BUB: More Security Fallout

The Battle Update Briefing on transportation security....

Somehow, Blogger Michael Yon got arrested at SEA-TAC for refusing to answer questions about how much money he makes. And Joan Rivers was stranded in New York, which prompted a great line from Conan O-Brien: "You should have seen the face she wanted to make."
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The President hasn't yet decided if anyone's getting fired by the failure of the security agencies to prevent the Underwear Bomber from boarding the plane to Detroit.

President Barack Obama scolded 20 of his highest-level officials on Tuesday over the botched Christmas Day terror attack on an airliner bound for Detroit, taking them jointly to task for "a screw-up that could have been disastrous" and should have been avoided.
After that 90-minute private reckoning around a table in the super-secure White House Situation Room, a grim-faced Obama informed Americans that the government had enough information to thwart the attack ahead of time but that the intelligence community, though trained to do so, did not "connect those dots."
"That's not acceptable, and I will not tolerate it," he said, standing solo to address the issue publicly for the fifth time — and the first in Washington — since the Dec. 25 incident.

Of course, we know what that means, right...

Obama did not say who, if anyone, in the government might be held accountable. Earlier in the day, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the president still has full confidence in his three top national security officials: the director of national intelligence, Dennis Blair, CIA Director Leon Panetta and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano — all of whom were among those around the table with Obama later.
For now, administration officials say that Obama believes blame is shared enough that no one agency or official appears clearly enough at fault to be fired. However, as the president and his team continue to identify what the security gaps were and how to fill them, Obama could determine that someone needs to go, said one senior administration official familiar with Obama's thinking. The official spoke anonymously because of the sensitivity of the matter.

So we ask you again, who do you think is getting fired over this?

poll by twiigs.com

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Over in the UK, there are plans to ramp up airport security.

Passengers travelling through the UK’s airports face a raft of additional security measures in the wake of the failed Christmas Day bombing.

Announcing the new measures in the House of Commons yesterday, Home Secretary Alan Johnson said body scanners are to be introduced across the UK’s airports with the first expected to appear at Heathrow within the next three weeks.

All UK airports will be expected to introduce explosive trace detection equipment by the end of the year, while customers can expect more pat downs, searches of luggage for traces of explosives and increased numbers of sniffer dogs.

Johnson said BAA, which operates six of the UK’s airports including Heathrow, has also started training some security staff in behavioural analysis techniques.

Which isn't as easy as it sounds, since the scanners aren't compliant with UK child porn laws. Sigh.

The rapid introduction of full body scanners at British airports threatens to breach child protection laws which ban the creation of indecent images of children, the Guardian has learned.

Privacy campaigners claim the images created by the machines are so graphic they amount to 'virtual strip-searching' and have called for safeguards to protect the privacy of passengers involved.

Ministers now face having to exempt under 18s from the scans or face the delays of introducing new legislation to ensure airport security staff do not commit offences under child pornography laws.

They also face demands from civil liberties groups for safeguards to ensure that images from the �80,000 scanners, including those of celebrities, do not end up on the internet. The Department for Transport confirmed that the 'child porn' problem was among the 'legal and operational issues' now under discussion in Whitehall after Gordon Brown's announcement on Sunday that he wanted to see their 'gradual' introduction at British airports.

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In the meantime, if the TSA gives you any crap, just sic' your iPhone on them.

With airport security tighter than Autopia’s travel budget these days, anyone passing through an airport will almost certainly get up close and personal with the Transportation Security Administration. A new iPhone app lets you easily and instantly give the TSA a piece of your mind without the nuisance of being dragged into an interrogation room while handcuffed.

Did your loafers get lifted during the shoeless security strut? Drop a dime with the flick of a finger. Upset that the guy watching the body scanner laughed at your Mickey Mouse boxers? Let the higher-ups know quickly and anonymously. Survey on the Spot, from Boston-based On the Spot Systems, uses GPS to identify the airport you’re in and instantly reports your review to TSA officials. Think of it as Yelp for traveling. Just make sure to turn that phone off before takeoff.

By: Brant