The Daily News-Journal from Murfreesboro, Tennessee • 22

BIO THE DAILY NEWS JOURNAL SUNDAY. SEPT. 11, 2011 wstap ealD ate New training, equipment reflect security concerns 911 I COMMUNITY i FAIR I What Sheriffs 911 I Community Fair Where 1 to 5 p.m. today Where: Rutherford County Sheriffs Office, 940 New Salem Highway What to know: Initial stages of the 911 Memorial with an I- beam from the World Trade Center will be unveiled and local emergency officials honored What to expect The Roys will kick off the fair at 2 p.m. by singing the national anthem.

The Murfreesboro Fire Rescue Department will serve as honor guards. Firefighters will ring a bell in salute to the lives lost on Sept 11, 2001, and motorcycle group Rolling Thunder will present a POWMIA flag. Sheriff Robert Arnold will speak. Iraqi veteran David Judy, who delivered the I-beam from New York City, will be recognized.Richie McDonald, former lead singer of the country band Lonestar, will be the featured performer. Other activities: Food, inflatables, face painting, fire and rescue demonstrations and law enforcement displays will be on hand.

Com-, munity organizations will discuss their groups and AARP will conduct a silent auction featuring NASCAR's Jeff Gordon memorabilia. Representatives of the Fisher House will collect dona-, tions to build a home for families while veter-. ans are in the hospital. apparent and make adjustments as needed. By expounding on lessons learned we can assimilate this information and identify those shortfalls or gaps that we can improve upoa" Mark Bed, 61S-278-S1S3 since those events.

We have been given new focus based on real events and no longer are we planning for the if, but when." According to Murfrees-boro Police spokesman Kyle Evans, the MPD now trains its officers to look for bomb-making materials, suspicious activities and other signs of terrorist activity. That's something that wasn't much of an issue before the Sept 11 terrorist attacks. "We also train in the Incident Command System to better and more effectively respond to serious incidents (terrorism, crime or natural disaster such as tornadoes)," he said. "We do our training and planning in cooperation with local, state and federal agencies for situations involving terrorist activities or a mass casualty event" Along with training, information flow between public safety agencies has become ever more important and more free-flowing, according to Evans. MPD Chief Glenn Chris-man and most other public safety agencies throughout the county receive briefings from the U.S.

Department of Homeland Security via the Tennessee Fusion Center, Evans said. Topics in those briefings can vary widely but are always aimed at raising awareness and have the potential to affect local By Mark Bell mbelldnj.com MURFREESBORO Ten years after the tragic events of Sept 11, 2001, the landscape of public safety service remains dramatically changed here in Rutherford County, according to local officials. And the biggest change for agencies like the Rutherford County Emergency Management Agency and Murfrees-boro Police Department has been in the way those agencies prepare for disasters, especially those that are man-made. Training has increased and become more complex and funding for that training has also increased thanks to grants from the Department of Homeland Security. So far Rutherford County has received about $3 million.

"Emergency Management itself has drastically changed over the years from its initial establishment as the nation's Civil Defense Program in the 1940s, when duck-and-cover training and air raid drills were the objective of the day," said Tim Hooker, assistant director of the Rutherford County EMA Now, the training inclused "an all-hazard, all-threat, all-inclusive program that encompasses a system of multiple disciplines, mutli-jurisdictional coordination of natural or man-made hazards." "This information is then distributed to detectives and patrol officers," Evans said. "This does not usually include specific threats, as they would be sent through the National Crime Information Center." Some of the topics in a recent briefing included "Group in Texas Hacked Texas Law Enforcement Website" and "White Supremacy Group to Hold Rally in West Allis," according to Evans. "There was an article in one that warned law enforcement of chemical suicide where someone would kill themselves inside a vehicle with chemicals that could seriously injure or kill first responders." Hooker called the sharing of that kind of intelligence is a "key component of preparedness. "Multiple agencies are involved in the compilation of information and intelligence and funneling this through the appropriate communication channels as needed," he said. Training and information sharing in many aspects wouldn't have been possible for the county's public safety agencies without Homeland Security grants and funds, according to Hooker.

