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From the Los Angeles Times

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'Invasive' airport pat-downs not going away for the holidays

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says she wouldn't like to get one, 'but everybody's trying to do the right thing.' The TSA's John Pistole cites the determination of terrorists to take American lives.

By Jim Puzzanghera, Tribune Washington Bureau

November 22, 2010

Reporting from Washington

Despite the uproar over intrusive pat-downs for some airline travelers, the policy will not change heading into the holiday travel season, the head of the Transportation Security Administration said.

"Clearly, it's invasive; it's not comfortable," John Pistole said of the pat-downs in an interview Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union with Candy Crowley."

But he said the agency was trying to strike the right balance between privacy and security to protect the nation from potential terrorist attacks, such as the failed bomb plot last Christmas by a man who authorities said had explosives hidden in his underwear.

"No, we're not changing the policies … because of the risks that have been identified," Pistole said. "We know through intelligence that there are determined people, terrorists who are trying to kill not only Americans but innocent people around the world."

The TSA this month began more aggressive pat-downs, including checking sensitive areas such as the groin and breasts, for signs of weapons or explosives on some travelers. The searches have sparked outrage, as has the TSA's alternative — greater use of full-body scanners that the American Civil Liberties Union has said amounts to a "virtual strip search."

An Internet-based campaign has called for airline passengers to refuse the full-body scans on Wednesday, the busy travel day before Thanksgiving, opting instead for pat-downs, which could cause huge delays at airports.

Asked Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation" if she would submit to one of the new pat-downs, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said: "Not if I could avoid it. No. I mean, who would?"

But Clinton said Obama administration officials were trying to find the right way to respond to terrorists "getting more creative about what they do to hide explosives in, you know, crazy things like underwear."

"I think that we have to be constantly asking ourselves, 'How do we calculate the risk?' And, you know, sometimes, we don't calculate it correctly. We either overstate it or understate it," she said. "Now, if there is a way to limit the number of people who are going to be put through surveillance, that's something that I'm sure can be considered. But everybody's trying to do the right thing."

President Obama said Saturday that he had asked his counter-terrorism team each week if the measures were "absolutely necessary."

"With respect to the TSA, let me, first of all, make a confession. I don't go through security checks to get on planes these days, so I haven't personally experienced some of the procedures that have been put in place by TSA," Obama said at a news conference after the NATO summit in Lisbon.

Still, he said, "I understand people's frustrations. And what I've said to the TSA is that you have to constantly refine and measure whether what we're doing is the only way to assure the American people's safety. And you also have to think through, are there ways of doing it that are less intrusive?"

Pistole said the new procedures were necessary to stop terrorist attacks, but he admitted the pat-downs were "more intrusive."

"To some people, it is demeaning," he said. But Pistole said very few passengers experienced pat-downs — only those who set off alarms while going through airport screening machines.

"So you just have to make sure you take everything out of your pockets," he said. "So if there's no alarm, there's no pat-down."

Rep. John L. Mica (R-Fla.), the incoming chairman of the House transportation committee, said the TSA procedures needed to be "refined." He has called for airports to consider private screeners.

"We've got them headed in the wrong … direction as far as who they're screening and how they're doing it," Mica said of the TSA.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-tsa-pat-downs-20101122,0,1394754,print.story

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High-seas piracy drama plays out in U.S. courtroom

Five Somalis accused of attacking a Navy ship await their fate in the first such trial in almost 200 years.

By Bob Drogin, Los Angeles Times

10:27 PM PST, November 21, 2010

Reporting from Norfolk, Va.

The moon was bright, the sea was calm, and the pirates easily spotted their prey — a large gray ship plodding through waves 576 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia.

Three men jumped from a command boat into an open skiff and raced toward the target. They opened fire with AK-47 rifles as they neared the starboard side, hitting a mast and several life lines.

No one was hurt, and the April 1 incident normally might have drawn little notice. Somali sea bandits have attacked several hundred freighters, tankers and other merchant ships this year. They have successfully hijacked 40 vessels and their crews and held them for ransom.

But the target this time was the U.S. guided missile frigate Nicholas, disguised to resemble a cargo ship. Navy gunners fired back, and by dawn, commandos had captured five Somalis.

The result has been a riveting federal trial here this month. Navy officers gave a rare inside peek at counter-pirate operations, while the men accused of piracy testified emotionally — one appeared to weep on the stand — about their ordeals.

"It's a historic occasion," said Eugene Kontorovich, a maritime law expert at Northwestern University School of Law. "It's the first piracy trial in the United States in close to 200 years."

The five Somalis — scarecrow-thin men in their 20s who appeared even tinier in the baggy sport coats they wore to court — each faces 14 criminal charges and mandatory life in prison if convicted of piracy. The jury is expected to begin deliberations Monday.

Whatever the verdict, the trial has underscored the difficulties of combating Somali piracy in a U.S. court, especially if the men never boarded the ship. In a similar but separate case, another federal judge in Norfolk dismissed piracy charges against six other Somalis accused of firing at the U.S. Navy vessel Ashland, although they face other charges. Prosecutors are appealing.

The men captured by the Nicholas were flown to Norfolk, where the frigate is based, because authorities in Kenya, which agreed last year to prosecute pirates detained by foreign navies, refused to accept them. Days before the attack, Navy warships had released 11 other suspected Somali brigands after destroying their weapons.

Testifying last week, the five Somalis insisted they were fishing for sharks near shore when real pirates kidnapped them at gunpoint. Several nights later, they said, the pirates pushed them into the skiff, tossed in two rifles and ordered them to aim at a passing ship.

One defendant, Gabul Abdullahi Ali, said he knew so little about guns that when he fired the AK-47, the recoil knocked him into the water. Ali said the pirates beat him, and that Navy sailors did too.

"I was kicked, stomped on with boots," he said through an interpreter, wiping tears from his eyes.

Another defendant, Abdi Wali Dire, also admitted shooting in the melee. Like the others, he insisted they did not try to escape after the Navy shot back. "We were just sitting there," he said.

All five recanted confessions that a Navy investigator said they had given him shortly after their capture. One of the group, Abdi Mohammed Gurewardher, said the Navy interpreter threatened to feed him to the sharks if he didn't confess.

Prosecutors presented a starkly different version of events.

Navy officers said a P-3 Orion surveillance plane detected three suspected pirate boats — a so-called mother ship and two smaller attack skiffs — shortly after midnight on April 1, and alerted the Nicholas.

Cmdr. Erik Patton, the ship's executive officer, soon spotted a small white skiff speeding toward the warship. Through his night-vision scope, Patton saw two men with AK-47 rifles and another man holding a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

"He's got a grenade launcher! He's got a grenade launcher!" Patton recalled shouting. He said the attackers fired at least three bursts from their rifles, but Navy gunners fore and aft opened up with .50-caliber machine guns, and the skiff turned and sped away.

Navy rules of engagement barred the crew from shooting at a fleeing target. After a half-hour chase, Patton told the court, the men waved their arms in surrender. They already had tossed weapons and a boarding ladder into the sea.

A Navy drone, launched from the Seychelles, spotted the mother ship 20 miles away later that night. The Nicholas intercepted the supply-laden boat at daybreak and detained the two men aboard. The third boat was never found.

The five Somalis were stripped, blindfolded and given what the Navy calls "poopy suits," or survival coveralls. They were handcuffed to a rail under an awning for most of the next few days.

On April 4, Michael Knox, a special agent from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, and an interpreter interrogated the men one by one, and then together. He did not record the sessions.

