I Wish It Was Fiction...

Imagine this, you are in the training environment and in the course of your duties you find trainee with exceptional skills and expertise. You interview him and ask him if he would be willing to help provide training, he agrees. You utilize him as a visiting Instructor from the field and realize that he is providing 85% to 90% of the advanced course. Even though he has little field experience in your agency's area, he is brought to the training center as a permanent Instructor. His experience and abilities as an Instructor are highlighted by his critiques. You bring him aboard to assist in advanced anti-terrorism training due to his incident command expertise. Within this training a course is developed to challenge managers in mitigating incidents in this day and age of devastating events. Once again, the course is a resounding success as evidenced by the written and verbal accolades of the participating managers. He has once again illustrated that he is the best at what he does. He spends half of his time away from his family training employees on the road and then suddenly it stops. He is no longer training in the area of his expertise and is sent to a new realm. Those who take his place are pale replacements. His time at the training center is coming to an end, and he is returned to his former duty station, losing his grade and 25% of his salary, for his permanent position is said to be rotational and temporary. So instead of providing the best training possible to the agency's personnel, he is to be pushing traffic. He leaves the agency to take a leadership position outside the federal government paying more and providing more benefits for his family instead of being relegated to a journeyman position. The agency loses the best hazardous material and incident command trainer it has ever had. All he wanted, was to do what he did best and the nation would be safer, the agency would be more efficient, and we would still be conducting cutting edge training. I wish it was fiction....

BT

Recent Observations...

I am sure most of you heard of the incident, where airline passengers refused to fly with two Asian young men who were heard speaking Arabic and acting in a strange manner. Some complained to the flight crew and others got off the plane. Some may think this was unacceptable behavior that unfairly targeted these two men based on race, ethnicity, and language. That may be true, but here is the bigger story. The passengers took the action they felt necessary to ensure their safety. They did not sit back and await whatever their fate like the sheep aboard planes on 9/11. ( A somewhat harsh, but true statement). That is a good thing!

Airline security has been a huge issue lately and more so with the London plot. When we look at our airline security and evaluate TSA, more often than not, they come out looking bad. This is reflected in recent evaluations at the Orlando airport where almost 60% of all screeners failed an imagery threat test. That is they could not recognize dangerous objects utilizing the x-ray machines. The problem with TSA is the training, they need some serious training in a bad way. The only problem is that in order to be a TSA training Officer, you have to be in TSA. From what I have seen of their announcements, they only hire from within for these positions. I am sure that as many other agencies, they are relying on contractors(not good as a general rule) for training. What I don't understand is why they would not want to hire training specialists with deep and diverse experience from other agencies. It would only make sense... oh, maybe that is why...

BT

London Events...

Aside from the obvious, the threat from these terrorists, what else do we need to come away with from these arrests and the plot. Here are a few things to consider. The first is that aircrafts are still at risk and integral to plots to kill Americans and their allies in the war against terrorism. The second is that Al Qaida continues to use plans that have been used before, in this case the hijackings in the Philippines in 1995 and in the U.S. in 2001. This may be because they have had successes with these plans OR that the mastermind commanders such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, are no longer around to come up with new plans so old plans are being reused. It is also a good bet that such targets like the World Trade Centers, Pentagon, and the Capitol are still at risk. Third, is that the intelligence that liquids were going to used as explosives aboard planes circulated a few years ago is proving to be correct. Remember the thermos alert? Fourth and MOST IMPORTANT, the terrorists said to be involved were British citizens as were those involved in the second set of London subway bombings and Richard Reid. It is a trend and it points to an internal risk both in England and here, from citizens who are Islamic fundamentalists.

How were law enforcement officials able to prevent this horrific plot? There were many factors, but one that should not be discounted is that because the terrorists were British citizens, the group was easier to infiltrate. This great example of cooperative international law enforcement is a win for the good guys.


BT