President Obama Preparing for Third Term

If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal. – Emma Goldman

Politics have no relation to morals. - Niccolo Machiavelli

Power doesn't corrupt people, people corrupt power. - William Gaddis

The #1206 “fiction” series continues …

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May 30, 2016 ……

Deep within the bowels of an unnamed building in Washington, DC, a group of men sat around a large boardroom table centered perfectly within an opulent boardroom.

On a large screen at one end of the boardroom, a headline indicated that Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton was facing potential racketeering charges for issues related to the Clinton Foundation and the email server debacle created during her time within the State Department.

The President listened intently to the presenter who was making observations regarding the developments around the Presidential candidate.

When the presenter finished, the President leaned forward and cleared his throat.

“What I need help in understanding”, he began, “is the impact of this development on my Presidency and on the Democrat Party’s chances to retain power in the White House in November.”

“Don’t worry about that, Mr. President”, replied one of his advisors, “We have that covered.  Shall we move on to the next topic on the agenda?”

The President frowned when he realized his question had been dodged but turned his attention to the next item on the agenda.

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June, 2016 ….

The President sat behind his desk in the Oval Office, reading his briefs for the day.  The issues with the Clintons continued to grow daily in the media and with it, his frustration that his Administration advisors continued to assure him that things were under control while not telling him how they knew this to be the case.

He made a mental note to ask them specifically what they had in mind when his executive secretary stepped into his office and began her daily ritual of overloading him with reminders of the mind numbing responsibility carried by a President. 

The Clinton issues slipped his mind …. again.

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July, 2016 ….

Air Force One flew smoothly across the Atlantic Ocean as the President continued his farewell tour.  He stared out through the window, lost in thought, reflecting on the past 8 years and wondering about the future of the great nation that he led.

A thought came to his mind and he fished out his Blackberry.

He typed out a quick SMS:

I still don’t know what we are doing with the Clinton issue and I am concerned.

The reply came back quickly:

Recommend we schedule a meeting in late August to discuss.  I will set it up.

The President frowned but texted back an ok.

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August , 2016 ….

“Excuse me, Mr. President?”, a voice asked, interrupting his train of thought.

Looking up from his desk, the President saw his executive secretary standing before him.

“Yes?”, he asked wearily.

“Jim just called and told me that he needed to move the Clinton meeting to late September”, she replied, “He sends his regrets but told me to assure you that it will not be cancelled again.”

The President pursed his lips and furrowed his brow as he digested this.

“Thank you”, he said to his secretary.

“You’re welcome, sir”, she said as she turned away from him.

“I’ve never had such a difficult time trying to get a simple question answered”, he thought as he watched the secretary walk out of the Oval Office.

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September, 2016 ….

The President stood behind the podium, preparing to address the reporters before him.  Meanwhile, in a room behind the press room, his advisors sat around a conference room table, watching him on a large screen.hissed

“I didn’t think we could pull this off”, came a voice in the back of the room.

“Shhhhhhh”, someone else hissed.

They stared at the screen in silence.

Back in the press room, the President cleared his voice and began to read a statement prepared for him and placed in his hands less than half an hour before.

“Good afternoon”, he began, “The White House has been observing with concern the developments surrounding allegations against the former Secretary of State as well as those against the Foundation that bears her name.  It is out of concern for the allegations and the potential impact of those allegations that I informed the former Secretary this morning that she must suspend her Presidential campaign immediately.”

There was a gasp from the reporters gathered in the room but the President raised his hands to silence them.

“In asking the Democrat nominee to suspend her campaign”, he continued, “We now have an unprecedented situation before our great nation.  With a Presidential election around the corner, we, ahem, excuse me, I, believe that there is insufficient time for another Democrat candidate to be selected in such a way that a fair election can be held.”

He paused again and looked at the reporters before him.  He felt nauseous as he contemplated the words he was about to read.

“When a fair election cannot be held, it is my duty as the President of the United States to assess what the impact of this could be upon our country.  After deep and careful thought, I have decided to invoke Presidential Directive 51 effective immediately.”

He paused again and noticed the reporters looking at each other in confusion.  He knew that most of them didn’t even know what Presidential Directive 51 was.

