Homeland Security Crashes and Burns at NASCAR Posted by Moira Whelan

Last week, House Homeland Committee staffers were hard at work…at the NASCAR race in Talledega. But before they went, they made sure they’d be safe from a potential terrorist attack, by getting immunized for hepatitis, diphtheria, tetanus and influenza.

Full disclosure: I worked on this committee back when Jim Turner was the Ranking Member, so this sounded pretty fishy to me. Wanting to give credit where credit is due, I checked it out with a few friends, and most agree the whole thing is just plain silly.

Chairman Bennie Thompson was also clear that this is part of a larger effort looking at readiness for mass events, and will therefore “research” the World Series and the Super Bowl among others. That ought to be one heck of an amazing report and I personally will be looking for it, because I think by and large, this is all a load of crap.

But let’s assume for a moment that staff weren’t, say, getting a free ride to big ticket events, and take a look at the evidence.

Let’s start with going to NASCAR in the first place. Now, it’s true, the Department of Homeland Security is in charge of keeping an eye on major events because any place where lots of people gather for a long period of time raises some concerns. Personally, I’ve visited stadiums and even had a tour of security procedures for the national political conventions, all in an effort to educate staff about how DHS does business. That said, it was pretty much frowned upon to go when major sporting events were taking place, mainly because articles get written questioning the good intentions of loyal government workers. More importantly, if NASCAR is a major worry, best to not tour things while the event is going on. Let those doing the protecting do their work. If you’re really concerned, get the tour before the festivities begin.

Now on to the immunizations. It is standard procedure for Congressional Staff to be immunized if they’re going to be in a situation where they’re exposed to potentially dangerous illnesses. For instance, if you go to some far away country suffering disease, this makes sense. But

Alabama

? Really? Ok, so for arguments sake, I called a friend who used to do this stuff for a living. At every major event, there are first responders on guard testing for airborne disease, etc. My friend was pretty clear. In all of her time dealing with major events like the World Series and other things, never had a visiting official been immunized. She went on to stress that had they been immunized, it really wouldn’t have helped with most of the likely pathogens a terrorist would use. Weaponized diphtheria doesn’t seem to be a popular tool among terrorists. And you’re more likely to get hepatitis in a dance club bathroom than from a dirty bomb.

Now, ok, maybe they were going to go to some labs and stuff after the race…so why didn’t the Republicans get their shots too? Simple. They didn’t need them. So pretty much, by being immunized before doing this Serious Oversight, you’re just insulting the people of Alabama, NASCAR fans, and state and local first responders---none of whom where required to be vaccinated before paying to attend, or working at, this event.

There are no shortage of broken programs and systems at DHS, and frankly, it’s ridiculous for any Congressional Committee to be investigating local and state responders for ANYTHING until they’ve gotten the federal systems shaped up.

There’s really very little defense for this sort of activity. Sure, there may be a big flashy report, the release of which is well timed to scare the hell out of people before they drive to a stadium or go to the races. Some members of Congress get on TV but pretty much, that’s the end of it. Newsflash: this is equally as irresponsible as DHS raising the terror alert right before an election. In the meantime, billions of dollars have been lost to failed programs, no threat and vulnerability analysis has been created, and DHS is still in shambles. If this trip is any indication, the oversight appears to be as rigorous as some of the fruitless efforts taken in the name of “protecting

America

.” This stuff is serious, and this entire endeavor is making it more of a joke than people already think it is.

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