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Be on the lookout for these characters who are loose in our country, and could be probable terrorists looking for a way to Allah!

http://www.homelandsecurityus.com/site/ ... toryid=492

Last year I was at the airport watching as security scanned a physical disabled elder woman obviously caucasion. While people who were obviously Islamic went straight through. With this lastest threat, I cannot take sanitizer or toothpaste on the plane because of terrorist. Where in the heck are our rights to be FREE!

After the over 500 plots that have been foiled in the U.S. I can't believe were still playing the political correct game. In order to save our country and perserve our way of life we need to ban people with Islamic background from coming into the US. Period the end. We are at war and have a right to defend ourselves. This may hurt some peoples "feelings", but until we have resolved the issue this is a necessity and everyone but the ACLU thinks so.

May I offer a contrary opinion? And not from the stand-point of, as-you-say "political correctness- don't hurt anyone's feelings" but rather as a former law enforcement officer, a security consultant, someone who has taught college classes and written books on homeland security and whose best friend is a naval intelligence officer specializing in Middle East Terrorism and speaks fluent Arabic and who won a bronze star in Iraq: What your suggesting- while understandable from a human, frustrated perspective, is a poor strategy.

It is indeed racial profiling, which- again from a professional standpoint is not only ineffective, but has the added problem- in my opinion- of being amoral.

Put it this way: Let's say hypothetically you're an airport securty screener and you are tasked with analyzing names that you feel may be indciative of a terrorist. Your list is as follows:

a) Jonathon W. Lindh from Marin, California
b) Richard Reid of London, UK
c) Jose Padilla of Miami, Florida
d) Mohammed Odeh al Raheif of Nasiriya

According to the strategy you're advocating all attention would go to "D" because of his clearly Arabic sounding name and hometown. What this would accomplish however is zeroing in on the Iraqi lawyer who risked his life to let U.S. Marines know where they could find and rescue PFC Jessica Lynch in 2003.

By disregarding the other names because they are clearly non-Arabic you would have ignored respectively: John Walker Lindh, the "American Taliban" found fighting against our guys in Afghanistan; Richard Reid the Al-Qaeda affiliated would-be "shoe bomber" who tried to blow up an American Airlines flight in 2001; and Jose Padilla an American of Puerto Rican extraction who is suspected of colloborating with Al-Qaeda to locate materials for a radiological "dirty" bomb.

As a security consultant rule # one I recommend is don't be predicatble, as soon as the bad guys learn your SOP's and patterns, they can easily defeat you. If we suddenly decide to focus all our attention on, persons of Arabic and Central Asian extraction, Al-Qaeda has plenty of resources all over the world where they can locate Southeast Asian, Latino, European and yes, even American operatives.

That being said your observation that our approcah to airport security, and to a greater extent "homeland security" and counter-terrosim is dysfunctional is very accurate. My interpetation of these most recent terror alerts is that we really have accomplished very little since 9/11.

The fact is, the plot that was averted was "operational" meaning that it was ready to be implemented and that whoever planned it- most likely Al-Qaeda- still has a lot of operating capacity and infrastructure in terms of of time, money, logistics, communication and planning. We dodged a bullet on this one thanks to British and our law enforcement folks, but to me, clearly we have not significantly degraded Al-Qaeda's operating capacity in the last five years. This is something that alll Americans should be deeply concerned about.

One last thought. On Sept 11, 2002- one year after the attacks- I left on my final cruise as a Naval Reservist. I spent a few weeks onboard the USS NIMITZ as she was going through training and pre-deployment run-ups. What was great about that opportunity was that I had the chance to live and work alongside alot of the "Class of 9/11"- that is the extraordinary young people who were moved to join the service immediately after Sept 11, 2001. They were now finished with boot camp and A-School and hitting the fleet. One young man I remember talking to at length was a first generation, 20-year-old Lebanese-American whose parents brought him to the states to get away from that country's civil war. He was frustrated b/c he wanted to be a SEAL but got hurt in training and was transferred to the fleet. He spoke and wrote fluent Arabic and obviously understood Middle East culture. His hope was that he could appeal to someone in Intelligence or Law Enforcement b/c he wanted to offer those badly needed skills to give back to his adopted America in fighting the war on terrorism. I gave him the number of a former FBI agent I knew who was able to give him some advice.

The point is, in my opinion, America has been most successful when we capitalize on the skills and unique abilities of our heterogenous population. While from a visceral, gut- feeling perspective I can understand why people want to say "screw the whole thing, make 'em all suspect" my experience tells me its not an ultimately wise strategy and my sense of decency tells me there's something just- well- sort of un-American about that.

