R.P. Barr

Incoming Terror

We’re spoiled.  There is no other country that demands that other countries prevent terrorists from crossing its borders.  We don’t even protect our neighbor Mexico from weapons smuggling from the U.S.  We do enforce weapons export laws, but not even close to the extent that we enforce imports.  Yet we still expect everyone else to protect us.

 U.S. Customs and Border Protection has had officers in several countries for several years, both screening cargo and doing pre-clearance of passengers.  DEA has been overseas for decades.  ICE performs foreign investigations.  FBI has some foreign-based investigators, and on-and-on.  What many people who make public statements seem to overlook is that none of these Americans has any law enforcement powers in those countries.  They operate with the permission of the host governments, and do not have the power to arrest anyone.  If they find a violator, they can ask their host agency to perform a search, or seize contraband, or make the arrest.  The host country will then decide what to do based on their own laws and priorities.

 With airline travel, the FAA has some clout.  The law says that they have to approve foreign airlines who travel to the U.S., and they have to approve of the airports where U.S. planes land.  That is what gives us the leverage to make other countries screen people who are leaving their jurisdiction.

 The Dutch are responsible and conscientious, but put yourself in the shoes of a foreign official who learns of a radical that is leaving your country.  This bad apple is going to a place that has greater resources than your country, and where government employees are paid much more that you.  Not to mention that the tourists from that place complain about everything in your country.  And their corporations overrun your local businesses.  Then there is the way their military threatens smaller countries like yours.  How eager would you be to keep the dangerous passenger in your country?  Let him go and good riddance.

On the homeland side of the ocean, our enemies come here with a working command of English.  How many TSA officers, CBP officers, Border Patrol agents, etc. do you think speak Arabic, Farsi, Pashtun, or Korean?  Very few, and those few are native ethnic speakers.  How many U.S. border control officers are taught any of these languages (or anything other than Spanish) to help them intercept terrorists?  None. 

 That is the kind of change we need.  We don’t need new rules.  Someone puts a bomb in his shoe, so everyone has to take off their shoes at check points.  Someone puts a bomb in his underwear, so we have to go through scanners that look under our skivvies.  Did you read about the guy who had a bomb inside his body so he could get close to a Saudi government minister?  There is no machine that will make us safe.

 The problem is that in a bureaucracy, there are no points given to the guy who says, “Let’s do the job better.”  We need more people, better trained and managed, but we won’t get them.  The only promotions and bonuses are for new programs. 

 Congress, meanwhile, hasn’t done anything about preventing the next round of banking excesses.  Don’t for look them to do anything meaningful about terrorism either.  Happy New Year.

A follow up to the destruction of Ruslana Korshunova

The people who responded to my previous blog seem to be Russian, and I would like to address their concerns.  First, I apologize if I offended anyone, but I am in the United States writing mainly for an American audience.  Most people in the United States couldn’t find Russia on a map and don’t know the difference between Kazakhstan and Estonia.  This should not offend you because most Americans could not find Chicago on a map either.  (Although I expect my readers to be smarter than average.)  So, when I use the term “Russian mafia” I use it very broadly to mean a Russian-speaking organized crime group.  Such groups exist within the United States and in Russia and the other CIS countries.  I have been to Kazakhstan several times and met with Kazakhstani law enforcement officials both high and low—at least one of whom I know to be corrupt.  I have also seen members of organized crime in Kazakhstan and other CIS countries with their tattoos, athletic suits and guns.  Do they still wear athletic suits?  I have seen several in business suits, also.  That is a much better disguise.

 I will not try to tell you about your own country, but I will tell you something about this one.

 Professional criminals are only a very tiny percentage of any population.  In the U.S. we have criminal organizations of every major immigrant group:  Mexican, Colombian, Salvadoran, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Nigerian, Israeli, and Russian are probably the best known.  (If I overlooked anyone, I apologize—there were once German, Irish and Jewish gangs but I haven’t heard anything about them in years).  We also have both white and black American criminal gangs.  One of the key features common to all of these groups is that they prey mainly on their own.  If an immigrant is killed, the most likely suspects are from his or her native country or region.