“For those who are unaware”, continued the President, “This directive grants my office with the authority to execute procedures that ensure the continuity of the federal government in the event of a catastrophic emergency. Such an emergency is defined as any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions.”

He paused and swallowed hard.

“It is my belief that the extraordinary events unfolding in this election will adversely impact the ability of our government to function properly and for this reason, I have invoked the directive”, the President said, a slight shake in his voice.

“The terms and conditions under which the nation will operate will be revealed in the coming days”, he continued, “but for now, the important element to note is that the upcoming election will be cancelled until such time that a fair election can be held.  To support this intention, other civil liberties will be suspended as well while we assess what to do moving forward.  Executive Directive 51 also gives me the power to dissolve Congress and the Senate and so I have informed the Vice President and the Speaker of the House that I will be making use of this clause of the Directive.  Details will be announced shortly.”

The room exploded in questions and shouts of surprise, dismay and anger but in the confusion that ensued, no one noticed a dismayed President as he stepped down from the podium and left the press room quickly.

In the back room, shouts of victory suddenly burst forth as a group of unelected officials congratulated themselves on their brilliance.

“I better get the reward I’ve been promised”, one of the observers thought.

"Ahhhh, the things that can be accomplished while the American public lays sleeping", thought another.

To be continued.

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© 2016 – Harry Tucker – All Rights Reserved

Background

The day before this blog post was written, stories started appearing in the press regarding potential racketeering charges being laid against one or more of the Clintons.  It is unclear how accurate the story and its claims are and perhaps the entire story is fiction or a dream held by someone.  An opinion piece about this can be found here.

Executive Directive 51 is real and provides the President with supreme authority in the event of potentially catastrophic developments as noted in my blog post.  More about it can be found here.

While I’m not a conspiracy person by any imagination (being entirely fact / data driven), I was intrigued by the possibility of these two events colliding.

It was that intrigue that inspired this “fictional” piece and I couldn’t resist poking at the conspiracy-filled brains of some people.

A third consecutive term is illegal under term limits of the Presidency. However, term limit rules can be overridden by Executive Directive 51 and everything I said here could happen and would be entirely legal if it did happen.

All of that being said, it is impossible to conceive that such a thing could happen.

Isn’t it?

Series Origin

This series, a departure from my usual musings, is inspired as a result of conversations with former senior advisors to multiple Presidents of the United States, senior officers in the US Military and other interesting folks as well as my own professional background as a Wall St. / Fortune 25 strategy advisor and large-scale technology architect.

While this musing is just “fiction” (note the quotes) and a departure from my musings on technology, strategy, politics and society, as a strategy guy, I do everything for a reason and with a measurable outcome in mind. :-)

This “fictional” musing is a continuation of the #1206 series noted here.

Chicago O’Hare International Airport and the Weakest Link

A chain is no stronger than its weakest link, and life is after all a chain. - William James

The weakest link in a chain is the strongest because it can break it. - Stanislaw Jerzy Lec

The #1206 “fiction” series continues ….

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He sat alone in the back seat of the limousine, staring out into the darkness as the miles passed by.  The call he had taken earlier in the day had indicated that the meeting being requested would be brief and that a car would be provided to take him to the meeting location.  While he ordinarily didn’t accept such meeting requests, he found himself hours later enroute to meet an unnamed client with an unknown agenda at an unknown location.

The sound of tires crunching on gravel snapped him out of his reverie and he realized that they had turned off the highway and were approaching another vehicle that was stopped in the road.  The limousine stopped, the driver stepped out and opened the back door.  “Please proceed to the other vehicle”, the driver said curtly and the passenger slid across the seat and out through the open door.  The driver of the other vehicle stood stoically beside the open rear door of the other vehicle and the now bewildered guest hesitantly ducked his head and sat down.

The door closed with a quiet click and moments later, the vehicle was proceeding down the road.  A silhouette sitting in front of him leaned forward, offered his hand and in a deep voice said “Thank you for meeting me on short notice”.

The guest shook his hand, mumbled a “you’re welcome” and then both men sat in silence as the vehicle turned back onto the highway.