Knox told the jury that the captives admitted that they had sailed from Mogadishu, the Somali capital, with five other men "for the purpose of pirating a merchant vessel." He said a Somali financier back on shore had promised to pay them each $10,000 to $40,000 if they succeeded.

The trial, before U.S. District Court Judge Mark S. Davis, has produced a few moments of levity. One defense lawyer provoked titters when he asked whether a witness spoke "salami," not Somali.

On Friday, lawyers used a phone hookup in court to grill a defense witness in Mogadishu. The witness, who said he owned the fishing boats that were sunk by the Navy, abruptly pleaded with the judge for restitution for the missing craft "and compensation for the crew."

Davis, smiling broadly, said he would pass the request to government prosecutors. They did not respond.

Piracy is hardly new to Norfolk, home of the world's largest Navy base. In colonial days, desperados marauded up the coast from the Caribbean. They sparked such dread that piracy is one of the few crimes — treason is another — identified in the Constitution.

The last known U.S. trial of a pirate captured overseas was in 1819. During the Civil War, crew members from the Savannah, a Confederate raider, were charged with piracy and tried in New York. But the jury deadlocked, and the rebels later were deemed prisoners of war.

A New York court last month delayed sentencing of another Somali. Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse pleaded guilty to charges that he hijacked the container ship Maersk Alabama in April 2009 and kidnapped Capt. Richard Phillips, who later was rescued by Navy SEALS. Muse faces a minimum of 27 years in prison.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-pirates-20101121,0,2546927,print.story

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North Korea enrichment plant no surprise to U.S.

Revelations that North Korea is building a uranium enrichment facility validate concerns it's not serious about talks to end its nuclear program, officials say.

By John M. Glionna, Jim Puzzanghera and David S. Cloud

Los Angeles Times

November 22, 2010

Reporting from Seoul and Washington and Santa

The U.S. special envoy for North Korea on Monday sought to downplay revelations that Pyongyang is building a new facility to process uranium that can be used in nuclear weapons.

State Department special representative Stephen Bosworth met with South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan, later telling reporters that the U.S. has been monitoring construction at North Korea's main Yongbyon atomic complex.

"This is obviously a disappointing announcement. It is also another in a series of provocative moves" by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, Bosworth said. "That being said, this is not a crisis. We are not surprised by this. We have been watching and analyzing [North Korea's] aspirations to produce enriched uranium for some time."

North Korea recently revealed to a U.S. nuclear expert that it was building a sophisticated enrichment operation and had completed 2,000 centrifuges that U.S. officials warn could be used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons. The claims are backed by new satellite images that show ongoing construction at the site.

Siegfried Hecker, a former director of the U.S. Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory, wrote in a report on his visit to the Yongbyon nuclear complex that he was allowed to visit a small, industrial-scale uranium enrichment facility, which he said had been secretly built at stunning speed.

Though it was not clear why officials had allowed Hecker and two other U.S. experts to tour the facility, some characterized the move a North Korean ploy to improve its position in talks aimed at convincing the regime to drop its nuclear ambitions.

On Sunday, Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the reports from the two U.S. experts validated longstanding concerns about the communist nation's intent to develop an arsenal of nuclear weapons.

"It's North Korea continuing on a path which is destabilizing for the region," Mullen said on CNN's "State of the Union with Candy Crowley." "It confirms or validates the concern we've had for years about their enriching uranium, which they deny routinely."

He said reports that North Korea is building a plant to enrich uranium, which could be used for producing nuclear power or bombs, are consistent with the country's "belligerent behavior." He also cited the sinking of a South Korean warship in March, which killed 46 sailors. North Korea denied it was responsible for the vessel's sinking.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Sunday that the disclosure confirms suspicions that the government in Pyongyang had a secret enrichment effort underway as part of a strategy to expand its nuclear arsenal.

Pyongyang conducted nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009 and is believed to have a small number of nuclear devices.

"An enrichment plant like this, assuming that's what it is, obviously gives them the potential to create a number more," Gates told reporters in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, where he is attending a meeting of defense ministers.

Still, Kim, the South Korean foreign minister, echoed Bosworth's call for calm, calling the facility "nothing new."

Hecker said North Korean officials acknowledged they began building the centrifuge facility in April 2009, and finished shortly before the American's visit earlier this month.

In his report, the scientist said the new rectangular facility, believed to include a 25- or 30-megawatt light-water reactor, appeared to be designed to produce electricity. He added, however, that the uranium enrichment facilities "could be readily converted to produce highly enriched uranium bomb fuel."

Bosworth is on a weeklong trip for talks with officials in South Korea, China and Japan on the North Korean developments. He said U.S. officials "do not at all rule out the possibility of further engagement with North Korea," referring to the moribund six-party talks.

He later added that "I do not believe in engagement just for the sake of engagement or talking just for the sake of talking. I would never declare any process dead. It's still breathing, and I still think we have hope that we're going to be able to resuscitate it."

He called it "fundamental" that the U.S. government "deal with this in close coordination with major countries."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-fg-north-korea-nuclear-20101122,0,5309432,print.story

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Iran again postpones U.S. hikers' court date

The lawyer for two Americans accused of espionage says the men won't be in court until February.

By Ramin Mostaghim and Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times

November 22, 2010

Reporting from Tehran and Beirut

Two Americans held in an Iranian prison on espionage charges will not have a chance to defend themselves in court for at least 2 1/2 more months, their lawyer said Sunday.

Masoud Shafii, the lawyer for Americans Shane Bauer and Joshua Fattal, said he received a letter from Revolutionary Court Judge Abolqasem Salavati informing him the court date for the two, originally scheduled for earlier this month, had been postponed until Feb. 6.

Shafii said he was disappointed by the decision. "Each single day added to my clients' detention is a burden on my conscience and mind," he said in a phone interview.

Bauer and Fattal, both 28, have been imprisoned in Iran for 16 months after they allegedly crossed the Iraqi border on a hiking trip. Bauer's fiancee, Sarah Shourd, 32, was released on bail and allowed to return to the United States in September.

Hopes rose last week for the release of Bauer, who grew up in Minnesota and California, and Fattal, raised in Pennsylvania, when an Iranian official voiced optimism their ordeal would soon come to an end.

Mohammed Javad Larijani, Iran's top human rights official, said he doubted that the men were spies and said he played a role in Shourd's release.

"We have been able to convince the legal structure that that lady was definitely out of this process," the U.S.-educated mathematician, a onetime doctoral candidate at UC Berkeley, told NBC's Ann Curry in an interview aired last week.

Bauer, Fattal and Shourd, all Berkeley graduates, said they were on a hiking trip in the scenic mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan, a relatively secure enclave adjacent to the Iranian frontier, when they were arrested by Iranian authorities and accused of crossing the border illegally. A leaked report posted by the website WikiLeaks suggested that U.S. military officials believed the three were still in Iraq when they were detained.

Iranian authorities later upgraded the charges against the three to espionage amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington over the nature of Iran's nuclear program. They cited no evidence, but say that intelligence and judiciary officials have a strong case.

Iran's legal system is often baffling. Shafii said the judge had offered no explanation for the delay. The lawyer said he's done his homework and is ready to face the judge. "I have prepared everything" to mount a defense, he said.

Along with a prosecutor and the judge, Shafii showed up at a previously scheduled Nov. 6 court hearing but left after authorities failed to bring the hikers.

Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi said this month that Shourd, who was born in the Chicago area but grew up in Los Angeles, must return to Iran for the trial or risk losing the $500,000 bail that was posted for her release, possibly by the Arabian Peninsula nation of Oman.

