A “failure of imagination” at Homeland Security
By on Aug 12th, 2006 at 1:40 pm
A “failure of imagination” at Homeland Security
and “a nearly obsessive focus on the previous attacks may have prevented the federal government from combating new threats effectively,” terrorism experts say. “While the department has hardened cockpit doors and set up screening for guns and knives, it has done far too little to protect against plastic and liquid explosives, bombs in air cargo and shoulder-fired missiles.”
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August 12th, 2006 at 1:48 pmI wonder if chaff dispersal systems work to confuse a shoulder fired missile??
August 12th, 2006 at 1:52 pmOtherwise, how do you prevent that?
If we had spent 1/10th of the money from Iraq on screening technology we’d be able to detect explosive elements today.
And this is 11 years AFTER the first plot like this was foiled.
August 12th, 2006 at 1:59 pmGet out of here…
August 12th, 2006 at 1:59 pmAirport security is just a show so that you will be afraid and vote for the Dear Leader.
August 12th, 2006 at 2:00 pmAirport security is just a show so that you will be afraid and vote for the Dear Leader.
Comment by Andrew
August 12th, 2006 at 2:04 pm————–
You mean the Fear Leader?
If we had spent 1/10th of the money from Iraq on screening technology we’d be able to detect explosive elements today.
Comment by RUCerious — August 12, 2006 @ 1:52 pm
I think this is paramount to our opposition to the criminal attacks on Iraq, who had no ability to harm us now or at any point in the near future. That the Bush Regime has made us less safe by diverting money to an illegal occupation instead of focusing on homelans security…
August 12th, 2006 at 2:10 pmThe 911 commission had suggested that the US government needed to be more creative. BUT NO, we can’t have dope smokers as consultants. Don’t they get it, Willie Nelson does have rational policy ideas. Unfortunately most of the elected class doesn’t smoke weed. Puff, puff, give and the world will be easier to decipher, or at least we can can comprehend the rationality of the people who hate us.
August 12th, 2006 at 2:30 pmThis supposed terror threat is being used by the Bush Regime as a diversion from the Iraq fiasco, Israel slaughtering civilians in Lebanon, and our economy on the verge of collapse! So welcome to Big Brother Bush world everybody > the living Hell has just begun for all!
August 12th, 2006 at 2:31 pmUnbelievable – We can’t spend the money to be safe where we are at because we have to fight the terrorist where they are at. Think about it… it’s the only solution that really makes sense!
If you fight them there then you don’t have to fight them here… unless of course they get on an airplane and come over here. But even then it won’t be a fight.
It takes two to fight. So if all our boys are over there… there will be no one here left to fight. It will be more like and uninhibited attack.
You see? The president’s policy makes perfect sense. You just have to think about it the right way! Fighting them over there… 250 Billion. Not having a fight over here… priceless.
Oops did I say priceless? I meant infinitely pricy.
August 12th, 2006 at 2:37 pmI agree wholeheartedly that airport security, and for that matter most other areas of security, are largely for show and political manipulation. I can tell you that this administration doesn’t give a damn about real security. In fact, it appears at times to me that they are actively working against security. The lack of port security for cargo is appalling, and they have done nothing about it. As a scientist who does research in security-related technology (radiation detection) I can tell you that the federal government is spending almost no money on real research. Instead, almost all of the money is being handed out to Repubilican cronies, to be utterly wasted. Last year the GAO audited DHS and concluded that over 75% of its R&D spending was completely wasted, often through outright fraud. In the meantime, the Feds have actually cut spending in radiation detection and other critical security areas. It is nothing short of criminal, and possibly treasonous.
I am utterly sickened by the Bush administration. They are simply bad people. I am also sickened by their fool supporters, who do nothing but lower the bar further for these clowns.
August 12th, 2006 at 2:38 pmKarl Rove yesterday set up a meeting of Bush with a female parent of a soldier who was killed in Iraq > the lady claims that Bush is a wonderful kind man > lol NOT! But anyway Bush can say he has NO need to meet Cindy Sheehan, since he met with another lady, so Cindy will be swift-boated as a lunatic now!
