Speaker 1: On November two thousand one, President Bush signed the Aviation
Speaker 1: and Transportation Security Act into law. It required screening conducted
Speaker 1: by specially trained federal employees, one percent checked baggage screening,
Speaker 1: expansion of the Federal Air Marshal Service, and reinforced cockpit doors.
Speaker 1: The new law would spin off into the creation of
Speaker 1: the t s A to oversee security and all modes
Speaker 1: of transportation. We set a very clear goal to achieve
Speaker 1: world class security and world class customer service. This is
Speaker 1: nine eleven, two decades later. I'm Steve Gregory in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: Congress gave officials with the newly created agency one year
Speaker 1: to achieve its security objectives. On November two thousand two,
Speaker 1: the t s A reached a major milestone. Here's the
Speaker 1: press conference at Reagan Washington National Airport with Transportation secret
Speaker 1: Erry Normanetta and Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge. Now Rich
Speaker 1: was just an advisor to the President at the time
Speaker 1: because the Department of Homeland Security didn't yet exist. Well,
Speaker 1: good morning, everyone, Thank you for joining us this morning.
Speaker 1: Nearly one hundred years after the miracle of flight began.
Speaker 1: We are here today to celebrate another historic milestone in aviation.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow tomorrow, every one of our nation's four hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty nine commercial airports will be staffed and secured by
Speaker 1: professional screeners. More than forty four thousand dedicated men and
Speaker 1: women have been hired, trained, and deployed to screen passengers
Speaker 1: and ensure the safety of our skies. Each has received
Speaker 1: more than one hundred hours of classroom and on the
Speaker 1: job training for this important responsibility. The bottom line, the
Speaker 1: Department of Transportation, under the extraordinary dnership of their Secretary Normanetta,
Speaker 1: Deputy Secretary Michael Jackson, and Admiral Looy, will successfully meet
Speaker 1: the one year deadline said by President Bush when he
Speaker 1: signed the Aviation and Transportation Security Act on November two
Speaker 1: thousand one. Within ten days of the passage of that legislation,
Speaker 1: I can recall Secretary Monetta coming to the White House
Speaker 1: for the Oval Office with a blueprint for building this
Speaker 1: unprecedented new agency. The Transportation Security Administration began in January
Speaker 1: with a mission statement and about a dozen employees, and
Speaker 1: look where we are today. Now shortly, I'll have the
Speaker 1: privilege of introducing Secretary Manetta, and he can chronicle what
Speaker 1: I consider to be one of the most extraordinary organizational
Speaker 1: achievements they've seen in this town in a long, long time.
Speaker 1: And again to the Secretary and do Michael Jackson into
Speaker 1: the Admiral in all of the hard working men and
Speaker 1: women at the Department of Transportation and t s A,
Speaker 1: we say congratulations on a job, very, very well done.
Speaker 1: I might add that Norm's team not only beat the deadline,
Speaker 1: they beat expectations. I remember watching the television and the
Speaker 1: talking heads, listening to the talking heads and reading all
Speaker 1: the journalists and all the opinion leaders who said there's
Speaker 1: no way, as the secretary, you can possibly meet this deadline.
Speaker 1: No way. But we are here today to prove that
Speaker 1: they were wrong. However, we might us temper our pride
Speaker 1: and this achievement, knowing terrorism is a permanent threat and
Speaker 1: our airports on enduring vulnerability. We have seen the lenks.
Speaker 1: Terrorists will go to penetrate airport security. They are just
Speaker 1: as determined to destroy innocent lives as we are determined
Speaker 1: to protect them. And make no mistake, we must be
Speaker 1: ever vigilant because they will try again. That is why
Speaker 1: we must now take the next historic step in securing
Speaker 1: our homeland. I'm going to take this opportunity to encourage
Speaker 1: the Senate of the United States today and tomorrow to
Speaker 1: complete their work on the new Department of Homeland Security.
Speaker 1: We will enable us to unify our homeland security responsibilities
Speaker 1: under one department with one primary mission, the protection of
Speaker 1: American citizens and their way of life. Having one department
Speaker 1: will make it easier for us to build partnerships with
Speaker 1: state and local god from it with the private sector,
Speaker 1: including the aviation industry. This is absolutely critical if we
Speaker 1: are to find solutions to our most pressing security challenges.
