'This Is Not Right'

KOMO 1000 News (Radio) ^ | June 1, 2005 | Kevin Reece

[ActionNewsBill]

'This Is Not Right'

June 1, 2005
 
By Kevin Reece

DES MOINES - Cecilia Beaman is a 57-year-old grandmother, a principal at Pacific Middle School in Des Moines, and as of Sunday is also a suspected terrorist.

"This is not right," she told us. It's not right!"

This past weekend she and several other chaperones took 37 middle school students to a Heritage Festival band competition in California. The trip included two days at Disneyland.

During the stay she made sandwiches for the kids and was careful to pack the knives she used to prepare those sandwiches in her checked luggage. She says she even alerted security screeners that the knives were in her checked bags and they told her that was OK.

But Beaman says she couldn't find a third knife. It was a 5 1/2 inch bread knife with a rounded tip and a serrated edge. She thought she might have lost or misplaced it during the trip.

On the trip home, screeners with the Transportation Security Administration at Los Angeles International Airport found it deep in the outside pocket of a carry-on cooler. Beaman apologized and told them it was a mistake.

"You've committed a felony," Beaman says a security screener announced. "And you're considered a terrorist."

Beaman says she was told her name would go on a terrorist watch-list and that she would have to pay a $500 fine.

"I'm a 57-year-old woman who is taking care of 37 kids," she told them. "I'm not gonna commit a terrorist act." Beaman says they took information from her Washington drivers license and confiscated and photographed the knife according to standard operating procedure.

She says screeners refused to give her paperwork or documentation of her violation, documentation of the pending fine, or a copy of the photograph of the knife.

"They said 'no' and they said it's a national security issue. And I said what about my constitutional rights? And they said 'not at this point ... you don't have any'."

KOMO News did reach a spokesperson with the Transportation Security Administration for comment. They said they did not have record of Beaman's confrontation but did admit that TSA screeners are, by design, becoming more strict.

Despite continued warnings to passengers, TSA screeners say travelers continue to bring banned items in their carry-on luggage. Knives, guns, and other weapons are found and confiscated daily.

Fines issued for knives and other sharp objects range from $250 to $1,500. Fines issued for firearms discovered in carry-on luggage range from $1,500 to $7,500.

The TSA web site also indicates firearms violations will be referred for potential criminal prosecution. The same site does not propose the same criminal referral for knives like the one Cecilia Beaman was carrying.

"This is not the way my country should be treating me," she said. My concern is that if that's the way they're treating American citizens I would hate to think how they're treating other people. It's crazy."

The TSA reminds travelers that is has the authority to impose civil penalties up to $10,000 per violation.

"TSA needs the help of the traveling public in reducing the number of prohibited items brought to airport screening checkpoints," reads the Sanction Guidelines section of the TSA web site. "TSA recognizes that most passengers who carry prohibited items do so without any ill intent. TSA does not impose fines on the vast number of passengers who inadvertently carry prohibited items. Dealing with any prohibited item, however, adds time to the screening process both for the traveler who brought the item and for other travelers as well."

You can find a complete list of banned items, range of fines levied for violations, and information on how to plead your case with the TSA at www.tsa.gov.

[rwfromkansas]

If you are a real journalist, you would understand the need for evidence of claims like this.

She provides none.

[ActionNewsBill]

...she may be making it up to get people angry and raise support for her cause.

Like I said earlier, I trust the word of this woman more than I trust the word of a TSA employee.

[Hunble]

Kindly provide a citation and proof, please.

I am sure that I am not the only Freeper than can tell about personal experiences with the TSA.

Let me use this simple episode as an example:

If you have had any military experience with explosives, even something as powerful as C4 will take up some physical space.

On my last trip to Cozumel, I packaged my underwear in clear plastic bags. Sucking out the air, it compressed into a nice little package only 1/4 inch thick.

Any idiot could see at a glance that it would be impossible for C4 explosives and a triggering device to be contained in that clear plastic bag of underwear.

What did the TSA do?

Oh, and this was AFTER my bags went through the X-ray machine and was swabbed for nitrate residue.

Hmmmm, were they actually looking for a bomb?

Good thing they never located my super secret, 1/4 inch thick nuclear bomb that I was smuggling to Mexico!

