Is this true?
The commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks issued a harsh report card today on the U.S. government’s efforts to shore up its defenses and protect the nation against terrorist strikes.
More than four years after the attacks on New York and Washington, the United States still is not checking the identities of air travelers against a complete terrorism watch list and continues to dole out homeland security funding without regard for the fact that certain parts of the country are at greater risk than others, former members of the Sept. 11 panel said.
Just reading it in the LAT or hearing it from the 9-11 commission does not even remotely make it so, everything being so rife with politics these days, but (as a frequent air traveler, not to mention appreciator of my fellow citizens) I would sure like to know what’s really going on here. We all wait on endless lines while “little old ladies from Pasadena” have their sneakers examined. Meanwhile, according to this claim, “the United States still is not checking the identities of air travelers against a complete terrorism watch list.” Reality or politics?
I dunno but I would like to know more about Able Danger myself.
I never thought I’d become so cynical, but these guys are NOT experts on everything. Their word is NOT gold nor should it be the final word on everyting to do with terror and protecting our country.
This fuss about the distribution of HS money is a case in point. Yep, let’s let the terrorists know that most of our money is going to the targets we think they’re going to hit…and name them.
And in the same breath the commission members say they are impressed by our enemies intelligence and ingenuity and determination?
Way to go, guys.
It’s also the reason I’m against profiling. Not because I’m PC, but because our enemies would learn from that and recruit women who are not of middle eastern descent, or blond men, or kids, or dogs.
Anytime we do anything that specifically points to what we’ve hardened, the terrorists will look to places we haven’t.
“…the United States still is not checking the identities of air travelers against a complete terrorism watch list.”
What the h*ll is a complete terrorism watch list? Does “complete” include unknown terrorists and names phoned in by suspicious neighbors? Just looking for a bit of clarity here. If there isn’t a central list I can see saying something about that, if there are sources of names that the commission thinks should be included, they should name the sources. I am all in favor of constructive criticism, but it needs to be precise and targeted, not just a collection of meaningless phrases. Other quoted bits in the article are equally vague. Someone should make the reporter, and maybe the commission, do a bit more work.
Kean/Hamilton, et al., is one of those old vaudeville acts which don’t know when to get
off stage. Enough already!!!
Warhol’s fifteen minutes of fame pales in comparision to the Kean/Hamilton cabaret. America can not rid itself of Rather, Brokaw, Cronkite, Jesse Jackson or Kean/Hamilton. “Out, out damn spot.”
Who funds these guys? O, you say they do it for free, without the power of subpoena or legitimazed inquiry, then how do they know what is happening in Seattle or Topeka?
Like Cindy Sheehan, the 9-11 commission doesn’t know that their 15 minutes of fame are over. The Commissionn that hosed up the intelligence community now is issuing report cards. Give me a break. The Commission had a chance to get real reform and reorganization in the IC but all they did is add a layer of bureacracy and allow the same failed and partisen CIA leadership to take over the entire intelligence community.
Old ladies from Pasadena are Islamofascist terror agents!
Yes Roger,
The federal government is spending billions of our tax dollars to harass “old ladies from Pasadena.” The relative odds of these elderly ladies being suicidal Islamofascists terrorist agents are longer than winning the California Lottery.
Do you suppose AQ will change their plan of attack to some other novel attack that comes in under the radar? They’re not brain dead as some of our domestic security agencies appear to be.
And yet we are doing little to close our borders. Never mind the illegal economic migration of Hispanics but we don’t seem to get the idea we should do more with “other than Mexicans” (OTM).
Under current policy we cite them into our immigration courts on our side of the border if their names do not appear on one of the “watch lists.” Do you suppose they will ever show up?
The “watch lists” are a joke. Do you think for one minute that AQ et al would send agents over the border knowing they were on a list?
I’ll put my money on the Port of Long Beach as a likely West Coast target, done with a dirty bomb, shipped/driven from the US interior (RR car, cargo container, truck et al) and not from the sea, done by a small terror cell that has walked over the border.
Our PCism will be our undoing yet again. Unfortunately our enemy in the GWOT will glady oblige us until we get our “collective” head screwed on right.
I hope I’m wrong.
Syl,
I would normally agree on the PC issue. However keep in mind the enemy uses suicidal agents. It’s very difficult to recruit someone to this cause who was not born into Islam and then radicalized.
You may have a point if they get someone to act on their behalf unknowingly but to blow themselves up takes quite a bit of conditioning and removal/isolation from alternative sources of info.
This radical movement is no different than other cults we have seen here, Waco – David Koresh and the Branch Davidians – a disavowed sect of the Seventh Day Adventists, and there’s Jim Jones and the Kool-Aid bunch.
The only difference is that this radical cultlike movement is being funded with Saudi petrol dollars worldwide by building/supporting the radical mosques and madrasas. The recent London bombers were 2nd generation and the recent riots in France while not soley caused by radical Islamofascists they were there stirring the pot in the unassimulated youth.
