Stephen Flynn
Stephen Flynn
Stephen Flynnwas an Irish Fianna Fáil politician. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dálaat the 1932 general election for the Leitrim–Sligo constituency. He was re-elected at each subsequent general election up to 1957. He died in 1960 during the 16th Dáil, a by-election was held on 1 March 1961 which was won by Joseph McLoughlin of Fine Gael...
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Rumsfeld wants that firewall between Northern Command and DHS because he's legitimately afraid that otherwise, Congress will rob the Defense budget to pay for homeland-security initiatives. The problem with that approach is that it provides no incentives for senior NorthCom leaders to build relationships with mayors and governors around the country, closely studying what capabilities they have and exactly what kind of help they would need in a disaster.
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The No. 1 national security challenge to confront us is a weapon of mass destruction going off in a U.S. city. Well, it could come in a seaport. So we should focus on what it would take to make sure that doesn't happen.
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It?s an incredibly efficient system, but it?s also a system that poses opportunity for bad people to do bad things.
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I'm concerned that the entire system is potentially vulnerable.
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It shouldn't matter whether the company is from Des Moines or Dubai, do you have confidence that they are essentially doing things that safeguard our security interest?
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If I had to rank in order 10 things I'm worried about as it relates to security in our ports, the ownership of the lease of a terminal here in the U.S. is near nine or 10 on that list.
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Well, it would not even have to be a chemical or biological or nuclear weapon. Because the only thing separating that container yard from basically where people live and work is a fence.
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We are vulnerable for two reasons, the world has gotten smaller -- more travel, we're more open and as business expands, we are more vulnerable. We are the most free nation in the world -- a Constitution and a Bill of Rights. If we wanted to secure our borders or be a police state, we could, but we won't, because we are a free nation.
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We are vulnerable for two reasons, the world has gotten smaller--more travel, we're more open and as business expands, we are more vulnerable. We are the most free nation in the world--a Constitution and a Bill of Rights. If we wanted to secure our borders or be a police state, we could, but we won't, because we are a free nation.
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With no debate in Congress or directive from the White House, the Pentagon has narrowly defined its role as 'homeland defense' against an enemy attack from outside the United States, limiting its role in disaster response to a last-resort backfill for civil authorities. Not surprisingly, that philosophy dictates a very passive posture.
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We're not acting like a nation at war.
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What we have failed to realize is the terrorists showed us on 9/11 that we are vulnerable. And Katrina showed us here in late August and September that we are still a very vulnerable society--and the most vulnerable part of the population ends up without the lifeboat.
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We have no idea who's in the ports. And many of the folks who come in to service the ports, that drive the trucks back and forth, are people who don't have very distinguished backgrounds. May have criminal backgrounds.
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The fact of the matter is criminals have been operating in seaports a long, long time. The bad guys know how open the system is. The good guys don't seem to have a real command on it here because we haven't paid as much attention to this problem as we need to.