Why The Security State Is Worse Than Worthless

by Vince Daliessio

Ron Rapp hosts an aircraft crash video page on his website, which is tres cool. But Rapp is also a pilot, and had this to say when a recent visit by Vice-Perpetrator Dick Cheney virtually closed his airport;

Vice President Cheney dropped in on us at John Wayne Airport yesterday. Air Force Two, a Boeing C-32A, arrived shortly after 1:00 p.m., and with it came an armada of police, Secret Service, and spooks that closed down the airport for the balance of the afternoon. It’s a shame, because in days past the arrival of the President or VP would have been an exciting thing. But all anyone could do yesterday was gird themselves for a day of lost work and wonder why Cheney didn’t land at Los Alamitos or March AFB.

Hey now - why bother landing at a nearby military facility when you can show the citizens who use a nominally private airfield who's boss?

We knew he was coming — the FAA issued a Temporary Flight Restriction notice a few days beforehand. But the idiocy surrounding his visit is exactly the kind of thing I would expect from the Federal government. There’s nothing like being prohibited from entering or leaving your own building to make you feel free. And these TFRs don’t help Cheney’s security, they hurt it. It broadcasts for all to see the precise time and place of his arrival. Then there’s the TFR itself, which has a three nautical mile radius. At 3 miles per minute, anyone wishing the Veep harm would be able to cover that distance in less than a minute, even in a slow single engine aircraft.

Leave it to the Feds to promulgate security regulations that actually hurt security.

But most idiodic is the fact that airmen like myself who have long since been vetted by the government were prohibited from being on the airport while at the same time, line personnel who’ve barely had their drivers licenses verified are allowed to drive fuel trucks filled with thousands of gallons of jet fuel around the ramp.

Tell me again how the 9/11 hijackers were able to cause so much damage at the WTC and the Pentagon?

 

Posted 3/23/2005 1:24:13 PM by Vince Daliessio

OK, the nuclear power plant thing? The reactor containment building on a commercial US power reactor is a reinforced concrete vessel so massive that a loaded 747 would crush like a beercan it it hit one dead on. The only problem that could arise is if the jet is packed with high explosives, or if the burning jet fuel falls on workers outside of the reactor vessel. In all likelihood, workers inside the vessel would hear a loud noise as it smacks the outside of the dome. That's it. Meanwhile, pipelines by the hundreds flow all manner of highly explosive substances all around major cities, unnoticed....

Posted 3/24/2005 2:45:54 PM by Vince Daliessio

By the way, just to again illustrate how worthless the post-9/11 TSA restrictions are, pilots are instructed to not fly anywhere near any nuclear power plant under any circumstances lest they be shot down. And just to increase security, the TSA has mandated that NO charts show the position of any nuclear power plants. Therefore, pilots are no longer allowed to even KNOW where these power plants are thereby almost assuring that they will eventually be shot down for flying over one. How's that for secure!

Posted 3/23/2005 3:53:54 PM by Joe Pulcinella

Wow. The whole article is freaky. And nothing drives home this stupidity more that the letter from the pilot of the 767. This is a must-read.

Posted 3/23/2005 2:48:24 PM by Joe Pulcinella