Are Citizen Watchbirds More Useful in Watch for Terrorists?
February 20, 2004
by Joseph P. Tartaro
Executive Editor
It wasn’t the first time. Nor is it likely to be the last. But on Jan. 31, six flights to the United States from England, Scotland and France were cancelled over fears of possible al Qaeda attacks. As a result of what was termed “credible” and “specific” intelligence, six return flights out-bound from the US also had to be cancelled.
While earlier international flights that were scrubbed mostly involved foreign carriers, this time a Continental flight from Glasgow, Scotland, to Houston, TX, and Los Angeles, CA, was one of the flights aborted. (Bear in mind this probably meant some travelers never got to see the Super Bowl in person.)
And this time, the precautionary security step was not about uncertain intelligence about a hijacking or a bomb, this time the fears were about an even bigger threat: the prospect that a chemical, biological or even a dirty nuclear device was involved.
As with so many of the ghosts that haunt America in the post 9-11 era, no one knows for sure if these latest security precautions involved real threats. No one knows for sure whether or not one of those planes might have carried a weapon even more frightening than an explosive device; certainly not the passengers for whom the cancellations may have caused serious financial problems and costly disruptions. And not even the intelligence analysts who reported the alleged attacks. Certainly not the US officials who requested—no, probably demanded—the cancellations.
That’s the big problem with the security of a country—especially a country were everyone is supposed to be free to travel, where everyone can speak his or her mind, and where even such a serious subject can become such a political issue.
Unfortunately, some of the criticism of the Bush Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and especially the CIA comes from people who don’t have a clue—especially Americans who have been totally sheltered from the horrors of war and major natural disasters. But especially war, because we have been lucky in this country during the past 100 years or so.
Some of the politicians and the public—not just Democrats, but Republicans, too—forget how lucky we are that most of our country has been spared the direct damage to our homes and property, and the loss and upheaval of livelihood and lifestyle that became so commonplace in Europe and Asia during World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Balkans and elsewhere, especially Africa. We don’t have the problem of innocent victims and private dwellings destroyed, or of the droves of displaced persons. Yes, we have the homeless, and people living in poverty and squalor, but not in great numbers in every city, town and rural hamlet as is common after wars.
Today, we have people who ridicule the President, his attorney general, his secretary of Homeland Security, the color-coded terror alerts and the Patriot Act. While some of the criticism may be well justified, no one has come up with a better solution.
Talking heads on television are quick to criticize the White House and federal intelligence and police agencies, but don’t have a clue about how it could have been done better. They forget that total uncertainty is an inherent component of terrorism. The uncertainty, the randomness, the total lack of understandable rules are all key differences between the state of terrorism and the state of war.
And while there have been no major domestic attacks since Sept. 11, 2001, no one can say that such other attacks have not been prevented by some of the measures taken since then. Of course there was the anthrax scare, which even today is not fully explained.
And as February began, deadly ricin was confirmed to have been placed in several Senate offices.
No one knows how it feels to be one of the Postal Service workers who are still scanning mail for deadly biological weapons. There are thousands of Americans in and out of government service who are on watch for further terrorist attacks. No one will know for sure if a police sniper watching over an American city’s water system—bored out of his or her skull by constant hours of waiting for something that might never happen—will actually save the lives of people in that city.
The concept of preventing attacks should be familiar to people who carry firearms 24/7 with the idea of being prepared to defend against a personal attack, when, where and if it ever comes. Yes, there may be times when they alone realize that such attacks were deterred, but the fact that attacks were prevented from ever happening falls into the same category as homeland defense. And just as being armed and ready to respond in a crisis is not understood by the talking heads of television, the windbags of talk radio, and the pampered press, so too are they failing to understand the need for constant vigilance regarding possible future terrorist threats.
Blue ribbon, bipartisan investigative panels after the fact, like the one currently trying to find out why we didn’t prevent the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks in 2001 won’t find anything other than incompetence, and bizarre CYA government policies in this and earlier Administrations.
Are we concerned about preserving our freedoms while we ward off terrorist attacks by people who hate us deeply and with religious fervor? Sure! And some Americans are individually being watchful for any anomalies in their every day lives.
In the last issue of Gun Week we passed on a story about a mother, an Air Force Reserve pilot, who was visited by the Massachusetts State Police because she and her son were inquiring about videos that teach instrument flying lessons. It seemed to me that the woman’s reactions were correct as reported.
She was outraged at first that her privacy had been violated and her decency as an American had been subject to any question. But then she realized that the store clerk who was disturbed by her perfectly innocent shopping request was doing the right thing in being suspicious.
And we had a similar incident in Buffalo, NY, recently.
Two “foreign-looking” men, who had arrived in a white van, were seen videotaping a significant part of the city’s waterworks, a fair size building with a direct lifeline to everyone working or living in the city. The vigilant and suspicious person in this case was one of the water department workers who notified city police.
Within minutes police stopped the men, got their identification and confirmed it, heard their explanation for the activity, and viewed the videotape in its entirety. Their conclusion: it was an innocent activity committed by sightseeing strangers who were not aware of a heightened state of concern and watchfulness in America these days. And water supplies are considered critical targets.
These are perhaps just two of many such incidents that take place daily around this huge nation as individual Americans assume a higher level of concern for their own safety and that of their fellow citizens. Of course there are some who may scoff at this higher state of watchfulness, but it may be some alert individual civilian who sounds the alarm for some future attack and not just some intelligence or law enforcement agency.
A lot has changed in America since 9-11, and most Americans are not aware of the scope of many of those changes. Law enforcement agencies, emergency responders of all kinds have been getting new training. The level of preparedness in some cases may outstrip that of the old Cold War “duck-and-cover” era, but it is no less real in response to possible real danger.
So far there has been no nuclear war, and one hopes that there will be no more biological, chemical, nuclear and other devastating attacks by terrorists. But if a future attack is actually prevented, it could be because of one everyday “watchbird” American.
Return to Archive Index
