Fire Norm Mineta
For a new strategy of airport security
Someone has to say the following, so here goes:
Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta – the person most responsible for air safety, travel quality, and the health of the airline industry, going back to the Clinton Administration – should be fired.
It is time for the Bush Administration and the Congress to adopt a new approach, one focused on America’s citizen initiative and our native resourcefulness and courage, and not Rube Goldberg metal detectors, strip searches of little old ladies with hip replacements, and the removal of every sixth pair of shoes.
U.S. policy, in the name of “passenger safety,” is wrecking the U.S. transportation industry, destroying tens of thousands of jobs, and making travel less affordable, less pleasant, and less tolerable.
- Passenger surveys, analyzed by Delta Airlines CEO Leo Mullin, indicate that what industry executives are delicately calling the “hassle factor” – the time delays and personal indignity of passing through multiple cattle lines – is “the single greatest reason” for a sharp decline in passenger volume and an even sharper decline in revenues that threatens to bankrupt several major carriers. Mullin estimates that $3.8 billion out of an estimated $4.7 billion to $5.0 billion loss this year by the industry will result from the time delays and ignominy of Mineta’s misguided airport security policies.
- The second biggest factor in declining air travel is rising costs – the special taxes, fees, and regulations added on the back of consumers. “The currently expected industry loss of $4.7 billion could actually be a $3.3 billion profit – if not for the impact of the post-9/11 government policy decisions,” according to Carol Hallet, President of the Air Transport Association, or ATA, in a courageous speech of June 18. Note: Ms. Hallet is not talking about the impact of 9/11, but about the impact of “post-9/11 government policy decisions.”
- Fear of hijacking or other acts of terror is third – and only a distant third. “I don’t know if fear is even much of a factor,” says Joe Burey, editor of Airline Financial News. “The hassle factor is the single biggest cause, by far.” Researchers at the ATA confirm that the fear factor is now “at asterisk levels,” but asked not to be quoted by name because of the fear they will set off alarms at the Transportation Department if they dare to question Mr. Mineta’s policies.
If all the metal detectors and trunk searches were making the skies safer, it might be worth the harassment. In that case, we should all show “patience,” as Secretary Mineta implores, at being treated like a nation of criminals. Ironically, though, Mr. Mineta’s policy is not contributing to victory in the war on terror. In fact, it may – to the extent resources are being misallocated – be weakening those efforts.
| Secretary Mineta argues that with just a little more training,
and some new technology, screeners can sort out every last piece
of metal and some other materials passing through the gates at a
rate of 40 or 50 percent a day. Let us pause, however, and think
– may we still think at airports, or might this be interpreted as
an “inappropriate comment,” whatever that is? – about whether this
approach is effective. |
The New Deal: Will Anyone
Want to Fly?
We're already seeing a total mind-set change in the area of
aviation security and related civil liberties. Some of this
is necessary, arguably overdue, but some approaches, if not
properly thought through and implemented, will radically diminish
the desirability of air travel, especially on short hauls. |
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Has there ever been a hijacking thwarted by metal detectors?
Last September 11, a number of terrorists gained control of U.S. jets. Do you know how many of them passed through metal detectors?
Every single one did. And note: Every one of them would today if, instead of metal knives, they used ballpoint pens, or pencils, or nylon wires, or their own belt, or toxic chemicals (properly contained), or any of myriad other common objects as weapons.
Passive and even active searches will never make the skies safe. The futile effort to square this circle, however, threatens to wreck one of the lynchpins of American prosperity, our transportation system.
Meanwhile, important and necessary measures that really would help security are barred at the gate.
- Pilots should be armed. This is the single most effective thing the U.S. could do to improve safety in the skies. It’s supported by better than 80 percent of pilots. Yet Mineta opposes this common-sense measure.
- Flight attendants and passengers should be allowed, even encouraged, to carry non-lethal weapons, such as mace or stun guns, on flights. Mineta surely would oppose this, but it’s not even on the fork-free menu of discussion.
- Monies otherwise spent merely harassing passengers at flight gates should be devoted to efforts to infiltrate terrorist networks, infrastructure, and even cells. Gumshoe detectives should be replaced by spies, eavesdropping efforts (when warranted by a judge), and, yes, counterassassins.
