I missed this story - Intel Dump
Anti-terrorism turf wars
By Phillip Carter
For a break from all the Abu Ghraib news, check out this Los Angeles Times report on the after-action turf battles between the FBI, LAPD and L.A. airport police. The row concerns an incident on Monday where an airport police SWAT team stormed a Singapore Airlines jet whose hijacking transponder had gone off.
The decision to allow a SWAT team to storm a Singapore Airlines jet Monday after it had transmitted a computerized hijack alert sparked a debate Wednesday among law enforcement officials in Los Angeles on whether the action had violated protocol and jeopardized the safety of those on board.
Several law enforcement sources, including some from the Los Angeles Police Department, complained that Los Angles International Airport police had overstepped their authority by sending SWAT officers onto the plane after it landed at the airport Monday afternoon. The hijack alert turned out to be false.
But airport officials said it was necessary to board the plane right away because they weren't certain whether a hijacking was underway.
The quarrel underscores the jurisdictional complexities that involve protecting the airport, aircraft and passengers at what the state has ranked as California's No. 1 terrorist target. At least six agencies are charged with security at the airport. Among them are the FBI, Transportation Security Administration, LAPD and the independent airport Police Department.
"Every addition to the alphabet soup of agencies at the airport potentially adds to confusion in times of crisis," Councilman Jack Weiss said.
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On Wednesday, Mayor James K. Hahn sent a two-page letter to Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, calling on the FAA to work with the TSA and other agencies to determine why local officials had not been alerted about Flight 20.
"Given the events of Sept. 11, the close coordination between agencies and existence and use of a tight notification process is critical," Hahn wrote. "Monday's events were a very poor example of that."
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Federal officials and the LAPD said airport police should have waited for more FBI personnel before storming the aircraft. Under federal law, the FBI is charged with taking control of aviation incidents on the ground that may involve terrorism.
FBI spokeswoman Laura Bosley said agents were told that the hijacking was a false alarm shortly after the FBI had been notified of the problem about 4:50 p.m. Still, Bosley and others said, FBI procedures required that the FBI's SWAT team verify that there was no threat.
When the FBI SWAT team arrived at LAX, according to one source who asked not to be named, its agents were "incensed" that airport police had stormed the plane.
Airport officials disagreed that they had violated procedures. "There's a whole protocol for how this should work and [airport police] went right down the checklist," said Paul Haney, an airport spokesman.
Analysis: First of all, you have to account for some amount of inter-agency squabbling here that always exists. These agencies are fighting for power, prestige, and money. After-action reviews of events like often degenerate into contests over scarce resources, with each side offering its own version of the truth. For what it's worth, the same thing often happens in the military, with different services (and branches within services) vying for resources based on their view of their own importance.
But beneath those internecine conflicts, I think you have a real problem here. The fact of the matter is that the chain of command at LAX sucks. It is disjointed, disorganized, confusing, and not responsive. In a real situation, such as the July 2002 shooting at the El Al counter (that I was personally about 100m from), these tangled lines of command will cause people to die. And that's the bottom line. Had this been a real hijacking, this plane could've flown into a high-value target because these agents couldn't get along. Or, had this been a real incident, all of the passengers might be dead now because the wrong team stormed the plane with the wrong tactics. Councilman Weiss and Mayor Hahn are right -- it's time to do a "soup to nuts" evaluation of security at L.A. International Airport. |
