“We get these all the time. Almost all the time they prove false.”
-- Michael J. Aguilar, the San Diego director of the Transportation Security Administration, referring to security bulletins from the TSA.
Depending on your world view, it was one more sign of a nation at war, or it was all a big joke -- terrorists testing our defenses with block cheese and ice packs. But if you watched the TV news today, you couldn't miss the big story and the hyperventilating that went with it: Possible "dry runs" testing airport security by would-be terrorists.
Here's CNN in the 3 p.m. hour today (via Nexis):
KYRA PHILLIPS: Airport security agents nationwide are on the lookout for what the feds say could be dry runs for a terror attack. A government advisory sent out a few days ago reveals that four incidents in recent months involving suspicious materials in both checked and carry-on luggage, well, the incidents happened at airports in Baltimore, Milwaukee, Houston, and San Diego. The items included cheese, batteries, pipes, ice bags, rapped or configured to mimic bomb components.
A former Homeland Security official tells CNN there is cause for concern.
CLARK KENT ERVIN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: TSA is right to say that they receive reports of suspicious incidents all the time. But this is really out of the ordinary.
It sounds out of the ordinary, unless you actually call people on the ground (literally) at the airports involved. One enterprising journalist in San Diego did exactly that, and found out that -- to paraphrase Sigmund Freud -- sometimes an ice pack is just an ice pack.
In fact, the woman whose luggage sparked the San Diego portion of the alert was an American woman in her 60s, hardly the proifle of al-Qaeda. And what happened at the airport there bore little resemblance to what was in the TSA report -- which claimed that ice packs were wrapped in duct tape and contained clay, which are not usually in ice packs and could resemble plastic explosives.
The San Diego Union-Tribune quickly learned the ice packs contained the usual blue gel:
Sanfilippo said they weren't covered in duct tape and didn't have clay inside of them. “It is a little bit off,” he said of the bulletin.
The chief said a Harbor Police officer found what appeared to be hardened old gel that had seeped out of the ice packs and dried, leaving a clay-like substance around the outside edge of the pack.
Investigators with the county's Metro Arson Strike Team were called in to assess the ice packs, and they determined there was no risk.
In all, it took about three hours for the woman's luggage to be cleared by security officials.
After the packs were cleared, the woman told authorities she didn't want to keep them and they were thrown away, Sanfilippo said.
In the end, TSA inspectors did the right thing in thoroughly checking the suspicious baggage, but the aftermath raises a lot of questions. Why did TSA officials put such blatantly incorrect information into their memo and send it out across America. And more importantly, who decided to leak this memo to NBC News, knowing that it would become such a big national story.
As has been reported many times, we have an administration that loves to get the media talking about terrorism and vague threats to America -- especially when it wants to change the subject from the president's low approval rating or contempt charges against administration officials. Even Tom Ridge has said the terror color coding alerts seemed to be manipulated at times -- especially in the months leading up to President Bush's re-election. Who wanted to make this today's lead story, and why?
I can't wait to find out the real story behind that cheese.
1 comment:
Perhaps this how the real cheese story should read:
TSA Chief Michael Chertoff about Cutting the Cheese at California Airports.
The California Cheese Board just got a whiff of some unexpected news. TSA , a department of Homeland Security announced a change To The Nation's Threat Level For The Aviation Sector. The United States Government has changed the nation’s threat level from "Yellow" to "Cheddar" for commercial flights originating in California and Wisconsin. This adjustment reflects the critical level that blocks of cheese have caused. To defend further against any remaining threat from this plot, we had to change the threat level to Cheddar for all commercial aviation originating in Wisconsin or California. Security experts and politicians ,even longtime critics, are praising the Transportation Security Administration's warning that terrorists might be testing whether innocent-looking bomb components can be smuggled onto an airplane."Honestly, at the TSA in San Diego we don't care if someone is carrying a water bottle, wearing a head scarf, or buying a one-way ticket, but if someone has a block of cheese with wires and a detonator I want the FBI to be called in," said Bruce Schneier, chief technology officer. "Cheese, especially the California and Wisconsin varieties are a good stand-in for explosives, such as C4 and Semtex, that are favored by terrorists because they can look similar to X-ray scanners" he said. Bruce added " I hope the California Cheese Board gets the message and stops running those damn Happy Cow ads on television. If we continue to let those ads run we are making a mockery of everything this nation stands for and the terrorists have won." The TSA said there is credible cheese threat but only from block cheese. The threat is reduced if someone cuts the cheese before arriving at the airport. Cheese is big business in America’s Dairyland, where 90 percent of the milk production in California and Wisconsin goes into cheese making.
Airport lines could be an unpleasant place to be this week as worried travelers stand in line cutting the cheese before checking in.
Measures against cheese will continue to assure that our aviation system remains safe and secure. Travelers should go about their plans confidently, while maintaining vigilance in their surroundings and exercising patience with screening and security officials. Grocery stores have been advised to notify the TSA of unusually large purchases of block cheese and are considering asking markets to sell only sliced cheese until this threat can be fully determined. The Transportation Security Administration is fully united and resolute in this effort and in our ongoing efforts to secure our respective homelands.
So if you are boarding a plane in San Diego remember to cut the cheese before you arrive. It will make your passage and those of others through the airport much more pleasant.
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