flashpoint
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- Jan 14, 2002
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The US Airways Pilot Arrest - The Gestapo Tactics Begin
And The Media's Being Warned About What To Say, Too.
The Boyd Group
January 14, 2002
We've entered a new dimension in Big Brotherism. Don't criticize the government's security policy, or the thought police will throw you in jail.
``Why are you worried about tweezers when I could crash the plane?"
That was the valid comment made by a US Airways pilot, Elwood Menear, to a security screener. Sure, it was a waste of time mentioning it to some low-paid, uneducated baggage screener. But it gave the screener the chance to use some authority. "He made a threat!" To arms! Arrest him! Call the media, let's get some press!
Guaranteed, if he had said what dozens of pilots have commented: "Why are you worried about tweezers when I've got a fire ax in the cockpit?" the result would have been the same. His comment wasn't a threat. The real threat is the public's security is entrusted to half-witted programs operated by minimally-qualified people, and supervised at the top by incompetent FAA staff.
This is why US airports are still at risk. We don't have security, because security is identifying threats, not arresting pilots for making observations that the rest of the airline industry knows to be true.
For all those folks who will hasten to defend the arrest of this pilot, you might want to expend your energies on the point made by Mr. Menear: He was saying that we don't have better security. He was probably trying to express the point that his passengers are not as secure as they need to be when security is idiotic window-dressing: take the tweezers away, but let them be sold at airport newsstands.
His frustration is shared by thousands of airline employees - some of whom are in line to lose their jobs due to the inept and laughable "heightened" security imposed on airports by a DOT Secretary who has shown no leadership skills, no vision, and is only in the job because he's the token Democrat. (Let's stop dancing around that issue: he's a figurehead, and in wartime, that's dangerous to the flying public. We need leaders, not walking sops to political correctness.)
Standby: The Muzzle Campaign May Just Be Starting. So now, does this mean it's improper for pilots to criticize the government's bad, incompetent security programs? Does it mean that anybody who questions the security programs of the FAA and the DOT is promoting terrorism? Do we get arrested as being an enemy of the state we they dare say that security is not what it should be?
Think that's an overstatement? One hopes that it is, but a call last week from a correspondent from a nationally-respected business journal would cause some concern. The correspondent said there has been vague indications that some in high places would like the continuing stories of airport security failures to stop, on "patriotic" grounds. The implication was that folks who do stories on airport security breeches are "unpatriotic" because such articles might deter people from traveling, thereby hurting the economy.
No Leadership. What will be interesting is the response by US Airways management and by ALPA. Assuming that this pilot has a clear record in regard to security, the path of integrity is to stand behind him. But, US Airways senior management may not want to go to the wall for this employee, especially if it would offend politicians. It appears that the management of the airline will take the political correctness path and let the guy swing. ALPA is the organization to watch. At the very top, at the national level, ALPA has been less than vocal about the lack of leadership at the DOT. If this pilot is clean, and guilty of nothing more than simply making a valid observation about a security system that leaves the public at risk, his union had better drop the political correctness and go to the wall for him. If they don't, they're weasels.
Regardless of that, one would hope that every airline employee will forcefully come out in support of Mr. Minear. He said publicly what lots of people know but are afraid to say.
Security Is Poor and The DOT Is Negligent. Hello. The pilot is right. Too bad speaking one's mind can get one arrested. No, his comment by itself in no way threatened anybody except the negligent bureaucrats and politicians who put image ahead of public safety. So here we are arresting a uniformed pilot the same week that the DOJ came out with a report noting that international airports in the US are still sieves where people and contraband can easily get through. Four months after 9/11, the government still has not implemented real security measures. But for heaven's sake, don't mention it. It would be unpatriotic and could encourage terrorism.And you might get arrested.
What we have is a DOT that is above any oversight. Nobody in Congress seems to care if the DOT is effective or not. Window-dressing is the goal, and if that translates into harassing pilots and citizens who legitimately point out sloppy security, so be it.
Wait until the same ill-trained, uneducated, and poorly supervised screeners become federal employees. Then they're have real power, and you better not question the wisdom of Big Brother.