Iran's human rights record has come under increased scrutiny because of a crackdown against political activists, labor leaders, students and women rights' advocates as well as their attorneys after the country's disputed 2009 reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

By a vote of 80 to 44 with 57 abstentions, a United Nations committee on Thursday adopted a nonbinding resolution calling on Iran to investigate human rights abuses, prosecute offenders, address international concerns about its legal system and allow in international monitors who have been barred from Iran since 2005, when Ahmadinejad first came to power.

Iranian officials accuse the West of using human rights to pressure the Islamic Republic over the nuclear issue. They have recently issued calls to condemn the treatment of prisoners in the U.S. and the alleged abuse against Muslims in Canada, which sponsored the U.N. resolution.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran-hikers-20101122,0,3808191,print.story

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OPINION

Criminal profiling vs. racial profiling

LAPD officers will utilize crime data, including ethnicity, to identify possible suspects. But there is no place for racial profiling in law enforcement.

By Sunil Dutta

November 22, 2010

I was accused of racial profiling on the first traffic stop I made as a rookie LAPD officer in 1998. I had spotted a reckless driver speeding through the streets of Van Nuys in a large pickup truck, so I flipped on my lights and took up the chase. The driver eventually pulled over, but as I walked up to his car, he began shouting at me, accusing me of having stopped him because he was black.

I could not sleep that night. A liberal academic before becoming a police officer, I had joined the Los Angeles Police Department hoping to make a difference. Yet here I was, on my first traffic stop, being accused of racism.

I thought of that incident again last week, when the LAPD was accused yet again of not adequately guarding against racial profiling by its officers. This time, it was the Department of Justice making the claim. As evidence, the agency cited a recording of two officers seemingly endorsing the practice in a conversation with a supervisor. One of the men said that he "couldn't do [his] job without racially profiling."

Racial profiling has consistently been one of the most confounding, divisive and controversial issues the police department confronts. A perception that police target members of specific ethnic or racial groups creates a deep divide between the police and the communities we serve. But as an officer who has spent a lot of time patrolling the city's streets, I just don't think the perception is accurate.

True racial profiling, in which people are targeted solely because of race or ethnicity, is both illegal and immoral. It destroys public trust and reduces the effectiveness of the police. There is no place for it in law enforcement. And I firmly believe that most LAPD officers support that viewpoint. Even the reported statement of the officer that he couldn't do his job without racial profiling was most likely misinterpreted.

Consider the gang officers in Foothill Division, where I work. Each day, they go out in the field looking for Latino males of a certain age who dress in a particular way, have certain tattoos on their bodies and live in an area where street gangs flourish. Does that mean they are engaging in racial profiling? No. They are using crime data to identify possible suspects. Ethnicity is just one of many criteria they consider.

We have to acknowledge that there is a place for race and ethnicity in police work. If officers get information that a 6-foot-tall Asian man with a Fu Manchu mustache committed a robbery, they are of course going to target their search to tall Asian men with Fu Manchu mustaches. If the suspect is an 80-year-old white woman, the search won't focus on young black men. Officers are trained to use all the data available to them in apprehending criminals. When officers follow leads and stop people, they do use profiling, but it is profiling based on all actionable intelligence, which includes race as one of many criteria. I suspect the officer whose comment was caught on tape was talking about this kind of criminal profiling.

I am not naive enough to believe that pure racial profiling has never happened. In a department as large as ours, there may be isolated officers who haven't gotten the message. It's true that no officer in the department has been found guilty of racial profiling, but that is a difficult charge to substantiate. But in my experience, Los Angeles police officers are much less likely than the general public to act on personal prejudices and biases. We work in an ethnically diverse department and in ethnically diverse communities, and officers who aren't comfortable with that diversity aren't going to make it in police work.

The LAPD has come a long way and has made concerted efforts to transform itself into a community-policing-based agency. But the perceptions of some Angelenos are still rooted in memories of a time when minority members were frequently abused and ill-treated by police officers.

For more than a decade, there has been a push to put video cameras in all patrol cars to record officer interactions with those they stop. There have been technical difficulties and problems with cost. But ultimately this is a crucial step to take to reduce community perceptions of racial profiling. We should also equip offices with personal video cams. Recording every police-citizen interaction would not only keep officers professional, it would greatly increase the conviction rate of criminals, reduce expenses of the criminal justice system and build trust in police-public relations.

The majority of hardworking and professional officers would benefit tremendously. All the false allegations made against them could be instantly dismissed, and complaint investigations would be much quicker and less costly. Additionally, the criminal justice system would save on investigative costs when a video recording demonstrated clearly that officers had a probable cause and obtained evidence properly. This could lead to more criminals pleading guilty, saving us long and costly court proceedings.

Many savvy officers have already started using cop-cams, purchasing them with their own funds. These officers realize the protection video recordings provide against false complaints. It is time for the department to institutionalize video recordings.

Sunil Dutta, an LAPD lieutenant, is a patrol watch commander at the Foothill Division.  The opinions expressed are his own. 

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-dutta-racial-profiling-20101122,0,4801316,print.story

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OPINION

Touching the 'third rail'

The co-chairs of President Obama's deficit commission have taken aim at Social Security. But their proposals are unfair and unwise.

By Nancy Altman and Eric Kingson

November 22, 2010

Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, the co-chairs of President Obama's deficit commission, have signaled for months that they are not friends of Social Security. In August, Simpson, a former Republican senator from Wyoming, wrote that Social Security is "a milk cow with 310 million tits." Last February, Bowles, who made his fortune on Wall Street and served as a top aide in the Clinton White House, boasted in a speech to bankers, "We're going to mess with Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security."

Earlier this month, the two men released their proposal to reduce the federal deficit, and they've delivered on the promise to "mess with" Social Security. The plan will now go to the full commission, where we have to hope wiser views will prevail.

In releasing their plan, the co-chairs went out of their way to make clear that they were proposing changes to Social Security "for its own sake, not for deficit reduction." This was an acknowledgement that Social Security does not and cannot contribute to the deficit, because it has no borrowing authority and by law cannot pay benefits unless it has sufficient income and reserves to cover their cost. But Simpson and Bowles just couldn't keep their hands off the program.

One thing they propose is increasing Social Security's retirement age to 69. Every year that Social Security's retirement age is increased amounts to a 6% to 7% across-the-board benefit cut for recipients. The retirement age is already being raised to age 67 for those turning 62 in 2022. Increasing the age to 69 would cut benefits by one-quarter from a decade ago, when the retirement age was 65.

The co-chairs also want to increase the early retirement age to 64. Currently, the majority of Americans start claiming benefits at age 62, despite the fact that this means they receive reduced benefits. As a new General Accountability Office report concluded, the people who take early retirement often do so because they work in jobs that are too physically demanding to continue or because they have health problems or can no longer find work. Raising the early retirement age will shut out workers who are disproportionately low income and minority, and it will do it when they are most vulnerable, potentially forcing them to seek disability benefits or welfare.

Bowles and Simpson argue that we should raise the retirement age because people are living longer. But not everyone is. Over the last quarter-century, life expectancy of lower-income men increased by one year, compared to five for upper-income men. And lower-income women have experienced declines in longevity.

The co-chairs apparently think most Americans can work as long as politicians, Wall Street billionaires and others who have all of life's advantages. In effect, the Bowles-Simpson plan says to America's workers that they must work longer for less because the rich are living longer.

In addition to raising the retirement age, the Bowles-Simpson plan would reduce benefits to all future recipients who earned at least $20,000 a year before collecting Social Security. This change, like their proposal to raise the retirement age, would hit today's youth the hardest. The 20-year-olds who are just entering the workforce would see their eventual benefits cut by as much as 36% compared to those of people retiring now.

