In the wake of the attempted terrorist bombing of Northwest Flight 253, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), through the Transportation Security Administration, announced several new security measures for passengers on international and certain domestic flights. This includes remaining seated one hour before the flight lands on U.S. soil and no access to carry-on baggage and no personal belongings or other items on laps during that same one hour time period. The biggest problem with these security measures, beyond the significant inconvenience for travelers, is that the imposition of such security protocols assumes the terrorist is already onboard the flight. That’s hardly a comforting feeling at thirty thousand feet. They also serve notice to terrorists to act one hour and fifteen minutes before the flight lands.
While I certainly recognize the need to increase the level and randomness of certain security measures onboard flights, the real emphasis should be on enhancing intelligence sharing and collaboration between the intelligence community, which is responsible for determining who the terrorists are, and DHS, which is responsible for screening passengers so as to prevent the terrorists from entering the flight in the first place or at least subjecting the suspected terrorists to heightened screening before boarding the plane. Such information sharing must also include our international and private sector partners who, as in the case of Northwest Flight 253, do the actual on the ground screening in many cases.
According to numerous reports, the U.S. government did create a file this year on Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE), the intelligence community's primary overarching repository of information on known and suspected international terrorists. This file was apparently based, in part, on Abdulmutallab’s own father warning the U.S. embassy in Nigeria about his son’s radical Islamic views. This warning allegedly came after the U.S. issued the younger Abdulmutallab a visa in June 2008, but incredibly the warning had no impact on the status of that visa.
It is true that being in the TIDE database does not automatically mean one would have been placed on the “No Fly List” as to be put on the No Fly List requires a certain level of derogatory information not required for the TIDE database. Nor does one’s presence in the TIDE require automatic secondary screening at the airport or the revocation of a visa. However, the fact that it was Abdulmutallab’s own father, a prominent banker in Nigeria, who took the time to warn U.S. officials about his son, raises questions as to whether Abdulmutallab should have been placed in a higher risk database in the first place. Moreover, beyond placing Abdulmutallab in the TIDE, what additional follow-up did our government take as result of the father’s warning, and what, if any, other information did intelligence agencies have on Abdulmutallab, and did they share it with DHS?
Going forward, we must re-examine the entire screening and terrorist database management system, both of which have had problems for years. This must include determining whether everyone in the TIDE database should at least be subject to secondary screening before entering an aircraft bound for the U.S., and what standards should be used for re-evaluating a visa issued to someone subsequently placed into the TIDE. How many of us would like our families to board flights with an individual in the TIDE database where that person had not been subject to secondary screening and where that individual’s own father had recently warned U.S. authorities of his son’s radical Islamic views?
As the picture surrounding Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and his alleged attempted bombing of Northwest Flight 253 continues to come into focus, we will see new facts emerge and old “facts” discredited and dropped. As we evaluate this incident, it’s critical we view the event in the larger context of the war being waged against us at home and abroad. U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman put it best on Sunday when describing this latest attack as just one in nearly a dozen aimed at our homeland this year, including the Fort Hood massacre. It is also just the latest case of Islamic radicalization turning potentially deadly. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab comes from a wealthy and prominent family in Nigeria and was educated in the West and yet he still chose to go to Yemen to train for jihad against the United States. Unfortunately, as Abdulmutallab allegedly said to authorities, there are many more like him ready and willing to strike.
Finally, the recent failure to act in the face of overwhelming intelligence in the Fort Hood case, coupled with the nearly catastrophic failure to simply conduct enhanced screening procedures in the wake of intelligence on Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, raises questions about our current state of security. Rather than straining the bladders of innocent passengers by focusing on one hour seating requirements, we must shake up the system and challenge our current operating assumptions in aviation and beyond. We need a new sense of urgency in the homeland security mission across the government and among the public. Not a flailing panic or political sloganeering, but rather, strong leadership and a focused and unified resolve to quickly and smartly adapt to ever evolving circumstances and threats.
While I certainly recognize the need to increase the level and randomness of certain security measures onboard flights, the real emphasis should be on enhancing intelligence sharing and collaboration between the intelligence community, which is responsible for determining who the terrorists are, and DHS, which is responsible for screening passengers so as to prevent the terrorists from entering the flight in the first place or at least subjecting the suspected terrorists to heightened screening before boarding the plane. Such information sharing must also include our international and private sector partners who, as in the case of Northwest Flight 253, do the actual on the ground screening in many cases.
According to numerous reports, the U.S. government did create a file this year on Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE), the intelligence community's primary overarching repository of information on known and suspected international terrorists. This file was apparently based, in part, on Abdulmutallab’s own father warning the U.S. embassy in Nigeria about his son’s radical Islamic views. This warning allegedly came after the U.S. issued the younger Abdulmutallab a visa in June 2008, but incredibly the warning had no impact on the status of that visa.
It is true that being in the TIDE database does not automatically mean one would have been placed on the “No Fly List” as to be put on the No Fly List requires a certain level of derogatory information not required for the TIDE database. Nor does one’s presence in the TIDE require automatic secondary screening at the airport or the revocation of a visa. However, the fact that it was Abdulmutallab’s own father, a prominent banker in Nigeria, who took the time to warn U.S. officials about his son, raises questions as to whether Abdulmutallab should have been placed in a higher risk database in the first place. Moreover, beyond placing Abdulmutallab in the TIDE, what additional follow-up did our government take as result of the father’s warning, and what, if any, other information did intelligence agencies have on Abdulmutallab, and did they share it with DHS?
Going forward, we must re-examine the entire screening and terrorist database management system, both of which have had problems for years. This must include determining whether everyone in the TIDE database should at least be subject to secondary screening before entering an aircraft bound for the U.S., and what standards should be used for re-evaluating a visa issued to someone subsequently placed into the TIDE. How many of us would like our families to board flights with an individual in the TIDE database where that person had not been subject to secondary screening and where that individual’s own father had recently warned U.S. authorities of his son’s radical Islamic views?
As the picture surrounding Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and his alleged attempted bombing of Northwest Flight 253 continues to come into focus, we will see new facts emerge and old “facts” discredited and dropped. As we evaluate this incident, it’s critical we view the event in the larger context of the war being waged against us at home and abroad. U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman put it best on Sunday when describing this latest attack as just one in nearly a dozen aimed at our homeland this year, including the Fort Hood massacre. It is also just the latest case of Islamic radicalization turning potentially deadly. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab comes from a wealthy and prominent family in Nigeria and was educated in the West and yet he still chose to go to Yemen to train for jihad against the United States. Unfortunately, as Abdulmutallab allegedly said to authorities, there are many more like him ready and willing to strike.
Finally, the recent failure to act in the face of overwhelming intelligence in the Fort Hood case, coupled with the nearly catastrophic failure to simply conduct enhanced screening procedures in the wake of intelligence on Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, raises questions about our current state of security. Rather than straining the bladders of innocent passengers by focusing on one hour seating requirements, we must shake up the system and challenge our current operating assumptions in aviation and beyond. We need a new sense of urgency in the homeland security mission across the government and among the public. Not a flailing panic or political sloganeering, but rather, strong leadership and a focused and unified resolve to quickly and smartly adapt to ever evolving circumstances and threats.
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