Barack Obama made a statement on what the administration is doing to tighten up security at our nations airports in light of the Christmas day terrorist attack by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab . A study done by the Department of Justice on THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION’S TERRORIST WATCHLIST NOMINATION PRACTICES before Obama took office found that that the system was broken and needs fixing. Joe Lieberman who is chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security in the Senate said in an interview with CNN today that he agreed. He said the current practices are not the Obama administration's fault. They were put place during the Bush administration.
The chairman of the committee on Homeland Security before Lieberman during the Bush administration was Susan M. Collins (R-Maine) from 2005-2007. Why Collins failed to address the situation back then is a matter of debate.
Secretary Napolitano has taken a lot of heat as of late on airport security from hyper sensitive Republicans. It seems that the former Governor of Arizona is not as well schooled as Americans would like her to be on the current terrorist nomination practices being used by the F.B.I.. Interestingly enough the current terrorist nomination practices were installed by the Bush administration.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah does not want to see the full body scanners used at airports. He says they are too invasive. Most people agree the whole body scanners would have detected the Nigerian terrorist before he boarded the plane.
The problem is he boarded in a foreign country. Since the scanners are needed before a person boards a plane headed for the United States it would be a matter of international participation.
The full body scanners are currently used at six airports in the U.S. and as a secondary procedure in a few others. They work very well on domestic terrorist concerns. Lieberman said his committee would meet in January to discuss the issue.
It seems the best thing to do as President Barack Obama said today during his press conference would be to do a full assessment on the current nomination procedures. Secretary Napolitano has to get to work and become more proactive on finding exactly where improvements can be made in the old Bush system.
President Obama said in his statement today " We added federal air marshals to flights entering and leaving the United States. "
"Second, I've ordered two important reviews because it's absolutely critical that we learn from this incident and take the necessary measures to prevent future acts of terrorism. The first review involves our watch list system which our government has had in place for many years to identify known and suspected terrorists so that we can prevent their entry into the United States."
"The second review will examine all screening policies, technologies and procedures related to air travel. We need to determine just how the suspect was able to bring dangerous explosives aboard an aircraft and what additional steps we can take to thwart future attacks."
Comments
Don't you ever wonder who create virus on your computer, and how this virus scan Program can find it so fast?
who really benifit from buying this scanner.
A handful of companies stand a lot, A LOT, to gain from a quick widespread deployment of these body scanners. There are a lot of money at stake.
Before we hand off our (taxpayer's) money and our human dignity at the door, we should think ahead a little and ask, how will these scanners make us safer if terrorists carry explosives INSIDE their body, the way drug smugglers have been doing all along ?
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