Protecting our Nation - The Human Touch

There’s been a lot of talk about protecting our infrastructure in this country from terrorist attack, and this is one subject I feel qualified to talk about. When I was a special agent for the U.S. Secret Service I had the privilege of being posted to the protective service division. My teammates and I protected the safety of senior government officials. We used the latest technology of course, but the primary way we kept those people safe was with well-trained, alert, dedicated human beings.

Now I support the massive effort the President has put into chasing terrorists all over the world, and despite the protests, a terrorist-surveillance program to catch the international communications of suspected al-Qaeda operatives is a great idea. Trust me, the guys doing wire taps don’t have time to listen to your petty private chatter. But we also need a plan for fighting them here, because here is where they want to hurt us. We need to take action right away, especially to protect our trains and ports.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist, just anybody who knows about personal protection. Every day, millions of us go through train stations like our Metro here in the District. Not to mention the rail tankers full of chlorine gas that roll through neighborhoods, unguarded. Take one of those out in a city, and you could kill a hundred thousand people in one shot. It’s not hard to upgrade rail and transit security. You need more patrol cops, maybe some bomb-sniffing dogs, and the same things you do to make your home secure: good fences, better lighting and a few security cameras. We’ll need higher tech measures to protect other obvious targets of choice - chemical plants, the electricity grid and important computer networks. But any big company knows how to do that.

We could solve some other serious shortcomings with a little planning and focus. For example, local emergency personnel - fire departments, police and rescue units - still can’t communicate with each other or with federal organizations. First responders have to be able to talk to each other and to their higher headquarters if things suddenly get hot. Terrorist watch lists need to be consolidated. And while we check people getting on planes, nobody is checking their baggage for explosives. This is a case of overlooking the obvious.

And like I said about Secret Service work, the best protection is to have lots of well-trained and alert people in place. That means lots more police. Of course that will cost money, but the truth is, an armored care didn’t save the Vice President’s life when I was on duty, it was a careful man pushing him to the ground. By the same token, it won’t be security cameras or facial recognition software that stops the next terrorist attack; it will be some local cop who happens to be in the right place at the right time, paying attention. That’s the kind of protection we give the President. Doesn’t every citizen deserve the same level of safety?