Speaker 1: We all understand that airlines are critical, vital arteries of
Speaker 1: our global economy. The right brothers would be astonished to
Speaker 1: learn that eight million flights, near least six million passengers
Speaker 1: and twelve billion dollars in freight go through US airports annually,
Speaker 1: and I'm confident that this new agency will continue to
Speaker 1: look for ways to improve service as it seeks to
Speaker 1: improve security. In time. I suspect we will employ twenty
Speaker 1: one century technology biometrics, smart cards, and other forms of
Speaker 1: positive identification, as well as even more sophisticated explosive detection systems.
Speaker 1: And of course, we rely on the training in the efforts,
Speaker 1: the instincts, and the experience of the forty four thousand
Speaker 1: men and women who work at T s A to
Speaker 1: make sure that on a day to day basis, we
Speaker 1: use good old fashioned common sense at every gate, at
Speaker 1: every airport around this country. Admiral Roy likes to talk
Speaker 1: about some of the rules that add to passengers stress
Speaker 1: levels without reducing the risk, and I suspect in time
Speaker 1: you'll eliminate or modify all of those as well. In
Speaker 1: this new era, we must all think a new We
Speaker 1: must keep in mind passengers daily routines as we provide
Speaker 1: them with this new measure of protection. I'm confident we
Speaker 1: can do this. In fact, early results suggest that up
Speaker 1: to of passengers are being screened in ten minutes or less,
Speaker 1: and that's great news for the traveling public. So today
Speaker 1: is a milestone, but it is not an ending. New
Speaker 1: and important deadlines boom ahead. Meeting those deadlines will not
Speaker 1: guarantee that we are one secure from terrorism, but based
Speaker 1: on the progress to date, we can look forward to
Speaker 1: a far, far safer future. Mr Secretary, you have built
Speaker 1: a terrific model here. I remember that first meeting in
Speaker 1: the Oval Office. I remember the Mission Statement, a very
Speaker 1: complex piece of legislation. A lot of people inside and
Speaker 1: outside government. I just really didn't think you'd be able
Speaker 1: to build this structure, train forty thousand folks and get
Speaker 1: them all deployed within the year time frame because of
Speaker 1: your leadership, surrounded yourself with some great people who have
Speaker 1: identified earlier, and you've got the commitment from those four
Speaker 1: thousand men and women who volunteered to help you secure
Speaker 1: the airlines and our skies. You did it. So just
Speaker 1: on a personal note, I think it's important to recognize
Speaker 1: what an extraordinary job Secretary Normanetta has done. He was
Speaker 1: passionate about meeting the deadlines, getting these individuals trained on time,
Speaker 1: deployed on time, made a commitment to the President that
Speaker 1: he could get it done. He could meet those deadlines.
Speaker 1: So we celebrate the success of this organization and extraordinary
Speaker 1: accomplishment a great public service. Is my great pleasure to
Speaker 1: introduce to you our Secretary of Transportation, Normanetta. Norman Tom,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you very very much for that very
Speaker 1: kind introduction. Governor Ridge. Last fall, President Bush turned to
Speaker 1: an extraordinary leader to head up the Office of Homeland Security,
Speaker 1: Governor Tom Ridge. As many of you know, I've known
Speaker 1: Tom since two when we served in the House of Representatives,
Speaker 1: and we did a lot of things together, and so
Speaker 1: I know of his capabilities. And Tom has done an
Speaker 1: outstanding job since his start just over a year ago,
Speaker 1: and there will be much more that he will accomplish
Speaker 1: in the days and the years ahead. Tom, I am
Speaker 1: grateful for your friendship and your counsel and advice, and
Speaker 1: the strong support that you have given to our important
Speaker 1: security mission at the Department of Transportation. One year ago,
Speaker 1: President Bush stood in this room and signed the Aviation
Speaker 1: and Transportation Security Act, and with the stroke of that pen,
Speaker 1: the Transportation Security Administration, otherwise known as t s A
Speaker 1: was created m And at the time of the signing,
Speaker 1: America was still suffering from a widespread fear of flying.
Speaker 1: A half mile from here, burnt walls at the Pentagon
Speaker 1: were a visible reminder of nine eleven, and at airports
Speaker 1: throughout the country, long lines of nervous Americans watched as screeners,
Speaker 1: ill prepared and ill equipped for the new wartime reality,
Speaker 1: struggled to check passengers. National Guard troops patrolled our airports,
Speaker 1: and the press and the public wondered if adequate security
Speaker 1: could ever be restored. President Bush sent legislation to Congress
Speaker 1: proposing the creation of the Transportation Security Administration. Congress soon
Speaker 1: passed t s A legislation, and the President's signature set
Speaker 1: in motion the largest peacetime mobilization in our nation's history.