And if we're still vulnerable to terrorism, that's not a concern of either the DOT and Congress.
And The Media's Being Warned About What To Say, Too.
The Boyd Group
January 14, 2002
We've entered a new dimension in Big Brotherism. Don't criticize the government's security policy, or the thought police will throw you in jail.
``Why are you worried about tweezers when I could crash the plane?"
That was the valid comment made by a US Airways pilot, Elwood Menear, to a security screener. Sure, it was a waste of time mentioning it to some low-paid, uneducated baggage screener. But it gave the screener the chance to use some authority. "He made a threat!" To arms! Arrest him! Call the media, let's get some press!
Guaranteed, if he had said what dozens of pilots have commented: "Why are you worried about tweezers when I've got a fire ax in the cockpit?" the result would have been the same. His comment wasn't a threat. The real threat is the public's security is entrusted to half-witted programs operated by minimally-qualified people, and supervised at the top by incompetent FAA staff.
This is why US airports are still at risk. We don't have security, because security is identifying threats, not arresting pilots for making observations that the rest of the airline industry knows to be true.
For all those folks who will hasten to defend the arrest of this pilot, you might want to expend your energies on the point made by Mr. Menear: He was saying that we don't have better security. He was probably trying to express the point that his passengers are not as secure as they need to be when security is idiotic window-dressing: take the tweezers away, but let them be sold at airport newsstands.
His frustration is shared by thousands of airline employees - some of whom are in line to lose their jobs due to the inept and laughable "heightened" security imposed on airports by a DOT Secretary who has shown no leadership skills, no vision, and is only in the job because he's the token Democrat. (Let's stop dancing around that issue: he's a figurehead, and in wartime, that's dangerous to the flying public. We need leaders, not walking sops to political correctness.)
Standby: The Muzzle Campaign May Just Be Starting. So now, does this mean it's improper for pilots to criticize the government's bad, incompetent security programs? Does it mean that anybody who questions the security programs of the FAA and the DOT is promoting terrorism? Do we get arrested as being an enemy of the state we they dare say that security is not what it should be?
Think that's an overstatement? One hopes that it is, but a call last week from a correspondent from a nationally-respected business journal would cause some concern. The correspondent said there has been vague indications that some in high places would like the continuing stories of airport security failures to stop, on "patriotic" grounds. The implication was that folks who do stories on airport security breeches are "unpatriotic" because such articles might deter people from traveling, thereby hurting the economy.
No Leadership. What will be interesting is the response by US Airways management and by ALPA. Assuming that this pilot has a clear record in regard to security, the path of integrity is to stand behind him. But, US Airways senior management may not want to go to the wall for this employee, especially if it would offend politicians. It appears that the management of the airline will take the political correctness path and let the guy swing. ALPA is the organization to watch. At the very top, at the national level, ALPA has been less than vocal about the lack of leadership at the DOT. If this pilot is clean, and guilty of nothing more than simply making a valid observation about a security system that leaves the public at risk, his union had better drop the political correctness and go to the wall for him. If they don't, they're weasels.
Regardless of that, one would hope that every airline employee will forcefully come out in support of Mr. Minear. He said publicly what lots of people know but are afraid to say.
Security Is Poor and The DOT Is Negligent. Hello. The pilot is right. Too bad speaking one's mind can get one arrested. No, his comment by itself in no way threatened anybody except the negligent bureaucrats and politicians who put image ahead of public safety. So here we are arresting a uniformed pilot the same week that the DOJ came out with a report noting that international airports in the US are still sieves where people and contraband can easily get through. Four months after 9/11, the government still has not implemented real security measures. But for heaven's sake, don't mention it. It would be unpatriotic and could encourage terrorism.And you might get arrested.
What we have is a DOT that is above any oversight. Nobody in Congress seems to care if the DOT is effective or not. Window-dressing is the goal, and if that translates into harassing pilots and citizens who legitimately point out sloppy security, so be it.
Wait until the same ill-trained, uneducated, and poorly supervised screeners become federal employees. Then they're have real power, and you better not question the wisdom of Big Brother.
And if we're still vulnerable to terrorism, that's not a concern of either the DOT and Congress.