Coast Watch USA

[Pelagic]

Homeland Security to Unveil Plan to Guard Against Small Boat Attacks

WASHINGTON — As boating season approaches, the Bush administration wants to enlist the country's 80 million recreational boaters to help reduce the chances that a small boat could deliver a nuclear or radiological bomb somewhere along the country's 95,000 miles of coastline and inland waterways.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352790,00.html



Is this a good idea or will it encourage the nation to become a home for paranoia and eventual military rule?

[hellosailor]

Oh, thank the gods, finally. Maybe this means I can get the Department of Homeland Insecurity to upgrade by Gatling gun to a proper Phalanx system and reimburse the ammunition expenses, training and targets have been getting REALLY expensive. And getting the millimiter-wave penetration radar and FLIR dome up the masthead, I'm sure I don't have to tell you, has simply been beyond my budget for years now.

Where do I line up to apply for that grant money?! I need it SO BADLY!

[Pelagic]

Maritime Systems

Yeah I think your probably right Hellosailor. I will feel a lot safer when every Bayliner out there is equipped with a compact FLIR and Laser Targeting System.

But do you think they might be able to modify the penis shaped masthead installation?...... It might give some people the wrong idea.

[senormechanico]

With the price of fuel these days, I don't think you're going to see many Bayliners running around.

In the San Juans, that's a good thing, imho.

Steve B.

[David M]

"Excuse me sir, I am with the Recreational Boater Coast Patrol. May I board your boat with my Radio Shack geiger counter to see if you have any radiological weapons with you today?"

[Steve Rust]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

Is this a good idea or will it encourage the nation to become a home for paranoia and eventual military rule?

Become a home for paranoia? I would say we are way past that. This seems like just another effort to keep the country in a state of fear over an almost non-existent threat. While the basic knowledge on how to build an atomic bomb is hardly a secret anymore the practical aspects of actually building one and delivering it are beyond the abilities of a terrorist group. Stealing one is just as unlikely. The myth of the briefcase bombs from the old Soviet Union are just that, a myth. An interesting book on the subject is The Atomic Bazaar by William Langwiesche.

I can see it now. It will be open season on anyone of a Middle Eastern background if they are out on the water. What a joke.

Now maybe this could be used to get rid of that annoying neighbor in a quiet anchorage who runs his generator all night long or blasts out loud music, he's got a bomb on board you know. Or that guy buzzing around on the jetski, he's got it stuffed full or plutonium.

Only 6 more months. It can't come fast enough.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Always useful for a Govt to have half the Population spy on the the other half.

When I was growing up stuff like this was the preserve of folk in East Germany and was derided..........I am guessing the purpose of Homeland Insecurity (I like that!) is to keep folk out, not in*.......this year at least.


* Just remembered reading in the Times of London that the USA is now formalising a procedure (for foreigners) that requires them to have US Govt approval to leave the US. I think only on Aeroplanes at the moment? But not sure of details.

[waterworldly]

Hmmmmm. In Miami, a go-fast boat pulls up every couple of days loaded with Cubans, wet foot dry foot policy you know. Oh, that's right, they all voted for Bush . . . If you can't stop the smuggling of humans right under you nose, how can you stop anything from happening? Just another layer of bull for the scared masses.

[ssullivan]

I used to be upset about this country's direction.

Then I was apathetic.

Now I'm nearly outraged.

I *knew* we were being scanned last time we passed through the East River and on up to LI Sound. My wife and I saw boats lingering in a way that looked like they were scanning every boat passing by the bridges, not just keeping a lookout. I was wondering what beams they were directing at us.

Man... I gotta get out of this place. It's getting dumber and dumber every day. Where did they go so horribly wrong?

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by David_Old_Jersey

Always useful for a Govt to have half the Population spy on the the other half.

When I was growing up stuff like this was the preserve of folk in East Germany and was derided..........

And with the usual German regard for efficiency, they managed to do a very successful job of keeping the population under control by having only 1 in 100 citizens doing the internal spying. Off topic perhaps - I dunno...

