>>Valley Patriot>>
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When
National Security Hits Home
Jim Rurak, Former Mayor of
Haverhill
 We
had a great Thanks-giving visit with family in Kansas,
but on the way back terror hit home.
Tightened airport security is often a pain in the neck,
but when they checked our bags for our return flight from
Kansas to Boston via Chicago they never asked for our
photo ID’s. We’re not terrorists, but I do feel
safer when security does its job. The very first step
home seemed sloppy, security wise. Then the human
predicament grew.
Weather in Chicago delayed our Kansas flight by 90
minutes. Unless things improv-ed, we’d miss our
connecting flight. Then the agent inside noticed that our
baggage claim codes gave their destination as Chicago not
Boston. She “fixed it” but didn’t think
they’d arrive with us. OK by me, they’re only
full of dirty laundry, but again things just don’t
seem to be going right.
Then it happened. We passed through a thorough security
check, entered the gate area and waited eagerly for the
boarding call. Our chances of making the connecting
flight were now down to one in ten. The call came sooner
than expected and we quickly queued up, our chances now
up to one in five of making port that night, albeit
without bags. All of a sudden, the agent in-side the
secured area announced “we found a cell-phone, will
someone claim it!?”
Someone shouted “it’s mine!” But he was in
the security checkpoint. They released him. The agent
gave it to him without asking him to verify it was really
his. All action now geared to getting the plane off—everyone
on it had connection concerns in Chicago. I was next to
last in line, the cell-phone guy right behind me.
I am now in quiet shock. We’ve gone from sloppy
security(no photo ID requested of us) to security
failure. I am as caught up as anyone to get quickly to
Chicago, but doesn’t anyone else wonder how someone
can claim a cell-phone without verifying that it’s
his? And, the real shocker. How the blazes did the cell
phone get into the secured area before its supposed owner
did? At best he’s a thief and he’s right behind
me. But I’m used to that. At worst, he’s a
terrorist now carrying a planted weapon or trigger onto
our plane!
Now things heat up even more! I’m watching him like
a hawk. He sits two rows up in 11F, a window seat right
next to the emergency exit, oh yeah, you got it, to top
it off, we’re in row 13. Practically every seat on
the plane is taken, but he’s surrounded by four
empty seats, the two next to him and the two in the short
row in front of him, the window seat left out of row 10
to make room for the emergency exit. Did he buy out these
seats for the privacy needed to do his deed? He put his
carry-on in the overhead compartment and immediately went
to the restroom, where he spent much time.
My quiet shock turns to severe pre-take-off turbulence.
The plane pulls away from the gate early; our connection
chances now go up to one in two, and so do everyone else’s
on the plane. If I say something we all may miss our
connecting flights. Who wants to chance staying in
Chicago? The airline won’t pay, and there may be no
rooms within reasonable distance from O’Hare
(everyone gets delayed in Chicago!). And who wants an
overnight at the airport? And what about the next day,
severe weather forecast for the whole East Coast? But the
cell-phone guy in the plane’s only empty row really
bothers me.
The plane starts to taxi. The pilot says “prepare
for take-off.” The engines rev up. And I realize.
The only chance is now. If we take off and this guy’s
a terrorist, connecting flights don’t matter.
Airport rugs are OK. If I’m wrong, and, by telling
the flight attendant, the flight’s delayed, and
because of that everyone hates me, maybe even my wife
because we’ll have to take shifts watching Rose our
daughter that long airport night, none of that matters.
I do it. As the captain’s testing the brakes by
over-revving the engines, I get up and find the
stewardess. I tell my story. She says “wow!”
and calls the captain. He asks for me, for my name, a
long silence, the engines slow down, he comes back on the
phone and says “we don’t have a problem,”
then he talks with the stewardess again.
Still as shaken as I, She said “it turns out that
your cell-phone guy is a special airline employee, but we
really thank you.” Before I got back to my seat, the
plane was in the air.
We landed safely, just made our connection, got home,
believe it or not with our bags, and I’m full of
thanksgiving this year. But I’m still unsettled.
There are just so many links in the chain of defense
against terrorism. A lot of them are very weak. The
sloppy security, the security breach. Some seem strong,
the stewardess’s quick action, the captain’s
presence of mind to pull up the manifest. Others are
tenuous at best, my last minute realization that I had to
act before the plane left the ground (at least some
passengers have a chance if it explodes there, not up
above). And, I still wonder how the phone got into the
secured area ahead of the “employee.” Granted
he could have come in earlier, the flight was delayed.
But he sure seemed in a hurry to get himself and his bags
through security. Did the agent hand him the phone
because she knew him, or, because like all of us she was
in a hurry? Was it just luck that he was an employee?
Throughout my life, I’ve taken different, but, at
the time thoroughly honest, positions on warfare. I’ve
never believed that the U.S. should strike first. Now I’m
not so sure. The neo-conservatives like Condi Rice
believe that in the final analysis the only way to reduce
terror here is to strike it first where it is most strong
overseas.
I always thought increased security made the best
defense, but it has so many potential cracks, and relies
on so many newly trained and focused eyes, it may not be
nearly enough. Pre-emptive action is not without hazard
and unintended consequence, but it may be the only way of
lifting the dome of suspicion, fear and terror right here
at home and, even more importantly, of reducing terrorism
itself. I’m not sure, but I’m thankful to have
the chance to think about it.
*Send your comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com
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