But Bowles and Simpson do not just target the young. They also propose cutting the cost-of-living adjustment for those now receiving Social Security. If anything, the adjustment should be increased, because it does not adequately take into account skyrocketing medical costs, which hit seniors and people with disabilities hardest.

For all the talk of polarization, the American people are clear and united about Social Security. A recent poll of those who voted in the midterm election found that 67% of respondents opposed cuts in benefits; 69% opposed raising the Social Security retirement age to 69. Respondents were also clear about what steps should be taken to address a looming shortfall. Some 66% of those polled favored doing away with the current cap on payroll taxes to fund Social Security. Currently, taxpayers are taxed only on their first $106,800 in income. Simply requiring upper-income taxpayers to pay the tax on all their income would bring in enough revenue to allow benefits to be raised across the board and still have the program in balance for at least the next 75 years.

Social Security is fair, secure, effective and efficient, but its benefits are inadequate, averaging less than $13,000 a year. Despite their modest size, those benefits are vitally important to almost all who receive them. Two-thirds of the elderly and more than 70% of disabled beneficiaries receive half or more of their income from Social Security.

The message of the midterm election is that the American people are fed up with Washington elites who don't seem to listen. Despite the clear view of the American people, the elites in Washington seem to think it would be better to reduce benefits than to require the wealthy to pay the same percentage of their salaries into Social Security as everyone else does.

If politicians choose to cut Social Security benefits, when they could simply scrap the cap, we predict that this midterm will seem like a walk in the park compared to what awaits them in 2012.

Nancy Altman, the author of "The Battle for Social Security," and Eric Kingson, a professor of social work at Syracuse University, co-direct Social Security Works (socialsecurity-works.org).

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-altman-social-security-20101122,0,3411281,print.story

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From the New York Times

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A Border Fact of Life: High-Speed Chases

On a quiet November morning, Trooper Johnny Hernandez patrolled the dusty back roads along the Rio Grande in Hidalgo County. In the back seat, his M4 rifle sat within arm's reach. In the trunk, he stored a bulletproof vest.

Trooper Hernandez, a 15-year veteran of the Department of Public Safety, has been in so many high-speed pursuits that he cannot remember the first one, and he doesn't know which has been the scariest.

There is so much going on, he said, “your thoughts are going 100 miles per hour.”

Often, so is his car.

According to department pursuit reports analyzed by The Texas Tribune and The San Antonio Express-News, officers like Trooper Hernandez on the United States-Mexico border were involved in far more high-speed chases from January 2005 to July 2010 than were officers in other regions of Texas. Statewide, troopers were involved in nearly 5,000 pursuits in that period. About 13 percent of those, 656, were in Hidalgo County. Of the 10 counties with the most chases, 5 were along the border.

Data confirms what troopers on the border say is their daily reality: smugglers are becoming more active and brazen, taking more desperate measures to evade capture. But troopers also often use aggressive pursuit tactics — including firing guns and setting up roadblocks — that many other law enforcement agencies prohibit.

One expert, Prof. Geoffrey P. Alpert at the University of South Carolina , said the policies at the Texas Department of Public Safety allowed troopers to take too many risks, jeopardizing the lives of officers and citizens. “They're crazy,” said Dr. Alpert, who has studied pursuits at police departments across the country.

Statewide, chases by the department resulted in 1,300 accidents, 780 injuries to officers, pursued drivers and bystanders, 28 deaths and an estimated $8.4 million in property damage in the last five years. In Hidalgo County, the chases caused 71 injuries, two deaths and more than $440,000 in property damage.

Trooper Hernandez and others who patrol the Interstates, highways and meandering caliche roads that connect the United States and Mexico, said the primary reason they see the most chases is simple: location.

“We're the first line of defense out here,” Trooper Hernandez said. “We're going to have pursuits.”

There is also more of a Department of Public Safety presence, with an additional 160 troopers assigned to the border since 2006. About a decade ago, just 20 highway patrolmen worked in Hidalgo County, said Lt. Armando Garza, who supervises troopers there, but today there are 60.

Lieutenant Garza recently moved back to the border after working for 12 years in Corpus Christi, where, he said, troopers had one or two chases every three or four months. In Hidalgo County, it is practically a daily occurrence. The peak, he said, was earlier this year when there were six in two days, including one that ended when the driver escaped from his car but was pinned under a train that severed his arm.

The only thing to do, Lieutenant Garza said, is to remind troopers not to take unwarranted risks.

The risks do not always result in the fleeing driver in handcuffs. In about 40 percent of the chases in Hidalgo County, the drivers escaped on foot — or swam across the Rio Grande to Mexico. Statewide, more than 30 percent of the department's chases ended with the driver escaping on foot. Fewer than a quarter of all drivers, both statewide and in Hidalgo County, stopped and surrendered.

To avoid arrest, and to get the drugs or the humans they are hauling into Texas, drivers are getting creative, troopers said. In the last year, the smugglers started using bags of homemade spikes —nails welded together in a triangular shape — to blow out the tires on patrol vehicles. They also take advantage of dirt roads in rural areas to kick up dust, reduce visibility and elude officers.

The pursued drivers seem to have little regard even for their own lives. Last April, Trooper Edwardo Ruiz was blazing down back roads in Hidalgo County, with siren blaring and lights flashing, in pursuit of a reckless driver in a black pickup. Suddenly the truck's red taillights disappeared. Trooper Ruiz, filmed on his car's dashboard camera, stopped where the road came to a dead end.

“It looks like they grew wings and flew or something,” Trooper Ruiz said to another officer on his cellphone, as he peered into dark, empty fields.

Thirty minutes later, officers found the truck smashed into a canal on the other side of the dead end. The 18-year-old driver was dead. His blood-alcohol content was 0.22, nearly three times the legal limit in Texas.

Department policies allow troopers to engage in riskier chase tactics than large Texas police and sheriff's departments. Troopers can set up rolling and stationary roadblocks to end a chase, a strategy they used 68 times from 2005 to 2010. They can also shoot out a vehicle's tires if other methods, like deploying spike strips, fail to stop the pursuit. They fired their guns during chases nearly 90 times over the last five years, including 14 times in urban areas.

By contrast, the San Antonio, Austin and Fort Worth Police Departments and the Harris County Sheriff's Office prohibit officers from using their firearms during a pursuit except in self-defense, and they are not allowed to set up roadblocks to stop a chase.

Trooper Hernandez said that if a driver began to flee, he would almost certainly give chase, but that he would disengage if it put the lives of other officers or of the public at risk. Yet only 142 of the department's nearly 5,000 chases analyzed by The Tribune and The Express-News — less than 3 percent — were terminated voluntarily by the trooper or a supervisor.

Dr. Alpert said most state highway patrol departments had “very aggressive, loose policies.” In 2007, the Texas department acknowledged that it needed to do a better job of giving officers hands-on training after crashes involving troopers rose 30 percent.

“We fall short in providing the necessary practical driver training to our officers,” stated a February 2007 newsletter by the department's public information office.

At the time, troopers practiced their driving skills at a parking lot around a football field in Austin. Since then, the department has built a modern training course, where more than 880 officers have trained since June 2009.

Department officials and troopers on the border said their training had improved in recent years and that safety was their top priority.

“We've got families, too,” Trooper Hernandez said, “and we want to go home to them.”

Troopers, particularly those on the border, quickly acquire real-world experience in driving safety and remaining calm, Trooper Hernandez said.