[azhenfud]

"I've also responded numerous times to the well-known terrorist tactic of using unsuspecting or otherwise compliant persons to ferry their weapons onto aircraft. Some don't seem to realize that not all terrorists are middle eastern muslim males."

Well, we're doing real good to be abled to reduce terrorists' arsenals to 57 yr old grandmas weilding lost butterknives with 37 unsuspecting hostages.

[DugwayDuke]

"Do you have personal knowledge of terrorists who have recently used American citizens to ferry weapons onto US aircraft in the last three years?"

Nothing like trying the old 'strawman' tactic.

I'm sure you're well aware that a terrorist did use his unsuspecting girl friend to smuggle a bomb on board an aircraft. I'm equally sure that you're aware that an American citizen used her status as a legal represenatative to smuggle messages from an imprisoned terrorist to his terrorist cell.

But, no, I'm not aware of any specific act as you described.

Does that make you feel more secure that a terrorist would not or could not resort to such tactics in light of the specific examples I did cite? I guess the fact that no middle easter muslim male used a box cutter to hijack an aircraft in the three years prior to 9/11 proved that such an act was either unlikely or impossible?

[Hatteras]

"You're doing guilt by association."

Yes, you are correct. But, I'll have to tell you, I am around a large number of school teachers and other public school officials due to my work and my wife's association with a large group of friends who are all teachers. Based on my personal knowledge of these individuals and their political leanings (to a person) I stand by that generalization.

Let's put it this way... A local police officer was invited to the local school to speak with a few classes of elementary students. The teachers (three young twenty-somethings, fresh out of college, that I happen to know personally) refused to allow the officer to come into the classes unless he had secured his gun in the trunk of his patrol car. The officer informed them that wouldn't happen, bid them a good day and left. They later had a "police spokesperson" (sans sidearm) come in and talk to the kids.

Yeah, guilt by association? You bet!

[takenoprisoner]

"Fines issued for knives and other sharp objects range from $250 to $1,500. Fines issued for firearms discovered in carry-on luggage range from $1,500 to $7,500."

Follow the money folks!

[Hunble]

Seriously, in today's world, I can not think of a single situation where a terrorist could use an aircraft as a weapon in America.

We are talking about BIC cigarette lighters and table knives.

Get serious and view the world of today with some reality.

[DugwayDuke]

"And the serrated edge has got to be really dangerous...you can't even cut a steak with one of those."

I have found a five inch serrated blade works quite well to gut and skin a deer. But, no, it's not 'dangerous', not at all. I wouldn't give a second thought to what a terrorist might be able to do with a mere 'butter' knife with a five inch serrrated edge.

[Hunble]

B I N G O

Takenoprisoner is the winner of today's competition.

Way to go Freeper!

[rwfromkansas]

Tim McVeigh.

What he he got on the plane with a firearm?

[ActionNewsBill]

The teachers (three young twenty-somethings, fresh out of college, that I happen to know personally) refused to allow the officer to come into the classes unless he had secured his gun in the trunk of his patrol car. The officer informed them that wouldn't happen, bid them a good day and left. They later had a "police spokesperson" (sans sidearm) come in and talk to the kids.

Sounds like a pretty smart move by the teachers, considering all of the police gun "accidents" that have happened in classrooms.

Here's one example:

Cop discharges Glock in Classroom

[DugwayDuke]

"Could you point us to one such instance?"

There was one instance a number of years ago a terrorist seduced a young european woman. He placed a bomb in her carry on luggage that exploded over the Mediterranean killing her and several other passengers. This is the reason you hear all those airport warnings about not allowing others to pack stuff in your bags.

Then there was the incident where the American citizen lawyer used her legal status to smuggle messages from an imprisoned terrorist to his terrorist cell.

Then there was the incident of two women carrying bombs on board aircraft that brought down two Russian aircraft.

No, there is no precedent for such a thing.

[DugwayDuke]

"Our family's butter knives have serrated edges, too. The serrations are small though and yet could still be classified as a "knife of over five inches long with a serrated edge.""

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make. The only description of this knife is from a person who has every reason to minimize the nature of this knife since she is possibly facing criminal prosecution. Just because she called it a 'butter' knife is not reassuring.

