A Hassle At the Border

How I wish Americans would familiarize themselves with the free movement of persons and goods across borders in the European Union. Check points, customs searches, and the like have disappeared. You cross European national borders the way, today, you cross most state borders in the United States (an exception being the agricultural check-points on the California border). French people and Italians have had to get used to the fact that Romanians and Bulgarians can settle freely among them (and many Frenchmen and Italians resent the presence of these "third world" Europeans). In contrast, we brand many Mexicans who have settled in the United States as "illegals", and we have placed a fence along parts of the US-Mexican border comparable to the barriers that used to separate the communist bloc countries and the West (i.e. the border between Austria and Hungary). Wasn't NAFTA supposed to lead to a North American area of free trade and free movement? If so, it is light years behind the EU in terms of establishing free movement. As for security, were the Americans to collaborate with and to trust their Canadian and Mexican neighbors in matters of security and to develop common immigration policies, the northern security and immigration border of the United States could be the oceans surrounding much of Canada and the southern southern security and immigration border could be the rather short land frontier separating Mexico from Guatemala and Belize. Are Americans ready to bite the bullet in this regard?

Thank you for this article. It is good to know what everyday things could set off these alarms. It is also a demonstration that TERROSISTS ARE NOT CROSSING THE BORDER WITH THEIR WEAPONS, IF THEY ARE CROSSING THE BORDER AT ALL!

While I do think the censors are a good investment, the public should be made aware that the border is not where the serious threats are.

Our government places so much emphasis on the border crossings to create fear and the illusion that the problem is being taken care of. The real problem is not at the border, someone who truly wants to harm us and has some genius plan to do so, wouldn't risk it all at the point of entry.

To Mark Hosenball - It took Newsweek six years to report this? It's old news (ZZzzz). My autistic kid would have responded faster.

Thank you for that article. Only goes to show that TERRORISTS AREN'T CROSSING THE BORDER WITH THEIR WEAPONS. THEY'RE SMARTER THAN THAT!

Patients are informed by their doctors that the type of test they are recieving will set off the radiation alarms at the border, and might be delayed at the border because of this. Yet the people who do have these tests travel to Canada and Mexico anyway. Depending on what type of nuclear isotope was used for their medical test, it can take anywhere from two to six weeks for the isotope to leave the body. Officers at the border are only doing their job in trying to determine what type of isotope was used in the medical procedure. Granted there has not been any known terrorist who has attempted to cross with nuclear materials, (or have they and we have just not been informed about it), yet the one time that a terrorist does try to attempt such a task, I know that the oficers at the border will be prepared when such an incident does occur. That is what they are trained for.

OMG, are you people just totally stupid. You don't think that maybe they have yet to find a real terrorist threat is because they are using the RPM. If you are driving down the highway speeding and see the police ahead parked on the side of the road, do you slow down or keep speeding by them. Hello, you slow down because the one enforcing the law you are breaking is waiting for you. If the terrorist know the RPM's are up and working, that is not the way they are going to try to smuggle their bombs. Terrorist are not stupid. Crazy but not stupid. Besides it is the congress that keeps touting that ever container must be inspected. IMPOSSIBLE YOU MORONS. If they decided to inspect ever single container that arrived on only 1 day into all US ports, commerce would stop and there would be food shortages for months. You people need to understand the big picture before you spout off about things like this.

Many posters have said that because there have been no terrorists caught, the system must be working. This would only be supported if terrorists had been successful crossing the border before the system was implemented. Were they? Not to my knowledge. Terrorists are sneaky people. If they know there will be a screening, they won't avoid it--they'll just avoid assembling their weapons before they go through it.

A 300 million dollar knee-jerk by the bush regime. Who would have thunk that bushco would at least get this one right, but zero results out of 1.5 million searches proves that this so-called Dept of Homeland (in)security has it's head up it's ***. If terrorist wanted to attack us again, they would have done so already. All this fear mongering is doing, is hiding the failures of this utterly incompetent regime. The way bushco has wasted human lives, national treasure and the image the US used to have around the world (Abu-Graib, Guantanamo bay, torture) have done more damage to the US than any terrorist could have!