Speaker 1: Nico Melendez was hired by the t s A and
Speaker 1: January of two thousand two, just forty five days after
Speaker 1: the t s A was created, he was the agency's
Speaker 1: first public affairs spokesperson. On the morning of nine eleven,
Speaker 1: I was working for a small consulting firm in Arlington, Virginia,
Speaker 1: and my main client was the director of Surface Warfare Pentagon.
Speaker 1: I had a nine thirty meetings scheduled with my client
Speaker 1: in the Pentagon, but because all of us in the
Speaker 1: office we're watching the events in New York City on TV,
Speaker 1: we got delayed, so ultimately the meeting was obviously canceled,
Speaker 1: but we were all heading over to the Pentagon for
Speaker 1: a meeting that day, and the people that we were
Speaker 1: supposed to meet with actually are the ones that started
Speaker 1: jumping out of window. Was in catching people trying to
Speaker 1: evacuate the Pentagon. So it was very near and dear
Speaker 1: to me and my family because fifteen minutes later I
Speaker 1: could have probably been in that building. How did you
Speaker 1: get attached to the t s A. Well, shortly after
Speaker 1: nine eleven, I was approached by a colleague of mine
Speaker 1: who worked at the Department of Transportation, and the t
Speaker 1: s A had been created on November two thousand and one,
Speaker 1: a short two months after the events of nine eleven,
Speaker 1: and this colleague of mine asked me if i'd be
Speaker 1: interested in the job at Department of Transportation. So I
Speaker 1: submitted my my resume and my application and I got
Speaker 1: I got a job offer working in the Office of
Speaker 1: the Secretary. So I started on January three of two
Speaker 1: two and a couple of weeks later, I was asked
Speaker 1: to be the first public affairs representative for this new
Speaker 1: agency t s A, which frankly, at that time I
Speaker 1: had never really heard about, I didn't know much about,
Speaker 1: and it was only about forty five days old when
Speaker 1: I started working for them. So what was your understanding
Speaker 1: this agency would do and what its function was? After
Speaker 1: learning about the agency working at the Department, they were
Speaker 1: going to be the new federal mechanism for security, providing
Speaker 1: security at our nation's airports, to screen passengers and cargo,
Speaker 1: and provide for the secure movement of both of those things.
Speaker 1: Did you know out of the shoot, kind of the
Speaker 1: scope and the responsibility this agency was going to take on.
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't really think that anybody knew the
Speaker 1: scope and the responsibility of this agency was going to
Speaker 1: take on. You know, twenty years later, I looked back
Speaker 1: and think, how did we how did we even do that?
Speaker 1: You know, when we started the agency, I remember it
Speaker 1: was it was a laugh to us that nobody really
Speaker 1: had any sense of how many airports there were in
Speaker 1: this country. Nobody had a sense of how many screeners
Speaker 1: there were in this country because it was a completely
Speaker 1: different structure back then than it is today. So the
Speaker 1: scope of the of the mission, while it continued to
Speaker 1: change almost on a daily basis, the guidelines that we
Speaker 1: were given by Congress or something that I don't think
Speaker 1: anybody anticipated, not even Congress themselves. What was security like
Speaker 1: for air travel twenty one years ago as opposed to
Speaker 1: what it is today? Yeah, you know, I remember going
Speaker 1: through airports and it's it's almost funny when you think
Speaker 1: about it now. I remember going through an airport checkpoint
Speaker 1: and you walk up to the magnetometer or the metal detector,
Speaker 1: and I take my keys out of my pocket, throw
Speaker 1: them up in the air and catch them on the
Speaker 1: other side, and you just stroll through. But it was
Speaker 1: that quick, It was that insincere. But when we were
Speaker 1: created in two thousand one, while the FA had oversight
Speaker 1: responsibility for security in our nation's airports, there was no
Speaker 1: guide book, There was no instruction manual on how security
Speaker 1: was supposed to be performed. The airlines were responsible for
Speaker 1: paying for these security firms, and as is most cases
Speaker 1: in business, you always go for the lowest bidder. So
Speaker 1: at an airport that has five or six terminals, you
Speaker 1: could have five or six different security companies providing security
Speaker 1: at each terminal, and the turnover rate of those screeners,
Speaker 1: in some cases we found to be as high as
Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty. People would leave the job as
Speaker 1: quickly as they got there. So the training was lacking,
Speaker 1: the concentration was lacking, and the predictability was lacking. So
Speaker 1: when we got in, nobody knew. There was nowhere that
Speaker 1: we could find any documentation of how many screeners there
Speaker 1: were in our nation's airports because it was so many
Speaker 1: different companies, there were so many different airports, so many
Speaker 1: different airlines paying all these people we kind of had
Speaker 1: to start from scratch and determine what's a good number
Speaker 1: of screeners. Do you think the general public is good
Speaker 1: at this now? Do you think we have it finally
Speaker 1: or do you think there's still a lot that the
Speaker 1: public needs to know. Well, you know, in the early
Speaker 1: days of t s a are, our goal was to
Speaker 1: be unpredictable. We didn't want the bad guys to be
Speaker 1: able to gain the system, so we kept it unpredictable
Speaker 1: from one airport to another. But now it's very predictable,
Speaker 1: so we've kind of fallen into what was there before.