 To get back to Ms Korshunova, if she had been killed in a crime of passion or in an argument there would have been signs of a struggle.  The New York City police are some of the most competent in the world, and if there had been a fight they would have found evidence.  The detectives would also question all of her associates and uncovered any jealousies, rivalries or enemies.

 My conclusion is that the killers were professionals and the motive was not in New York.  Possibly someone in Kazakhstan tried to get money from her family, and then contracted the murder through a New York connection.  If the crime had been committed by local criminals, they would have used a weapon—a gun, knife, club or garrote--and left the body in the apartment.  Or the body would have disappeared entirely, possibly to be found in the river weeks or months from now.

 When I lived in New York, I was on the scene of a few deaths caused by falling or being pushed from a tall building.  The bodies never landed very far from the buildings.  This young model flew into the middle of the street.  How far can you jump without a running start?  She probably did not weigh much over 100 pounds (45 kilos) and could easily have been thrown by one strong man or two ordinary men.

 When I lived in an Italian neighborhood in Brooklyn, there was a case when an organized crime “soldier” threw another man from the roof of an apartment building, but both killer and victim were Italian-American, and this was a singular incident.  The other three mob-related murders in my neighborhood that year were shootings.

People most often use the techniques that are familiar to them.  As I said before, I have heard several stories of Russian (or Russian-speaking) gangs throwing people from buildings.

 Finally, I am not on the scene and I only know what is in the news.  I could be wrong, but with the facts at hand and my own experience, I stand by my analysis.

 Елена,

Спасибо за ваши комментарии. Когда молодые люди умирают это всегда трагедия. За большой красотой она удвоится.

Ian Fleming is 100

Today is the one hundredth birthday of author and creator of James Bond, Ian Fleming.  I’ve read all of the Bond books (at least all of the ones written by Fleming—another author was contracted to continue the series).  And, I have all of the movies on DVD.  I can’t say that Fleming was the best author of his time—Live and Let Die is horribly awkward—but he pitted his hero against megalomaniacs who were trying to take over the world.  This elevation of the enemy as much as the sophistication and invincibility of the hero made the Bond franchise the success it became.  After Hitler and Stalin, the world did not have trouble believing in madmen who had not only the will, but the means to subjugate the rest of humanity.  Fleming tapped into this fear and made it entertaining.  He changed the nature and size of adventure fiction.

 

A few years ago, I visited the place where it all began.  The house where Fleming wrote Dr. No, the first in the series, is now a café.  It hugs the side of the Blue Mountains in Jamaica, 4,200 feet above sea level.  Access is via a former goat path, now mostly paved but still steep and too narrow for two cars to pass without both going onto the shoulder—when there is a shoulder. The asphalt is pitted with gaping potholes and sometimes has sections washed away. But, for those who make it to this modest structure, it is all worthwhile.  Far above the bustle of the island, and in the cool air of the mountain, surrounded by lush green foliage, the Gap Café, as it is now called, is still a wonderful place to get away from distractions.  Blue Mountain coffee, the best in the world, is served in individual French press coffee pots on white table linens.  Outside the windows, hummingbirds hover around feeders.  I don’t know what to believe about Fleming’s wartime adventures or his romances, I envy his choice of a place to write and appreciate this opportunity to recall and share a fond memory.

Why they fight

Almaty in eastern Kazakhstan is a cosmopolitan city with a small-town feel. It is the economic and cultural center of that Central Asian republic. At the opposite extreme of the country, about as far from Almaty as Salt Lake City is from Baltimore, the atmosphere is quite different. I went to the southwest border where Kazkhstan touches its neighbor, Turkmenistan. We drove for hours surrounded by barren earth until we reached the small plank house that is the Customs post. Looking beyond the border, I wondered why anyone had bothered with a road. The land was as flat and smooth as a tabletop as far as the eye could see in all directions. I reflected that this must be one of the most remote places on the planet accessible by car.

