Ineffective JFK airport anti-terrorism security

Check out this video, courtesy of Yahoo! and ABC News:

  • A man horsing around on a Jet Ski in Jamaica Bay has a technical problem.
    It may be related to his drinking a few too many beers…
  • He ditches his water craft. Friends aren’t responding to his calls. It’s night
    and the sky is dark.
  • He swims toward the only thing he sees: runway lights at JFK airport.
  • He climbs out of water, over a fence, walks across 2 runways, past
    motion detectors, cameras and security guards. Still dripping wet and
    wearing a bright yellow life vest, he wanders into a back maintenance
    door of the Delta terminal—all without being detected.

I don’t find it hard to believe that a $100 million security system is flawed. But I would have thought that the weakness would be “social engineering”. That’s where an operative probes for individuals who can be fooled into weakening the perimeter, revealing passwords or even deactivating security systems.

During the past year, we have endured a lot of boasting about protective measures built into the travel process by Homeland Security, TSA, NYPD and the New York Port Authority. These organizations want us to believe that our money is well spent. And yet, without even trying, a 31 year old, tipsy water sport enthusiast waltzes past counterterrorism barriers of a brand new $100 million Airport security system.

If JFK truly has the latest technology, wouldn’t there be some kind of RFID/NFC badge on every authorized individual? I would think that each individual moving on the tarmac would be tracked and identified on an alarm console  just like planes in the sky.

I suppose that we can’t expect the latest, high-tech measures at every airport, but considering the boast of a 0.1 billion dollar, state-of-the-art security system, it seems reasonable that a slightly inebriated swimmer shouldn’t be able to get this far!

Incidentally,  Daniel Casillo, 31, was arrested for trespassing into a ‘secure area’. Obviously, he did no such thing! Wild Duck’s say: Give this guy a gold medal and pray that we learn from his swim lesson. Let’s also pray that Jihadists don’t use Jet Skis in Jamaica Bay.