August 12th, 2006 at 2:40 pmIt is a failure to watch MacGyver if you don’t know you can make a bomb with liquids.
August 12th, 2006 at 2:44 pmI hate to tell everybody this, in a day and age when the principles of chemistry, biology, and physica are so well known – many people can come up with deadly gases, bacteria, viruses, explosives. And unless you outlaw every almost every chemical, food, digital watches, cleaners, food, cell phones, computers, in essense almost everything can be changed to make a weapon. The days of uneducated populations has passed the way of the horse and buggy and there’s no going back. So we might as well declare education the crime and return to total ignorence.
August 12th, 2006 at 2:44 pmbones lol that is what the Bush Regime wants > for the population to be totally ignorant!
August 12th, 2006 at 2:48 pmMost of what we are hearing is propaganda. Everyone is using the Atlantic bomb plot as an excuse to mount his or her hobbyhorse and ride, ride, ride. What we need to know is the truth.
Was the Atlantic bomb plot merely inspired by 9/11, or actually supported or directed by al-Qaeda? Was any nation-state involved? What caused second-generation Pakistani Brits to consider a diabolical mass murder? What was their motivation besides a massacre? What did they hope to achieve beyond the killing?
Was this mindless terror of the Baader-Meinhoff variety, or purposeful terror, like the ANC or FLN, to get us out of the Middle East, or perhaps to draw us into yet another war in the Middle East?
We need truth. We need answers. We are getting propaganda.
August 12th, 2006 at 2:53 pmOK – can somebody help me with this? No baby shampoo or Hai Karate, but cuticle scissors and nail clippers are fine? I’m so confused …
August 12th, 2006 at 2:54 pmIf you want Airport security tomorrow, there’s a SIMPLE answer. You go into the airport carrying nothing except what fits in your pockets. Your luggage is taken at the curb and put into TELAIR bombproof containers, You change into airline owned “scrubs” and your personal items and clothes go into bags that also go into bombproof containers. You get frisked and cavity searched at the gate. The airport is managed by the military, Israeli style with actual employee screens/searches, truck searches, etc. Totally inconvienent, but very effective and costs a lot less than these idiots have wasted so far.
August 12th, 2006 at 3:00 pmThese dweebs at DHS go on a tour of a wax museum, and an induction ceremony breaks out.
August 12th, 2006 at 3:07 pm#18: I told a friend virtually the same thing yesterday. I think it’s the only way the airlines survive financially. Plus, it kinda breaks doen that cultural snob barrier between first-class and everyone else. Unless of course they even get tailored “scrubs.
August 12th, 2006 at 3:10 pmThen we have to turn our attention to getting rid of DHS. We need to pump up the FBI, because if I wanted to terrorize the American public, i wouldn’t start a war in a middle eastern country or go anywhere near an airport. I’d buy the same chemicals at Publix, mix them in the men’s room (why the hell should i pay for them) and blow up a grocery full of moms and kids. So airport security and invading middle eastern/far easten countries don’t keep us safe at all! Excellant law enforcement/investigation intercept these things before they happen, not billions in scanners and invasions.
August 12th, 2006 at 3:23 pmOops did I say priceless? I meant infinitely pricy.
Comment by G.W.SuperChrist — August 12, 2006 @ 2:37 pm
Thanks for straightening me out there GWSC… I am healed by your infinite wisdom :)
Nothing these neocons say makes any sense. They really are reality-challenged…
August 12th, 2006 at 4:25 pmbones lol that is what the Bush Regime wants > for the population to be totally ignorant!
Comment by Jay Randal
——————
I remember a Twilight Zone episode,from the 90s,that opens with parents of a young boy worried about an important test the boy is about to take.
The day comes,and the boy arrives at the testing facility.He is given a drug to insure truthful responses.
Later that day,the boy’s parents receive a call.
August 12th, 2006 at 4:31 pm“Your son has received a grade above normal.
You can pick up the body tomorrow.”
Steve in the book 1984: Big Brother feeds propaganda to the common proles to keep them ignorant and stupid > you know I always considered that book fiction, but it actually is coming to pass > the TV news just spews propaganda now and most Americans act like ignorant proles now > this message will go down the memory hole soon!