While we met the officers and asked our questions, a speck appeared on the horizon and grew until we recognized it as an approaching bus. The passengers were workers whose jobs lay beyond the horizon in Turkmenistan and whose homes were over the edge of the earth on our side. The bus stopped and the driver got out. The local officers asked if I would care to look inside the bus. I climbed on board. The vehicle had all the amenities of an American school bus, but without the sparkle. It was winter so the passengers were bundled in blanket-like coats with rimless wool hats pulled down over their foreheads. The local Customs officer stepped up behind me to tell the crowd that I was visiting from the United States. Instantly, two dozen voices in unison shouted, “Santa Barbara.” --That defunct soap opera remained alive on Kazakhstani television and informed them about Americans.

I thought of this incident watching TV the other evening when Jon Stewart interviewed John McCain, and Stewart described anti-American terrorists as hating our way of life. Even on a comedy show, I expected better. “Hating our way of life” is propaganda spread by the Bush administration. “They hate our freedom.” Bullblossoms! If you hear anyone spouting this rubbish, please slap them for me—figurtively, of course.

There are three reasons for hating the United States.

First, is in my example from Kazakhstan. American culture is everywhere. More than once in a far away place, I walked into a café or restaurant certain that I was the only native English speaker there only to hear the house band singing an American pop song phonetically in English to an audience that didn't understand the lyrics. U.S. culture is everywhere. It is our biggest export. And, it changes the attitudes, expectations, and culture of the people it reaches. While most viewers and listeners are seduced by the appeal of our entertainment, individuals who want to hold onto their own traditions resent this intrusion. Our music and movies and television and online transmissions strike at the heart of foreign identities.

Second, we don’t have a history of behaving very well on the world stage, especially not recently. Many foreign folks want to like us, but every time our government turns its back on international agreements to go its own way, or the heavy hand of corporate America dumps products overseas that are banned here at home, we lose our fans. Pre-emptive wars don’t help either.

Finally, we are the last superpower. A man is often measured by his enemies. Small enemies make a small man. So, every despot and idealogue seeking to make a name for himself will challenge the United States. Vietnam taught the world—if not us—that they could do this successfully.

Look at Iraq and al-Qaeda. They’ve already won. Our military is seriously damaged—our traumatized soldiers are even killing themselves in record numbers. Our economy, thanks to the rise of oil prices, is under severe stress. Civil liberties have been curtailed. Our prestige abroad has fallen off the charts. It is all beyond Osama bin Laden’s wildest dreams.

People in the rest of the world have their own problems and they don’t give a damn about our freedom or life styles. However, the demogogues and wannabes will use our cultural exports and our blunders to scapegoat their local shortcomings, and they will challenge us to puff up their own importance.

Wars are no longer about centralized leaders with organized armies playing capture the flag. The battleground is as much about ideas and perceptions as it is about guns and bombs. We will never prevail in modern conflicts unless we acknowledge why the other side is fighting.

Flashback--Airships and unintended consequences

On May 6, 1937, lighter-than-air mass transportation--and 36 lives--came to an end. The United States disapproved of Germany's Nazi regime and had imposed an embargo which included refusing to sell helium to Germany. Since the U.S. had a near monopoly on the lighter-than-air gas, Germany was forced to look for something else to lift their dirigibles. With limited choices, they settled on flammable hydrogen. During 1936, German dirigibles transported 1,002 passengers across the Atlantic on 10 scheduled flights without incident.

Today is the anniversary of the flight that did have an incident. The Hindenburg, with 96 on board, ignited as it was landing in Lakehurst, New Jersey. More than a third of the passengers and crew perished.

