Libby:
Are WE gonna have a food fight? Oh good, but I promise not to throw any dish, utensil or food with a bone still in it, if you will, too???
(:^-)
Hokay, let me back up my statement.
"law enforcement had all the tools it needed to avert 9/11"
Visa/Mastercard and American Express have computers that can see, in an instant, if there is something funny about a purchase. Let's say your card suddenly appears in Tulsa and is buying $300 worth of fishing gear. Now, up to this point Ms. Libby has only bought cosmetics at big department stores and ammunition in the Bay Area. Bingo, Visa will call up the vendor and ask to speak to the customer rather than approving the fishing gear transaction. It's a very simple neural network that law enforcement could have used. When 4 planes on one morning in September had a 70% cancellation rate while at the same time had a 500% increase in Saudi Arabian visa carrying passengers, that could have/ should have set off a neural network "check this out" on the NTSB's mainframe. Then they could have sent aboard a couple of plain clothes airmarshals armed with Magnum 44s. In my universe a Magnum 44 takes out a box cutter and baling wire, every time. Or, missing that oppo, they could have very easily stopped the planes on the runway, and had them return and disembark due to engine problems. The mere existence of the sudden incongruity, if the computers had been turned on, would have been sufficient "probable cause" under existing statutes to stop the flights and investigate. If it was nothing, the planes could have left with an hour's delay.
INS is a joke. If they spent 1/10 the time they currently use to abuse green card holders at their little windows on figuring out who was entitled to get into this country, and actually investigated and deported, immediately, those in violation of their visas, we'd be infinitely safer.
As for the new act, maybe they need it, maybe they don't. Existing laws might actually suffice, if enforced. New laws, if not enforced, or only selectively enforced, won't make much difference. I haven't read all 184 pages of your cite yet (and may never), but just from the headings it seems to be more of an aid to arrest and prosecution, and in grabbing terrorist bank accounts, than in discovery and prevention. I don't think any law we could pass would really get us better "inside information" on what the terrorists were planning, but better computer work could show a sudden movement by X, Y, Z, and Q, all suspected terrorist/sympathisers, suddenly driving separately toward O'Hare a/p, via bank withdrawals, car rentals, gasoline purchases, motel stays, restaurant chits, etc.
I'm sure the DEA, FBI, NTSB, CIA, INS, NSA have enough computing power and enough access to simple things like plane reservations, visa applications, country of origin patterns, cancellation patterns to have been able to put together a simple, instantaneous program to call back flights, keep boats from departing or arriving, etc. Before 9/11 what we lacked was not the tools but the consciousness.
Now law enforcement (not to mention airline passengers, a la Richard Reid) have the consciousness, my guess is the old laws are probably enough. I'm not sure that the "virtual translation" section (907) of the new act is going to get any better info to law enforcement in time to stop anything.
Here comes a bowl of jello!
Yr buddy,
Kb |
