So the Department of Homeland Security has been around for a year- two years, ah who the hell cares, and this is all that I can tell they have done:
1.) Provided a platform for Tom Ridge to fall far beneath everyone’s expectations regarding his abilities.
2.) Reneged or failed to follow through on most or all airline security measures that everyone agrees are necessary.
3.) ‘Streamlined’ our intelligence services into a large, new, multi-layered agency which appears to be more inept than the FBI, more secretive than the Justice Department, and more expensive than the CIA. The make-up is so damn confusing I don’t even know who to yell at anymore.
4.) Provided us with this pretty chart which means who the hell knows what:
Sure is pretty, though. Look at the use of color and the symmetry!
5.) Completely ruined the life of Dr. Thomas Campbell Butler, the Texas Tech scientist who is being screwed by the FBI and now no longer is able to continue his important work designing a cure for the Bubonic Plague. If you missed the damning 60 Minutes report last night, make sure you go here and read about it.
But don’t you worry! Our intrepid bureaucrats seem to be making some progress, and by way of the British press, I see that they finally have made us all a little safer:
A college student who told authorities he placed box cutters and other banned items aboard two airliners to test security was charged Monday with taking a dangerous weapon aboard an aircraft and was released without bail.
Nathaniel Heatwole, 20, told federal agents he went through normal security procedures at airports in Baltimore and Raleigh-Durham, N.C. Once aboard, he said he hid the banned items in compartments in the planes’ rear lavatories.
What is the word, I am looking for, here. Oh yeah, it is “Whistleblower.”
The charge against Heatwole, a junior at Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C., carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
Discovery of the items Thursday aboard Southwest planes that landed in New Orleans and Houston triggered stepped-up inspections of the entire U.S. commercial air fleet – roughly 7,000 planes. But after consulting with the FBI, the Transportation Security Administration rescinded the inspection order and no other suspicious bags were found.
Deputy TSA Administrator Stephen McHale said Monday’s court action “makes clear that renegade acts to probe airport security for whatever reason will not be tolerated, pure and simple.”
“Amateur testing of our systems do not show us in any way our flaws,” McHale said. “We know where the vulnerabilities are and we are testing them … This does not help.”
Then there are those of us who politely disagree with McHale. Some of us actually think you could FUCKING ASK HEATWOLE HOW HE DID IT, AND THEN PUT STEPS INTO PLACE SO IT DOES NOT HAPPEN AGAIN. When 20 year old poly sci students are a step ahead of you, most agencies would allot a little work time to some reflection and introspection, rather than trying to put a whistleblower’s head on a pike.
This kid does not deserve jail time. He deserves a medal.
In other news- this is a nice development:
The United States has won agreement from governments across Asia and the Pacific Rim to sharply restrict the use and transfer of shoulder-fired missiles that could be used by Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups to shoot down passenger planes, senior Bush administration officials said Monday.
They said the United States was pressing to have the restrictions on the missiles, like the American-made Stinger and the Russian-made SA-7, written into the final statement that will be issued at this week’s meeting in Bangkok of President Bush and his counterparts from Asian and Pacific nations.
Good news, I guess. This is probably more important:
While resisting calls on Capitol Hill for a multibillion-dollar program to install antimissile technology on American passenger planes, the Bush administration has taken several steps in recent months to deal with the missile threat.
Last month, the administration disclosed that it had decided to commit $100 million to the first phase of development of an antimissile system for passenger planes, a much larger research investment than it had discussed publicly.
drew
The only logical reason for the department of Home Land Security is so Bush can have a former govenor of a swing-state to campaign for Bush 2004.
John Cole
The only logical reason for the Homeland Sewcurity Dept. was so cynical Dems could run to the right of Bush post 9/11. Bastards never learn, even after the damage they did when Tip O’Neill tried to out-right the right on the drug war.
drew
You don’t actually believe politics didn’t come into the decision of who to select for the new cabinet position. Karl Rove is very very smart.
John Cole
Sure politics came into the decision of who to select, but one of the reasons the Homeland Security was created is precisely as I stated. Go look into who came up with the idea.
drew
It was a Democratic idea dreamed up before 9/11/01.
I disagree with you about this kid who placed the box cutters aboard the Southwest jets. He doesn’t deserve a metal, those weapons sat in the aircraft for weeks. G-d knows who could have gotten access to those weapons. This chap isn’t a wistle blower since he doesn’t work for the TSA. Yes, the sucks but vigilanties shouldn’t try and test it.
Moe Lane
My girlfriend and I discussed this last night as we were waiting for the pizza (ah, the glamourous life of the professional class). We had to give him this: unlike certain activists from our Rutgers days, the guy at least understood that civil disobedience has consequences, including jail time if necessary – and that he had no kick coming if he ended up there. Given that we both attended Rutgers (grad for me, undergrad for her) and were used to the mindset of the Eternal Protesters there, this was freaking amazing to us. :)
Moe
Director Mitch
On getting contraband on board the planes, it reminds me of the saying: nothing is foolproof since fools have proven to be so ingenious.
There is no way to prevent getting boxcutters or other items like these onto planes (graphite knives don’t show up on metal detectors) except to stip search every passenger and go through every piece of luggage by hand. Ofcourse if they did that there would be an uproar, besides the pactical issue of this procedure limiting each airport to about a dozen flights a day.
One would think that maybe the airport screeners are searching the mass volume of passengers and bags by priority: bombs first, guns second and box cutters a little further down the list after, I dunno, katanas. Besides, the next asshole who brandishes one on a flight will find about 80 people on his ass.
Logically one would want to find the *people* who want to hurt passengers (box cutters don’t down planes, muslim extremists do), but that would be “racial profiling” and is “bad”.
David Perron
Graphite knives? I’d think ceramic knives would be ever so much more useful, although you can’t write with them.
drew
What’s your point? Obviously some kind of police work involving profiling would be smart, but I really don’t think some dumbfuck from the TSA making $9.50 an hour has the capacity to do serious police work.
I don’t think anybody has a problem with trying to keep Muslim extremists off airplanes. If you are trying to prove something about Liberal “PC” speech, try harder.
DANEgerus
So Johnny ‘Taliban’ Lindh got 10×2 years for killing Americans… and dumbass Quaker-lite kid is facing 10 years… yet of my neighbors, the Portland ‘7’, only two got more then that…
Hhmmmmmmm
drew
The key word is “facing” 10 years, I have a feeling the kid will not end of serving any time. I am not all that familiar with the Portland 7 but keep in mind it isn’t illegal to be a member of a group in this country, they can’t be punished just for being in a terrorist group.
JKC
Ask any commercial airline pilot what a joke airport security is. Pilots think TSA stands for “Thousands Standing Around.” Pilots also undergo the same idiotic searches and confiscations passengers go through- as if they’re going to hijack their own aircraft.
The idea of a Homeland Security Agency wasn’t necessarily a bad one, John, but the execution has surely sucked.