August 12th, 2006 at 4:37 pm#24 Jay,
I’m afraid you are quite correct.
I’m hoping this repressive trend can be undone.By we,the people.
August 12th, 2006 at 5:51 pmLater that day,the boy’s parents receive a call.
“Your son has received a grade above normal.
You can pick up the body tomorrow.â€
Comment by Steve53 — August 12, 2006 @ 4:31 pm
I read that story in 7th grade gifted class. I never forgot it. It was one of those that makes you think…
August 12th, 2006 at 6:11 pm“lack of imagination” No way. From the same people that developed a color coded chart to warn the public of terrorist attacks. We’re f*cked.
August 12th, 2006 at 7:30 pmThe administration didnt clean out the leftist when they assumed power. Fire everyone of them, thats thinking outside the box.
August 12th, 2006 at 9:45 pmI don’t know — duck tape and plastic sheeting? If that’s not imaginative, what is?
August 12th, 2006 at 10:50 pmLet’s keep things in proportion. Others may spend their time exploiting terrorism scares, accusing Democrats of being soft on terrorism, and paving the road to Armageddon with bad intentions. The rest of us have important questions we want answered:
How far would all the liquids and gels confiscated by TSA during the recent security crackdown at the nations airports reach if the individual containers had been laid end-to-end?
A. From Earth to the moon and halfway back again
B. From New York City to Omaha
C. From New York City to Washington, D.C.
Take Today’s Quiz and find out the answer at Where did all the stuff go?
August 12th, 2006 at 11:46 pmA “failure of imagination†at Homeland Security.
An understatment of astounding proportion.
August 13th, 2006 at 12:16 amActually, it is worse than that. 10 years ago a plot was broken up in the Philipines to use liquid explosives to bring down 11 planes over the Pacific Ocean. They didn’t start screening for such material until just last week.
But we may neve know how serious last weeks threat. Why? Because NBC is reporting that the plan’s sponsor wanting it done “now” is false as British law enforcement wanted to wait at least another week before making arrests. Apparently that schedule didn’t fit into Bush’s political need to counter Ned Lamont’s election victory. NBC further reports that the reason they wanted a delay was because the suspects had no material to make the bombs, had no plane tickets and several didn’t even have passports (which take weeks to obtain). One suspect has already been released.
Because of this lack of evidence we may never know whether this was a truly serious plot or a bunch of young adults expressing bravodo, making this another cry wolf episode.
Tell me, how are these Keystone Cops making us safer. Why not listen to law enforcement, even if it means missing out on maximizing political timing. Bush has some ’splainin to do.
August 13th, 2006 at 1:05 amThe alleged terror plot is another contrived Bush/Blair operation! None of the so-called plotters even had chemicals to make any liquid explosives, so all the products seized by airport security personnel was unjustified! Besides the plotters supposedly were going to use liquid chemicals > NOT something pasty like toothpaste, nor creamy like lotions, nor foamy like shaving gel/creams, nor waxy like chapstick or deodarent bars, nor pleasant smelling like perfume or cologne, nor to mimic applesauce or food items either! This whole thing is a bogus charade to attempt to prop up the Bush Regime, at a critical time, and to divert attention away from the Iraq fiasco and Israeli aggression on Lebanon!
August 13th, 2006 at 1:52 am“Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.” – Bertrand Russell
August 13th, 2006 at 4:04 ambein president of america and a group of middle eastern terrorists at the same time is just like bein a double knot spy! — George W Bush, double knot spy
August 13th, 2006 at 12:21 pmNovember Predictions:
Another Al Qaeda Attack
Another Bin Laden Video
Another Rigged Election
Another Republican Sponsored Supreme Court Decision
August 14th, 2006 at 3:09 amGlad to see that they are ‘on it’. Why do they even bother? What a joke. Another mess that Dem’s will have to clean up. Why do they even bother? They just overreact in the most inconvenient, and impractical way possible, and go no further. Until the next time.
August 14th, 2006 at 9:19 am[...] That being said, some intelligence analysts are stating that the US still suffers from the primary deficiency that we had in the summer of 2001 – a failure lack of imagination. [...]
August 14th, 2006 at 3:26 pm