{"id":6538,"date":"2017-04-18T07:39:01","date_gmt":"2017-04-18T11:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6538"},"modified":"2017-05-03T06:06:47","modified_gmt":"2017-05-03T10:06:47","slug":"thriller-writer-exposes-u-s-security-gaps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6538","title":{"rendered":"Thriller Writer Exposes U.S. Security Gaps"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"railwayReading up on how the nation\u2019s security apparatus actually works would have spared the Trump Administration and several of its appointees some embarrassment<\/a> in their first weeks in office. However, a failure of security imagination<\/a> has a much darker and more dangerous side.<\/p>\n

You may recall how, after 9\/11, the Bush Administration\u2019s CIA brought in Hollywood scriptwriters<\/a>\u2014professional speculators\u2014to help them imagine terrorist scenarios. Using airplanes-as-bombs was not a new idea, not even an \u201cunthinkable\u201d one to thriller writers.<\/p>\n

Right after 9\/11 the momentum for developing anti-terrorism technologies was strong, some money was wasted, and some real improvements were achieved. (Here\u2019s an excellent Atlantic article<\/a><\/em> summarizing our post-9\/11 security gains and gaps.) But that momentum has largely faded.<\/p>\n

Along comes Matthew Quirk<\/a>, author of the thrillers The 500, Cold Barrel Zero<\/em>, and the recent Dead Man Switch<\/em>, who thinks about our vulnerabilities a lot. He says, \u201cWe should spend our time and money addressing the obvious risks, not the hypothetical or concocted ones.\u201d And he cites plenty of these risks. \u201cI like to think my books are pretty tense, but they have nothing on reality,\u201d he wrote recently in the Washington Post<\/em>. \u201cMore than 15 years after 9\/11, we have failed to take basic steps to address glaring threats that have already cost American lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

One example he cites are the risks from manufacturing, storing, and transporting deadly chemicals. The security of these facilities, he says, is simply \u201cnot adequately covered by the current mishmash of loophole-filled rules.\u201d Rules facing potential rollback, it should be noted.<\/p>\n

True security for our nation involves not just reducing our vulnerability to terrorism, of course, but also prevention and response preparation in the case of system breakdowns, emergence of new diseases, and, of course, severe droughts, flooding, wildfires, and other disruptions resulting from, oh, climate change.<\/p>\n

The number and variety of these threats is huge, but for most Americans the most visible national security effort boils down to seizing manicure scissors from grandma during an airport screening. However, even the TSA faces significant cuts in the proposed Trump budget, with the \u201csavings\u201d diverted to building the wall at our southern border. The wall will neither improve security nor prevent illegal immigration. It\u2019s a costly symbolic gesture that diverts attention and resources from real security risks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading up on how the nation\u2019s security apparatus actually works would have spared the Trump Administration and several of its appointees some embarrassment in their first weeks in office. However, a failure of security imagination has a much darker and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Thriller Writer Exposes U.S. Security Gaps - we're failing to prepare for \"the obvious risks\"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,104],"tags":[965,416,966],"class_list":["post-6538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-imagination","category-the-morgue","tag-matthew-quirk","tag-real-life","tag-security"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1Hs","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6538"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6540,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6538\/revisions\/6540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}