"All the security money can buy, but unease is indelible; The state, and especially Boston, has tapped the gusher of US antiterror funds, buying topnotch gear - which, in these 10 years of eerie calm, has seen little use" September 07, 2011| by Sean P. Murphy and Scott Allen and Ben Wolford, Globe Staff | Globe Correspondent
Fourth in an eight-part series.
Ten years after the Sept. 11 attacks triggered a massive effort to improve American defenses against terrorism, police forces across the country are armed with high-tech equipment they could not have afforded before the Department of Homeland Security began doling out $40 billion for local emergency preparedness, including $500 million to Massachusetts.
The excuse to militarize America's police forces. Now every call is answered with a SWAT team.
Related: 9/11 Memory Hole: Terrorists Still Taking Flying Lessons
They still didn't help?
While homeland security has bulked up, local law enforcement has, thankfully, had little use for all the new gear.
Then it was all a waste of money. At least someone got rich.
Since the raw months after Sept. 11 when the National Guard was dispatched to airports and politicians advocated antiaircraft guns for nuclear plants, there have been only two major terror attacks with multiple deaths in the United States: the murder of 13 at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009, and the anthrax attacks of 2001, which killed five.
See: Sunday Globe Special: Anthrax Attack Aftereffects
Putting the Fort Hood Trial to Rest
Same as I am doing to these posts.
As time has passed, the public has become gradually less fearful - and less patient with intrusive security measures such as full-body scans at airports, much less SWAT teams at church services.
Because we WOKE UP to the LIES! Turns out Muslims didn't do 9/11; Israel and her helpers in various western governments and intelligence agencies did.
You did know Israel did 9/11, right?
We haven’t grown complacent about the likelihood of another major attack - indeed, most expect one, as a new Globe poll (see accompanying story on A9) makes clear. But we no longer organize our lives around that risk.
Yes, we expect a new attack and know it will be another false flag.
And “homeland security’’ has come to mean much more than fighting terrorism. Today, federal grants are viewed as a spigot of money that pays for all manner of equipment for everything from crime solving to natural disaster relief.
And who benefit$?
The Department of Homeland Security long ago gave in to pressure from local law enforcement agencies to allow them to spend the grants on “all hazards,’’ since, day to day, they’re far more concerned with fighting street crime than ferreting out Al Qaeda operatives.
But it was sold to you under the banner of protecting us from terrorists!
But the result is a growing arsenal purchased under the banner of the national antiterror program that sees limited action - if it’s used at all.
It's seeing action now.
The 18,000-pound truck that carried the SWAT team to the Natick Christmas Eve celebration - the “BearCat’’ - was paid for entirely by a $325,000 federal grant intended to strengthen US defenses against chemical, biological, and nuclear attacks. But the BearCat has had only one terror-related duty in its first year....
Related: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly About the Boston Marathon Bombings
I guess they were just waiting to use it.
Once some security measures are taken, it’s hard to reverse course even if the level of threat no longer justifies the precautions....
That is why I ARGUE SO STRENUOUSLY AGAINST SUCH THINGS BEFORE they are BEGUN!
The boom in spending has also created a full-fledged homeland security bureaucracy here - the state and city pay more than $1 million a year to people who manage their grant proposals - and a cadre of private security consultants that has an enormous personal stake in keeping the money flowing....
And yet the Boston bombers still got through nearly 18 months later?
There has not been much terrorism to fight anywhere in New England in the 10 years since hijackers commandeered two planes out of Logan International Airport and flew them into the World Trade Center. Since the federal government began systematically tracking terror incidents in January 2004, there have been 34 terror attacks carried out nationwide, causing 16 deaths, but none of the attacks has been in New England.
Boston’s campaign to be named a top - “tier 1’’ - terror target was based almost entirely on the city’s vulnerability to terrorism rather than its actual experience. For instance, the city is home to the nation’s only urban terminal for deliveries of liquefied natural gas and a single tanker explosion could do damage for more than a mile in all directions, according to an MIT analysis.
Related: Terrorists Tacking Into Boston Harbor
Sure is taking them a long time.
Officials for Distrigas, owners of the Everett terminal, say that there has never been a credible threat to the tankers’ weekly deliveries to Boston in 40 years, although just to be sure, tankers are routinely boarded by the Coast Guard and accompanied into harbor by escort boats while sharpshooters and police dogs patrol the shore.
It's seeing action now.
The 18,000-pound truck that carried the SWAT team to the Natick Christmas Eve celebration - the “BearCat’’ - was paid for entirely by a $325,000 federal grant intended to strengthen US defenses against chemical, biological, and nuclear attacks. But the BearCat has had only one terror-related duty in its first year....
Related: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly About the Boston Marathon Bombings
I guess they were just waiting to use it.
Once some security measures are taken, it’s hard to reverse course even if the level of threat no longer justifies the precautions....
That is why I ARGUE SO STRENUOUSLY AGAINST SUCH THINGS BEFORE they are BEGUN!
The boom in spending has also created a full-fledged homeland security bureaucracy here - the state and city pay more than $1 million a year to people who manage their grant proposals - and a cadre of private security consultants that has an enormous personal stake in keeping the money flowing....
And yet the Boston bombers still got through nearly 18 months later?
There has not been much terrorism to fight anywhere in New England in the 10 years since hijackers commandeered two planes out of Logan International Airport and flew them into the World Trade Center. Since the federal government began systematically tracking terror incidents in January 2004, there have been 34 terror attacks carried out nationwide, causing 16 deaths, but none of the attacks has been in New England.
Boston’s campaign to be named a top - “tier 1’’ - terror target was based almost entirely on the city’s vulnerability to terrorism rather than its actual experience. For instance, the city is home to the nation’s only urban terminal for deliveries of liquefied natural gas and a single tanker explosion could do damage for more than a mile in all directions, according to an MIT analysis.