The Homeland Security Grant Program helps fulfill one of the core missions of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security by enhancing the country's ability to prepare for, prevent, respond to, and recover from potential attacks and other hazards. The HSGP is one of the main mechanisms in funding the creation and maintenance of national preparedness, except '-f'f-iJ passenger nearly brought down an airplane over Detroit with a bomb in his pants. The FBI built its case while fending off criticisms that the FBI shouldn't have read the suspect his rights. Through it all, Pistole was "always calm and collected and professional and even-tempered," said Michael Rolince, a 31-year FBI agent and former head of the Washington office's counterterrorism division.

"Right up until the day John Pistole left, you would think that he had a job with as much pressure as a --M? TSA chief optimist, which refers to the establishment of plans, procedures, policies, training and equipment "Since the establishment of the program Rutherford County has been blessed to receive nearly $3 million in federal grants to assist us with increasing our capabilities to more appropriately respond to not only events with potentially disastrous consequences, but daily operational business as well" Hooker said. The HSGP has also resulted in the creation of relation-snips that are "not only inter-county, but in multiple jurisdictions throughout the state," Hooker said. "The HSGP has brought jurisdictions together in a fashion which has never occurred before," he said. "Realizing there is strength in numbers, a team building concept with the realization that the response community is 'all in this brought the formation of statewide Homeland Security Districts in which multiple disciplines continuously work together to plan, build, communicate, enhance and strengthen response capabilities." Despite all the training, Hooker said he is sure there are still some areas of weakness that exist throughout the county. "As with any position or function there can always be weaknesses found," he said.

"Some are not as apparent as others until post-event, (but) it is our responsibility as emergency managers and public safety response personnel to maintain a robust program to identify those weaknesses as they become about tole was tapped to run the TSA. He was Obama's third choice to run an agency that had been without a permanent administrator since he took office. Pistole's first thoughts: "That sounds like a thankless job." After the previous two nominees withdrew from consideration over concerns about ethics issues, Pistole sailed through confirmation hearings. One of Pistole's first orders was to develop a new, enhanced airport pat-down that could give screeners a better shot at detecting a well-hidden explosive. In doing so, he waded into the TSA's 9-year-old tug of war between security and civil liberties.

In August of last year, Pistole himself was patted down. "I had a pretty good sense that it would not be wildly popular with most people," he said. Travelers and privacy advocates were outraged by the intrusive pat-downs, which were used even on children and the elderly. Pistole heard the cries for common sense. He instructed screeners to pat down children only as a last resort.

Pistole is also testing a J' f' SEPT. 11C 2001 WE RMeMber Even though EMA had already, for many years, been involved in preparedness activities for multiple hazards and events, Sept 11 resulted in a vast increase in planning and training for domestic terrorism, Hooker added. "Since the terrorist attacks, our planning and training considerations have vastly increased with respect to the recognition of potential foreign or domestic terrorist threats related to biological, nuclear, incendiary, chemical, cyber, and explosive type scenarios or weapons of mass destruction (WMD)," he said. "These events sparked a national effort all the way from the federal government to state government down to the local government level to reinforce our efforts of preparedness in these areas. "Operational security issues have become more important to various officials investigating intelligence about an al-Qaida threat to New York or Washington, possibly involving a car bomb to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Sept.

11 attacks. "I'm an optimist in life in all ways other than when it comes to terrorism," Pistole said. "And I think every day that goes by, we're a day closer to the next attack." On Sept. 11, 2001, Pistole was working in the FBI's inspections division, conducting a routine interview with a New York judge. He turned on the television and saw the second plane hit the World Trade Center.

"Well, this changes everything," he remembers thinking. Pistole, who grew up in the small town of Anderson, comes from a family of educators. He practiced law before he joined the FBI in 1983. At the time, the bureau had a storied history of putting bank robbers and mobsters in prison. After 911, Pistole was tapped to help transform the bureau into one that prevented terrorism.

"We were building the plane while it was flying," said Raymond Holcomb, a former FBI agent and author of the book "Endless Enemies: Inside FBI Coun-terterrorism." "John was there at a most critical watershed moment," Holcomb said. Around the same time, the new Transportation Security Administration was struggling to get off the ground. It had to hire thousands of screeners, coordinate with airlines and buy screening technology. "None of us really knew how to set up lines at airports," said Norman Mine-ta, the transportation secretary at the time, who was charged with creating this new agency from scratch. Mineta turned to The Walt Disney an organization familiar with snaking lines and anxious guests.

