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May 12, 2005
The power of information: the security issue
The incident in Washington yesterday has me thinking about the use of information and security.
As everyone probably knows by now, there was scare that evacuated the White House and the Capitol. A private plane entered the restricted airspace. I live and work 9 blocks from the Capitol. I was returning with my carry out lunch when I ran into a group of children being evacuated from the Senate daycare facility -- including cribs being rolled along the sidewalk of East Capitol Street. I didn't know anything about what was happening, even though I am (as a local elected official) supposed to be part of the emergency alert system.
While this is apparently a false alarm, there are many questions left in my mind. First is how this happened. There have been numerous violations of restricted airspace. As I understand it, this is the first time a plane has gotten this close. My step-daughter is a DC school teacher. She was with her class on a field trip to the Mall and could see the warning flares fired at the plane. According to the story in the Washington Post, Confused Fliers Trigger Capital Scare:
Authorities said the plane's occupants were so clueless that when officials finally made radio contact and ordered the plane to divert, the fliers refused, asserting their right to proceed on their way.
. . .
As the Cessna closed in, flying at 2,500 feet, alert levels started to jump across the city. At 12:03 p.m., the White House went to code red, with the aircraft within three miles.
The customs aircraft, meanwhile, had been urgently trying to get the Cessna's attention. The crews of one or both aircraft held up a sign in their cockpits bearing the radio frequency the Cessna should tune to, officials said. Those on the small plane apparently saw the sign, made radio contact, but refused at first to turn back, officials said.
"No," the federal pilots ordered, "this is federal law enforcement. You will land that aircraft." Finally, at 12:06 p.m., flying over Northwest Washington, the Air Force fighters arrived, fired warning flares, and the Cessna fliers realized that they were in trouble.
The second question concerns that lack of a coordinated response. This is the second time since 9/11 that the Capitol was evacuated (it is the first time I've seen cribs from the day care center being rolled down East Capitol). According to USATODAY.com - White House, Capitol evacuated after airspace violated:
Washington's Reagan National Airport has been closed to general aviation since the Sept. 11 attacks. In the three-plus years since then, hundreds of small planes have flown within the restricted airspace around the capital. However, it's rare for fighter jets to be scrambled.
In the most dramatic incident since the Sept. 11 attacks, thousands of people fled the Capitol, packed with members of Congress and other dignitaries, when a plane flew into the restricted air space just before the funeral procession for President Ronald Reagan last June. A communications breakdown led federal officials to believe the plane might be targeting the Capitol, but it turned out to be carrying Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher, who had been cleared to fly into the area.
But the White House has sent the President and/or Vice President to a secure location at least three times. Apparently, threats to the Capitol are evaluated by the Capitol Police and threats to the White House by the Secret Service - independent of each other.
And then there was the problem that local DC officials were not notified. From the Washington Examiner
By evening, criticism had arisen over whether the government had been adequately prepared to face the danger. Mayor Anthony A. Williams was ending his weekly press briefing on the first floor of the Wilson Building when the evacuation was called. City leaders were not informed of the emergency until after evacuations were under way, said Vince Morris, Williams' spokesman.
In a statement released late Wednesday, the mayor said he was concerned with "the apparent delay in alerting key decision-makers in the city...
"Critical and potentially life-or-death information about threats facing District residents needs to be shared immediately - not five, 10 or 15 minutes after the fact," Williams said.
I think I would be more sanguine about these questions if it wasn't for what I read yesterday and my own experiences with our security preparations.
The disconcerting news yesterday was a story in USATODAY "Ridge reveals clashes on alerts":
The Bush administration periodically put the USA on high alert for terrorist attacks even though then-Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge argued there was only flimsy evidence to justify raising the threat level, Ridge now says.
Some have long argued that the threat level was not very well connected to the actual level of threat.
My own experience concerns the movement of toxic chemical within blocks of the Capitol where CSX and the Department of Homeland Security's response to our concerns was "we're not going to tell you whether we are re-routing these trains or not, just trust us" (see my earlier posting Information Wars, which also talks about restricted airspace that they won't tell pilots about). Another part of Homeland Security's plan was to take the warning signs off the tank cars - in the belief that terrorist would then not know if the tank car was a good target or not. This attempt to restrict information was shot down by police and fire officials nationwide, who pointed out that they need to know what is in those tank cars in order to respond to rail accidents.
Information is a key element in the war against terrorism. But if the systems for shared it with the people you need to know (including the public) don't work, then that information becomes useless.
Yesterday, the machinery did work -- with all its creaks and groans. But it didn't work as well as it should. Priority needs to be given to fix the flaws.
Posted by Ken Jarboe at May 12, 2005 9:03 AM
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Update on how at least part of the system failed. From WTOP Radio "Police Error Hurts Response to Plane Scare" (http://www.wtopnews.com/?sid=518358&nid=25):
It turns out D.C. leaders should have had earlier information as the Cessna 150 crossed into restricted air space Wednesday.
WTOP has learned of a major mess-up by police that affected the city's response to the incident.
The Domestic Event Network (DEN) is an open line from the FAA to police, and it alerts agencies that protect the capital's airspace to any problems with flights across the United States.
Metropolitan Police Chief Charles Ramsey says someone in police headquarters hung up the speaker phone that broadcasts the information.
Posted by: Ken Jarboe at May 12, 2005 4:48 PM