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by Wotname

And with the usual German regard for efficiency, they managed to do a very successful job of keeping the population under control by having only 1 in 100 citizens doing the internal spying. Off topic perhaps - I dunno...

.

I would guess that was helped by a German love of order / doing what they are told (I love a good stereotype )....in a "Free Society" probably need a few more.

[Wotname]

Down under it is hard to get public servants working let alone enlisting the general public to undertake voluntary work for the goverment so we might need a ratio say 70% to spy on the other 30%!!!!!

[cooper]

I feel truly saddened by what is been expressed here. I tried to explain my thoughts on another post and perhaps didnt do it very well (hud3).
Australians have a way of speaking in half sentences, and the perception that the listener already knows what you are talking about. It is something I have to think more about when typing on the internet.

If our daily comfort is being reduced "for our own sake" then the "terrorists" have won. Here in Australia, a campaign was started under the slogan "be aware but not alarmed" to be honest it went down like a lead balloon with the general population. (The fridge magnets that we where supplied with from the government inscribed with this information..I kid you not, added to the sense of disbelief).

The power of sensible people who like and trust their protection agency's has to be a formidable weapon. When the social gap increases between "us and them" the flow of information will slow and life for all becomes harder.
If you are in trouble the police are your friends, go to them; thats what kids should be taught. Imagine if they hear their parents (quite rightly) having a discussion about the unnecessary situation that occurred the other day. quote " I cant believe they pulled me over and treated me in that way..they looked just like soldiers"
Having major "visible presence" may stop petty theft, drug crimes and even some serious activities . but sadly it wont stop someone who has decided that their life is so worthless that they need to hurt other people with their own lifes end.
Perhaps the show of military type dress helps make us feel more secure. I still think it is pretty stupid to have a RIB with a bloody big machine gun in the front. I have now seen the pics. It would compromise marine rescue and be patently useless in any kind of aggression.

This is of course only my own reflection, but again I hate to meet with people who feel that they would like to live in a different country than their own, not because of outside threats but because of internal changes......

I hope that was clearer.

[Canibul]

Originally Posted by cooper

I hate to meet with people who feel that they would like to live in a different country than their own, not because of outside threats but because of internal changes......

That's not why I moved out of the USA....but it would sure be a contributing factor if I lived there today.

As for this Homeland Insecurity...I was reading that online this morning, and it just made me sad. The US government wants to spend HOW much money to try to put this in place, and at the end of all of it there's absolutely nothing it will do that would prevent a terrorist from buying a boat and getting whatever license he needs.

They would be better off just giving anyone who turns in a terrorist a million dollar reward. Put a serious bounty on their asses. That would work better, and be cheaper, and produce results. This will just tie up boaters, and add another level of US government bureauocracy. Just what we need.

Why sad? Because I did a quick search to determine the number of law enforcement personnel in the US a few months back while in an argument on another forum. It's incredible how many different brands of law enforcement groups there are, and how many officers. And the majority of them are there to watch US citizens. And one out of every hundred of us is now in jail. Its sad. We are becoming a police state of our own design.

[Steve Rust]

There has been an ongoing effort at the state level for many years to institute some type of operators license for boat owners. Here in Minnesota it pops up every few years and is always shot down. But now enter the Department of Fatherland Security and the GWOT. Now government agencies, local and federal, and other organizations can apply for federal money to institute their pet projects. All they have to do is think up some "security" angle, however tenuous, to justify it. Many of these programs would otherwise never get off the ground due to lack of funds and support at the local level. The GWOT and Fatherland Security have become profit centers for the politically connected and another place for bureaucrats to carve out their little fiefdoms. This national boat license will do nothing to enhance security but it is just another little bit of control the feds can impose on you. It sounds like it got shot down this time but it will be back.

I have to think back at something Ronald Reagen said. " The scariest words in the English language are, I'm from the government and I'm here to help you."

GWOT (global war on terror)