Just my $0.02.

Thanks for your consideration,
Matt Pope

Why would you check names only on list in this day and age it doesn't mean anything. Many are using hispanic last names to get into the country. My above point is that you "see" an ederly woman in a wheel chair obviously caucasion and your frisk her down to a tee for dangerous weapons or is a terrorist threat. I have flown many times in the last three years to many major airports and have yet to see anyone of arabic desent go through the humiliation in public that this poor woman went through. I am just tired of the P.C. crap.

For example if a white male was picked up in connection with an armed robbery and you wanted the witness to pick him out of a line up. Do you put 4 hispanic men, 4 black men and 2 white guys in the line up? Of course you don't you would put all white males approximately same age, height, weight and hair color. To ensure the witness could accurately identify the perpetrator.

As far as the gentleman your talking about, he should have been flown in through the U.S. military and handled through that avenue. I would presume the Military gave this man safe haven in return for the information.

Hi Matt...

Can I tell you that was probably the most educational, intelligent, well thought out posts, I have ever read on AC online.

Your clearly a brilliant guy, and I hope you post more often.

It is easy to get fired up with all that is going on, and MCBiz brings up the point that there is injustice at these airports from time to time- I am sure there are several who feel the same way. I have seen injustice too. I remember a guy having his wallet searched by a guy with a scanner, and it kept beeping, and the guy had his whole wallet and everything in it in plane view, but the guy just kept going and going and going - it was , well, ridiculous....I remember the guy final saying "are you kidding me?" It was just the insanity and pressure of the moment on the TSA guy.
So no knock to SS but just think it is easy to get fed up and understand it...but we do have to take a deep breath as you say Matt...but sometimes it hard to exhale with what you see on the news.

One thing is for sure, after 9/11 flying was never the same, and after this last incident, it will again never be the same. Don't expect us to go back to bringing most of these gels, liquids, or other stuff on the plane in the future.

After reading your post my first reaction was that guy is "one smart cookie"
Excellent!

Thanks all for your kind words.

There is no doubt that the TSA has some serious procedural issues which is incredibly frustrating. I have had my share of experiences including a screener who went through my bags for an unimaginable amount of time until I realized he was looking for a two inch pair of blunt scissors in my travel sewing kit.

What they need to do goes way beyond looking for certain names or ethnic characteristics- I have actually interacted with the TSA's headquarters in D.C. regarding certain training proposals- suffice it to say: they have issues.

I think the biggest frustration in general is why is America- the most innovative and 'can-do' nation in history- struggling to achieve something as basic as adequate infrastructural security?

Part of it is cultural. I have often said that America has two basic settings when it comes to security: Total Denial and Total Hysteria. We tend to completely ignore a situation until something happens, and then when it does we go into a period of complete overkill. We are among the best reactors in history, but we're not always as attentive to prevention and pre-planning.

My goal is to see the country achieve something approaching a balance: where we take smart, targeted, innovative steps to mitigate risks and keep the bad guys off balance, without sacrificing our fundmental system of Constitutional freedoms, our tradition of tolerance, and our essentially bold and optimistic spirit. We're the same country that beat the Nazi's to the atomic bomb, the Soviets to the moon and won the cold war- I have every confidence we can have A+ security without sacrificing our essential freedoms.

Thanks everybody for the great discussion.

Matt

It is nice to see we agree. This was a great post. As far as government goes until the politicians quit their charades nothing is going to get done that is reasonable. Illegals are going to continue coming in through both the Canadian and Mexico borders. The bad guys are going to continue to come into this country under false pre-tenses such as education.

We as citizens need to move past party lines and just start voting for the guy or girl who walks the walk. We also need to start insisting are leaders don't pile on a bunch of things with each agenda item so something can get done. Once Americans wake up and realize the power they have in voting then true change will come...........

Alrighty folks, we can stand down now, at least on THIS one, and secure from General Quarters; those so-called errant "students" have been located...

http://www.homelandsecurityus.com/site/ ... toryid=501

This was interesting timing based on our recent discussion. This article was the headline of a monthly publication I get for my work. Although not w/out its controversies it gives an example of a better, more innovative, direction the TSA is looking at for passenger security screening.

http://gsnmagazine.com/jul_06/behavior.html


-MP

Matt Pope...

Thank you for sharing what I consider to be very intellegent postings for not only AC residents but everyone living in these times. If anyone has not taken the time to read Mr. Pope's recent posts you are missing out on some very interesting information.
Thank you for sharing.
Any chance you are available to serve in a council member capacity for AC? Our lose...if not!
Also, your open letter to President Bush...right on!

ac94503:

Thank you very much for your kind words and encouragement. You're right: we're living in some rapidly changing times- as a city and as a nation- and it can help alot when we slow down and talk to eachother as neighbors instead of, it seems, often just yelling at eachother.