After a few minutes, the silhouette broke the silence.  “A man acting alone in an act of sabotage sets a fire at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and single-handedly cancels 1,550 flights at O’Hare and another 470 at Midway Airport, not to mention the chaos he created that rippled throughout the country.  One guy in one city created so much chaos.  What do you make of that?”, he asked quietly.

The guest shrugged his shoulders before replying.  “The preliminary news reports indicate that he attempted to commit suicide afterward, so it would appear that he has a few issues”, he replied.

“Possibly”, replied the silhouette.  “What if I told you that he wasn’t acting alone and that instead of an act of insanity, it may have been a rehearsal for a larger event?”.

The guest frowned in the darkness and suddenly sensing that this conversation was about to take a more serious tone, leaned forward, pursed his lips for a moment and then asked “What do you mean?”

“Do you remember a package that you received some time ago, showing how an aircraft cockpit could still be compromised despite assurances to the public that it could not be and how aircraft could still be compromised with explosive devices despite billions of dollars being spent to secure them?”

“How do you know about that package?”, the guest demanded.  He paused for a moment before the truth dawned on him.  “That was from you?”, he asked.

The silhouette nodded before answering.  “Yes it was”, he replied.  “I was merely trying to demonstrate how many levels of security and billions of dollars in technology and process can be undermined by the weakest link- in this case, the weakest links being compassion and greed respectively.  Many agencies are more focused on creating a sense of comfort and safety so that people will continue to fly and are less focused on preventing acts that can’t be prevented.  It’s a gigantic public relations exercise in some ways.”

The guest sat in silence and after a moment, the silhouette continued.

“What if I told you that there was a possibility that this act of alleged insanity may have been a dry run for something much larger?”, he asked.

“How much larger?”, replied the guest.

“What would you think if I suggested every major airport in the country simultaneously?”, asked the silhouette.

“Oh that’s preposterous”, exploded the guest. “Our security vetting processes are far too strong to allow such things to happen.”

“Are you sure?”, replied the silhouette.

The guest paused, uncertain of how to reply.

“Ah yes”, noted the silhouette, “Now I have your attention. You are remembering incidents in the past where people with known mental behaviorial issues or criminal backgrounds managed to circumvent federal government outsourced vetting processes and were appointed to posts of importance or sensitivity.”

“You are saying that that’s what happened here?”, asked the guest.

“Not necessarily”, replied the silhouette, “But imagine if hundreds of people were in place across the country to perform the same type of action simultaneously.  Imagine what that would do to the nation.”

“My God”, thought the guest as he pondered over the chaos that would ensue, putting thousands of lives at risk immediately not to mention the long-term impact on the nation.

“Would this be the work of ISIS or some other terror group?”, he asked the silhouette.

“No”, replied the silhouette, “It is far too large for them to pull off.  There is however, one group who has the ability, the resources and the reason to design and execute such a plan.”

“And what would the reason be for doing such a thing?”, asked the guest.

“To understand the why, you need to understand the who”, replied the silhouette.

“And how would I discover the who?”, asked the guest.

The silhouette smiled in the darkness and leaned forward.  “Perhaps”, he said quietly, “you need to take a walk in the north woods.”

“The north woods?”, asked the guest.  “What does that mean?  Where is that?”

The silhouette was silent as he opened his window and looked upwards.  The guest looked out his window and realized that they were parked at the base of an airport control tower.

“It’s a nice night for flying”, the silhouette said quietly, ignoring the guest’s question.

“Who are you? Why are you telling me these things?”, asked the guest.

The silhouette continued to stare out into the night as he answered.  “I am someone who cares about preventing problems.  You are the one who will deliver a warning to the right people in order to prevent a problem.”

The two men became silent as a wide body aircraft thundered overhead, vanishing into the night sky.

To be continued.

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© 2014 – Harry Tucker – All Rights Reserved

Background:

This is a fictional musing, inspired by the fire that was purposely lit at Chicago O’Hare International on September 26, 2014.

The reference to “the north woods” is a tongue-in-cheek reference to Operation Northwoods, a plan by the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the early 1960s for US military personnel to launch acts of terror against US citizens and then to use the result as the justification to launch an attack against Cuba.

