35 Quotes by Stephen Flynn

The role the U.S. government is currently playing in port security does not change with the purchase by Dubai Ports World.

Rumsfeld wants that firewall between Northern Command and DHS because he's legitimately afraid that otherwise, Congress will rob the Defense budget to pay for homeland-security initiatives. The problem with that approach is that it provides no incentives for senior NorthCom leaders to build relationships with mayors and governors around the country, closely studying what capabilities they have and exactly what kind of help they would need in a disaster.

(A fence) would be near the bottom of my list.

A weapon of mass destruction smuggled into our country in a cargo-container could be the next 9/11. The bad guys watched and learned how we reacted after the last attack by grounding all aviation. They could generate massive economic and societal disruption if they succeed at spooking us into closing our borders and ports to all incoming containers,

That's what made this almost impossible to get someone to pay attention for it.

You're not going have a bunch of UAE citizens working the docks. They're longshoremen, vested in high-paying jobs. Most of them are Archie Bunker-kind of Americans.

This is a case where we were arguing about the wrong part of the problem. Americans were shocked to learn that the vast majority of port operations in this country are handled by foreign firms. But transportation is a global network, and we're not going to own all of it.

This is a case where we were arguing about the wrong part of the problem.

It seems like a very basic concept but we can't get any traction on it with the U.S. government.