Standing on the banks of the Rio Grande, between a neighborhood of mobile homes and a colorful waterfront bar, he recalled when the river was full of boaters, and locals cooked food on the banks and enjoyed the breeze. Now the revelers are gone, and he and other troopers regularly stand guard while workers pull vehicles loaded with drugs from the muddy river.

“They all run,” he said. “It's easy money for them, and they don't want to get caught.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/us/21ttchases.html?_r=1&ref=us&pagewanted=print

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Administration to Seek Balance in Airport Screening

Caught between complaints that airport screening has become too intrusive and threats of new terror attacks on aviation, Obama administration officials say they are sensitive to criticisms that security measures go too far, but they are insisting that the measures now in place are justified by the risks.

With the Thanksgiving travel crush imminent, the chief of the Transportation Security Administration , John S. Pistole , said in a statement that his agency would try to make screening methods “as minimally invasive as possible.” But he gave no indication that the agency would reverse its move to full-body scanners, now deployed in 70 of 450 airports in the United States, and physical pat-downs for passengers who object to the scans.

“This has always been viewed as an evolving program that will be adapted as conditions warrant, and we greatly appreciate the cooperation and understanding of the American people,” Mr. Pistole said.

Security officials said the new procedures were the only way to detect explosives hidden under clothing. “We cannot forget that less than one year ago a suicide bomber with explosives in his underwear tried to bring down a plane over Detroit,” Mr. Pistole said.

The debate over the proper balance of security and privacy was unfolding as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula , the terrorist group responsible for the Detroit airliner bomb last Christmas and for placing explosive devices aboard cargo planes last month, threatened similar plots to sow fear, disrupt travel and transport, and impose huge costs on the United States.

“This strategy of attacking the enemy with smaller but more frequent operations is what some may refer to as the strategy of a thousand cuts,” the Yemen-based group said in a new issue of its English-language magazine, Inspire, which resembles a glossy publication but is available for download on militant Web sites. “The aim is to bleed the enemy to death.”

The T.S.A., which screens about two million air passengers a day, began testing the full-body scanners in 2007, installed them more widely starting last year and accelerated their use after the failed plot last Christmas. If a screener spots something suspicious on a scan, which shows an outline of the unclothed body, or if a passenger prefers to skip the scan, the passenger must undergo a physical search that many passengers have found intrusive.

The furor began after Nov. 1, when the agency introduced the more aggressive pat-down procedure. Despite the storm of criticism from passengers, pilots and members of Congress, agency officials point to opinion polls showing that about 80 percent of the public supports the use of body scanners. About 1 percent of passengers have opted out of the scanner and undergone pat-downs so far this month, officials said.

Congressional leaders have promised to hold hearings on the issue.

Still, the administration has appeared to be caught off guard by the outrage of some passengers. Mr. Pistole agreed on Saturday to demands from pilots that they be exempted from the searches, after critics noted that a pilot who wants to destroy a plane hardly needs explosives to do so.

On Saturday in Lisbon, President Obama acknowledged public complaints but said he had been told by T.S.A. and counterterrorism advisers that “at this point” the measures “are the only ones right now that they consider to be effective against the kind of threat that we saw in the Christmas Day bombing.”

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said on NBC 's “Meet the Press” on Sunday that she did not want to “second guess” security officials, but added that “everyone, including our security experts, are looking for ways to diminish the impact on the traveling public.”

On another Sunday talk show, CBS's “Face the Nation,” Mrs. Clinton said she would not like to go through a security pat-down.

“Not if I could avoid it,” she said. “No. I mean, who would?”

On CNN's “State of the Union” on Sunday, Mr. Pistole, a 26-year F.B.I. veteran who took over at the T.S.A. in June, described the scanners and pat-downs as the last line of defense against terrorists who evade no-fly lists and the “behavior detection officers” looking out for suspicious conduct at airports.

“If they do opt out, we just want to make sure, for example, on Christmas Day,” Mr. Pistole said, in a clear reference to the underwear bomber, that “they receive a thorough pat-down so they don't pose a risk to that plane.”

In a sense, the strategy trumpeted by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in the new issue of Inspire represents a victory for Western counterterrorism. The group acknowledged that Sept. 11-style attacks may be impossible to organize without being detected by the expanded intelligence dragnet.

“Really, it's a good marketing spin on a pretty desperate strategy,” said James Carafano, a security specialist at the Heritage Foundation .

But the magazine showed that Qaeda planners have an increasing awareness that smaller-scale attacks, including those focused on air cargo, can cause enormous economic damage and public anxiety.

“It has a particular impact, coming as it does at a time when we're arguing about how to prevent the kind of attack the same group tried at Christmas,” said Bruce Hoffman, an expert on terrorism at Georgetown University .

Both Mr. Carafano and Mr. Hoffman said they would advise the administration to revise the screening procedures. Mr. Carafano said limiting the body scans and pat-downs to secondary screening, for travelers who raise suspicions, would be more sensible than expanding the costly scanners to all travelers.

Mr. Hoffman said the administration should move away from adding more layers of security for every passenger in response to every new plot and consider an Israeli-style approach to identify passengers who pose a particular risk, based on advance intelligence, questioning travelers and watching their behavior.

“We've had nine years of just grafting security measures one on another,” Mr. Hoffman said. “Maybe it's time to step back, take a hard look and look for a new approach.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/22/us/22tsa.html?ref=us

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OPINION

On Mrs. Kennedy's Detail

Dallas

IT was with great trepidation that I approached 3704 N Street in Washington on Nov. 10, 1960. I had just been given the assignment of providing protection for the wife of the newly elected president of the United States, and I was about to meet her for the first time.

I soon realized I had little to worry about. Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, just 31 years old at the time, was a gracious woman who put me immediately at ease. She was the first lady, but she was also a caring mother; her daughter, Caroline, was nearly 3 years old, and she was pregnant with her second child. Three weeks later, she went into early labor with John Jr., and I followed her through the entire process. It would be the first of many experiences we would have together.

Being on the first lady's detail was a lot different from being on the president's. It was just the two of us, traveling the world together. Mrs. Kennedy was active and energetic — she loved to play tennis, water-ski and ride horses. She had a great sense of humor, and we grew to trust and confide in each other, as close friends do.

In early 1963, Mrs. Kennedy shared with me the happy news that she was pregnant again. She had curtailed her physical activities and had settled into a routine at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, Mass., for the last few months of her pregnancy. I was on a rare day off when I got the call that she had gone into early labor. I raced to the hospital at Otis Air Force Base, arriving shortly after she did.

The president, who had been in Washington, arrived soon after she delivered their new baby boy, whom they named Patrick Bouvier Kennedy.

When Patrick died two days later, Mrs. Kennedy was devastated. I felt as if my own son had died, and we grieved together.

The following weeks were difficult as I watched her fall into a deep depression. Eventually, it was suggested that she needed to get away. In October 1963 I traveled with her to the Mediterranean, where we stayed aboard Aristotle Onassis' yacht, the Christina. The trip to Greece, Turkey and Yugoslavia, along with a short stop in Morocco, seemed to be good therapy, and by the time we returned to Washington the light had returned to her eyes.

I was surprised, however, when not long after our return Mrs. Kennedy decided to join her husband on his trip to Texas. It was so soon after the loss of her son, and she hadn't accompanied the president on any domestic political trips since his election.

Nevertheless, when we left the White House on Thursday, Nov. 21, I could tell that Mrs. Kennedy was truly excited. I remember thinking this would be a real test of her recovery, and that if she enjoyed the campaigning it would probably be a regular occurrence as soon as the 1964 race got into full swing.

