Cutting out Criticism

27 October 2003


Nathaniel Heatwole Faces 10 Years for Embarrassing the TSA

It wasn't necessarily the brightest thing to do, but Nathaniel Heatwole put a case of box cutters, bleach and other banned items on two Southwest Airlines plans. His motivation was not terrorism but civil disobedience. The 20-year-old wanted to protest the poor job the Transportation Security Administration has done. He might have been better off were he motivated by terror.

In a performance just this side of the Keystone Kops and Inspector Clouseau, the TSA ignored for over a month his e-mails in which he stated what he had done, and he offered his phone number. When the information finally was forwarded to the FBI, Mr. Heatwole was arrested. He says he is prepared to do his jail time, essentially giving up his freedom to prove his point that no one was being protected by the TSA. The prohibited material stayed on the two planes day in and day out.

In the usual backside-covering move, the head of the TSA, Admiral James Loy of the Coast Guard, had his spokesman march out to tell the press and the public, "Following an event like this, the results usually include adjustments and improvements in the procedures." Resignations and abolition of the TSA would be more appropriate. Meanwhile, Mr. Heatwole faces 10 years in prison for the crime of embarrassing a government agency.

The agency claims to have seized countless prohibited items since the war began, but what is fascinating is the number of terrorists the TSA has caught -- zero. Those long lines at the airport may be a deterrent, granted, but in the two years since the Al-Qaeda attacks on the US, the enemy just might have decided to fight in a different way, hence the bombs in Bali, and the concern about surface-to-air missiles.

The TSA is not an agency that exists to protect those traveling in America. It exists to give the impression of protection. Mr. Heatwole has proved this through an act of rather misguided patriotism. One expects he might have to serve less time if he had converted to Islam and decided to embark on a jihad; instead, the federal bureaucracy will be taking this case quite personally. Meanwhile, the war continues.

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