We, the PEOPLE!!

The USA seems to be a constant repeat target for terrorist attacks.  As a result, the terrorists have accomplished at least one of their goals, which is to foment fear in the heart and minds of innocent people.

Since 9-11, this profound impact on the nation’s psyche has caused some obviously effective anti-terrorist measures to be implemented, primarily in the more visible areas of the lives of citizens.  Regulations that restrict who and what can fly on commercial passenger airlines are well known to almost everyone, as well as the tighter control of all forms of government identification such as passports and drivers’ licenses.

But there have been some very ineffective measures taken as well, and certain measures that should have occurred but haven’t.

Perhaps the most ineffective of all the post-9-11 changes was the assignment of a Director of National Intelligence to coordinate all intelligence gathering an analysis in the USA under one central point.  It was implemented shortly after 9-11 by the Bush administration.  While the concept of placing all intelligence gathering capabilities under one roof was very sound, its implementation evidently hasn’t eliminated the inter-service rivalry and ineffective or even non-existent sharing and cross-referencing of “intel” among the various agencies of the federal government, such as CIA, FBI, Secret Service, military intelligence organizations of the army, navy, air force and the various commands throughout the world.   In other words, as President Obama put it yesterday, the information about the failed Christmas day attack on Northwest Airlines flight 253 was there in advance;  our intelligence structure simply failed to connect the dots.

There are those out there who would gladly give up your civil rights for their warm, fuzzy sense of security.  They insist that we should be physically/racially profiling every Arab-looking person trying to board a plane, whether internally in the USA, or externally for all flights coming into the USA.  They say this is the right thing to do, and critical to stopping any middle-eastern terrorist from attacking the USA (or any other country, for that matter).  They insist that the anti-racial-profiling folks are going to get us all killed.

What these emotionally driven folks don’t understand is that physical/racial profiling alone is simply discrimination, and does little to nothing to keep people safe.  White terrorists recruited by Al-Qaeda are just as likely to be the vehicles of terror on planes, ships, trucks, or in cities as any other people.  Profiling based upon physical/racial features alone simply doesn’t work.

Much more effective would be for the USA to take a lesson from the Israelis, whose national airline, El-Al, has never suffered a successful hijacking.  This is true despite the fact that Israel is probably the only country on earth that is more at threat from terrorists than the USA.  The reason for their success is that the Israelis have refined security to an extremely high and effective level, and they don’t do strictly physical/racial profiling.  What they are very, very good at is behavioral profiling, which includes pretty much the totality of how a person presents himself or herself.  It is exceedingly difficult to practice well, and cannot, by itself, be the sole determinant as to whether or not someone is a threat.  But somehow, the Israelis have become experts at it, and their record in avoiding hijackings speaks for itself.

Between behavioral profiling and assuring that all the intelligence gathering organizations in the USA and other friendly countries coordinate with each other and work in unison to share intelligence information in a timely and centralized manner, the entire world would be a much safer place than it is right now.  But it cannot stop there.  Nine years after 9-11, it is an incredible fact that most cargo entering the USA is still not inspected or even screened for possible radioactive materials that some lunatic could assemble in place into a rudimentary nuclear device, or even a “dirty” conventional bomb.

Furthermore, the controversy of electronic scanners that strip off your clothes, while understandable, is not being debated in the sunshine for some reason, most likely financial.  Many people don’t know that there actually are scanners available that eliminate skin from the scan screen, thus only displaying non-human material, such as explosives or weapons.  Of course, these “non-X-rated” scanners cost more.  After all, why spend extra money to get it right, if you can just get people to give up their rights??

Finally, every pilot and air traffic controller knows that anyone can take a private plane off from an uncontrolled airport with a load of…anything… and fly almost anywhere or into almost anything not in patrolled airspace.  That includes most cities and utilities.  Unfortunately, there are still gaps in US airspace surveillance and required electronic equipment in private planes operating outside controlled airspace that would greatly reduce that possibility.  But that requires money and stronger government regulation, something that the same people who support racial profiling are against.

Thankfully, however, it seems the Obama administration is committed to making changes to security policies based upon data and facts, versus emotion and shoot-from-the-hip reactions.  That is good, because it is more important to be carefully effective than carelessly demonstrative.

Clearly, the recent failures of the intelligence structure are going to be fixed.  Carefully.  Quietly.  Effectively.  The end result, which is the goal of intercepting threats before they are launched, is too important to play politics with.  One can only hope that the “other side of the aisle” does what democrats did with Bush and the republicans after 9-11…

Stand together.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 at 4:04 pm and is filed under The State of Our Country. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.