The first day of the trip was exhausting. We had motorcades in San Antonio, Houston and finally Fort Worth, where we arrived around midnight. It had been a long day for everyone, and Mrs. Kennedy was drained.

On the morning of Nov. 22, I went to her room at the Hotel Texas to bring her down to the breakfast where President John F. Kennedy was speaking. She was refreshed and eager to head to Dallas. She had chosen a pink suit with a matching hat to wear at their many appearances that day, and she looked exquisite.

The motorcade began like any of the many that I had been a part of as an agent — with the adrenaline flowing, the members of the detail on alert. I was riding on the running board of the car just behind the president's.

We were traveling through Dallas en route to the Trade Mart, where the president was to give a lunchtime speech, when I heard an explosive noise from my right rear. As I turned toward the sound, I scanned the presidential limousine and saw the president grab at his throat and lurch to the left.

I jumped off the running board and ran toward his car. I was so focused on getting to the president and Mrs. Kennedy to provide them cover that I didn't hear the second shot.

I was just feet away when I heard and felt the effects of a third shot. It hit the president in the upper right rear of his head, and blood was everywhere. Once in the back seat, I threw myself on top of the president and first lady so that if another shot came, it would hit me instead.

The detail went into action. We didn't stop to think about what happened; our every move and thought went into rushing the president and Mrs. Kennedy to the nearest hospital.

I stayed by Mrs. Kennedy's side for the next four days. The woman who just a few days before had been so happy and exuberant about this trip to Texas was in deep shock. Her eyes reflected the sorrow of the nation and the world — a sorrow we still feel today.

Clint Hill, a former assistant director of the Secret Service, served under five presidents.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/22/opinion/22hill.html?ref=opinion

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EDITORIAL

Value-Added Food for Hungry Families

The government's tally of who is going hungry — “food insecurity” is the unsavory term — is at the highest level in 15 years, which means 17.4 million households across the nation must struggle to find enough to eat. That's hard to believe amid the groan and bustle of tractor trailers delivering New York City's daily sustenance round the clock to the vast Hunts Point distribution markets. This is the crossroads for the rich cornucopia shunted for retail dispersal from giant warehouse hangars to holiday celebrants in the five boroughs.

Even more, it's the perch to translate “food insecurity” into reality. Twenty-seven thousand turkeys and roasters were plunked down at the delivery bays of the Food Bank , the city's resilient charity that helps feed 1.4 million people through more than 1,000 soup kitchens, food pantries and charity shelters. In a flash, the birds were sent down the food chain to families hard-hit in the recession. They were accompanied by stores of potatoes, carrots, yams and the rest.

“And here's value added,” said David Grossnickle, a Food Bank director who surveyed the day's cadre of 35 visiting volunteers happily sorting giant wholesale pallets for neighborhood deliveries. “It turns out people have a lot of satisfaction in touching the food” to enhance the sense of charity, Mr. Grossnickle explained.

The tactile volunteers came up to the Bronx market halls from the Morgan Stanley corporate headquarters downtown. Sorting the food was “about the same” challenge as the high-finance office job, “but more fun,” one volunteer volunteered. The charity's cavernous chambers were stacked high with provisions donated by major food companies, small dealers (a kindhearted pickle maker in North Carolina) and federal excess programs that richly protect the farm industry.

The Food Bank is grateful for every morsel. Its blackboard by the truck bays listed this year's goal of 70 million pounds of food donations. To date, 28,927,089 pounds have been managed. Workers were insistent that they must meet the goal, prodded by extra hard times. Or “very low food security,” as the government refers to the more than 1 in 20 households going hungriest in the land.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/22/opinion/22mon4.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

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From the Chicago Sun Times

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Fewer cops on North Side?

REALLOCATION OPTIONS | Could be shifted to South, West Sides

November 22, 2010

BY FRANK MAIN AND FRAN SPIELMAN

Police districts on Chicago's North Side would lose beat officers to South Side and West Side districts if the city were to reallocate cops based on the volume of 911 calls and backups for police service, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis has found.

Police Supt. Jody Weis is expected to unveil a reallocation plan before the end of the year. One of the factors in his politically sensitive decision will be whether there's an abundance of officers in districts based on calls for service, he has said. Weis hasn't identified the districts that will lose beat officers, how may cops will be shifted or any other factors he will use in the reallocation.

To measure calls for service and backups, the Sun-Times obtained a district-by-district comparison of 911 calls and of "radio assignments pending call events," which means the times there's no car available to respond to a call in a district.

The districts with the lowest numbers of 911 calls and "RAP" events were on the North Side and Northwest Side, including the Foster, Town Hall, Albany Park, Jefferson Park, Monroe and Wood districts.

The Chicago Lawn District on the Southwest Side -- one of the city's largest districts -- was the busiest in the city in terms of 911 calls. Other districts with large numbers of 911 calls and RAP events were South Chicago, Englewood, Harrison and Grand-Central.

The Town Hall District, for instance, had 17 RAP events in the first eight months of 2009 and 2010 and about 64,000 911 calls from January 2009 through Oct. 24 of this year. The Chicago Lawn District had about 130,000 911 calls and 885 RAP events over the same periods.

The city provided the 911 figures to the Sun-Times last week following a Freedom of Information request, but it denied a request for the RAP data -- which the Sun-Times obtained from a source.

Police officials are preparing to reallocate officers even as crime is declining in the city.

Murder was down more than 2 percent over the first 10 months of the year compared with the same period of 2009, and every other major category of crime also dropped except for motor vehicle theft, department figures show.

Still, a hiring slowdown has left the police department more than 2,300 officers a day short of authorized strength, prompting the city to offer its first police exam in four years and consider ways to make the department more efficient -- including the reallocation of officers and asking 911 call takers to send some kinds of calls, such as lost property and telephone harassment, to the city's non-emergency 311 center to relieve the pressure on beat cops.

The department hasn't redrawn the boundaries of beats -- the small areas in each district which a single car patrols -- since the late 1970s. Political pressure from aldermen worried about losing services has prevented the department from tackling beat realignment ever since.

Weis said his reallocation plan will help balance the workload of officers without redrawing beats.

That still irks some aldermen, including Ald. Tom Allen (38th) who has said his ward, which includes the Jefferson Park and Albany Park districts on the Northwest Side, already is drained of police resources because officers have been pulled out to serve on citywide anti-violence units.

Naturally, though, aldermen whose districts stand to gain officers are supporting such a move. Ald. Freddrenna Lyle (6th), whose ward includes the Gresham and Englewood districts, said: "Our officers can't do any preventative police work because all they're doing is running from call to call."

Lyle said she thinks Weis is "honoring his word" to her and other aldermen in high-crime areas by shifting beat officers. Weis, whose $310,000 annual contract is up in March, also "may feel he doesn't have to weather the storm of a political battle because he knows he's coming to the end of his tenure," she said.

Anthony Beale (9th), chairman of the City Council's Police and Fire Committee, said: "For the first time in over 30 years, we're finally doing the reallocation to put the resources where they're needed."

The city's 911 data show certain areas of the city are "extremely quiet," Beale said. "We don't want to disturb that. However, if we can pull some of those resources to make some communities just as safe and secure as those other communities, we have a responsibility to do that. If you have officers sitting idle all day not responding to any calls and you have other sections where they can't even keep up with the calls, that's a disservice to the residents of this city."

Beale added that the reallocation should be done annually instead of being a "one-time deal."