As the country is turning toward change and hope, let's remember that we were right to disapprove of Hitler's Germany, but the embargo did not have any noticeable effect in Der Fueher's policies or goals. However, dirigibles used less energy than airplanes, and their loss is the major result of the embargo and the crash. Today, we have airlines tumbling into bankruptcy over the price of oil. Heavier-than-air flying machines are simply more expensive to use, and the alternative burned up in 1937.

When the country objected to a philandering president, they got one that charged into war, wrecked the economy, and did irreparable damage to the environment and civil liberties. We have had change. I worry that the well-intentioned reaction to the current president will encourage policies that create more disasters down the road. Bear in mind that when only 36 people die in a commercial air crash today, it is considered a lucky break.

Food for thought

For the second time in the history of this blog, I find that President Bush and I are in agreement. The fact that he is a lame duck with nothing to lose and grasping at straws to enhace his historical status may have something to do with it.

Let’s flashback a moment to my 1991 trip to Cameroon. The news was full of stories about drought and starvation in Somalia. Often, commentators would be more generic and just say “Africa” when referring to the disaster. Then, I flew into Douala after a plane change in Paris. The Sahara had been mind-bogglingly huge out the airplane window. It went on and on. For what seemed like hours we were over a blank, khaki landscape. Then, it was gone. The approach to Douala, on the waistband of the continent, was over lush green forest. The tarmac we landed on was wet from a recent rain. Later in the trip, I rode past banana plantations. I saw street vendors spread a cornucopia of crops on blankets to sell. There was no starvation or lack of food in Cameroon. There was poverty.

With starvation in Somalia and plenty in west Africa, why was the United States spending millions on food aid, but buying only from U.S. farmers?

Well, 70% of the answer is that U.S. foreign aid is often primarily aid to U.S. businesses.

The other 30% of the answer is that in order to fly from, let’s say, Douala to Addis Ababa, or Dar-es-Salam to Brazzaville one has to fly first to London, Paris or Frankfurt. There are no African airline hubs, no continent-wide equivalent of the interstate highway system or transcontinental railroads. The colonial powers set up a system whereby all African products are sold to Europe—and the U.S. to a lesser extent—or more recently to China. And, all imports come from or through Europe, the U.S. or Asia. The Africans I spoke to in my travels didn’t even see the necessity for intra-African trade. They would ask what their neighbor has that they want or vice versa. I would counter by asking what Italy has that France wants or what Florida has that Georgia wants. Transportation equals trade equals wealth.

If we really wanted to help African coutries, we could help them build a transportation infrastructure. I understand that some environmentalists would gasp in horror over the idea of paving over tens of thousands of miles of land. I would ask them to weigh that against the environmental costs of isolated impoverished populations who kill everything that moves for food and kill everything that eats to protect their farm plots and herds.

Other critics will point to the plagues of civil wars and corruption that would surely dirupt construction and abuse whatever roads were completed. Well, you do what you can, where you can and hope the rest will fall into place.

In any event, Bush has not made an infrastructure proposal. But, someone must have pointed out to him that the cost of food and transportation has reduced the buying power of aid dollars by 40% in the past year. So, he has finally proposed buying food to feed starving Africans from Africans who have food to sell. If it actually comes to pass, it will be a really good thing.

He could do even better by encouraging more birth control in Africa and around the world. Fewer mouths means more food to go around. But, he’ll build roads before he does that.

One size fits one

According to Dashiell Hammett, “Thinking’s a dizzy business, a matter of catching as many of those foggy glimpses as you can and fitting them together the best you can. That’s why people hang on so tight to their beliefs and opinions, because, compared to the haphazard way in which they’re arrived at, even the goofiest opinion seems wonderfully clear, sane, and self-evident.”

I often have cause to reflect on that quote. This week I was thinking about Cameroon and democracy.