References to poor security vetting processes have been widely documented in the media over the years.  A quick Google search will reveal articles of interest in this area.

The scenario described here is hypothetical.

The threat and vulnerabilities are real and more easily taken advantage of than many people would admit.

Both make for an interesting “fictional” musing, providing fodder and entertainment for conspiracy folks who allow paranoia to misdirect their lives.

Series Origin:

This series, a departure from my usual musings,  is inspired as a result of conversations with former senior advisors to multiple Presidents of the United States, senior officers in the US Military and other interesting folks as well as my own professional background as a Wall St. / Fortune 25 strategy and large-scale technology architect.

While this musing is just “fiction” and a departure from my musings on technology, strategy, politics and society, as a strategy guy, I do everything for a reason and with a measurable outcome in mind. :-)

This “fictional” musing is a continuation of the #1206 series noted here.

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Conspiracy Theories–The Economic Savior?

The world is in a constant conspiracy against the brave. It's the age-old struggle: the roar of the crowd on the one side, and the voice of your conscience on the other. - Douglas MacArthur

Civilization is a conspiracy. Modern life is the silent compact of comfortable folk to keep up pretences. - John Buchan

Whenever you're faced with an explanation of what's going on in Washington, the choice between incompetence and conspiracy, always choose incompetence. - Charles Krauthammer

I upset a lot of people with my blog post the other day entitled Obamacare–Harbinger of Doom? where I suggested that the government’s inability to deliver a simple system is a warning regarding its ability to deliver protection against more complex cataclysmic events, manmade or natural.

The second addendum attached to that post has really upset some people also, not because it’s a lie but because it reminds them of what’s going on in the world.

My apologies – while we live in an amazing world filled with mind-boggling potential, reality can still suck sometimes.

After a series of meetings this week, I got to thinking that we can turn a lot of our worries (real or imagined) into a real boom to the economy.

<<Putting my logic-based, analytical hat on>>

Think of what would happen if we embraced such worries and just ran with them, officially admitting that there is a possibility that all the risks are real and imminent.

1. A certain percentage of people would not be able to deal with the news and would not stick around.  They may suffer the same fate soon anyway (thinks some emergency preparedness people) and so their actions would solve a significant logistics problems for planners.

2. The news media, wired to report bad news or sensationalist items instead of useful information, would experience a huge upswing in media spending.  Instead of 400 useless channels on TV, we could have 4000 – all drilling bad news into us incessantly. They could even dare to ask viewers to pay for the right to be depressed by them.

3. A large percentage of people would go crazy for a while, probably rioting or committing other acts of violence.

4. Riot squads would be needed to settle down the populace and martial law would need to be invoked for a while while the wave of insanity passed over people.  Maybe then we will finally find out how our privileges are restricted as defined within Executive Directive 51.  Most of don’t us like Congress or the Senate these days anyway so would it matter if they were dissolved?  Since many (not all) politicians are out of touch or in it for themselves, elections would be seen as an unnecessary expense, with the money saved from banning elections being used for an awesome annual fireworks show instead.  The significant portion of people who don’t vote would also appreciate this more appropriate use of government funding.

But once realities set in and everyone calms down, we would see an economic boom in the sale of things like riot gear, weapons, survival shelters, personal survival equipment, SPF 50000 suntan lotion, real gold bars (not gold certificates) and extended shelf life food.

We would finally get around to building a massive asteroid deflection system, employing millions of people.  We could name it after Bruce Willis just for fun.

We could finish those climate control systems like HAARP (or is it mind control – I don’t remember). During the testing, a few nations will be fried to death by drought while others would be flooded out of existence but hey – they’re taking one for the team.  We can always remember them with a cool monument.

We could finally sell our nuclear stockpile to terrorists, knowing that the proceeds would help pay for the new nuclear protection dome that we build over each nation.  We would be impervious to the terrorists then anyway and we could start a new Truman-like reality show where we watch them blow themselves up. 

Think of the ratings!!!!!

We could also prepare for every natural disaster known to man and build every solution, driving employment levels to new highs.

Pharmaceutical companies would have a field day as doctors overprescribe medications to help all of us cope with this sudden success in society.  As Aldous Huxley suggested - "A gram is better than a damn".

