It’s tax season again. And for many of us, the idea of doing taxes and giving the IRS the pound of flesh they demand is a harrowing thought. One Austin, Texas, man, claiming to have been fed up with being ripped off by the IRS for over 20 years, flew a small plane into a building containing the local IRS office Thursday morning.

Joseph Andrew Stack, 53, flew a Piper Cherokee PA-28 into the side of the Echelon 1 building at 9430 Research Drive at around 10 a.m. Central time. According to FAA officials, the plane took off from nearby Georgetown Municipal Airport at about 9:40.

Stack was killed in the resulting explosion. Two people in the building were injured, and one person is unaccounted for, according to reports. The IRS said it is still trying to account for its 190 employees who were in the building at the time. News reports disagree on whether firefighters have been able to bring the building fire under control.

A lengthy diatribe posted to Stack’s web site this morning, since taken down at the request of the FBI, revealed that Stack suffered what he considered years of abuse by the IRS and laws meant to harm businesses like his, noting that “this rant could fill volumes with example after example if I let it.”

Stack’s apparent suicide note speaks of the irony of stockbrokers killing themselves after the 1929 crash, while after the 2007 crash the wealthy get bailed out at the expense of the poor, who pay for it all. (This much is true.)

“I know I’m hardly the first one to decide I’ve had all I can stand. . . . I can only hope that the numbers get too big to be white washed and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt; it will take nothing less.”

Federal officials are saying they do not consider this a terrorist attack. “At this time, we have no reason to believe there is a nexus to terrorist activity,” says a Department of Homeland Security news release.

Before leaving for the airport this morning, Stack set his home on fire, according to local officials. Worse, he apparently set the fire while his wife and daughter were away, leaving them shocked and distraught when they returned home to find it on fire.

It’s easy to understand what drove Stack over the edge: “In a government full of hypocrites from top to bottom, life is as cheap as their lies and their self-serving laws.” He makes a number of legitimate complaints about the U.S. government, grievances which we all suffer and are all unlikely to see redressed any time soon.

But Stack seems to think that if enough people kill themselves in government offices, perhaps taking some bureaucrats with them, the rest of the country will “wake up and begin to see the pompous political thugs and mindless minions for what they are.” Violence, he concludes, “not only is the answer, it is the only answer.”

I must disagree: Few people woke up after September 11; in fact, that event put nearly everyone to sleep. But the continuing decline of the U.S. economy which began in earnest in 2007 and shows no signs of stopping certainly began to wake people up.

Those of you who are desperate, understand first that you aren’t alone, and there are ways out of this mess which don’t involve killing yourself or IRS agents. A good place to begin would be to learn the economics behind how we were all taken for a ride. Then you can recognize and denounce the people who want to do more of the same to you. There is a way out, and it’s called liberty. Learn the philosophy of liberty, why it is the only way to have real prosperity, and then join the rest of us who are working hard for a free society.

Thanks for joining the Liberty Conspiracy, the shadowy group of plotters who are working towards freer societies, in any nation, and working for the elimination of nationalism, towards a paradigm that supports true freedom.

In this production, Gardner Goldsmith takes you with him as he travels to the Manchester, NH, Airport, and sees just how bureaucratic and inefficient the government-run system is.

Oh, and he offers some thoughts on airport bathrooms while he’s at it… not for the faint of heart!

Be Seeing You!

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

How does one look at a potential TSA Head who fears Americans more than the terrorists Americans often fear? One views him as more interested in protecting the US government than the US citizenry.

Gardner Goldsmith explains.

Then, listen for the latest news in what could be the most important Senate race in a decade, the MA race for the seat vacated by Ted Kennedy! Even though we abhor all government, this situation could mean either the passage or defeat of the medical fascism bill. Check it out!

Be Seeing You!

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Two days after serving two journalists with subpoenas demanding that they reveal a confidential source, a move that prompted widespread backlash among frequent fliers, the Transportation Security Administration has withdrawn the subpoenas and returned a damaged laptop to one of the writers.

A TSA spokesman claimed Thursday that its investigation into who leaked a December 25 security directive was nearing completion and the subpoenas were no longer necessary.

The directive, issued immediately after a failed Christmas Day terrorist attack on a Detroit-bound airliner, specified temporary heightened security measures which international airports were to use on U.S.-bound flights. The directive was to expire Wednesday but has been revised and extended through the weekend, according to Homeland Security officials.

Steven Frischling, a freelance photojournalist and travel writer who also blogs for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, received a copy of the directive anonymously and published it on his personal blog, Flying with Fish, on Sunday. On Tuesday armed TSA agents arrived at his house with an administrative subpoena and threatened him into surrendering his laptop. The agents wanted to know who sent him the document.

Christopher Elliott, a syndicated travel columnist, also received the directive and published it at his personal blog. He too received visits Tuesday from armed TSA agents, but he declined to cooperate and informed them that he would challenge the subpoena. As a result, his laptop never left his possession and his livelihood was largely unharmed.

Frischling wasn’t so lucky. Though TSA returned his MacBook laptop Thursday, he reports that it was damaged and nearly unusable, according toWired.

While many states shield journalists’ confidential sources, a federal shield bill which passed the House in March has been stalled in the Senate. Even so, the bill would exempt from protection information which the government claims would help prevent an act of terrorism or harm to national security.

It’s unlikely any information in this security directive would have any negative impact on national security if released, since affected airports and airlines also had to publish much the same information to assist travelers through the security procedures. It’s also clear that Homeland Security cares more about plugging leaks in its bureaucracy than plugging leaks in homeland security.