My first trip overseas was to Douala, Cameroon, and for a small-town, American white boy it was about as foreign as a place could be. I loved it--and learned many things. If you can’t quite visualize Cameroon, it is just under the western hump of the African continent, on Nigeria’s southern border. The country is shaped like a quail, with its tail on the coast and it’s head and top feather stretching north to separate Nigeria from Chad. It’s larger than California with a population of 17 million or so.

The original human inhabitants are said to have been pygmies, who were pushed deep into the forest by more aggressive farming societies. Today, the country hosts about 250 ethnic groups. The tribes along the coast traded with the Portugese (who named the region for the river prawns) the Dutch, and the English. Then Kaiser Wilhelm joined in European adventurism and won an agreement to make Cameroon a German protectorate. The Germans built homes on Mount Douala because it was cooler there than down in the seaport city of the same name. The gentry still find homes on the mountain. As a result of the Great War in Europe, Cameroon was carved up between the French and the English. By the end of World War II, the people in both colonies were ready for independence. Ahmadou Ahidjo formed a political party on the French side. It took rebellions and long negotiating but both sides won independence. Then, in 1972, they united to form the Republic of Cameroon with Ahidjo as the first president. In 1982, Ahidjo stepped down and turned the government over to his deputy, Paul Biya. It seemed like a good choice at the time, but Biya developed a taste for power and never let go. I met a member of the opposition, who told me that in comparison to Ahidjo, Biya “did not let the crumbs fall far from the table.”

The constitution said that the president was permitted two seven-year terms. Math was never my strongest subject and probably wasn’t Biya’s either, because 26 years after taking office, Biya is still there. Anyway, he is looking at the end of his second seven and asked for the term limit to be lifted. There are 207 legalized political parties in Cameroon, 44 of which fielded candidates for the National Assembly in the last election. Against this diverse backdrop, Biya offers stability at least, and this week won his changes overwhelmingly. What I see as a learning experience, critics are proclaiming as a setback for democracy.

Why is this important to us? Because after more than two hundred years, which included a horrendous civil war, we think—remember Hammett—that we have figured out government and we want to export it to societies that do not resemble ours. And, Cameroon's history is specific to Cameroon. There is no generic foreign country. What I told the Cameroonis when I was there is that they have their own rich traditions and should not have to look to other continents for political models. I would say the same in the Middle East.

No culture encourages tyranny, but there are many ways to represent the people. An embassy staffer in Cameroon explained that the indigenous model there was for each family to send a representative to the tribal council, and the council chooses a king. He rules for life or until he loses the confidence of the council—which is the same thing. If the king is lucky, someone on the council will tell him that the council is planning to kill him so he can flee. The assasination part sounds extreme to me, but it is still a people’s government. It also explains why there are no African ex-presidents living in the countries where they once ruled.

Arabs have ruled themselves for centuries through extended families and complex alliances. It doesn’t make sense for them to throw that out in favor of western-style institutions. It is wrong for us to insist otherwise. Iraqis need time to think through ways to adapt to modern times without breaking down the social fabric that is part of their lives. When we began our journey in 1776, our forefathers had the luxury of matching the pace of social progress with technological progress. New governments today have no shelter from the internet, telephones, television, international travel, trade, banking—and weapons. Institutions can take generations to develop while modern technology demands instant gratification.

The United States, in its foreign policy, needs to be nurturing and supportive without undue meddling. We should not support dictators, but we need to let people find their own ways without imposing our solutions on their social problems. Of course, peace is a prerequisite to growth, and unfortunately, peace is not likely to occur until the various parties exhaust the possibilities of war.

Race cards on the table

Barack Obama wants us to discuss race in America. Okay, I’ll tell you what I’ve learned so far. Bear with me since each of the following anecdotes only provides a piece of the puzzle.