Related: Terrorists Tacking Into Boston Harbor
Sure is taking them a long time.
Officials for Distrigas, owners of the Everett terminal, say that there has never been a credible threat to the tankers’ weekly deliveries to Boston in 40 years, although just to be sure, tankers are routinely boarded by the Coast Guard and accompanied into harbor by escort boats while sharpshooters and police dogs patrol the shore.
Of course, Massachusetts law enforcement officials necessarily spend a great deal of time following up on potential terrorism leads that turn out to be false alarms. The Boston police explosives unit has investigated 10 bomb threats and 65 suspicious packages in the city so far this year, but they haven’t found a bomb since 2009.
Gotta keep 'em bu$y!
Likewise, the Commonwealth Fusion Center in Maynard, set up in 2005 to coordinate police intelligence gathering, followed up on 209 reports of suspicious activity over the last year, but most were baseless and State Police estimate that two-thirds of its activities were unrelated to terrorism in the first place.
In and among the dead ends, law enforcement officials in Massachusetts have arrested a few potential terrorists or their accomplices over the last decade, such as an Agawam man who had stockpiled ingredients for poison gas at his home in 2004.
Maybe he did the Syrian attack.
But such moments are rare and state officials would be the first to admit that the threat of terrorism ranks much lower than the threat of natural disasters, such as flooding, or manmade disasters, including the 2006 chemical explosion that destroyed scores of buildings in Danvers....
It was just a small blinking sign, but its suspicious location - attached to an Interstate 93 ramp near Sullivan Square in Charlestown - prompted police to close the highway’s northbound lanes at morning rush hour. Within hours, police got reports of more mysterious devices in Cambridge and Somerville.
By nightfall on Jan. 30, 2007, bomb squads had investigated 38 blinking signs that were not bombs at all, but an offbeat marketing campaign to promote a cable network cartoon. “This is not the kind of publicity we would ever seek,’’ said a chagrined spokesman for Turner Broadcasting, the cartoon’s owner.
Yet, police found a silver lining in the fiasco. The incident made it clear that law enforcement was ill-equipped to respond to numerous simultaneous reports of suspicious devices. In the wake of the cartoon controversy, police applied for and won a $700,000 federal grant to acquire the 13 bomb-sniffing dogs, and their SUV transports, for the Boston area.
Gee, WHO BENEFITED?
The cartoon incident “demonstrated the region’s severe shortage of explosive counter-terrorism capability,’’ wrote Jake Sullivan, then Boston’s acting emergency management director, in a letter making his case for all the specially trained dogs.
The official story is a damn cartoon!
Today, the dogs are deployed throughout the region, but they aren’t very busy and they’re much more likely to work on everyday criminal investigations.
The PURPOSE of the TOTAL $URVEILLANCE $OCIETY!
Records show that the dogs in Quincy and Revere are called to duty about once a week, usually to help find guns or drugs....
That’s the legacy of a federal initiative that was created to fight terrorism, but that has, over time, yielded to pressure to broaden its reach. Those seeking federal funding emphasize the terror connection to make their case, whether or not it’s central to the real mission....
And YOU are PAYING FOR IT ALL, American taxpayers!
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Related:
New security features at Logan airport are welcome innovations
Except for the cancer-causing screening machines.
Also see:
TSA vows to act on claims of racial profiling at Logan
Two facing drug charges following arrests at Logan Airport
2 arrested at Logan on drug charges
Maybe they ought to be more worried about that.
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Timing of Logan fire drill is called insensitive" by Milton J. Valencia and Melissa Hanson | Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent, September 11, 2013
On the 12th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Fire Department based at Logan International Airport held a fire training exercise that included roaring flames and heavy smoke, leading many to question the timing of the drills on a day of mourning.
I do not; I see what is at work here, the repetitive mind manipulation and whipping up of emotions. What does surprise me is it didn't go live this time.
Governor Deval Patrick said the decision was “just dumb.” And the head of a 9/11 support group said that the Massachusetts Port Authority, which owns and operates the airport, should have been more sensitive to the families of the victims of 9/11, as well as a general Boston community that realizes the historical significance of the airport on that day....
Three hours after Logan announced the fire drills on social media sites, Massport apologized for the timing of the exercise, saying it understood that it might have offended many of those touched by 9/11.
The same was true of the Marathon, they notified the public there would be drills, but that quickly disappeared down the Prop Pre$$ memory hole.
“Safety and security is our top priority, and constant vigilance and readiness is critical, but the exercise should not have taken place on the anniversary of 9/11,” Massport said.
Massport also noted that the airport community recognizes the day with moments of silence, a service in the chapel, and a wreath at the 9/11 memorial.
Logan made the announcement regarding the drill about 9:30 a.m. Television news camera footage later showed a large structure similar to a plane with heavy fire and billowing black smoke rushing out of it.
So people MIGHT HAVE THOUGHT it was REAL, huh?
Massport’s announcement of the drill was a brief two sentences: “The Fire Department will be training this morning. Smoke on the airfield is part of the training.”
Almost immediately, the announcement was criticized by the airport’s social media followers, one of whom stated, “Another day would have been smarter to do this . . . seriously????”
Another person who was at Logan at the time of the drills said he saw smoke at the airport. “Found it odd that there was an exercise on this day and place,” he said on Twitter....
I don't trust Twitter because the Prop Pre$$ promotes it, nor do I find it odd that drills were taking place because they always are during these false flag events. It's what we call going live!
I hate to be the one to break it to you, folks, but "terrorism" is ALL GOVERNMENT-CREATED, FUNDED, and DIRECTED!
--more--"
Just a reinforcing reminder.
