Our government is a joke. Our politicians are a joke. DHS is a joke. All the security measures that have cost trillions since 9/11 are a joke. Are you safer today than you were on September 10, 2001? Was it worth the cost in dollars, liberty, and freedom to have the appearance of safety and security? Despite all of the technology and corporate fascist government solutions, an idiot on a jet ski can breach a $100 million security system without even knowing he was doing it. Pitiful.
Jet ski intruder evades multi-million dollar JFK Airport security system
The 31-year-old resident of Queens, N.Y. abandoned his watercraft, and swam towards distant lights, climbing over an 8-foot tall perimeter security fence, and crossing active runway 4L and intersecting runway 31L, the longest at the airport.
He was finally taken into custody and arrested for criminal trespass after asking a Delta Air Lines ramp worker for help near Gate 10 of Terminal 3, as reported on Monday, August 13, 2012 by WXIA-TV, The Sydney Morning Herald, ABC News, the New Jersey Herald, and other global news agencies.
The airport intrusion took place last Friday, August 10, 2012 at about 7:45 p.m. EDT, just before sunset.
The exhausted man, who was wearing only swim trunks and a bright yellow life jacket, went undetected through several layers of high-tech security devices installed by Raytheon Company of Waltham, Mass., a major U.S. defense contractor. The sophisticated and costly system included motion detectors and closed-circuit cameras comprising the airport’s Perimeter Intrusion Detection System (PIDS).
Casillo was arrested and charged with trespassing by Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) police. His attorney defended his actions, saying that his client “had a rough time of it, and was just glad to be alive.” His girlfriend, Deanna Cowan, was more critical, saying to the New York Post, “They were trying to see who had the fastest jet skis, like idiots.” Apparently Casillo lost that race, and became separated from his friends, but managed to save his life.
Even more alarmed was Charles Schumer, the senior United States Senator from New York, who told ABC-TV, “We’re dealing with safety here. God forbid a terrorist should get onto a runway of an airport.”
Those were also the thoughts of police officials, who echoed public sentiment that the airport authority had wasted millions of tax dollars on failed technology.
Among those faulting the electronic sensors was Robert Egbert, a spokesman for Port Authority’s Police Benevolent Association. He called for a full probe of the whole system, saying “The union is demanding an inspector’s general investigation into the failed Perimeter Intrusion Detection System, the cost over-runs and the relationship between the Port Authority and Raytheon, the vendor.”
Raytheon probably has the most to lose in this embarrassing incident. A spokesperson for the company said that they are cooperating with the Port Authority.
Others see Casillo as something of a whistle blower who shattered a false sense of security by easily defeating a detection apparatus that was considered fail-safe. It’s a modern version of “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” a Danish folktale about an invisible garment that everyone but a child were afraid to admit didn’t exist.
As Nicholas Casale, a retired detective with the NYPD, and former deputy security director for counter terrorism for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority put it, “I think he should be given dinner and a bottle of champagne for showing us our faults.”
Before that happens, Casillo has to appear in court to settle the criminal charges filed against him.
This case recalls a previous one on March 6, 2006 at JFK Airport, in which an elderly man drove his car onto a runway through two security gates. He made it to an active runway where an Air France aircraft was preparing to land. The intruder drove around for approximately 23 minutes before being stopped.
