A Time to Come Together, Not Apart

A memorial for PO Liu and PO Ramos in Brooklyn. (Source)

Last night's assassination of Police Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos was a tragedy. There is no other way to describe it. Two men simply doing their job gunned down in cold blood as they sat in their cruiser. The killer furthered his cowardly act by turning the gun on himself, escaping the responsibility of answering for his actions. Any sane individual mourns with the city of New York and the NYPD over this senseless tragedy.

A moment like this should unite a city that has already seen such unrest the past few weeks. Unfortunately, pundits, politicians and others who gain from division have jumped on the opportunity to politicize this. Long Island Congressman Peter King (who has previously supported cop-killers) has used this tragedy to point the finger at people like Bill de Blasio and President Barack Obama for their "cop bashing," suggesting some kind of link between yesterday's killer and the president of the United States.

More Details Emerge on TSA Gaffe: It's More Embarrassing

A day after President Obama spoke out yet again on the failure of American intelligence-gathering communities to communicate and work together on key issues regarding the failed Christmas Day groin grenadier, more details have emerged on what occurred in Newark's Terminal C Sunday evening. The new details paint a clearer picture of what happened, though they do not make the TSA look any better.

To begin with, it came to light that the TSA waited over an hour to even contact the Port Authority Police Department, the law enforcement arm of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the operator of the airport. Computer logs uncovered by MyFox New York show that the breach occurred at 5:20 PM and that PAPD was not called until 6:40 PM; an interval of 80 minutes. For contrast, the man who entered Terminal C's sterile area without first being screened was in and out of the terminal in 20 minutes.

While the TSA said that the intervening 80 minutes between breach and calling authorities who might be able to do something about their screw-up was "the right thing," because it involved verifying the bystander's claims of what happened and going up the chain of command, the true cause may be due to the faulty security cameras operated and maintained by the troubled agency. The PAPD said that a security camera that caught what happened was only streaming live video and not recording footage, which forced the TSA to turn to Continental Airlines and ask to use the cameras operated by the airline to verify what happened. How long has that camera been broken? The TSA has no idea. I have a feeling that the 80 minute delay was caused by the TSA's inability to verify the bystander's claims rather than the whole "chain of command" excuse.

But the real question here is why was no one at the spot to make sure this exact type of thing did not happen? Sources tell the Daily News (now, remember, it's the Daily News) that the reason that the now-suspended officer was not at his post was because Mr. Hollywood was on his cell phone. Now, if true, this speaks volumes on the TSA's ineptness. Think about it, for this guy to leave his post to take a phone call, wouldn't other TSOs in the area notice it? Shouldn't the complete vulnerability of the exit lane in a secure area concern some of the nearby TSOs? Look at the picture of the security area of Terminal C; it does not look like the exit lane is so isolated that nearby TSOs would not be able to see (through the clear glass wall) that the post was abandoned.

As far as our elected officials feel about the ineptness of the TSA, don't bother trying to call their offices to find out. Three calls to Senator Jim DeMint's office in the past three days have garnered an aide's promised response from the senator's press person regarding Senator DeMint's reasons for blocking the nomination of Erroll Southers, the former FBI agent nominated to head the TSA. Does DeMint's only concern about Southers regard his possible willingness to allow TSA workers to organize (and now jumping on the bandwagon of Southers accessing files 20 years ago), or does it have to do with his ability to competently run the security agency? Does Senator DeMint have any other candidates that he would suggest that the White House nominate?

Additionally, Representative Peter King's office has been less than forthcoming with King's stance regarding the TSA's certification of the Lagos airport that the Christmas Day cajones cremator originated out of, given his statements that "Nigeria [has] inadequate security to begin with." Was King aware of the TSA certification? If so, did he do anything to try to have it reevaluated? If not, will he ask for a reevaluation of other TSA certifications in light of what happened and his opinion of the TSA-certified airport in Lagos? Two calls and voicemails in two days to King's press guru have yielded nothing.