Most of my high school days were at a rural school composed of students from three small South Carolina towns. Integration arrived in my senior year in the form of three individuals. None of them were in any of my classes. My government class, therefore, was all white. My teacher asked me to write up the scenario for a mock trial that we would hold in class with students playing the different parts. I sketched out a murder trial that would not be a slam dunk for either the prosecution or the defence. Then, the teacher asked me to cast the parts. I thought long and hard about who would be the best in each of the roles, made up a list and handed it in. He read over the list and asked me if I was aware that all of my role players were from my town. I was deeply embarrassed because I hadn’t been aware any bias. I had simply chosen the ones that I knew best. I went back, mixed up the roles to give all three towns an equal share and was quite proud of the result. The lesson I learned is that discrimination is not necessarily an active thing. I had not excluded those kids from the first list, I simply hadn’t thought to include them—but the effect was the same.

Years later, I worked for the Veterans Administration in New York City. As I have mentioned before in this blog, the largest category of service-disabled are psychological, so it was not unusual to be confronted with individuals who were challenged. One day, as I stepped into the hallway to go somewhere, a shabbily dressed man stopped me. Is it possible, he asked, for someone to put bugs, i.e. microphones, in your clothes? As it happened, I had once worked for a private detective agency, and felt qualified to answer him truthfully. Yes, it is possible. However, it isn’t easy or cheap. And, then, whoever plants the bugs has to monitor them 24-hours a day—that takes a minimum of three people every day. So, I told him, intending to reduce his fears, no-one is going to go to that trouble unless you are a foreign spy or someone very important. Instead of showing relief, however, he flashed a proud grin. I had not only confirmed his paranoia, but elevated his status to that of a very important person.

Put these two lessons together. The idea that people of high rank are sitting around a table plotting to keep you from succeeding is much more palatable than the idea that all of the futility and frustration in your life is because they don’t think about you at all. Whites who don’t do anything bad to minorities and who don’t bear them any ill will believe that they are not discriminating. Blacks who only see opportunities flash past them and prizes dangling beyond their reach cannot believe that it is not part of a plan.

Reinforcing their belief, nearly every black person can relate some ugly white-on-black incident—sometimes violent--that happened to him/her or to someone he or she knows. I don’t know if most whites can say the same thing, but I can relate several ugly black-on-white incidents—some of them violent—of which I have personal knowledge. To be fair, I also have personal knowledge of black-on-black and white-on-white violence with some Asians and Hispanics thrown in for good measure. The point is that while violence seems to buttress arguments about the feelings of the larger community, it shouldn’t. Bad people do bad things and the line should be drawn between bad and good, not between ethnicities. The problem is that good people don’t always do good things.

But, enough about trying to be balanced and fair. I have put people in jail. During that time of my life when I was doing it, I kept score. About half of those I caught were black, about half weren’t. The demographics of the neighborhood played a part in those numbers, but the fact is that there were just too many innocent people for me to waste my time on racial profiling. What I learned was that I would rather catch a black or Hispanic crook than a white crook. The reason was that a minority might fight or run, but usually once he or she was caught that was it. They could see that I was going to treat them as fairly as I could under the circumstances, and we went through the process in relative harmony. Whites, on the other hand, rarely fought or ran, but they would never shut up. They were going to sue or have my job or they knew someone who could make it all go away or-- Well, you get the idea. Lest you think that my preferences affected my statistics, I should add that I always felt better about sticking it to some loudmouth who should know better than I did about locking up a poor person or even a junkie.

I’ve learned a few other things since my sheltered days in the segregated south. As a white man, I can move among white people and ignore pretty much everyone as I go about my business just as I am ignored those who don’t have time for me. In Harlem and in Jamaica, however, I learned to always greet black people and be polite. Whites are simply less social. That’s too bad. I have also had car trouble on three notable occasions when I needed help. White drivers didn’t have time to stop for a stranger, but on all three occasions—in three different states—a black man stopped to lend a hand.