I'd also point out that I've gutted, skinned, and butchered a deer with a 'butter' knife like the one described.

[rwfromkansas]

I mean, she doesn't even have a student to corroborate her story. She has no evidence whatsoever.

I would run her story if she gave even some evidence since it would be a big deal. But, all she gives now is an allegation with nothing to support it (real evidence, not Freeper statements that the govt. would do this).

[DugwayDuke]

"Seriously, in today's world, I can not think of a single situation where a terrorist could use an aircraft as a weapon in America."

I recognize your point that it is doubtful that a terrorist could recreate 9/11. Passengers and crews would not be as compliant and the Air Force would react much more rapidly and forcefully as well.

The use of an aircraft as a weapon was not seriously considered prior to 9/11. Our real mistake was that we were only concerned with thwarting the terrorist tactics used in the past and were not imaginative enough to anticipate other tactics. We make that same mistake when we look at middle eastern muslim males with boxcutters as our only threat. Therer are other ways to induce terror into the aircraft and we should not overlook that fact.

[CompSciGuy]

And everyone thought making the screeners at the airport government employees would solve everything. I hate to say I told you so but...

Cheers,
CSG

[ActionNewsBill]

The use of an aircraft as a weapon was not seriously considered prior to 9/11.

Officials 'Never Thought of an Airplane Being Used as a Missile'

Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) -

Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta told the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (also known as the 9/11 Commission) Friday that, prior to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, aviation security officials had not considered that a hijacker might commandeer an airplane for any reason other than taking hostages.

"I don't think we ever thought of an airplane being used as a missile," Mineta declared.

But former Rep. Tim Roemer (D-Ind.), who now serves on the commission, challenged Mineta's claim. Roemer noted that there was consideration within intelligence agencies that terrorists might plan an attack such as the one carried out on 9/11.

"Wouldn't you view it as a failure of our intelligence community not to tell the secretary of transportation that there was such a conceivable threat, that the people like the Coast Guard and the FAA should be thinking about?" Roemer asked.

"We had no information of that nature at all," Mineta replied. "There was nothing in those intelligence reports that would have been specific to anything that happened on the 11th of September," Mineta said. "There was nothing in the preceding time period about aircraft being used as a weapon or of any other terrorist types of activities of that nature."

But those statements directly contradict documentation compiled by aviation security analyst Andrew Thomas in his new book Aviation Insecurity: The New Challenges of Air Travel .

"With all due respect to Secretary Mineta, either he's incredibly in denial or just simply not the sharpest tool in the woodshed," Thomas told \b CNSNews.com Friday. "There were clearly - well before 9/11, years before 9/11 - numerous instances where we knew of both al Qaeda and other terrorist groups threatening or actually putting into place the hijacking of commercial airliners and slamming them into targets on the ground."

Al Qaeda started planning suicide hijackings years earlier

Thomas details a 1995 warning from Philippine authorities to the FBI about a plot by the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, and an accomplice, Abdul Murad.

"During intense and often brutal interrogations by Philippine authorities, Murad told of detailed plans to simultaneously blow up several planes over the Pacific Ocean," Thomas wrote, "while he and another suicide hijacker would each carry out kamikaze suicide attacks on the CIA and the Pentagon, respectively."

Yousef later bragged of the plot to federal agents transporting him back to the U.S. after his arrest in Pakistan later in 1995.

"Yousef reportedly told FBI agent Brian Parr and other agents guarding him that he had narrowly missed several opportunities to blow up a dozen airliners in the Pacific in one single day," Thomas wrote, "and carry out a suicide attack on CIA headquarters."

Retired FAA agent warned 9/11-type attacks were possible

In a May 7, 2001, letter to Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), retired FAA Special Agent Brian Sullivan wrote that the FAA needed to change its security focus from hijackings to take hostages to the possibility of terrorists targeting airliners for much more sinister purposes.

[DugwayDuke]

Despite all those warnings, still no one considered this to be a serious threat. Don't you think we might also ought to consider that non-muslim, non-middle easter, non-males, using other than boxcutters might be the next 'serious threat'? That's really all I'm saying.

[Egon]

The TSA situation is/has been just one of many Administration screwups, but like you, they sedately stroll past their little feces piles as though they don't exist.

OK, I'll bite. What's your solution?