It wasn’t terrorism… but they’re watching our response, you can bet on that.

There have been a couple of “accidental disasters” this past week.

First, a chemical waste disposal plant exploded in Apex, NC last Friday (10/6) that forced 17,000 (more than half the towns’ population) to flee for their lives in the middle of the night. It wasn’t terrorism, but the actual cause is still unknown. However, many residents of the tiny town of Apex didn’t even know there was a hazardous chemical plant IN the middle of town storing toxic substances that could have been more deadly had the explosion been large enough.

Consider the governments’ response. Did Apex have chemical cleanup crews paid for with homeland security dollars? No. The burden of cleanup is being left to the plant’s owners… whom you know will be as “diligent” as “financially feesible”. Tell me, who do you trust to decide how much is too much chemical waste in the air you breath and the water you drink? Did Apex have anymore firetrucks than before? More firemen? Special training, chemical suits, waste containment units? No. And the plant, did it have beefed up security following 9/11? I find no evidence that they did. The fire and resulting cleanup was handled in much the same way as would have happened pre-9/11. And is it safe for people to return? It wasn’t terrorism, but you know the residents were every bit as scared.

Critics of the Bush Administration point to their pathetic funding for “Homeland Security” items such as “chemical plants”, “nuclear reactors”, “trains carrying hazardous waste through cities”, “inspecting ship-port cargo” and “checked luggage” as being next to non-existant. Approximately $40 Billion dollars (the CBO claims that the “actual” number is higher, but classified) has been appropriated by Congress to pay for all these things. Where is it? Where did it all go?

Yesterday/Wednesday, we once again turn on the mid-day news to discover a small plane crashed into an apartment building in Manhattan’s upper East side. It too wasn’t terrorism, but being New York, miltary fighter jets were scrambled following the incident. But the question of what a plane was doing crusing over NYC at such a low altitude with no one raising an eyebrow has many asking questions.

You may remember in January of 2002, a mere three months after 9/11, a disturbed kid in Florida committed suicide by crashing the training plane he was learning to fly in, seeking to “continue the mission” of the 9/11 hijackers, intentionally dive-bombing a Miami office building. Questions about air-space security in the wake of 9/11 was now on everybody’s radar screens.

Then in May of ‘05, a small plane wandered into the “Washington Prohibited Zone” and was forced to land, but not before a mass evacuation of Congress and other nearby government buildings.

Questions about security at small airports has again been raised. If a terrorist WANTED to commandere a small Cessna, load it with explosives or nuclear waste, what’s to stop them? Beefed up security at many of the nations’ busiest small airports? No. None of those $40 Billion in DHS funds went there either. Alert systems to warn authorities of suspicious activity like a low-altitude plane flying around the Statue of Liberty and into Manhattan at a height lower than rooftop level? No, not there either. Hell, the issue of all Emergency Crew radios not all operating on the same frequency… which many suggest may have cost the lives of many firement and police on 9/11 because they didn’t get the call to retreat… STILL has yet to be done.

Had terrorists of wanted to commit these acts, what was there to stop them? On the evening news, the reaction afterwards is typically to ask, “How could this happen after 9/11?” and “Are we safer?” Well, the terrorists may not have committed these acts, but you can bet your ass they’re taking notes on just how prepared we are to stop it from happening, what kind of damage can be inflicted, and our response afterwards.

This entry was posted on October 12, 2006 at 12:38 am and is filed under Political News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.