Before closing, I would like to say something about Obama’s pastor and his “God damn America” speech. He has a right to his opinion and is certainly justified in his frustration at the slow pace of equal opportunities. However, I have been to Africa and I have seen how the average person lives there. What happened in the Middle Passage and under slavery and under Jim Crow was terrible, but the descendents of those who suffered so much are living far better and with more opportunity than their relatives who remained in Africa. All of the lynchings in our history do not compare to the recent slaughters in Rwanda or Uganda. The victims in the CDC syphillis study do not compare to the African victims of malaria—not to mention AIDS and the other diseases that run rampant there. Slavery is still commonplace on that continent. I saw the mentally ill wandering naked on the streets because there is no place to care for them. I saw corpses lying by the road waiting to be found by a relative who would take responsibility for burial. And, I saw lynch mobs taking down thieves because they did not trust the legal system. African-Americans should feel very grateful to be in this place at this time.

The greatest unintended consequence of American slavery was to give the black race a bigger voice in the world. From Ray Charles and Halle Berry to Michael Jordan and Condeleza Rice, making it big in the U.S. is infinitely richer and more influential than making it in Kenya or Cameroon. No population of slaves in the history of the world has risen to such prominence in so short a time as the people who were transported to this hemisphere—and their journey far from finished.

In the 21st Century, a clergyman—regardless of color—should talk about healing and striving to do better—and even forgiveness. Obama, who wants to be president of all the people, should not have waited for videos to hit the publicity fan before he either strongly counseled or walked away from a pastor who preached bigotry.

Why security lines are slow

If you get frustrated waiting in security lines, take a look at the recent job announcement from TSA. If they did not have a 20% annual turnover in personnel they would not have this many unfilled positions.

Job Position: 1801 General Inspection, Investigation, and Compliance
Job Description: Transportation Security Inspector (Cargo)
Open Date: 02/22/2008
Close Date: 03/06/2008
Salary Range: $37683.00-$71225.00
1 vacancy at Windsor Locks, CT
1 vacancy at Burlington, VT
1 vacancy at Charleston, WV
FEW vacancies at Dayton, OH
1 vacancy at Arlington, VA
FEW vacancies at Fort Lauderdale, FL
1 vacancy at Greensboro, NC
1 vacancy at Jamaica, NY
FEW vacancies at Orlando, FL
1 vacancy at Miami, FL
1 vacancy at Norfolk, VA
1 vacancy at Philadelphia , PA
1 vacancy at Pensacola, FL
1 vacancy at Richmond, VA
1 vacancy at Savannah, GA
1 vacancy at St Thomas, VI
1 vacancy at Syracuse, NY
1 vacancy at Tampa, FL
1 vacancy at Birmingham, AL
1 vacancy at Austin, TX
1 vacancy at Dallas, TX
FEW vacancies at Houston, TX
1 vacancy at Des Moines, IA
1 vacancy at Wichita, KS
1 vacancy at Indianapolis, IN
1 vacancy at Jackson, MS
1 vacancy at Little Rock, AR
1 vacancy at Kansas City, MO
FEW vacancies at Chicago, IL
FEW vacancies at Memphis, TN
1 vacancy at Madison, WI
1 vacancy at Oklahoma City, OK
1 vacancy at Tulsa, OK
1 vacancy at Moline, IL
1 vacancy at Harlingen, TX
1 vacancy at Traverse City, MI
1 vacancy at Albuquerque, NM
1 vacancy at Boise, ID
1 vacancy at Orange County, CA
1 vacancy at Juneau & Auke Bay, AK
1 vacancy at Fairbanks, AK
1 vacancy at Lihue, Kauai, HI
1 vacancy at Kahului, Maui, HI
1 vacancy at San Bernardina County, CA
1 vacancy at Portland, OR
FEW vacancies at Phoenix, AZ
1 vacancy at San Diego County, CA
FEW vacancies at Alameda County, CA
1 vacancy at Sacramento County, CA