Keep in mind if your preach “crap” long enough especially to children under the age of eight they become “hardwired” in this craziness. They are very difficult to “unprogram” even when exposed to alternative sources info that would lead one to question the teachings of their teachers.
The suicidal agents of AQ et al are generally not the downtrodded of the world but reasonably middle class and educated at some of the world’s best universities. Just look at the backgrounds of OBL and the 9/11 highjackers.
Truth, dare, consequences, promise or repeat
Why do I have this nagging feeling of insecurity?
I had to throw this one in here.
The Beltway folks have no immagination. They are too risk adverse with their constant partisan bickering over who was asleep at the switch re 9/11. There is institutional warfare ongoing between the CIA and the Office of the President.
I agree with the Commission that the feds have done little to ensure real of the American people. I don’t necessary fault President Bush for this but it’s a consequence of our entrenched governmental bureaucracy.
Now here’s another scenario that the CDC and the NIH are totally unprepared for that could destablize our government.
Assuming suicidal delivery agents and Soviet smallpox stocks (google the name “Ken Alibek”) leaked into the Middle East via North Korea or Saddam for money, here’s a low tech novel way of wrecking havoc along our Southern Border without even crossing the Rio Grande. And believe it or not Joe Liberman and Bill Frist have both written on this.
Expose enemy agents willing to die for the cause with smallpox. The prodromal period is little more than a week. Once the fever starts the agents will be contagious. Granted they will feel like “sh-t” but a true zeolot will be highly motivated by reward of the 72 dark eyed virgins. Generally in the past smallpox victims contained themselves. Have the agents mingle with the Hispanics who are waiting to cross into the US.
We will be lucky if we catch any second generation cases. It will probably be the third generation cases that raise the alarm but it will be too late. It will be too late for CDC’s current ring containment response plan.
The public health resources in the Southern States will be completely overwhelmed. The disease will have to run it’s course until vaccinations can halt it’s transmission. Now just who is going to maintain those quaratine lines? And you thought Katrina was a federal snafu!
Smallpox has been used as a biological weapon in the past by the British against the French in the French/Indian Wars cira 1700s.
For more on this Armageddon scenario that I truly hope is an unlikely possibility. Keep in mind our enemy’s penchent for low tech strikes under the radar.
Read more:
Here
Afterall Roger’s thread is about, “Truth, dare, consequences, promise or repeat?”
Ron Wright
I guess you haven’t heard about the woman, white, who is from a Christian family in the Netherlands.
She married a Morrocan (I believe, or Algerian, but I think it was a Morrocan), converted to Islam, and radicalized.
And was a suicide bomber in Iraq.
Yes, we need more work on the borders.
We also need more attention paid to our prisons. Those radicalized in prisons will not fit the profile either.
Syl
Yes, unfortunately there are exception. But I standby my assessment that the odds of a little old lady from Pasadena being an agent are still longer than winning the California Lottery. Mind you I think “old” is the significant part here.
With regard to the security of the traveling public we should take the lead from the Israelis. Their country is only a few miles wide in spots and they don’t have the geographical depth to be wrong many times re terrorists attacks.
Their system of detection relies more on behavior related ques and not one size fits all like we do based on PC related issues.
Their agents ask open ended questions of travelers. It’s hard to stick to a script and they end up contradicting themselves.
They tripped up a white female destined for Israel on the way to marry her Middle Eastern boyfriend. Unknown to her she was carrying the timing trigger to a bomb in the cargo bay. So much for love.
This would be a heck of alot more effective and cost considerably less money than what we are currently doing.
Gee–where to start: I stand with Jerry and Jedrury–the 911 commission, like most commissions, was a waste of government time and money–anyone who has worked in emergency response could tell you that first responders need a dedicated band that is accessible to all first responders: that is a neat elegant and simple solution, but recall what HL Mencken said about simple solutions.
The 911 commission issued findings that simply cannot be funded by states in the area of emergency communications–it would take a major engineering fix and radio buy to make communications effectiver–aint going to happen; similarly, their recommendations with respect to Congress aint going to happen: too much congressional pork and turf at stake.
Its one thing to find out whats wrong: its another thing entirely to issue recommendations that are at a minimum feasible (by whatever measure) and if they arent feasible it does little good to pass the buck to the feds and states.
Finally, apropos little old ladies from Pasadena–it is a sad event when political correctness has become more important that national security. The person most likely to blow us up on an airplane is a fairly young, swarthy, middle eastern origin male with a name like Ahmed–duhhhhh. That’s not racial profiling, its common sense. Yes some Belgium nitwit blew herself up, and some brit had explosive sneakers–but lets keep our eye on the most likely perpetrators.
Syl, I have to disagree with you.
I agree that racial profiling makes it more likely that the jihadis will use people who do not fit the profile… but finding those people is HARDER for the jihadis to do.
Part of warfare is eliminating territory for the enemy and increasing his costs of fighting. Profiling does both of these things.