Advances in medicine would also allow us to consume anything in unlimited quantities without fear of dying early from an illness caused as a result.  The fitness industry would be a victim to this progress since we would ban them as being counter-consumer and thus anti-progress!

We could finally acknowledge that one of the single largest drivers of increased Internet bandwidth is pornography and could make watching it mandatory to encourage research and development into a better Internet.

Speaking of making things mandatory, we would need to make sure that people’s minds aren’t too sharp and so in order to ensure this, we would make pot smoking and the playing of Facebook games mandatory.

And yes …. let’s not forget the potential boom in the tinfoil hat industry …. just in case.

We could even combine form with function – perhaps a nice tinfoil lining inside your favorite fashion statement.

And since we’re on the topic of alien invasions, don’t forget the boom in the personal lubricant industry, just in case the aliens don’t bring their own.

For the next 5-10 years, our economy would go ballistic, setting revenue records like we have never seen before.

To keep up with such an economic boom, we would have to print a lot of money and go insanely in debt without justification.  However, if you check our global resume, we’re already pretty good at that so it shouldn’t be too difficult to accomplish.

At the end of it all, our nation and the world would be prepared for practically anything, wouldn’t it?

Admittedly there might be an adverse affect on the planet’s ecosystems but who cares – we’re not doing much now anyway outside of talking about it so it doesn’t matter.

Once we have finished Operation Preparedness (every good project needs a strong, assertive name to rally people blindly), we would then be able to be audacious, daring anyone to come after us since we would be safe from practically everything outside of a natural, cosmic event.

Ahhhhh …. Life would be sweet as we revelled in the security of our brilliance.

<<Removing my analytical hat – damn – I didn’t realize I had put my sarcastic one on by accident>>

Sounds pretty stupid, doesn’t it?

Or does it?

Does it sound any more stupid to over prepare than it does to under prepare?

I’m not sure.

But I do know one thing.

This damn tinfoil hat sure scratches a lot. I wish we could stop thinking about Obamacare, the Canadian Senate, Rob Ford, global climate change and all of the other stupid stuff long enough to design a better one.

After all, priorities are priorities.

Don’t you agree?

In service and servanthood,

Harry

Addendum – The Umbrella Man

My friend Kevin shared this video with me regarding the Kennedy Assassination.  Take a look – it’s not what you think.

Human Beings–Perfect and Predictable …

… in our imperfection and unpredictability.

Watching the snowstorm sweep up the coast today, I have noticed an interesting dialog developing after Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts declared a state of emergency, banning most motor vehicle traffic as of 4:00pm today.

The conspiracy crowd has climbed all over this declaration, citing “Big Brother” concerns and the belief that this is merely another step towards controlling what people are allowed to do.

Most of these conspiracy people aren’t smart enough to realize that such declarations may save the lives of people who otherwise aren’t intelligent enough to avoid potentially life-threatening situations.  It may also prevent loss-0f-life in the ranks of the many brave, unsung heroes who serve as first-responders and would be forced to go out in the storm to rescue these people.

Sadly, such conspiracy-laden thinking is getting more and more predictable.

And with such predictability comes a warning.

As the populous gets more and more wound up over things that exist to save their lives (remember people who fought seatbelt laws as infringements on personal freedom?) or things that aren’t important, the very thing they fear, loss of said freedom, will become more and more a reality.

Any unstable society that grows paranoid about everything deserves to lose its freedom and will do so for its own protection.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to predict such a future.

Meanwhile ……

I had a meeting last week with someone who made the following observation about the organization and person he works for:

“The cool thing about <<name withheld>>  is that we can work on whatever we want and however we want to do it and he doesn’t care what we do”.

The interesting thing about this organization is that after having spent considerable amounts of cash, they have practically zero to show for it.

Now while it is true that some individuals and organizations have thrived in such an environment, on closer examination it could be observed that they had underlying personal disciplines that complemented their personal and collaborative freedoms, thus producing a great result.

However, many people, when given the freedom to be totally unaccountable for anything or to anybody, usually meet the expectations set for them by delivering little or nothing in return.

When outside observers can routinely predict the result of every project they embrace, you would think someone would decide that a more disciplined behaviour is in order.

