Blog-IT-o ergo sum

	3/1/2006

My Homeland Security approved afternoon with Laura Bush

(note: Both as a professional courtesy and for the safety of the subject(s) involved, I gave* the Secret Service more than a week advance notice on this information. No response yet, but as an agency of the Federal Government they may need more time.)

On February 15th, First Lady Laura Bush gave a pre-announced speech on women's health issues at the Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, NC.

This photo shows how close I personally came to the First Lady on her visit.

I took this shot from the third row with a 17.4mm Olympus, but someone else could have just as easily taken it with a 9mm Beretta.

I was not photo ID'd, not passed through a metal detector and not patted down. I walked in au naturale off the street. The bulge in my suit pocket from my bulky camera and cell phone could just as easily have been a sidearm with a 15 round clip. I did not even have to stand up in front of the SS agents that I at least hope would have been sitting somewhere behind me in the small theater that was packed with 150 people.

Even Dick Cheney could have made this shot.

How did I pull this off?

Since I happened to be on my regular cycle through Charlotte as the State Coordinator for The John Birch Society, when an elected official offered me one of the seats for such events that the White House doles out to the perceived party faithful, I took the official up on their gracious offer. All I needed to provide in advance was my social security number for a background check. (I should confess that my interest in attending was less in women's health issues than in proving to the more timid patriots amongst us that joining the JBS does not add your name to a government blacklist of subversive organizations.)

Now, I have been to some events in the Greensboro area where the First Lady's husband was the keynote speaker. In all these cases I got no closer than a hundred yards of a motorcade that the El Presidente was allegedly traveling in; a motorcade guarded by roof top snipers and a phalanx of local and Federal security forces.

I am understanding that Mrs. Bush is "just a wife" in the big picture of national security, but I was totally shocked at the limited security provided for her protection. After all, her husband and his handlers keep telling us that we are at war with an absolutely evil enemy that, in spite of Koranic teaching to the contrary, is willing to bomb a shopping mall or sports stadium to murder American women and children. Think of the expense and harassment we have gone through to keep nail clippers off airplanes, and yet if you want to walk off the street and sit down next to the leader of the free world's wife with your Glock in your breast pocket, no problem.

Here is my experience of what passed for security at the Carolinas Medical Center venue for the First Lady's speech:

An hour before the official start of entry to the small 150 seat presentation theater, two hospital PR women were testing microphones and arranging the four chairs on stage. (I had walked into the back entrance of the room from the main parking deck uncontested by anyone.) I enjoyed a friendly chat with the two staffers next to the podium Laura Bush would be speaking at in a few hours. At the time, it never occurred to me that this casual conversation might be putting my life at risk had someone arrived there before me with their packet of anthrax spores. I asked where the sign-in area was going to be. They directed me to the theater's lobby down a flight of stairs at the back of the room.

I walked down to the lobby. There were two more hospital staffers setting up a check-in table. They weren't ready for me yet so I walked out the front of the building and had a seat on the patio area to make a few phone calls while I watched a handful of local looking security types milling around the front of the building. I noticed two news crew vans with their antennas up, but I did not notice any snipers taking positions on the nearby roof tops. Not surprising I thought, since the First Lady would likely be coming in the back way I had just traveled.

After waiting for about twenty minutes, it was now just few minutes before the official sign-in time start of 12:30pm. I walked back into the front lobby and found the two previous staffers now comfortably seated at their folding table. I appeared to be the first person checking in. I gave them my name. The woman smiled and stated, "Oh, they called with your name just a few minutes ago." She proudly pointed at my name penciled in with three others on a plain sheet of paper with a single column of names on it.

I do not recall her checking off my name in any fashion. She definitely did not ask me for my ID. She handed me a generic paper sticker with the medical center's logo on it and instructed me to wait in the area until they were ready to have us go up the stairs.

Other guests started to file in and likewise receive the stickers. I made small talk with some older women of the GOP faithful in the lobby area but just as easily could have walked back outside to hand my sticker to anyone I pleased.

I kept one eye trained on the check in process to see whose names I might pick up since I am not especially familiar with the GOP glitterati of Charlotte. It caught my attention when a well dressed couple in their 30's learned that their names were not on the list. A pained look swept across both their faces. The woman at the table was apologetic. The gentlemen rather nervously replied in a soft yet courteous voice that he was the chairman of the Mecklenburg County GOP. He was certain his name should be on the list. The check-in woman quickly got on the phone and within a few anxious minutes the couple did receive their stickers.

It was right after this phone call that the two people at the check-in counter started asking people to show some ID to match their names to. No effort was made to vet the dozen or so of us that had already checked in without showing ID. I thought, "Well I am sure I am about to be body cavity searched anyway at the top of the stairwell."

Imagine my surprise however, when within a few minutes I was at the top of the stairwell being greeted by a single overweight female security guard with a small scanning wand. There were two more plainclothes security officers behind her rather casually observing the process. I waited momentarily as the guard passed the wand over the purse of the women in front of me.

Having been conditioned by the friendly TSA people at our nation's airports, I started holding my hands out to my side as I walked up for my turn in the check-point. With an obvious bulge in my suit pocket from both my camera and cell phone, I was thinking I should probably save time by taking them out to display their harmlessness. Imagine my shock then when before I could make the decision the woman looked up at me and said smiling, "You're fine," and waved me on.

Stunned, I walked into the room to take my seat less than twenty feet from were in two hours the First Lady of the United States of America would be sitting motionlessly like a deer in the headlights for more than 30 minutes.

And we wonder how a few guys with box cutters could turn the course of history?

With personal experience now to back me up I close with the following thoughts:

1) Either George W. Bush really doesn't have a clue what is going on, or he's lying when he claims to be happily married.

2) The "War on Terror" looks to be more about controlling the American people than securing targets and borders.

3) Trust the President when he says the Dubai Port deal is safe? Too funny.

4) All of the above are false statements because there are high technology/top secret security measures in place that are undetectable at events such as the one I attended.

*Through channels, it was the new Secret Service branch office in Greensboro that I had this info passed on to. Yep. That was Greensboro. Remember that the next time someone tells you there is absolutely nowhere left to cut spending in the Federal budget. (Maybe they're getting ready to Federalize the personal protection of our mayor. Or, an ex-President has a favorite mistress in town. Or, they have decided they need to keep a closer watch on the citizens media movement going on in Greensboro.)

11:36:49 AM

comment []