Sky Pilot

As the young men move out
into the battle zone
He feels good,
with God you're never alone
--Sky Pilot, The Animals

I know my place inside your heart
The painted figure that glows in the dark
No you're not mysterious now
I don't worship that sacred cow
--Sacred Cow, Crowded House

Ranger Question of the Day:
If God created the earth,
and we are the sole intelligent life in the universe,
What are all these other planets about?
Why do we need all this other stuff?
________________

We have discussed the efficacy of the Federal Air Marshall Program (Sky King), now let's look at the Federal Flight Deck Officer (FFDO)Training Program which has made 85 - 90,000 pilots and crew members eligible to be armed and trained in the use of handguns in commercial aviation.

Ranger opposes the cost and utter mindlessness of this program. Air crewman are not law enforcement, nor should we want them involved in airborne shooting scenarios; they have more important flight duties. One can be a gunfighter or an air crew member, but one cannot be both at the same time.

All of this training for naught. Not once has a gun been properly used to suppress any terrorist activity on an aircraft. In fact, not one Federal Marshall has used his weapon for anything more than impressing a steward or stewardess. Policies are implemented and money spent on counter-terror measures without oversight or reevaluation of the basic premise for the expenditures.

The word terror now incites terror; it is become our sacred cow.

Going now to ground level gun toters in the name of averting terror: Federal law has authorized retired law enforcement officers to carry their weapons concealed upon retirement. When has any retired officer used his weapon to deter an act of terror here in the Heartland. Answer: NEVER.

U.S. Counter-terror policy is based upon a total misunderstanding of the supposed threat and is managed by those with cowboy mentalities. Let's disarm the flight crews and retired law enforcement officers as both policies are ineffective and pointless.

If the U.S. wishes to play cowboys and terrorists let us just arm everybody, creating an illusion of security (which would soon fall as human vice and folly took over.)

Considerations of reality do not seem to be steering the ship of State these days.

Sky King

From out of the clear blue of the
Western sky comes... Sky King!

--My orders came through.
My squadron ships out tomorrow.
We're bombing the storage depots at Daiquiri at 1800 hours.
We're coming in from the north, below their radar.
--When will you be back?
--I can't tell you that. It's classified
--Airplane! (1980)
________________

Homeland Security Administration gets a lot wrong in its approach to countering the Terror threat to the U.S. The Air Marshal Service is a prime example.

Tennessee Rep. Jimmy Duncan quotes an 11/08 USA Today story on his webpage:

“Since 9/11, more than three dozen Federal air marshals have been charged with crimes, and hundreds more have been accused of misconduct. Cases range from drunken driving and domestic violence to aiding a human-trafficking ring and trying to smuggle explosives from Afghanistan.''

"Actually, there have been many more arrests of Federal air marshals than that story reported, quite a few for felony offenses. In fact, more air marshals have been arrested than the number of people arrested by air marshals (Duncan Blasts "Useless" Air Marshal Service)."

Nice to know our tax dollars are supporting criminal enterprises beyond the mundane stealing of office pens. Rep. Duncan continues:

"We now have approximately 4,000 in the Federal Air Marshals Service, yet they have made an average of just 4.2 arrests a year since 2001. This comes out to an average of about one arrest a year per 1,000 employees.

"Now, let me make that clear. Their thousands of employees are not making one arrest per year each. They are averaging slightly over four arrests each year by the entire agency. In other words, we are spending approximately $200 million per arrest. Let me repeat that: we are spending approximately $200 million per arrest."

The cost per arrest is staggering, especially considering their low quality. Only three significant arrests since 9-11-2001, with only one conviction (Richard Reid).

Is there even a threat to our commercial aviation sector? If so, are Air Marshal the appropriate tool with which to counter the threat? Proper police and intel coordination linked with Transportation and Security Administration protocols should neutralize the threat before the security zone is penetrated by would-be hostile operatives.

The security system now has superfluous layers serving no obvious purpose. One example is screening for the components of liquid explosives which, even if smuggled aboard, could not be effectively combined to create an improvised mixture (unless a work area with scales were available.)

Explosives are not manufactured as easily as martinis that are shaken and not stirred. The realistic threat is not a James Bond type, contrary to the government hype. The types apprehended to date are pathetic, untrained crazies or wannabes posing theatrical threats -- they lack finely-honed operational skills. Yet this terror theater seems adequate to scare us witless.

The Rep questions the disparity between the threat and the scale of the U.S. response:

"Why, absent any evidence of a serious terror threat, is a war to on terror so enormous, so all-encompassing, and still expanding? The fundamental answer is that al Qaeda's most important accomplishment was not to hijack our planes but to hijack our political system.”

“For a multitude of politicians, interest groups and professional associations, corporations, media organizations, universities, local and State governments and Federal agency officials, the war on terror is now a major profit center, a funding bonanza, and a set of slogans and sound bites to be inserted into budget, grant, and contract proposals.''

After nearly a decade of the Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©) and 40 years of experience with international and transnational terrorists and state and non-state sponsored groups it would be reasonable to expect that our government would understand what are and are not realistic tactics for dealing with terrorism. Al-Qaeda is not our first rodeo.

Ranger remembers when "CT" (Communist Terrorist) was applied to the National Liberation Front/VC of the Republic of Vietnam, a label used to demonize their nationalist, anti-colonialist Communist efforts. It did not work then, and it will not work now. Sticks and stones...

Words are only words.

[Cross-posted @ MilPub]

Blabbermouth

WW II-era poster promoting OPSEC

OPSEC (Operational Security) is generally defined as denying an adversary or enemy intel/info that will hurt your operations OR will be beneficial to their planning of operations.

Operations security (OPSEC) is a process that identifies critical information to determine if friendly actions can be observed by adversary intelligence systems, determines if information obtained by adversaries could be interpreted to be useful to them, and then executes selected measures that eliminate or reduce adversary exploitation of friendly critical information.

OPSEC is a methodology that denies critical information to an adversary. Unlike security programs that seek to protect classified information, OPSEC measures identify, control, and protect generally unclassified evidence that is associated with sensitive operations and activities.

OPSEC is generally regarded as not only a methodology, but also a mindset, and has its roots in the Vietnam Conflict. Concerned with intelligence leaks to the enemy, Admiral Ulysses Sharp created the "purple dragon" team, which created the OPSEC process that is used today (Wikipedia, OPSEC)

"U.S. airports and mass transit systems are tightening security ahead of the Fourth of July holiday and more air marshals will travel on overseas flights."

"Those checks would include watch lists such as the no-fly list; any clue that the suspects had shared an address with people in the U.S.; intelligence indicating the suspects made calls into the U.S.; and other similar types of investigative work" (More Air Marshals on Flights to Europe and Britain, Chertoff says.)

U. S. policy is to keep everything secret that pertains to "detainees." Everything is so secret that secret trials, secret prisons and secret courts are required.

But in the realm of OPSEC, where things really should be secret, what happens? The czar of homeland security gives out U.S. operational plans in a newspaper article! Does this make any sense? Why provide this info to any potential criminals targeting U.S. transportations systems?

Does anyone in Homeland Security have a clue? Do they color-code their ties appropriately to each day's color alert? I wonder how the average American changes tack, depending on the color of the alert that day? No trips to the shopping mall on Orange Days? Or is that Yellow Days?

Myself--I'm not a very good sentry for the czar, I'm afraid. I don't even know the threat level for fire in our neighboring forest, and it's Summer.

--Lisa