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/2912878,CST-NWS-911calls22.article

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Use TIF funds to hire 250 cops: Emanuel

November 22, 2010

BY KIM JANSSEN

An extra 250 cops should be hired to work the city's most dangerous streets using tax-increment financing funds, mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel said Sunday.

Emanuel said his $25 million a year proposal would avoid the "false choice" of reassigning police from quieter North Side neighborhoods to higher crime areas on the South and West Sides -- long seen as a political third rail.

"For too long we've had a debate about how to take police out of one community and put police in another community," Emanuel said after meeting with community leaders in Auburn-Gresham. "I think that's a false choice and a wrong choice."

The additional officers would be assigned to the citywide Targeted Response Unit but would work in high-crime areas that fall within TIF areas, he said.

TIF funds were intended to be used to create jobs and growth in blighted communities -- not to pay for routine city expenses such as police salaries -- and businesses have lobbied against any move to change that. But Emanuel argued that "part of the principle of economic development is that fighting crime creates a space to allow economic growth and job growth to occur."

Chicago's TIFs have $1 billion in unallocated funds and need to be better and more transparently administered, Emanuel said.

Candidates Miguel del Valle and Danny Davis both agreed on the need for more cops, but they questioned whether TIF money was the best way to pay for them.

And candidate Gery Chico said Emanuel's proposal was likely unworkable under state law. The only way to sustainably hire more cops is "by reworking the city's budget," he said.

Other candidates did not return calls seeking comment Sunday.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/elections/2912882,CST-NWS-rahm22.article

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Travel security an ordeal for those with prosthetics

Passengers with prosthetics have long known how uncomfortable and humiliating pat-downs and extra security screenings can be

November 22, 2010

BY MARY WISNIEWSKI

Michael Ann Angone, a Washington University pre-med student from Chicago, understands only too well the complaints from airline passengers having to undergo embarrassing searches at the hands of Transportation Security Administration officers.

Angone, 18, lost her leg to cancer as a baby and has a prosthetic. She is constantly subjected to wanding, pat-downs and explosives testing at airports.

"What [other people are] going through now, with all this hue and cry, she's seen as long as she can remember," said Angone's father, Bob, a retired Chicago police officer. He's infuriated by the way some TSA officers conduct pat-downs.

"They have to spend money to teach them how to do it," Bob said. "It can be done professionally. These people are in a hurry, they're looking at the line and they're feeling you up."

The Angones travel frequently because of Michael's involvement in choirs.

"There are some people who are a hell of a lot more sensitive than my daughter and me, and it's going to stop them from traveling," Bob said.

Aggravation among passengers and plane crews recently reached new heights with the wider use of full-body scanners, which show a traveler's physical contours on a computer in a private room removed from security checkpoints.

Not all travelers are selected to go through the scanners, and those chosen can opt out. But the TSA requires people who opt out to submit to a pat-down that includes checks of breasts, thighs and buttocks.

The pat-down is supposed to be done by a guard of the same gender. Passengers have the option of having it done in a private room and can ask for the pat-down to be witnessed by a person of their choice.

But Angone said these "guarantees" aren't always provided.

Federal officials insist the procedures are needed to ward off terror attacks, as in the case of the failed Christmas Day bomber who carried explosives in his underwear.

Last Friday, the TSA modified its screening rules to exempt pilots from the pat-downs and body scans.

Anger over enhanced security checks inspired an online campaign urging air travelers to refuse body scans in a "National Opt-Out Day" the day before Thanksgiving.

Of course, not everyone's going home on a plane this Thanksgiving. According to a AAA survey, 94 percent of Thanksgiving holiday travelers are going by car, the highest percentage in two decades, according to AAA spokeswoman Beth Moscher.

Amtrak is seeing a record number of travelers this year, though Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said the service doesn't ask passengers if they're coming to Amtrak because of unhappiness over airline security.

"Certainly we've always presented ourselves as a less-hassle mode," Magliari said. "We ran an ad campaign, 'Wear mismatched socks -- we'll never know.' "

http://www.suntimes.com/news/transportation/2912580,CST-NWS-ride22.article

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TSA boss appears to give ground

Screenings should be 'as minimally invasive as possible'

November 22, 2010

BY JIM ABRAMS

WASHINGTON -- The head of the agency responsible for airport security, facing protests from travelers and pressure from the White House, appeared to give ground Sunday on his position that there would be no change in policies regarding invasive passenger screening procedures.

Transportation Security Administration head John Pistole said in a statement that the agency would work to make screening methods "as minimally invasive as possible," although he gave no indication that screening changes were imminent.

The statement came just hours after Pistole, in a TV interview, said that while the full-body scans and pat-downs could be intrusive and uncomfortable, the high threat level required their use. ''No, we're not changing the policies,'' he told CNN's ''State of the Union.''

He pointed to the alleged attempt by a Nigerian with explosives in his underwear to try to bring down a flight last Christmas. ''We all wish we lived in a world where security procedures at airports weren't necessary,'' Pistole said, ''but that just isn't the case.''

In his earlier TV appearance, Pistole appeared to shrug off statements by President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that the agency would look for ways to alter screening techniques that some passengers say are invasions of privacy.

Clinton, for one, said she wouldn't like to submit to a security pat-down.

''Not if I could avoid it. No. I mean, who would?'' she told CBS' ''Face the Nation.''

http://www.suntimes.com/news/transportation/2913006,CST-NWS-tsa22.article

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Underwear protects airport privacy

November 22, 2010

DENVER -- It's a special kind of underwear -- with a strategically placed fig leaf design -- and a Colorado man says it'll get you through the airport screeners with your dignity intact.

Jeff Buske says his invention uses a powdered metal that protects people's privacy when undergoing medical or security screenings.

Buske says the underwear's inserts are thin and conform to the body's contours, making it difficult to hide anything beneath them. The mix of tungsten and other metals do not set off metal detectors.

It's unclear whether it would lead to an automatic, more intrusive pat-down by federal Transportation Security Administration officials.

http://www.suntimes.com/business/2913030,CST-NWS-undies22.article

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From the Washington Examiner

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A Transportation Security Administration agent performs an enhanced pat-down on a traveler at a security area at Denver International Airport. The TSA has demonstrated a knack for ignoring the basics of customer relations, while struggling with what experts say is an all but impossible task.

TSA chief: Body scan boycott would be mistake by JIM ABRAMS November 22, 2010 Associated Press With one of the year's busiest traveling days fast approaching, the Obama administration's top transportation security official on Monday urged passengers angry over safety procedures not to boycott airport body scans. John Pistole said in nationally broadcast interviews he understands public concerns about privacy in the wake of the Transportation Security Administration's tough new airline boarding security checks. But at the same time, he said a relatively small proportion of the 34 million people who have flown since the new procedures went into effect have had the body pat downs that have come under withering criticism in recent days.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/news/nation/2010/11/tsa-chief-body-scan-boycott-would-be-mistake

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From Google News

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President John F. Kennedy, 1961

US Marks 47th Anniversary of Kennedy Assassination VOA News November 22, 2010 Forty-seven years ago Monday, late American president John F. Kennedy was assassinated while riding in his motorcade in downtown Dallas, Texas. Kennedy, who is the youngest man elected U.S. president, was killed by gunshots on November 22, 1963 as he rode in an open-top car.  He was 46 years old. His wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, was by his side when the bullets struck. Kennedy was pronounced dead at a Dallas hospital, and vice president Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as president the same day. The assassination remains an iconic historical moment, remembered vividly by many Americans alive at the time.