So fallout from the Terminal C debacle continues for the TSA. Next we'll find out that the TSO being disciplined for screwing up has a past disciplinary record or arrest record that shows that he should not be trusted with national security. A leadership-less agency with bare minimum requirements for officers tasked with the massive undertaking of airport security that has a sketchy track record to begin with; it seems we may be getting what we are paying for. The TSA needs to be fixed. The question is, who is going to step up?

Photo - Terminal C at Newark (notice the two guards) (Daily News)

TSA Embarrasses Self Yet Again with Newark Security Breach

For all of the shortcomings of the terrorist watch lists and the inability to communicate interdepartmentally that led, via a confluence of incompetency, to the failed Christmas Day bombing by newly nut-less Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab there was one thing that you could say about it: he was not screened by the TSA. Given that his flight originated in Nigeria and transferred in Amsterdam before heading to Detroit, the TSA's fingerprints were not directly on this mishap (a little more on that later). It seemed that the TSA would avoid the majority of the scrutiny. Until yesterday.

Last night around 5:20 p.m. some mysterious character somehow managed to enter the "sterile" side of Terminal C from the public side by going through an exit lane at the security area. Details are sketchy, as no one seems to know who this mystery man is. Even more embarrassing, the TSA did not notice the breach, but had to be alerted by a bystander that someone had improperly entered the terminal. Screening was temporarily halted, then the terminal was cleared out and passengers on planes at the gate were forced to deplane and be re-screened. Naturally, disorganization ensued.

Flights were grounded for six hours after the incident, and Newark is just about done shaking off delays and cancellations due to the incident (flights in and out of Newark as of noon today were not experiencing delays according to the FAA). However, given the interconnectedness of the airline system both nationally and internationally, the incident caused some major problems for Continental, who is Newark Airport's largest tenant and uses the majority of Terminal C's gates.

Meanwhile, the TSA has identified the screener whose responsibility was manning the exit lane to make sure no one did exactly what this mystery individual did. The TSA declined to publicly name the screener or what disciplinary action would be taken. Anything less than termination, however, would be insulting.

Needless to say, this incident just throws an ever-increasing spotlight on the dysfunction of the TSA as a whole. Between embarrassing test failures, an insecure website which leaves passenger's personal information available to those who know how to get it, and publishing TSA screening guidelines online, the TSA has not really proven itself to be a competent agency worthy of the public's trust. Now this, a little over a week after an attempted bombing of an airliner in Detroit put the agency on high alert.

So where's the problem with the agency? To begin with, they lack leadership. The nominee to head the troubled agency, Erroll Southers, is stuck because Senator Jim DeMint (R- SC) is worried that Southers might allow the TSA members to unionize. I'm still waiting to hear from Senator DeMint's office for clarification of his stance on Southers' appointment.

Another issue with the TSA comes from the lackluster requirements to become a TSO (Transport Security Officer). All you need is the following: a GED or one year of work as either an X-ray tech, security work, or aviation screening. In other words, if you have dropped out of high school but have found work as a security guard or an X-ray tech, you are qualified to screen passengers, in the hopes of weeding out terrorists, boarding commercial airliners in the United States. These "requirements" set the bar lower than numerous municipal police departments, yet TSA officers are supposed to be able to detect tools of terrorism and prevent attacks onboard airliners?

On top of all of this, Chuck Schumer (of "the public option getting voted down is a victory for it" fame) stated only hours before the security breach at Newark that security at some airports abroad is "appallingly lax," while calling for a boycott by commercial airlines of those foreign airports not up to snuff. But Schumer's not the only clueless entity in this story. Less than a month before Abdulmutallab got explosives through Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, Nigeria and tried to blow up a Delta airplane in Detroit, the TSA confirmed that the airport was in compliance with all 25 ICAO security procedures that were examined (though Representative Peter King (R-NY) stated that "Nigeria [has] inadequate security to begin with." An e-mail to his office asking if Rep. King had done anything about the TSA certification of Lagos' airport prior to the Christmas Day incident or plans to do anything about the TSA certification process has not yet been answered.). So it looks like our leaders are either misinformed/ignorant or, if they think they know something, don't do anything about it except to grandstand after the fact.