To my way of thinking, a message that both America and American Canyon really needs right now is: "We're all in this together and we can do anything that needs to get done if we pull together". Sort of like what FDR did for the country throughout the depression and WWII. From his fire side chats he kept reminding us how great we are and that the only thing we have to fear is: Fear itself.

I worry sometimes that we have become a "house divided". During the last few years an ethic has crept into American life that says: "Always win, all the time- at all costs- take whats yours and step on anyone in your way!" I don't know where it came from- probably a combination of things- but I see it and I worry about it. I see it on the political talkshows the way pundits shout at eachother and talk over eachother. I hear it in music that seems to promote a constant message that the most important thing in life is to be feared and envied for your material possessions.

Yesterday I saw perhaps the perfect illustration of what has changed in our society. It was on Yahoos! board of most viewed photos for the day. In one frame was Paris Hilton on a red carpet promoting something, in the next frame was the famous photo of the Marines raising the American flag on Iwo Jima in 1945 (the photographer of that picture was a Bay Area resident and just passed away this week). The Americans who won WWII were just average joes and janes who didn't ask for anything and when they were done defeating Nazism and Japanese Imperialism, they went home to their lives and jobs and raised their kids and built the middle class. These folks saved the world and didn't expect any special treatment. Paris Hilton gets a manicure and calls a press conference!

Somehow it has become about the spotlight, and being perceived as number one all the time. This isn't healthy, I don't think, for an individual, a community or a nation.

It comes down to leadership- which is perhaps the most over-used word in the English language. I've noticed that being a "Leader" is kind of like being a "Good Driver"- most people, if asked directly, will tell you that they think of themselves as one, and yet I'm betting that auto insurance or the collision repair business is going to be in jeopardy anytime soon.

Leaders unite, leaders inspire, leaders call us up to be more than we are seperately. Leaders spell out what sacrifice is going to be involved. When I hear people say "I'm a leader" I sometimes want to ask, OK, when was the last time a group of people picked you out of a crowd and said: "You, we want you to lead us"?

More times than not, leaders are chosen by their followers- whether they want to be the leader or not. Ambition, over-achievement and an appreciation of the spotlight have become substitutes for true leadership in our times. I've heard it said that one thing that might shock the Founders of our country if they were alive today, is the intensity and avarice with which modern candidates have to campaign.

The orginal- albeit somewhat idealized- vision of our representational government- be it President of the United States or City Council- is for the community to point to someone they admire in their ranks and say: "You! You are smart, and fair, and honest, and have a backbone- we want you to represent us- we trust you to speak for us in government!"

In so many ways American Canyon is a microcosm of America as a whole: still emerging and growing into its full potential; filled with promise and hope; still disproving its critics and skeptics with its tenacity and ability to overcome obstacles; still growing as an economic powerhouse; and made up of a diverse group of people who mostly want to live in peace, cling to an idea of optimism and provide a better life for their children.

And like America, American Canyon is also faced with some tricky decisions about our future- and, if I'm hearing people correctly, we are haunted by a nagging fear that- in all the rapid changes that have occured- we may have already crossed a threshold, a critical mass, a point-of-no-return in some of the decisions that were made.

For my money I say "no"- I don't believe that is the case. This community, like this country is just at another crossroads in our history. We have a LOT of resources avaiable to us and as such, a lot of tough decisions to make. We are at a point of evolution- of inheriting the hard-work of the people who have gone before us and asking ourselves how best to build upon and manage that legacy.

What I believe our leaders should do more often is to slow down and say: look how far we have come in such a short amount of time! The future is unlimited for us, if we play our cards right. Now is the time to turn the volume down on the dialogue and talk to eachother- as neighbors, as friends, as stakeholders, as people with a common love of community- what do we want, what can we come together on, what can we compromise on, what do we need? I believe it will take true, genuine leadership to facilitate this discussion.

I'm not quite sure how I got on this soapbox- I guess it just something I've noticed over the last year or so. Please forgive any "preachiness" it wasn't my intent. The temptation in a campaign- especially when there is so much at stake- is to "slap and pull hair", but for what its worth, my sense is that we've had enough of that. What I'm interested in seeing is who will emerge as the adult- who will pull together rather than tear down, who will get us voting for our best hopes, rather than just against our worst fears?

Just my $.02 - thanks again,

Matt Pope