What will it take?

 

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What will to take for Department of Homeland Security Secretary, Tom Ridge to give Transportation Security Agency boss, James Loy, his walking papers? Is Loy his brother-in-law or is Ridge just a weak sister, a political appointee, ill equipped to make tough decisions? Do we need a tragedy to prove that TSA as lead by Mr. Loy, is a big nothing? 

Now we see Nathaniel Heatwole, a 20 year old college student, warn them that he is going to penetrate them -- and he still manages to do an end run on them -- not once or twice but as many a half dozen times!

The media seems to be focusing on the 20 year old messenger -- rather than on the message. But what is the message? Is the message that  TSA lacks people who can think out of the box? Is the message that their resources are improperly deployed? Is the message that Loy and company don't have the foggiest notion of either their mission or the tactics necessary to succeed in accomplishing that mission?  Was this failure traceable to the same foot dragging that has characterized Loy's response to arming airline pilots and screening small packages?

And every idiot has an answer. One, so called "Security Expert" got his 15 minutes of fame by telling all who would listen that the penetration by  Heatwole was meaningless because the doors to the cockpits were armored, there would be armed Air Marshals on board and the passengers would likely subdue an attacking terrorist in any case. If this "expert' is right why do we need to spend all that money on passenger screening in the terminals?

It would not be surprising to find that this guy was a TSA consultant or TSA staffer. Who else would be dumb enough to publicly offer up such a rationalization of failure?

The bottom line is that Loy is charged with an awesome responsibility and Loy can't  cut the mustard. He has proved himself unworthy of this position of trust. He has got to go before it is too late!

As for Mr. Heatwole -- he is a guy that every boss would have to worry about, but  he can play on my team any time!  This country and our war against terrorists needs all initiative, imagination and aggressiveness it can muster. Heatwole has demonstrated those qualities. 

 

Student to Face Charges Over Box Cutters

Monday, October 20, 2003

BALTIMORE — A college student who the FBI believes hid box cutters and other banned items aboard two airplanes will face federal charges, a law enforcement source said Monday.

The charges against Nathaniel Heatwole (search), a 20-year-old junior at Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C., will likely deal with carrying prohibited items aboard a plane, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Heatwole was expected to have an initial court appearance at 3 p.m. Monday in U.S. District Court, the source said. A criminal complaint had not yet been filed Monday morning in the court clerk's office.

At an initial court appearance, a judge typically explains the charges against a defendant, asks if the defendant needs an attorney and considers whether the person should be detained.

An FBI spokesman and a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office declined Monday to comment on the case.

On Thursday night, Southwest Airlines (search) maintenance workers found small plastic bags containing box cutters, bleach, matches and modeling clay in lavatory compartments on planes in New Orleans and Houston.

Notes in the bags "indicated the items were intended to challenge Transportation Security Administration checkpoint security procedures," according to a statement from Southwest Airlines.

A Bush administration official has said the suspected perpetrator last month sent the government an e-mail warning of his intention to conceal suspicious items on six planes and provided dates and locations for the plan.

The suspect was identified through a database search that linked the bags found on the planes to the e-mail, the Transportation Security Administration (search) said.

The discovery triggered stepped-up inspections of the entire U.S. commercial air fleet — roughly 7,000 planes. But after consulting with the FBI, the TSA rescinded the inspection order.

No other such suspicious bags were found in the inspection.

The modeling clay found aboard the Southwest planes was made to look like an explosive, while the bleach could have been used to demonstrate how a corrosive or dangerous liquid could be smuggled aboard a plane.