Security Committee Leaders Identified as Mexican Nationals!
This story is just about too much to believe, although, given the Through the Looking-glass quality of recent events (such as border agents being ordered not police the border), maybe it’s just part of a continuum of the psychoses caused by “Potomac fever”.
“A woman whose brother was killed in the September 11 attacks yesterday surprised top members of the House Homeland Security Committee with counterfeit Mexican matricula consular cards bearing the members’ identities and showcasing how easy it is to get valid identification to board an airplane.”
This was part of testimony by an intrepid Debra Burlingame before the House Homeland Security Committee just dramatized what has been a well known problem with the security of the Mexicano Matricula Consular ID’s, which are apparently acceptable for boarding aircraft, and for many other official and business purposes.
To the Chief, the state of border security is reminiscent of the situations in many large cities where there is the precedent of the “known crack house” – run by drug dealers as a sort of Motel 6 for junkies – and which everyone in the neighborhood (including the cops!) knows about, but somehow manages to be ignored by the authorities.
What will it take before people get fed up enough to REALLY hold the feet to the fire of those whom we have delegated the responsibility to properly navigate the ship of state. If we can’t get their attention, said ship unfortunately may well turn out to be a colossal political and governmental version of the Titanic.
The sort of buck-passing that makes this possible is further illustrated in this same story:
On its Web site the TSA says for a domestic flight, “passengers age 18 and over must present one form of photo identification issued by a local, state or federal government agency” and lists a passport, driver’s license or military ID as examples, or two nonphoto forms of identification.
But Amy Von Walter, a spokeswoman for TSA, said the agency is not actually responsible for checking IDs at most airports. She said the person looking at identification in the security checkpoint line is usually a worker under contract to the airline.
“It’s an airline policy that requires a photo ID,” she said. She said airlines usually require a photo ID issued by a government agency, but when someone doesn’t have an ID that meets that requirement airlines might accept consular ID cards instead.
“You need to check with the individual airlines to determine what they will accept as an alternative form of ID,” she said. “The policy does vary a bit from airline to airline.”
This all makes ME feel more secure about airline security. NOT!
Another case where our government representatives are more or less intentionally failing to exercise their delegated responsibilities.