JFK's Secret Service agents reflect on loss of a president

After the first shot hit the president, former agent Clint Hill says, "I saw him grab at his throat and lean to his left. So I jumped and ran." Hill is the man seen running toward the limousine in the famous film of the shooting, captured by a bystander named Abraham Zapruder. Hill jumped onto the back of the presidential car, in a desperate attempt to protect the president.

"Just before I got to the car, the third shot hit him in the head." Hill says."It was too late."

First lady Jackie Kennedy had climbed onto the back hood of the car, but Hill moved her back into her seat, and attempted to shield the two of them from any further bullets, as the car sped to the hospital.

As the president's head lay in her lap, Hill heard Mrs. Kennedy say, "Oh, Jack, what have they done to you?"

A newly detailed account of the assassination is laid out in the new book "The Kennedy Detail," by former agent Jerry Blaine, written with journalist Lisa McCubbin, based on interviews with many of the agents who covered Kennedy. Former agent Hill, who has rarely granted interviews about the shooting, wrote a foreword.

Blaine and Hill say they are still burdened by the knowledge that they were unable to keep the president safe that day in Dallas, Texas.

"We couldn't help, but we felt like we failed," says Blaine. "It was a terrible feeling."

Hill was commended for the bravery he showed under fire, but even so, he says he holed up for years in his basement with alcohol and cigarettes, feeling guilty that he did not reach the limousine in time to take a bullet for the president.

"I felt that there was something I should have been able to do," he says. "Moved faster, reacted quicker, gotten there just moments quicker, could have made all the difference in the world."

Hill suffered nightmares, but post-traumatic counseling was not yet a common practice. Only with the passing of many years did he gradually recover, telling himself he did the best he could. "You just have to accept it and live with it, the best you can," he says.

Just days before the assassination, Blaine writes, Kennedy chafed at the close proximity of his protective detail. During a motorcade in Tampa, Florida, he asked them not to ride on his limousine.

"Have the Ivy League charlatans drop back to the follow-up car," the president told one of the agents. "We've got an election coming up. The whole point is for me to be accessible to the people."

But Hill and Blaine dismiss the notion that Kennedy's instructions in Tampa jeopardized his security in Dallas. Photos of the motorcade show, regardless of what the president said, Hill was riding on the back of the car during an earlier part of the route.

By the time the motorcade reached the stretch of roadway where the assassination occurred, however, agents could no longer ride on the fenders, Blaine says.

"We were going into a freeway, and that's where you take the speeds up to 60 and 70 miles an hour. So we would not have had any agents there anyway," he said.

Some of the agents see the book as a chance to counter some of the conspiracy theorists who have never accepted that it was Lee Harvey Oswald who shot the president, and that he acted alone.

"There's no question in my mind he was the assassin," Hill says. "I was there. I know what happened."

Blaine reveals for the first time that on the very same day that Kennedy was killed, newly sworn in President Lyndon Johnson was almost shot as well -- accidentally. Just hours after Johnson was sworn in aboard Air Force One, Blaine was guarding his home, after going 40 hours without sleep.

"It was about 2:15 in the morning at The Elms, which was Johnson's residence before he became president. I heard all of a sudden a person approaching," Blaine says. He raised his gun and put his finger on the trigger -- only to see Johnson round the corner.

"He turned white, he turned around and walked in, and that was the last that was ever said of it," Blaine says.

See Also: Photo Gallery Magic Bullet, Tragic Path — A Look at the JFK Assassination

Nov. 22, 1963: Zapruder Films JFK Assassination 1963: President John F. Kennedy is assassinated as his motorcade passes through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas. Texas Gov. John Connally, riding in the same car as Kennedy, is seriously wounded. A spectator unwittingly films the assassination on his 8mm home-movie camera , contributing one of the 20th century's earliest and most significant pieces of user-generated content. The funerary weekend that follows will be telecast by satellite worldwide in the first giant example of the “global village.” The Warren Commission, set up by order of President Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the assassination, concluded that Kennedy was killed by a lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, firing from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. Although the report was widely accepted at first, skepticism grew as more information concerning possible conspiracies leaked out. Oswald denied having anything to do with the shooting at all, let alone being part of any conspiracy, but he was killed — and silenced — two days after the assassination while in the custody of Dallas police. That, coupled with the FBI's miserable handling of the initial investigation, did nothing to quell the suspicions of those who believed Kennedy's assassination was the work of (pick one, or more than one ): the CIA, Johnson, the mob, Fidel Castro, the anti-Castro Cubans, J. Edgar Hoover. Whether the shooter was acting alone or as part of a bigger conspiracy may never be known. Most of the available evidence, such as the Warren Commission Report , is inconclusive.

But the other big assertion — that Oswald (or whoever the Book Depository gunman was) had help from shooters on the ground — has never been adequately supported by hard evidence, either.

The so-called “grassy knoll” theory maintains that one, or possibly two, gunmen shot from ground level in Dealey Plaza. A number of eyewitnesses claimed to have heard gunfire coming from the grassy knoll, but nobody actually saw a gunman, and no shells were ever recovered.

The Warren Report, basing its findings on the autopsy and forensics reports, concluded that two bullets struck Kennedy. They came from the same weapon, a bolt-action Mannlicher-Carcano military rifle of Italian manufacture that was recovered at the Book Depository. Three shots were fired, all from above and behind the target. The first missed. The second, the so-called “ magic bullet ,” passed through Kennedy and tore into Gov. Connally, causing all his wounds. The third shot, the killing one, exploded into the right side of Kennedy's head.

Conspiracy theorists point to the impossible trajectory of the magic bullet, and to the 26 seconds of silent film shot by Dallas dressmaker Abraham Zapruder , which shows Kennedy's head snapping backwards as the fatal third shot takes off the right side of his head, as evidence that shots came from more than one direction. Forensics experts disagree, however, arguing that the described path of the second bullet, while improbable, was not impossible and that Kennedy's head snap at the moment of impact suggests a reaction to the first bullet striking him and not the second. Forty-seven years on and we're still not entirely sure what happened in Dallas that day. The assassination changed the political landscape of the United States. Thie aftermath changed the media landscape of the world. Zapruder sold the publication rights to his film images to Life magazine, which ran the jarring, graphic still frames in its next issue a week later. The sequence was not shown as a film clip on network television until 1975. Where were the TV cameras? They were in studios. Most television cameras of the time were still bulky and barely mobile, the size of refrigerators. Even mobile TV vans relied on landlines. The president of the United States was not yet under constant video watch. The era of compact TV cameras and anywhere-hookups, even for professionals using microwave and satellite uplinks, was still in the future. (Hundreds of witnesses carrying video-ready smartphones? Even further into the future.)

But what was on television from Friday to Monday of that November weekend was the return of Kennedy's coffin to Washington, D.C., its repose in the East Room of the White House and lying-in-state in the Capitol Rotunda, the funeral at St. Matthew's Cathedral, the burial at Arlington National Cemetery and the various processions and corteges linking these events. That and, of course, the live onscreen killing of Lee Harvey Oswald in the Dallas police headquarters.

It was a harbinger of the media world to come. Transoceanic satellite links were new and expensive, but this was a story of such unexpectedness, such importance and such personal drama that TV pulled out all the stops.

The weekend's events were watched in grief, shock and horror by millions around the world. Communications theorist Marshall McLuhan deemed the Kennedy assassination and funeral a founding instance of the global village, a media experience shared in real time across borders and continents. Photo: President John F. Kennedy and Texas Gov. John Connally (in jump seat) ride in a motorcade in Dallas, Nov. 22, 1963, moments before bullets would injure Connally and fatally wound Kennedy.
Bettmann/Corbis

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