Job Position: 1801 General Inspection, Investigation, and Compliance
Job Description: Supv. Transportation Security Inspector (Cargo)
Open Date: 02/22/2008
Close Date: 03/06/2008
Salary Range: $68327.00-$105906.00
1 vacancy at Atlanta, GA
FEW vacancies at New York City, NY
1 vacancy at Miami, FL
1 vacancy at Philadelphia Metro Area, PA
1 vacancy at San Juan Area, PR
1 vacancy at Chicago Metro Area, IL
1 vacancy at Houston Metro Area, TX
1 vacancy at Los Angeles County, CA
1 vacancy at San Francisco County, CA

Memories of airport security

If you care about airport security, you should go to
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/08/03/faa/

The article there is the result of a long investigation into airport security since 9-11. The findings are not encouraging. It also discusses the ineffectiveness of whistleblower protections.

Which brings to mind my own international travels in the 1990’s. During that time, I flew 33 airlines in and out of 64 airports in this country and abroad. This was prior to the current restrictions and I usually carried 5 knives with me in my brief case. These were not carried as weapons, but were various tools, some to be used in training foreign border control officers. I also carried a lead pouch about 5” x 7” to protect my film from x-rays.

Most of the time, I breezed through security. Sometimes, an alert x-ray tech would find a knife. Usually I would be allowed to keep it, but occasionally it would be sent in a pouch with the pilot and returned to me when I picked up my luggage on the other end. In Frankfurt one time, a woman searched my bag and found three of the five knives. That was the best that anyone had ever done and I gave her a little Customs badge, explaining, with an encouraging smile, that “Ich bin ein Zolle Politzei,” which was probably poor German, but the best I could manage.

A few times, the x-ray tech would see the blank rectangle of my lead bag and ask to look inside. What no-one ever did was put the briefcase back through the x-ray machine without the lead pouch to see what had been under it. I’m happy to report that I have seen TSA run bags a second time after removing a suspicious object, so some things have improved.

Besides what was in my bag, I also wore a case for sunglasses on my belt. This was an unusually large case with an inner lining of PVC pipe. It could withstand extreme punishment, which is why I wore it, but the size could provoke security interest. Half the time, my case was ignored. The rest of the time, a security officer would ask me what it was, often by pointing because we spoke different languages. I would open the flap, pull out my sunglasses just far enough to show what they were, and walk on.

For classroom purposes, I would roll an ounce of flour in plastic wrap and place it underneath my sunglasses. Then, after telling my story, I would take off the case and shake out the bundle of substitute narcotics to illustrate my point. “If you are suspicious enough to look,” I would say, “be thorough.”

In Kingston, Jamaica, I gave this class as I had given it before. The next day, we went to the airport for a practical exercise. At one point, I wanted to show the class my briefcase going through the x-ray. To do so, I stepped outside the security zone, put my bag on the belt and walked back through the metal detector. The Port Security Corps officer at the checkpoint had not seen me leave, and looked at me as just another passenger. She asked about the case on my belt. Smug in my previous experience, I glanced over at my class and showed her the sunglasses.

“Take it off, please.” At that moment, I realized that the plastic-wrapped bundle was still in the bottom of the case. I handed it to her. She removed the glasses, looked inside, and shook out the training material. “What’s this?” she asked. “Flour” I said. The expression on her face was priceless. The two policemen coming to back her up were more intense. Fortunately, members of my class came to my rescue, even as they shared a good laugh at my expense.

I wrote a letter to the director of the Port Security Corps commending the officer, and pointed out that she had done something that no other security officer in any other country, including the United States, had done.

Today, TSA is better than the hodgepodge of private companies it replaced. I no longer carry knives on airplanes. I wonder, though, about all those millions of passengers who did carry knives, guns and chainsaws onto airplanes and never threatened anyone. Are we safer? Has the incidence of drunks and nut cases acting out been reduced? Dehydration is a health problem for all travelers and bottled water is banned. Are we safer? Meanwhile, as the Salon article shows, it is still possible for a dedicated terrorist to sneak a weapon onto a commercial aircraft. And one more thing. In the great terrorism game, why do so many still think that airliners are the goal line?