Sadly, predictably, excessive ego won’t allow this adjustment to manifest either.

A warning …. and an opportunity

The great challenge we have with these and other examples is that it is easy to predict where the world is heading as a result of what we are doing in and to the world.

And yet for as easily as we can predict such a future, little is being done to correct our behaviour.

Hopefully we will understand this on a higher level soon, be totally unpredictable for once and in doing so, strive towards a higher level of perfection in order to solve the challenges we face in the world.

Hopefully.

In service and servanthood,

Harry

Addendum: In a meeting with a client the other day, we were noodling over what constitutes a complete solution when it comes to addressing the challenges we face today and I came up with the following picture to express a 50,000 ft. view of what a solution must encompass (click on the image for a larger version).

What do you think?

Conspiracies and the Attraction of Redaction

I happened to make a comment on Facebook this morning along the lines of “let’s start a rumor that #OWS was actually started by the credit unions in order to get people to dump banks and switch to credit unions – it would be the ultimate conspiracy theory, to suggest that the credit unions masterminded #OWS to attract business”.

It seemed amusing until I received this email this evening:

“Harry, I know you are always encouraging people to think for themselves and to be aware of truth disguised as something  that is not obvious. Did you know that there is a rumor on the street that the OccupyWallSt group is being funded by credit unions trying to steal business from the banks?”.

Sad, isn’t it?  All it takes is something that sounds good and resonates with our need to be on guard against the covert and devious-minded and you quickly have created something that is shared as fact.

The average human mind hates gaps and will fill them in an effort to connect the dots.  Sometimes we send someone a message and if we haven’t received a reply in the time we have decided is acceptable, we wonder if the other person has been injured and can’t respond, is angry with us and doesn’t want to respond or has a devious reason for not responding.

The same holds true for information.  I love reading stories about people who spend years trying to get classified information out of the government until they finally receive the declassified version that is so heavily redacted that it is worthless and yet, the existence of the redaction reinforces their belief that they are “on to something”.

There’s even software out there that will help you set up your own redaction scheme, just in case someone chases after you about your knowledge of aliens, the JFK assassination or J. Edgar Hoover’s favorite dress color.  And yes, I’m being facetious – I know there are legitimate reasons for redaction in the public and private sector.

Accepting legitimate reasons for redaction, I believe that a large portion of human potential is being wasted processing conspiracy theories and is contributing to the mess that the world is in, cluttering our minds with a lot of noise and distraction.

However, I do get intrigued by some gaps in knowledge.  For example, there is a government group that approached me in the fall of 2010 to ask for permission to explore some of my work in the use of predictive analytics to predict human behavior.  When I asked if I had an option to decline the request, I was told that I did not.  The work that has resulted in the last year as a result of a review of my work is classified and not available to me, even though it is based on my work.  An intriguing gap, but probably not as exciting as the great stories my brain wants to weave from such gaps.

That being said, when I listen to #OWS people, conspiracy folks or anyone else who loves to convert gaps in time or knowledge into covert plans bent on the suppression of our inalienable rights or the ultimate demise of the human species in general, I am saddened by the misdirection of energy.

I mean, I agree that it wouldn’t surprise me if groups like  ████████████ or █████████████████ had an interest in hiding information about ████████████, █████████ or even ██████████.  However, I think we need to get over the paranoia that arises every time a ██████████████ says that we must ████████████ █████████ ██████ just because █████████ indicates that ██████████████ ███████████ ████████ ██████████ ██████████ ███████.

There are, however,  people and groups that we should pay attention to.  Just as the magician achieves magic through sleight-of-hand and misdirection, sometimes the people or groups that are doing the redaction aren’t the problem.  They are the “misdirection” required by someone else. The “someone else” are the ones that the conspiracy crowd should really go after.

Such people are probably pretty powerful.  I wonder if the average conspiracy person would really want to tackle what would come out of Pandora’s box once the cover has been removed on some conspiracy theories. 

I doubt it.

Until then, it is best that we not assume that every government group has a conspiracy behind it, every mountain has a UFO base underneath it and the two guys in sunglasses driving the late-model Cadillac behind you for the last two days are looking to zap your mind with a neuralizer.