The two-fold message terrorists need to get is this:
1. If you attempt to hijack a plane, you will die,
and perhaps some passengers will die, but the certainties are: you will
not hit any target, and you will die.
2. You will also, therefore, not be able to turn the
American way of life, and the U.S. economy, and the transportation system
they depend on, upside down.
Norm Mineta, bless his heart, is a well-meaning man. He is, essentially,
a good man. God bless him. That is a sincere prayer.
| But he has a career based on the regulationist
mentality that the people and creativity and individual initiative
are not the solution, and are, indeed, to an extent, the problem.
With just a few more violations of privacy, a little more money
spent on security police, and ever-more-endless delays, the cattle
can be herded into line. This approach – this anti-American, pro-bureaucracy
approach – is now, essentially, U.S. policy. |
Feeding at the 'Homeland,
Inc.' Trough
The travel industry ought to be concerned about the "Homeland, Incorporated" power, money and civil liberties grab. This looks like the biggest financial give-away and civil liberties distortion in history, set to impose new expenses on, and drive revenue away from, the industry it is ostensibly designed to save. |
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By contrast, every single victory in the war on terror has been the result of intelligent citizen effort.
- The heroes of flight 11 killed their captors, and gained a page in history.
- Alert passengers and flight attendants discovered and subdued the shoe bomber. Mineta’s army of metal-detecting droids missed him. “So what? Now we will make people take off their shoes.” Puhleeze. The next bomber won’t use his shoes.
- The Israeli capture of a boatload of weapons headed for Yasir Arafat made use of international intelligence cooperation. Resources spent on like efforts – including support for Israel, our greatest intelligence ally in the war on terror – will bear more fruit than Mr. Mineta’s policy of ruining our airports in order to save them.
- Recent arrest of a would-be terrorist was reportedly aided by several tips from private citizens, along with smart police work by the FBI. The U.S. needs to fund more of this, and less petty hassling.
- The shooting of an anti-Israeli fanatic at the Los Angeles airport last week was carried out by an alert security officer who had a gun. If we arm 22-year-olds, many with no college education, and no history of acting responsibly in a position of trust, to have guns at airports, can we not allow experienced, responsible, professional pilots to carry firearms?
- Indeed – and it is frustrating to contemplate it, but it must be contemplated – had the FBI, CIA, DoD, or anyone in government listened, and had the White House insured that they listened, to citizens questioning flight training by terrorists in Florida, and field agents noticing movements by terror suspects, 9/11 itself might have been altered or blunted. It might, horrible as it is to think, have been thwarted.
Not by metal detectors. By people.
Consider a final irony: The Congress and the White House are lending billions to United, U.S. Air, and other major carriers. But if Ms. Hallet and others are right, government policy is now helping to ensure that those loans are bad – what the left hand is giving, the right hand is driving into bankruptcy.
Sensible Americans are entitled to ask: Why are these initially radical-sounding
(but ultimately common sense) ideas not being discussed?
The answer is, there’s a different fear factor – fear of reprisals – among industry executives, pilots, industry associations, and even journalists and analysts covering the industry. In recent weeks, some of these good citizens made efforts to politely point Mr. Mineta in a more sensible direction. The Secretary reportedly responded by letting it be known that such efforts are not appreciated, and may, in fact, be punished. Publicly, Mineta scolds and importunes and all but impugns the patriotism of anyone who wonders about his approach, as if opposing his methods is tantamount to opposing airline security per se.
This stifling of debate is itself un-American, and is sufficient reason, in and of itself, for Mr. Mineta’s dismissal. Times of peril and challenge call for a more open debate, not for an atmosphere of stifled discussion.
For a replacement, two obvious nominees would be Ms. Hallet, or Mr. Mullin, mentioned above, both of whom apparently know what is going on, and have enough courage to say something about it. Think about it: A Transportation Secretary who is informed, can reason, and has some guts. Mr. Mineta, with no personal disrespect, has displayed little of those three qualities in the performance of his public duties.
-- Gregory Fossedal
Mr. Fossedal is chairman of the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution.
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