India puts nuclear plants on alert: AMERICA WAKE UP

[Flying Pig]

Actually, the SRT Officers at the plants are FAR from mall security guards.  Don't let the fact that they are employed by Wackenhut lure you into believing these guys were recruited from the local shopping centers. 
About 5 years ago, I seriously considered leaving Law Enforcement to become an SRT officer at Lawrence Livermore.  One of the requirements was that you had to have full time law enforcement SWAT experience or military special operations experience and be able to obtain a Top Secret with PRP status.  I had all three.  Many of the members were former USMC FAST Marines who did the same exact job as Marines at Weapons Stations.  When they got out, it was an easy switch.
So believe me, I wasn't going to leave police work to become a mall guard.  They get their intelligence from the FBI, DHS, DOE and CA DOJ.  I had a contact up there that I was talking with and could not believe the weapons, equipment, capabilities and training they had at their disposal. 

[Gunner C]

These guys who are talking about "mall guards" don't even know what the PRP is.  I'm a three time loser. 

The old (and I guess continuing) Grizzly Hitch program found problems with these sites years ago.  DOE got on the ball and fixed it.  These guys who guard the sites are the real deal. 

The folks who denigrate folks who guard the nuke sites, guard the airports, guard whatever, are for the most part blisterheads.  The Wackenhut folks can hold their own against any threat now available.  The TSOs at airports are stopping threats every day.  You don't hear about them, but I do.  I read every report - you don't.  Yeah, there's always someone who screws the pooch.  (How about the Secret Service?  Do they ever let anyone close to the president who shouldn't be there?  Are they a bunch of losers?)

Between the idiotic opinion some folks have that is fed by an unscrupulous news media (yeah, they lie through their teeth sometimes.  I know - I have the real information right in front of me and they're reporting the exact opposite) and the need to make someone look stupid because it makes storyteller feel better.  You don't know as much as you think.  You don't know what the current threats are, you don't know what's been stopped, you don't know any more than what you've seen on your boob-tube.

There's a real, dangerous world out there.  If you want the government to protect you, then the next time you call for a plane reservation, give up your personal information (all of it) to the person on the telephone.  We'll then have the ability to see if you are who you really say you are and you'll literally run through screening.  But we have civil liberties in this country and your rights need to be protected.  They bad guys know this and they use it.  That's why there's level upon level of security.  Some of it you know about, some of it you don't.

Do people ever get through?  Yes.  Christmas was an example.  But that's between you, Northwest Airlines, and the Dutch Government.  They let him on, not TSA.  As for the "intelligence", don't believe everything you hear on TV. 

There's many of us who go to work every day who do our best to keep folks like you safe.  Some are intelligence professionals like me, others are up close and personal with the public. Sure, all we get are mall guard comments (I thought the comment using the "A" word was particularly pithy - thx for the moderate language) and TSA - practically the SF of aviation security (I've been in both, you haven't - you don't know what you're talking about as usual just as you said the government is spending trillions of dollars on it - if they were, I wouldn't have to bring my own pencil to work).  And by the way, the biggest threat isn't from within our own border. That's a stupid comment from the word go.  Getting our intel directly from the FBI - once again, you don't know how the system works.

I enjoyed the nuke site engineering comments from Al and Blacknight.  You have some professional, measured opinions based on real experience.  Once again Flying Pig and puts some sanity on things from real experience.  But most of the rest here (not all) is worthy of old coots sitting around the cracker barrel in a general store.  They've never been out of town, but they know how everything works.

[JayT]

I'm not quite sure how I got dragged into that post....my comment was more towards the effect of that private security contractors aren't less qualified or less dedicated because they're not federal employees.

Combining the worst parts of two completely seperate posts from seperate people and debunking it is your choice, of course.

[Flying Pig]

I think he was talking about that it came across as insulting them.  Sorta like the big fat guy sitting at home yelling that Bret Favre is an idiot and doesn't know anything about football.  Thats how I took Gunners post.  TSA screeners are easy target for scrutiny unfortunately.  Its like yelling at a cop because something is illegal. 

Being in the industry, it can be amusing to hear people who have no foundation for the topic yell about how things should be.  Im not speaking for him, but thats how I understood his post.

[MIKE]

What does this have to do with CAP operations again?

[Flying Pig]

People talking about how CAP can support NEST in radiological emergencies.  People with real life experience dealing with Nuclear Security, Nuclear Emergencies and Intelligence Services giving non-involved CAP members a look inside that world based on real time experience.  A discussion about crashing planes into a nuclear plant.  A CAP member comes on and basically says, Yeah, its my job to deal with that scenario........here is what I think. Wow, what a resource.
Then we had some comments where another CAP member set straight some misconceptions.  I learned there are CAP members here that I have that background in common with.


By the way, I believe DNALL is in Army Flight School.

[Flying Pig]

http://jobs-wsi.icims.com/jobs/2020/job

Thought a couple of you may be interested in looking at this.  Far from a Mall Cop.  "Q" Clearance is what is required to work around nuclear material.  HRP I believe is the civilian version of the militaries PRP.