Josh Gerstein at Politico has a nice side-by-side comparing Bush’s reaction to the shoe bomber in 2001 to the Obama’s reaction this week. It’s an interesting notion, since both Richard Reid and Abdulmutallab, the suspect in this latest case, were said to have used PETN, a powerful explosive (more on PETN below). So what happened after that Dec. 22, 2001 bombing attempt (foiled by flight attendants and passengers) on an American Airlines flight from Paris?
[I]t was six days before President George W. Bush, then on vacation, made any public remarks about the so-called shoe…
Continue Reading »
I have a rant in TIME Magazine this week about the attempted bombing of Northwest Flight 253--and the ways in which the usual suspects (including the White House, Congress and the media) are totally missing the point.
Our national conversation about terrorism needs to become more sophisticated. We cannot expect zero terrorism attempts to ever happen in our airplanes ever again. We can and must work harder to reduce the chances. But this kind of crap drives me crazy:
“I’d rather, in the interest of protecting people, overreact rather than underreact.”--Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chair of…
Continue Reading »
A Nigerian national allegedly attempted to blow up a Northwest Airlines jet as it descended into Detroit today around noon. The small explosive device burned the suspect’s hands but did no other serious damage, it appears. It’s too early to know exactly what to make of the incident, but a few thoughts to help sort through the frenzy of news that is already whipsawing into circulation.
* Who dunnit? Nigerian suspect, Yemeni device, al-Qaeda connection...?
The bomb, which the New York Times is saying was made partly of…
Continue Reading »
In case you missed it, the Secretary of Homeland Security was on Jon Stewart the other night. Most memorable part: Janet Napolitano’s laugh. The woman can laugh like nobody’s business. Like Santa on a bender.
She did plug the swine flu vaccine, and she said that the most frustrating thing about her job was managing 23 formerly separate outfits, located in 23 different places. Under pressure, she declined to reveal her security “code name.” But mostly, she laughed and laughed. I suppose it’s good to have a sense of humor in that…
Continue Reading »
The feds have charged Daniel Patrick Boyd and six other men, including two of his sons, with conspiring to support terrorists and to “murder, kidnap, maim and injure persons in a foreign country.” As is often the case with these pre-emptive terrorism cases, the indictment is somewhat less impressive than the law-enforcement rhetoric.
To wit: The indictment alleges that in March 2008, one defendant said to another: “We can do something,” and “I’m gonna go, we can go together,” and “I can find a few brothers,” among other things. Without context, it’s impossible…
Continue Reading »
The Department of Homeland Security has begun thinking outside this universe. According to a Washington Post article, they’re turning to science fiction writers. Apparently science fiction writers flocked to the 2009 Homeland Security Science & Technology Stakeholders Conference and offered imaginative ways to think about threats. This is considered “science fiction in the national interest” by the writers. Their services are pro bono, and most of the writers have a conventional science background, such as a PHd in physics. According to Rolf Dietrich, Homeland Security’s deputy director of research,…
Continue Reading »
Louis Caldera, director of the White House Military Office, the same one responsible for the recent NYC flyover, has resigned. In his resignation letter to a furious President Obama, Caldera wrote that the situation had become a distraction—an extremely expensive distraction, too. According to military officials, the mission and accompanying photo shoot cost the American people $328,835. The White House also released a seven-page report and a photo of the flyover yesterday (the report can be downloaded here). The report points to a series of miscommunications, namely…
Continue Reading »
TSA workers are going to be searching bags on the subway in New York City, according to this unsettling report by MyFoxNY.com. Here’s the deal: NYPD is short on cops, so the TSA guys would free up some officers to go above ground, the story says.
Let’s think about this. What was the point of having cops search bags on the subway to begin with? Oh yeah, deterrence. Because after all, there’s no chance there will ever be enough cops (or TSA workers or squeegee guys) to actually find a ticking needle…
Continue Reading »
