The TSA’s VIPR program: Mission leap, not mission creep (Bob Barr)

Last month, Tennessee proudly announced it had partnered with the TSA to become the first state to implement an extensive VIPR program. Volunteer State officials have dubbed their program the less catchy “First Observer Highway Security Program.”

To illustrate how this new program works, TSA and the Tennessee Highway Patrol recently spent a day bothering truck drivers and passengers by subjecting their cargoes to exhaustive searches. They also warned drivers — in keeping with a common pastime at TSA and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, of developing a nation of snitches — to “say something if they see something” that looks suspicious.

According to Bill Gibbons, Tennessee’s Department of Safety and Homeland Security commissioner, these security checkpoints, which are manned by law enforcement units festooned in paramilitary outfits, are absolutely necessary because terrorists are poised to strike our nation’s roadways.

READ MORE: The Daily Caller