Far Right propaganda would have us believe that President Obama is no better than his predecessor.
-- "New guy, old guy... the same thing."
So how did George Bush handle the blunders that made 9/11 so easy ?
-- Anthony Fainberg: al-Qaeda had tried an airliner suicide-hijacking over Christmas holidays 1994. His F.A.A. committee blocked Air France/ICAO instructions to secure cockpits.
Come 2001, Coleen Rowley and her team in Minneapolis broke it open when Harry Samit captured Zacarias Moussaoui. World Trade Center was the likely target.
-- F.B.I. HQ: suppressed this intelligence and blocked access to Moussaoui's laptop computer.
If Bush had been half a man, he would have cleaned house at F.B.I. HQ, thanked Coleen personally, and perp-walked Fainberg.
Bush didn't do a damn thing.
We'll see what Obama does -- whether he takes scalps on the Dedicated Public Servants who blocked information flow to the No Fly List.
And Anthony Fainberg ? Up to his ass in this Underwear Bomber case.
Details BTF, including apparently classified TSA explosives-detection info that Fainberg published last January on the internet :::
Same Fainberg. Got space in Homeland Security Affairs and published this paper wide open, google-able, unclassified:
The Terrorist Threat to Inbound U.S. Passenger Flights: Inadequate Government Response
Its a ####### manual on where T.S.A. has security holes for explosives and how to exploit the situation.
This is the only statement from a U.S. security official on open access that identifies these security holes, as related to failure at checking incoming flights for explosives:
-- ...explosive trace residue detection technology, currently deployed in the United States, could help mitigate this threat, this essay urges that the United States require the application of such technology overseas on flights inbound to the United States. In the past, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has been reluctant to act in this direction...
-- newer models of detectors devised by the TSA to counter that particular threat are being pilot tested in the United States but are not (as of this writing) being tested abroad. It would appear that the United States is reluctant to deploy effective technologies outside the country, even on a test basis.
-- Why has the TSA decided not to provide passengers on U.S.-bound flights from foreign airports with the same explosives detection equipment required for securing domestic air travel? The answer is unclear.
-- There are several such technologies, not only in existence but also widely deployed in the United States. These include computerized tomography scanning systems for checked baggage (which is not required of inbound flights from overseas) and for some cargo; use of canine olfactory capabilities; and various explosive trace residue and vapor detectors for passengers, carry-on baggage, checked baggage, and cargo. Other nations do use some of these techniques, but the United States does not require their use on incoming flights to provide equivalent levels of security to those that exist domestically.
Also from that paper:
Anthony Fainberg is a physicist and analyst, specializing in national security affairs. He recently retired from the federal government, following service in several agencies and departments, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Defense Department, as well as in the former congressional Office of Technology Assessment (OTA). He was trained as a particle physicist, earned his PhD at University of California, Berkeley in 1969. He was one of the first to study comprehensively the role of technology in counter terrorism, in OTA reports in 1991-2. His other interests include nuclear non-proliferation and countering nuclear terrorism. Mr. Fainberg can be contacted at fainberg666@#######.###
I sure do believe the "666" part of that.
Is there some limit to the number of times this guy is going to put in critical positions... to compromise American national security ???
Says he's retired.
And at what point was Fainberg authorized to broadcast the specific security hole that this Yeman plot exploited ?
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It took a dozen career bureaucrats and another dozen contractors holding their silence -- knowing the flow to T.S.A. No Fly List was screwed -- for the No Fly List multiple errors to stay alive.
Any flow chart would show the blunders.
Pull their clearances -- for life. Every single one of them.
If they knew and stayed quiet, bye-bye.
No mercy.
They can go sell shoes, or start software companies and earn an honest living.
We lost people on 9/11 at WTC because FAA screwed up. That ####### Fainberg, much as anyone. All FAA had to do was write the order to secure the cockpits; a $200 fix per-plane for Air France.
No reason to keep people in security jobs so they can do it again.
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One would think from the President's actions so far and from his words, particularly in Cairo and at the Nobel ceremony, that Barack Obama is the real stuff.
-- But if there's no heavy weights come down on the system managers at State, CIA, DoD, and TSA -- for not running "Use Case" tests on flow of critical data into the No Fly List.............
-- If there's no heavy weights come down on the Department Managers at State, CIA, DoD, and TSA -- for not running "Known Error" tests in the normal daily flow, so's to verify that acceptance and kick-out algorithms are working properly..................
-- If there's no heavy weights come down on the TSA No Fly List team in charge of data acquisition -- for not doing back-tracking on all the info sources all the way to origin (so you'd know what is missing from the normal stream).............
-- If there's no attention paid to M. Anthony Fainberg screwing the pooch yet again.........
Then, if all of this crapola flows just like Bush.... just maybe we'll have to wonder if our political system is taking something important out of our politicians.
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Feel free to flame me in the comments.
Anybody got a better idea that cleaning house, throwing the weight of the presidency at the individuals who screwed up, or worse just sat back and let it happen ???
Maybe start at the editors of Homeland Security Affairs.......