Well … the last part is probably true.  But if that were the case, then ███████████ was right when he said ████████ ██████████   ██████████████ ████ ███████ ███████ ███████.

And if that were true, then we know that ███████ ████ ████████ is also true.

And that’s when I would really be concerned.

Until then, let’s put our energy into impactful things that can make a real difference where it is needed.  We can find a lot of things that require immediate fixing in the world without letting our imaginations get the best of us by creating a ton of stuff that doesn’t exist but which drains our energy all the same. 

And besides, sometimes we have to watch what we wish for – we might just find it.

Now … if only that Cadillac would stop following me around.

In service and servanthood,

Harry

9/11, Conspiracies and Communication Failure

As I write this today, I am wearing a yellow shirt.  It is, after all, Yellow Shirt Day for me, something a group of us co-created with a colleague who was killed in the World Trade Center on 9/11.

As we approach the 10th anniversary of 9/11, the media is rich with various forms of documentaries including the obligatory set of suggestions of conspiracy.  Apparently people “in the know” know for certain, without releasing their secret sources, that 9/11 occurred because of government conspiracies, aliens, an angry God (or gods for someone), etc.  One guy in a documentary on CBC in Canada said that he believed that WTC 7 was constructed in the 1980’s with the demolition charges already installed in preparation for such an event.

There is no limit to how deep they will dig to find something that resonates with their misfiring mind.

There is, however, ONE thing that does bother me about 9/11.

In 1993, after the bombing of the World Trade Center, I was talking to my former father-in-law (now deceased) about the security threats facing the United States.  As a USAF colonel and former staffer at the Strategic Air Command (before it was folded into another entity), I felt he might have some insight.

He indicated that one of the US military’s greatest concerns at that time was the use of commercial aircraft against buildings and significant landmarks on US soil.  It was a concern, he said, because it was difficult to prevent and would be incredibly disruptive to the American psyche (creating fear that terrorists wish to induce).  There was also a great concern amongst military planners that should the need to shoot down an American commercial aircraft arise, would a USAF pilot be able to do it without hesitation and if he/she did it, what would the ramifications be that an American pilot was forced to kill Americans to protect other Americans?

Eight years later, the US was rocked by 9/11 and a number of us lost treasured friends, family members and colleagues.  President Bush, Vice President Cheney and others claimed we were caught by surprise – that no one could have predicted an attack in this fashion.

And yet I was told eight years prior that this was one of the greatest concerns of the US military and that they were trying to come up with mitigation strategies to prevent it or minimize its impact.

Now ten years later, former leaders are still saying that this attack and the techniques used caught everyone by surprise.

I don’t buy it.  If a civilian (and a non US citizen at that) was told by a senior military officer in 1993 that defending against such an attack was one of the highest priorities of the US military in 1993, then many people knew this was coming.

Maybe the leaders who claim they didn’t know truly didn’t know.  I leave that to conspiracy theorists to toss back and forth.

The fact that some people possibly didn’t know reflects how poorly our communications get when we have too complex a network to communicate across.  Too many people with too many opinions and too many conflicting agendas create too much noise and when this noise is created, important information doesn’t get communicated to the people who need it.  I see this level of confusion in many large organizations that I have helped over the years.  In their desire to over-communicate, they have instead over-inundated and failure of some type becomes inevitable.

Sometimes, such poor communication creates an inconvenience.

Sometimes it may create catastrophic business unit results or total organization failure.

However, there are times it has the potential to produce fatal results.

Such as the day when my friends Narender Nath, Eric Bennett, Stephen Fiorelli and 12 others were 15 of the thousands killed on the morning of 9/11.

I’m not a conspiracy guy.  But if a lowly civilian knew about the probability of these attacks in 1993, then I have to look at the poor communications and the billions spent on intel-gathering leading up to 9/11 as a huge failure in the intelligence community.

That’s not a charge of conspiracy.

It’s one of incompetence.

There is a huge difference.

Thomas Jefferson said it best LONG before 9/11.

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

In service and servanthood,

Harry

PS For an excellent analysis debunking traditional 9/11/ conspiracy myths, please go here.