Confirm the me me me thinking the government is STUPID. I would have thought one of the geniuses developing this system would be able to come up with workarounds. Remember, you folks that think we are whining that there is a cost and expense of doing business. If we devote resources to false reads we are NOT deploying those resources properly to the real problems. As always hassle the innocent and those with cat litter. Do you have any understanding how idiotic this all is.

In spite of my me me me attitude, the government is STUPID. That's right, hassle those not involved in terrorism. Now I would think one of the great minds could figure out a procedure that prevents some of this. I might point out there is a cost of doing business here with these false reads and thus those resources are not devoted to the true problem.

Those of you complaining are showing the typical self-absorbed mindlessness of me,me,me. Has it occured to any of you that the reason they haven't spotted any Terrorists bringing radioactive material in is because they don't want to get caught? Hello! That's a sign it's working! You all whine about a little inconvenience because you need your precious cheapskate goods but let something happen because we took the security measures off and then you'll be here sniveling that "the Government should have done something! boo-hoo-hoo!" If you think a little delay at the border is inconvenient, travel to Israel and see how long it takes to board a flight. Our government didn't create an "atmosphere of fear", you did because you wanted cheap goods and wanted to pay slave labor wages to illegals so your lawn would look nice and you didn't have to do the work.
Well one of those illegals you love hiring just shot and killed one of our Border Agents in Florida, right in front of his wife and twelve year old son. Mexican soldiers crossed into the US and held another one at gunpoint, threatening to shoot him. Frankly, if it were up to me, I would not only build a fence, I would dig a moat under it with sixteen foot high smooth concrete walls. If you didn't like it, I'd point to the exit gate and tell you not to let it hit you on your fat butts on the way out.

Talk to Cheney. Where are the attacks. Its so easy for someone to walk into a casino or a mall and blow themselves up. Its easy because they are not trying to get away and not get caught. So where are they. A crazy man and teenager caused sheer terror in Virginia by killing citizens. The reason there has not been any new attacks is they don't have permission from Cheney.

This is just one more example of how this administration has cultivated a climate of fear in order to induce the public to accept encroachments that would, under normal circumstances, be clearly viewed as intolerable. The paranoia bred by these efforts also serves to turn neighbor against neighbor, so we dissipate our energies squabbling among ourselves, rather than addressing the source of the problem(s).
I'll honestly try to avoid stepping on toes with this, but an unknown (because it's classified) amount of money has been siphoned from the public coffers under this administration, and a large portion of it has been delivered to conservative cronies, so if one looks at it in that light, it's evident that the hysteria surrounding the aftermath of 9/11 has been used to mask a wholesale transfer of wealth. This is much more threatening than the S&L scandals a generation ago, and it is ongoing, but it's seen as unpatriotic to even discuss the matter. The reason that we have freedom of speech in this country is to prevent abuses of power such as this, yet so many are willing to abrogate this right (and the corollary responsibilities) at a critical juncture. That troubles me far more than the thought that some lunatic(s) may try to attack us. Our greatest enemies have always come from within.
"Did you think maybe it (zero incidents) is because its working?" No, not really. I could do a rain dance in my front yard. Rain may or may not ensue. Proof of a connection would be just as ephemeral in either case as in the example given herein. This is what happens when 'faith-based' reasoning is applied to those areas better evaluated by empirical standards.

I agree with Vortigern- the system WORKS. Get off Homeland Security's back.
Why don't you report the staggering number of seizures they get everyday that protect us.
Newsweek,you need balanced reporting!!!

I agree with the first couple of posts. What's the purpose of the article?? Why does Newsweek waste this much space doing articles critical of something that could save their own life.
Where do these people in the media go to have common sense siphoned out of their heads and replaced with the same old BS all of them spout.

I agree with the first couple of posts. What's the purpose of the article?? Why does Newsweek waste this much space doing articles critical of something that could save their own life.
Where do these people in the media go to have common sense siphoned out of their heads and replaced with the same old BS all of them spout.

Did you think maybe it zero incidents is because its working? And the terrorists arent trying to bring it through the borders becasue they will get caught?

But you're right. Because we haven't caught any terrorists, it doesn't work. So we should scrap the system. Make sure you post that her also so the terrorists are aware of it.