The past 10 years have been a bumpy road for the TSA and travelers. Travelers grew used to hi vtN-y-r mtUA 11.2001, 1 terror Security personnel check a vehicle at the gate of the Smyrna National Guard Air Base at Smyrna Air- nnrt An Cant hours after terrorists lived rnmmpr- iL cial airlines to attack the World Trade Center towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. DNJ FILE PHOTO I new screening system based on intelligence files that could speed up the process for travelers who volunteer personal information vetted by intelligence officials. Pistole said he's learned how important it is to have the public on the TSA's side. Last fall, the U.S.

averted disaster when al-Qaida operatives in Yemen concealed explosives in printers and shipped them to the U.S. It was the first significant plot for Pistole as TSA chief. He often cites the plot in his speeches, highlighting the measures terrorists will take and how inexpensive it is to do so (just $4,200, the terrorists boasted afterward). That plot was ultimately foiled because of intelligence provided to the U.S. by Saudi Arabia.

Now, the longtime FBI agent who considers his arrest of the Genovese crime family boss in New York in 1990 as a defining moment in his career is the security chief working on a complex system to keep travelers safe without slowing them down. "Intelligence is our best asset," Pistole said. By Eileen Sullivan Associated Press WASHINGTON Each day, dozens of U.S. intelligence officials crowd around a conference table in a small, windowless room in a government building across the street from a shopping mall in northern Virginia. At the head of the table sits the man who perhaps more than anyone else affects Americans most tangibly in the sprawling fight against terrorism since the 2001 attacks.

John Pistole, who for decades breezed past airport security checkpoints as an tm agent is the faceless bane of every air traveler who must remove his belt, en dures an in Pistole timate pat-down or is instructed to throw away a frounce bottle of shampoo. Pistole, 53, has among the least-desirable roles in Washington as head of Transportation Security Administration, the government agency that more than others traces its lineage to the terrorist hijackings that killed nearly 3,000 people. Based on top secret intelligence he sees daily, Pistole, a 26-year FBI veteran, sets the rules for protecting the nation's 457 airports and America's planes, trains, buses and ferries. Pistole's story is the story of a changed nation, one that has worked feverishly to track down terrorists, fix intelligence problems and try to keep from trampling on privacy while enhancing security. It was Pistole who, just weeks on the job, called for airport screeners to start using a new security pat-down one that involved feeling around travelers' genital areas and breasts.

It was an unpopular measure, but one Pistole believes offers the best chance of preventing a suicide bomber. Just Friday, U.S. coun- lenerrunsm uiiicuus were 1 ii 1 -137 Vvt -in" 1 'in ni'' Ia long lines and lists of prohibited items. But there were complaints screening policies, security equipment that didn't work, and more. In 2004, Pistole shifted from head of FBI countert-errorism to deputy director of the FBI, essentially the chief operating officer of the nation's premier law enforcement agency.

Pistole dealt with terror plots around the country, as well as drug cartels, public corruption and Ponzi schemes. In 2006, al-Qaida plotted to sneak liquid bombs onto U.S.-bound planes in London. As the FBI worked with British officials, Pistole was unaware of the shift happening at the TSA In about our hours, the agency changed the entire security operation in U.S. airports, banning liquids in carry-on bags. Within six weeks, TSA was comfortable enough to allow 3.4 ounce containers, packed in one 1-quart plastic zip-close bag.

Again, TSA reinvented itself. Pistole managed the FBI during some of its most stressful hours toward the end of his tenure. There was the Christmas Day attempted attack in 2009, when a nimnm Pistole said he starts each morning with prayer and meditation and squeezes in a workout before work. The father of two college-age daughters teaches an adult Bible study group with his wife of 32 years. He said he often turns to God when faced with tough decisions.

"He is very calm, but he's also very thoughtful, measured and very determined in what he wants to accomplish," said John Brennan, President Barack Obama's homeland security and counterterrorism adviser. In the spring of 2010, Pis 1.