Speaker 1: While the training is consistent from airport to airport, screener
Speaker 1: to screener, the entire screening mechanism is rather predictable, So
Speaker 1: we've kind of fallen back into where we were, but
Speaker 1: with people who have made this a career rather than
Speaker 1: the the attrition rates that we used to experience. So
Speaker 1: the agencies created you're kind of figuring things out. There's
Speaker 1: a big learning curve. It sounds like now you're trying
Speaker 1: to hit your stride a bit. What were some of
Speaker 1: those growing pains and big challenges overall for you as
Speaker 1: not only spokesperson that is an employee of this new agency.
Speaker 1: I think that the biggest growing pain, that the biggest
Speaker 1: challenge that we had was the expeditious nature in which
Speaker 1: we had to carry out this mission. And what I
Speaker 1: mean by that is on September tenth, two thousand one,
Speaker 1: for instance, less than five percent of all check bags
Speaker 1: were screened for explosives. Well, Congress created this law, the
Speaker 1: Aviation and Transportation Security Act, that required all bags to
Speaker 1: be screened for explosives by December thirty one, two thousand two.
Speaker 1: So they gave this brand new agency about fourteen months
Speaker 1: to identify the types of technology, purchase the technology, get
Speaker 1: industry to produce the technology, and build the machines, deployed them,
Speaker 1: and find places to put them. Well, some of these
Speaker 1: machines required a lot more energy than was available to
Speaker 1: us through electric outlets at the security checkpoints. So in
Speaker 1: some cases we had to restructure the entire electrical mechanism
Speaker 1: that that provides power to these machines, and we had
Speaker 1: to do it in fourteen months. And that was curculian
Speaker 1: effort because at the time, there were only a couple
Speaker 1: of companies that made the technology that we needed to
Speaker 1: put into the airport, and a lot of people today
Speaker 1: will remember back twenty years ago, when you walked into
Speaker 1: an airport lobby, we had the big, huge baggage screening
Speaker 1: machines sitting in the lobby that therefore displaced passengers out
Speaker 1: into the street. So it was a real it was
Speaker 1: a real trying time because airport managers were not happy
Speaker 1: that we had these big machines and the terminals. Passengers
Speaker 1: weren't happy, and Congress wasn't happy because we weren't doing
Speaker 1: it fast enough. But we had to figure out a
Speaker 1: way to do it, and at the same time, we
Speaker 1: were trying to hire fifty thousand people to go in
Speaker 1: airports frankly all over the world because the reach of
Speaker 1: t s A goes from the Northern Marianas Islands all
Speaker 1: the way down to Port Puerto Rico. So it was
Speaker 1: it was a huge effort, and the biggest problem was
Speaker 1: the time that we had to do it. There's been
Speaker 1: a lot of criticism against this agency. You know, a
Speaker 1: lot of people have said that maybe they feel safer,
Speaker 1: maybe they don't, and they've equated t s A employees
Speaker 1: to you know, just going through the motions. How have you,
Speaker 1: as a spokesperson be able to defend your agency and
Speaker 1: sort of counter that sort of negative stigma. I think
Speaker 1: I always had to put the agency with the backdrop
Speaker 1: of the mantra never forget. It seems that as the
Speaker 1: American public, we have a very short attention span. Is
Speaker 1: as we all say, we'll never forget, We'll never forget.
