch for potential terrorists, people who may be casing their routes or plotting to blow up their buses.

Designers of the School Bus Watch program want to turn 600,000 bus drivers into an army of observers, like a counterterrorism watch on wheels. Already mindful of motorists with road rage and kids with weapons, bus drivers are now being warned of far more grisly scenarios.

snip...
"The terrorist is not going to be able to do some of their casing and rehearsal activity without being detected by one of you," said Beatty, an anti-terrorism veteran of the CIA, FBI and the Army's Delta Force. The more people watching, he told the drivers, the safer the community will be.

snip...
The program demands strong oversight, said John Rollins, a former senior Homeland Security intelligence official now with Congressional Research Service.

Otherwise, he said, some bus drivers could think of themselves as undercover agents.

"Today it's bus drivers, tomorrow it could be postal officials, and the next day, it could be, 'Why don't we have this program in place for the people who deliver the newspaper to the door?'" Rollins said. "We could quickly get into a society where we're all spying on each other. It may be well intentioned, but there is a concern of going a bit too far."

more....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060217/ap_on_re_us/school_bus_drivers_terrorism_1

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Meanwhile, nuclear plants and chemical plants,

and ports have no plans, no protections.....

[Bozita]

5. but, ... but we can scare the parents of every bus-riding schoolkid whenev

... whenever we need a distraction.

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

2. Watch the road, drive carefully and get my kids to school safely!!

THAT is the job of a bus driver. The rest is nonsense.

[Kadie]

13. Exactly.

I totally agree.

[seabeyond]

3. be wary of pest guys and bus drivers. who else. the boy that bags

my groceries. neigbor up the street.

my child that is told to tell on me

?????

[Bozita]

6. Didn't they talk of getting the cable guys involved?

I feel safer already.

[seabeyond]

10. yes i think the cable guys too n/t

[kenny blankenship]

4. If you don't terrorize them when they're young

they'll never learn to keep their heads down and not ask questions when they're adults.
Good solid plan. Get the gym teachers involved too, they like snooping in lockers and drawers anyway, don't they?

[earth mom]

7. You gotta be kidding me.

The school bus driver I know knows who the REAL terra-ists are and they aren't from the middle east. :eyes:

[sasha031]

8. another brilliant move for Homeland Security

:sarcasm:
they always get thier man

[flordehinojos]

9. bush lives in such a fantasy world! he suffers from the same malidy as

fidel castro, except that castro's malady has been known as PARANOIA, bush's is known as WAR ON TERROR!

I suppose some people have to keep up the war on terror charade. it is the only employment they can get now a days...to work for the homeland security war on terror brigade, it is also the only way they can get any sense of being powerful, or of having a sense of power over others, i.e., snooping on them, snitching on them, tattle telling on them.

this fantasyland is sickening the heart of america!

[Eugene]

11. Operation TIPS in a piecemeal fashion.

The Bushies are operating true to form. If they can't get
something approved, they try it again under a different name
in a roundabout manner.

Operation TIPS proved too controversial. So they are trying again
on a smaller scale. Don't be surprised to learn that your local
cable installer is part of a similar terror awareness program.

[MadHound]

12. Yep, you've got that right

Give it a different name, run it up the flagpole bit by bit, and pretty soon, voila, everybody is spying on everybody else.

More sowing of division and suspicion amongst the people.