“[H]ow frequently, and without any terrorist action at all, we dance along the knife’s edge between safety and catastrophe.” (p 75) Charles “Sam” Faddis lays everything out in his book, Willful Neglect, describing in gruesome detail at times, the probable consequences of inaction in protecting our nation’s delicate infrastructure. Multiple times throughout his writing, he assures the reader that he is “no expert” in various avenues, such as SWATeam operations, physical security details, and psychiatric diagnoses; however, his unique counterterrorism background, born in the grit of Iraq and Afghanistan, overrides those technicalities, because, well, he has a point. He has a lot of points. Those points are sharp and should be driven through the heart of the Department of Homeland Security.
Sam Faddis spent years as part of teams designed to infiltrate terrorist organizations.He has the know-how to insert himself unnoticed into places where he does not belong. For the purposes of Willful Neglect, he remained a law-abiding citizen and stayed outside of locked fences, on public-accessible roads and walkways, taking only pictures and leaving only footprints.He did not trespass, but took precise notes about how one might be able to do that very thing, if one had the desire, knowledge, expertise, and arsenal to back one up.
Terrorist organizations have all four.
Mr. Faddis conducted digital reconnaissance prior to visiting any site and found shocking open source details on security measures, and the lack thereof, before setting foot on the ground, like a good terrorist would.
Next he cased his site, either himself or with the assistance of a colleague, sometimes on more than one occasion.In one instance, his fourteen-year-old son was able to observe a security perimeter for five minutes and determine that the easiest method to penetrate the perimeter of that American military installation was a vehicle-born improvised explosive device straight through the front gate. (p 9) What a stark demonstration of how defenseless we really are. Mr. Faddis raises blisters on the skin of security measures in our country.
When written in 2009, he compared the clock-ticking eight hours between the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the obliteration of Clark Field in the Philippines to the eight years of stagnation between 9/11 and that present day. Nothing meaningful was done. In eight hours’ time, the aircraft of Clark Field could have been scrambled to other locations, hidden, or used in a counter-offensive.Instead, they were destroyed while sunning on the deck. (p vi)
In eight years’ time, we have the security theater of the Transportation Security Administration in the airports, but nothing is stopping a would-be terrorist from simply creating a home-made IED with a sensitive altimeter to detonate when a chlorine car is at a particular depth inside the Baltimore Howard Street Tunnel. "I visited the port areas of Baltimore. […] Over the course of several months, […] I encountered no fences, and never saw any security presence of any kind.” (p 83) As a military veteran, as a citizen of the United States, and as a resident of the state of Maryland, I find that last statement completely unacceptable.
In each chapter of the book, Mr. Faddis describes, in great detail, an accident that occurred. He notes the root cause, whether it was structural failure, human error, human stupidity, mechanical failure, or something else. He then describes the aftermath. He lists the known body count and injuries, structural damage in dollar amounts, disruption of infrastructure and support networks (including transportation, utilities, businesses, and schools), cost of cleanup, and more. He then gathers his digital reconnaissance notes and maps and takes a day trip or asks a colleague to take a trip in his place.
As a law-abiding citizen he “cases” his locations, noting perimeter barriers, security presence, camera equipment, access points, judges distance and obstructions between perimeter barriers and key structures within each compound, and takes photos.In his year of research and physical reconnaissance, he encountered exactly one security guard, not including the military installations. That security guard waved from behind the wheel of a truck as Mr. Faddis was walking away from a security gate, padlocked with a single chain, at the end of a road. Apparently Kearney Port Security did not find a lone person on foot at the end of a road at the entrance to “the single-most dangerous chemical facility in America” (p 89) extraordinary enough to even slow down and inquire about the business of Mr. Faddis at that location. Disgusting.
Mr. Faddis outlines holes in security networks in our nation’s infrastructure. On the mass transit systems between Maryland and New York, he noted that “more people pass through Penn Station than all three major airports servicing the region combined.” (p 32) At one of the thousands of Bio-Safety Level 3 (BSL3) labs, whose “express purpose is to conduct research on dangerous microorganisms that cause disease,” (p152) Mr. Faddis was able to enter the building without notice or identification, but did not attempt to enter the actual labs. Based on his observations, he would have been able to force an entry and then get away with very little effort. By contrast, the bank branch nearby had visible security cameras and signage as well as a reception area requiring one to state one’s business prior to further entry to the building. “Evidently it was significantly more important to protect money than viruses capable of killing human beings.” (p 152)
In multiple instances of each chapter, he goes on to summarize, as a terrorist, using terrorist tactics and widely-known terrorist weapons, how many ways each installation could be breached. Mr. Faddis does a fine job of pointing the fingers in the correct direction, admonishing the parties responsible for maintaining tight security. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s standards for maintaining security at the nuclear plants nationwide are sadly lacking imagination. “[S]emantics aside, we are not really talking about a Design Basis Threat. We are talking about a Money Basis Threat. We work the equation backwards. We decide what we are willing to make the power companies pay, and then we calculate how many guards and guns that will buy.” (pp 181-182)
Unable to gain access to nuclear power plants without causing a big stink, Mr. Faddis conducted many interviews with persons who were connected to the nuclear industry. These interviews found that terrorist “drills” conducted at the plants resulted in a nuclear meltdown in 28 out of 29 attempts, even when the guards were aware of the number of attackers, the “plan of attack,” and end goal due to drill repetition. One private firm, unable to afford to fire guards who failed yearly certification tests, began to hand out the answer key just to maintain adequate staffing. ( p 185)
In the final chapter, Mr. Faddis discusses five steps to begin safeguarding our nation’s many layers of infrastructure, beginning with “Taking the Threat Seriously.” (p 197) Throughout his book, that sentiment has been the drumbeat behind every unlocked gate, every guard shack defended by a single sidearm, every bio-research lab that can be accessed via an open exterior window, (p 151) every lonely dry-storage cask on a tv monitor 30-40 minutes away from the nearest law-enforcement facility, and every road that has been designed to drive straight across the top of a hydroelectric dam.
It is clear that our leadership is not taking any of these threats to our “principally, high value targets and critical infrastructure” (p xi) seriously. A terrorist has no need to smuggle anything. As Timothy McVeigh so aptly showed the American public, a terrorist can rent a truck, build a bomb inside of it and drive that bomb directly where the terrorist wants it to go. Whether that bomb is driving straight through a chain link fence into the chlorine tanks at the Back River wastewater treatment plant, parked in traffic at the center of the Conowingo Dam, rammed via speedboat into the side of an LNG tanker in the Chesapeake Bay, or plowing through a platoon of Marine Corps graduates assembled on the parade deck on Parris Island, SC, these threats are real and very little security exists to be enforced to prevent these tragedies.
I already have nightmares about not doing enough to protect the citizens of this country. My skin crawled as I read about the dangers that go completely unnoticed, un-flagged, and unpublicized in my area alone.I have only lived in Maryland since 2002, and in reading Willful Neglect, this is the first time I have heard of the LNG facility proposed in Sparrows Point. Apparently it was quite the hot topic.One of my sons aspires to be an environmental science student in Sparrows Point. In an accidental or intentional release of LNG from the Sparrows Point facility, my son would be within the 2.7-mile “fireball” radius, and the accompanying 1100-meter thermal radiation “incinerate-on-contact” radius. (p 100) Charming. A quick Google search this morning showed that just three weeks ago, the terminal project was scrapped after seven years; the company cited no reasons for pulling the plug. I did not hear about that story either. I get to breathe a sigh of relief in knowing that at least he won’t meet his untimely death in a LNG fireball.
This reading assignment did absolutely nothing to help me sleep better at night.