Speaker 1: But when I worked for T. S A. It was
Speaker 1: very clear to me that a lot of the traveling
Speaker 1: public very quickly forgot. You know, they were calling for
Speaker 1: a better airport security on but a year later, those
Speaker 1: same passengers were upset with the lines they had to
Speaker 1: stand in, with the invasive screening protocols, with the different
Speaker 1: machines that we had in the airport. So the challenge
Speaker 1: was informing people, reminding them, and keeping them aware of
Speaker 1: the fact that the reason we're there was to prevent
Speaker 1: another nine eleven. And I think that was the biggest
Speaker 1: hurdle that we had, is is keeping the attention of
Speaker 1: the American public on what we were doing and why
Speaker 1: we were doing it. What do you think we're lessons
Speaker 1: learned or something. If you could go back and you
Speaker 1: wish the agency would do it differently, I think that
Speaker 1: if we if we could have worked with Congress um
Speaker 1: a little better in that first year to maybe extend
Speaker 1: some of the timelines or change some of the requirements
Speaker 1: that they put in the law. If we hyped hire
Speaker 1: fifty people in a twelve month period and have them
Speaker 1: trained and ready to go, mistakes are going to be made,
Speaker 1: you know. I remember very early in two thousand, two
Speaker 1: thousand three, we had to have fire like four screeners
Speaker 1: at one airport because the baggage or the background checks
Speaker 1: came back and we found something in their background. So
Speaker 1: we took a black eye because we hired these people,
Speaker 1: but we had to hire them fast. So the goal
Speaker 1: was to get them on the line and then finish
Speaker 1: the matriculation process, and then once a matriculation process completed,
Speaker 1: then we would clean our clean our roles. But that
Speaker 1: was a that was a black id our agency. We
Speaker 1: hired a lot of people that had something in their background.
Speaker 1: We didn't want them, the federal government didn't want them,
Speaker 1: passengers didn't want them. But we needed people to fill
Speaker 1: these spots, and we just hired people quickly, and we
Speaker 1: spent a lot of money. We spent a lot of
Speaker 1: money on technology, We spent a lot of money on restructuring, airports.
Speaker 1: We spent a lot of money getting people to where
Speaker 1: they needed to go because it was an unpresented time.
Speaker 1: Had we had more time, could it have been done
Speaker 1: more efficiently and more effectively, Probably, But we had a
Speaker 1: fourteen month deadline to meet and we were being beat
Speaker 1: up from the very beginning that we weren't doing it
Speaker 1: fast enough. His air travel safer today than it was
Speaker 1: years ago. I think security is more effective. I think
Speaker 1: that we have people in place that know what they're
Speaker 1: doing and know what they're looking for. And I think
Speaker 1: that from the time that I was there, we knew
Speaker 1: that the bad guys were probing our system, trying to
Speaker 1: figure out a way to get in. We know they're
Speaker 1: out there. We know that in caves in Afghanistan or
Speaker 1: caves in Pakistan they have found information about the airline
Speaker 1: industry and about T s A operations and what we're doing.
Speaker 1: So I think that the having this organization in place,
Speaker 1: it's good for the traveling public, is good for our government,
Speaker 1: is good for commerce. But we always we're always going
Speaker 1: to need to fine tune it to make sure that
Speaker 1: they stay on the cutting edge and make sure they
Speaker 1: keep their eyes on the ball. Finally, is our country
Speaker 1: safer today than it was twenty one years ago? I
Speaker 1: think ebbs and flows, I really do. I think that
Speaker 1: going back to the mantra of never forget, we have
Speaker 1: a short attention span, and with the border issues that
Speaker 1: we have and not knowing who's coming through the border,
Speaker 1: with people being disingenuous about their desire for their constitutional rights.
Speaker 1: In one perspective, you have passengers saying why don't you
Speaker 1: be more like Israel where they don't have a constitution
Speaker 1: and they can screen all of their passengers the way
Speaker 1: they want to to us, where we implement body scanners
Speaker 1: and they say it's violation of their constitution, but then
Speaker 1: they want us to profile. It's just disingenuous to say
Speaker 1: what you want and then be opposed to the things
Speaker 1: that we put in place because we're trying to make
Speaker 1: the system more effective. So I think as a country
Speaker 1: we are, we are more secure, but it adds and flows,
Speaker 1: you know, from month to month, day to day. We
Speaker 1: just need to do a better job of remembering why
Speaker 1: we're doing what we're doing. Coming up in episode four,
Speaker 1: there was an extreme focus on are we going to
Speaker 1: be hit again? Will there be another nine eleven Securing
Speaker 1: the Homeland nine eleven, two decades Later, is produced by
Speaker 1: Steve Gregory and Jacob Gonzalez, and is a production of
Speaker 1: the KFI News department for I heart Media Los Angeles
Speaker 1: and the I heart Podcast Network. The views expressed are
Speaker 1: strictly those of the guests and not necessarily the hosts
Speaker 1: or employees of I heart Media.