In summation, the TSA is a highly disorganized and woefully underqualified authority to be running something as important as airport and port security. They've proven it time and again and, if nothing is done to rectify the shortcomings of the organization, they'll prove it in the future. While our elected officials want to whine about overseas airport security, we really need to be looking at our own nation's security framework to see where we can improve. I said last post that a problem has been identified, now it's time to fix it. So will we just get lip service or will things actually be fixed?

Photos - TSA logo (TSA), Passengers stranded in Newark on Sunday night (ABC News)

Failed Christmas Day Bombing Prompts Criticism, Calls for Reform

Given the recent failed airline bombing by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in Detroit on Christmas Day, a lot of folks have taken the opportunity to politicize this event and attack the Obama administration. Certainly criticism is due to the administration for this incident, but ad hominem attacks on Obama won't solve any problems. Let's get some pesky facts out of the way.

Representative Peter King (R-NY), the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, believes that the Obama administration is not taking the threat of terrorism seriously enough. He thinks that because Obama wants to try terrorists in criminal courts - as opposed to military tribunals - that he is putting our nation at risk. He thinks that Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano's framing the incident as a "criminal matter" and not an "act of terrorism" is worrying. Yet the response from the Obama administration is on par with that of the Bush administration's response to Richard Reid, the "shoe bomber" who tried to detonate explosives hidden in his shoes (hence why you have to go barefoot through security at airports now) on December 22, 2001. This, of course, does not faze King, who adds that Obama "seems almost awkward when he's talking about terrorism."

Representative Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) would like the U.S. to send Abdulmutallab to Guantanamo and treat him as an enemy combatant. King seems to be in line with this thinking, requesting that Abdulmutallab be tried in a military tribunal rather than a criminal court. It's clear why they would want to do this, as the term "enemy combatant," which the Obama administration has stated will no longer be used, is a term that is outside the scope of the Geneva Conventions, which outlines the rights of prisoners of war. Add to this the fact that the term "enemy combatant" is based on skewed Supreme Court decisions (read the ABA's report on the treatment of enemy combatants, which contains a little ditty about Ex Parte Quirin), and you have a recipe for legal disaster.

But it's not just misguided politicians trying to gain political advantage via this failed terrorist act (Hoekstra, after all, invoked the incident in a recent fundraising letter). Take the New York Post. The paper took time off from covering all things Tiger Woods and had a front-page editorial slamming President Obama for not speaking out more forcefully and sooner about the attempted attack while mentioning in passing that he inherited the notoriously lackluster TSA (which is another matter, as the flight did not originate in the States), that it was actually George W. Bush who released two Yemenis from Gitmo suspected of leading the Al-Qaeda offshoot that allegedly sponsored Abdulmutallab, and that the intelligence databases created by the previous administration are of "unwieldy proportions." But other than that, Obama 100% dropped the ball.

Is the Obama administration guilty of mishandling the intelligence gathered on Abdulmutallab? Absolutely. It seems that a lack of communication between intelligence agencies or departments is to blame, and it is dismaying that over eight years after 9/11 this problem still has not been fixed. As far as Obama waiting a few days to speak, media outlets report that he received the information on Tuesday, the day he spoke out on it. I don't mind the president waiting a few days to verify the information (intelligence agencies were still trying to figure out if this was, in fact, sponsored by an Al-Qaeda offshoot) before speaking to the nation. Patience, combined with fact checking, would have prevented the War in Iraq.

And as far as the paranoia surrounding airline security and terrorism in general goes, just remember that the last two attempts to attack this country on our own soil via airliner failed miserably. Reid succeeded in only ruining his shoe and Abdulmutallab now has cajun-style testicles. Should we grow complacent? Absolutely not; the fact remains that there are people out there who want to do harm to this country and will kill innocents to get their message across. However, rules like no bathroom breaks an hour before landing, no iPods throughout the flight, no access to personal belongings during flight time, etc. seems a little overboard. If you want to improve airline security, make sure people don't bring explosives onto planes rather than assume that people can bring them on and adjust the rules accordingly. In any event, Obama has his work cut out for him; multiple problems (airline security, intelligence department communications, intelligence databases) have been identified, now fix them.

Photo - Obama speaks to the nation on Monday about the Christmas Day bombing attempt (Reuters)