January 2, 2002

The Honorable Norman Mineta
Secretary of Transportation
Department of Transportation
400 Seventh Street S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20590

Dear Secretary Mineta:

I am deeply distressed and thoroughly alarmed by published reports this past weekend that the emerging requirements for airport screeners under the new congressionally-mandated federal program is being "dummied down" to dangerous levels. Those of us who know this system as veteran airline professionals and, in my case, as safety analysts, have made it crystal clear that the wholly dysfunctional excuse for a screening system with which we have been afflicted for some 30 years will never be substantially fixed unless, and until, the personnel doing the screening are possessed of adequate education, acceptable English skills, and balanced professionalism. What we have had, and still have today, is an unacceptable collection of uneducated, untrained, uncommunicative, and unprofessional humans totally unfit for any duty involving public safety, and this "force," en masse, must be fired and replaced. Hiring criteria for the new federal force that does anything but disqualify the vast majority of the existing failed individuals will be nothing short of an egregious and dangerous fraud on the American public, and I mean those words precisely as stated.

If you support any hiring criteria requiring less than: (1) a valid high school diploma; (2) full American citizenship, (3) ability to pass a rigorous test on precise and fluent American English, (4) ability to pass a full NSA-class security check; or (5) the full ability to qualify as a federal law enforcement officer, you will be creating a system that will utterly fail its responsibilities from the beginning. Let me explain why: The ease of access afforded our enemies on September 11th stemmed from having a procedurally-based "system." No matter how greatly we tighten the search criteria or minimize the list of what people can bring through the security portals, a procedurally-based system will always depend on doing the same thing for each person each and every time, and that, in turn, means presenting future terrorists/criminals with a predictable system that they have only to decipher to defeat. On the other hand, a discretionary system - one which relies on a healthy mix of procedures and the ability of educated, trained officers to use their intellect and a wide variety of clues to decide whom to examine further - has the overwhelming advantage of being forever unpredictable. This is the very basis of the U.S.Customs Service's approach to screening, and while not perfect, it is essentially impossible for smugglers to penetrate with the degree of certainty required by September 11th hijackers.

The most vital point is this: The uneducated, untrained, unsophisticated people who have failed us utterly for thirty years are incapable generically of fielding a discretionary-based system.

Unless this foolhardy softening of the impending hiring requirements is immediately reversed, the American public will need to be informed by all available means (myself included) that the "new" federal force will, essentially, be no more than an exercise in "feel-good" governmental deception. Our nation, and our ailing airline industry, does not need cynical and manipulative attempts at window dressing in place of immediate and substantive alteration of the way the United States carries out its responsibilities for instituting true security measures in every facet of airport and airline operations. In fact, the minimum education requirements for screeners should be a four year college degree!

I would strongly suggest that the political backlash alone from any attempt to retain this failed force of untrained, largely uneducated people will be frightening to behold. Worse, the inevitable repeat of a September 11th-type security penetration resulting from inadequate hiring standards will be both predictable, and uniquely unforgivable in American history. I beg you to immediately reverse this disastrous course.

I also urge you to institute a national crewmember identification card system, the detailed recommendation of which is contained in the attached CCH paper.

Sincerely,

John J. Nance
  Writer/Author
  Aviation Analyst

Enclosed: "Denial of Access: Hardening Our Defenses Against Terrorist Manipulation of Commercial Aircraft"

JJN/st

cc:  President George W. Bush
         Congressional Delegation of Washington State, et al,

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