From my own experience with having federal agents at my door, let me say this: Remember that if law enforcement shows up at your door, you are in no way obligated to speak to them, and in no way obligated to hand over anything immediately if they hand you a subpoena. You can and should challenge (move to quash) such a subpoena in court, if you receive one. You only have to surrender anything immediately if they have a search warrant, and only if the thing is named on the search warrant. Other than that, say absolutely nothing until you can consult a lawyer. Be polite, of course, when you ask them for their business card and send them on their way.

Finally, from Frischling’s description, it would seem the computer’s hardware may have been modified. Reportedly the TSA has offered to pay for a new computer; if true, I suggest he take a check and buy it himself — from the Apple Store, not online.

If you’re not angry about government yet, then perhaps the newest account of its failure to keep people safe in the air routes will help.

In this production, Gardner Goldsmith offers two unique items. One: A musical montage of “Homeland Security” Director Janet Napolitano as she tries to talk the egg off her face after yet another terrorist gets through the top-heavy government bureaucracy that stifles competition and doesn’t protect people. Two: Gard offers a conversation with Conspirator Courtney, whose mom works in the air and sees the security protocols first hand.

This is all combined with a history of how government got involved in regulating air travel in the first place, information it seems only libertarians like El G Grande have. Enjoy as you make a fist!

Be Seeing You!

The Christmas Day attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight over Detroit has shown exactly how ineffective most of the post-September 11 security measures have been in providing actual security, even as passengers flying in its aftermath experience even more stringent security theater.

“The system has worked really very, very smoothly over the course of the past several days,” Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano said Sunday in media interviews. “In many ways, this system has worked.”

Today she backed off of those assertions. “Our system did not work in this instance,” she told NBC. “No one is happy with that.”

Now that many of the details of what took place have emerged, we can see exactly how this so-called security failed.

Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, 23, of Nigeria, attempted to detonate a powerful explosive sewn into his underwear while on Northwest Airlines flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit as the flight was preparing to land Christmas Day. His chemical detonator failed to set off the explosive, and the passengers and flight crew put out the fire and restrained him.

It is currently believed that AbdulMutallab was radicalized while at university in London. He is alleged to have traveled to Yemen earlier this year for terrorist training, and at the time told his family that he was cutting off all ties with them. In recent years Yemen has emerged as a terrorist hotbed which its government has been unable to control, leading the United States to lend military assistance.

At the time, his parents reported his behavior to the U.S. embassy in Lagos, Nigeria, and he was placed in the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment database, which contains pretty much everything the U.S. knows about known or suspected terrorists. Much of the information in the database is incomplete and inaccurate. Despite the fact that AbdulMutallab had a valid U.S. visa, which should have caused his information to be forwarded to the Terrorist Screening Center for possible inclusion in the selectee list or no-fly list, this did not take place.

On Christmas Eve, AbdulMutallab returned to Lagos and bought a ticket to Detroit via Amsterdam. The Homeland Security database gave him the green light to fly.

It’s long been known that current airport security measures are woefully incapable of stopping a determined attacker from bringing explosives through security and onto a plane.

And the heightened security measures in effect for the last few days, while they might or might not have stopped this particular attack, are much like closing the barn door after the horse gets out.

The only two things that have actually improved aviation security, says security expert Bruce Schneier, are reinforced cockpit doors and passengers who resist attempted attacks. “This week, the second one worked over Detroit,” he wrote.

None of the security measures that actually work require the massive Homeland Security bureaucracy, the nearly irreversible loss of privacy and freedom, the misidentification of thousands of innocent Americans as potential terrorists, or even taking off your shoes.

The biggest failure of all, of course, is the one nobody is talking about: the U.S. foreign policy of interfering in the Middle East and manufacturing terrorists out of thin air by making enemies of ordinary people. Until the U.S. changes its foreign policy, expect more terrorist attacks.

Given the fact that most of the many layers of “security” the government provides are ineffective, useless, or just simple security theater, it’s going to be up to the rest of us to provide for our own security, as best we can.

["Schiphol Plaza" photo by Shirley de Jong; CC BY-SA 2.5]

The document-leaking web site Wikileaks announced Tuesday that it would release 500,000 alphanumeric pager messages sent on September 11, 2001.

A notice posted on the site said that Wikileaks would release the pager message intercepts in “real time” beginning at 3 a.m. Eastern time Wednesday and continuing for 24 hours, corresponding to the same time of day on 9/11.

“Text pagers are mostly carried by persons operating in an official capacity,” the site said prior to the release. “Messages in the archive range from Pentagon and New York Police Department exchanges, to computers reporting faults to their operators as the World Trade Center collapsed.”

Wikileaks did not identify its source for the pager messages, but said that it received them from “an organization which has been intercepting and archiving US national telecommunications since prior to 9/11.”

Kevin Poulsen ofWired points out that pager traffic is not encrypted and trivially easy to intercept.

Alphanumeric pagers were popular in the 1990s but have declined in popularity as mobile phone text messages largely supplanted them.

“This is a significant and completely objective record of the defining moment of our time,” the Wikileaks site said. “We hope that its entry into the historical record will lead to a deeper and more nuanced understanding of how this tragedy and its aftermath may have been prevented.”

I was planning to sleep, but I came home tonight to this news and now I’m brewing coffee and preparing to “live” blog the more interesting of these half million intercepts as they are released over the next 24 hours.

2001-09-11 03:01:18 Metrocall [1064386] A ALPHA MONEY MARKETS FF__3.500 PR 6.500 EU$ 3.45/3.40/3.27 LIB 3.50/3.36/3.32 EIB4.301/4.242/114 REP 3.47/3.40/3.36 DCP 3.46/3.33/3.29 UBA 3.41/3.21/3.18 BBA 3.50/3.36/3.32 U

2001-09-11 03:01:48 Metrocall [1064375] B ALPHA /FTSE 5033.70 -036 NIKK 10292.95 +097 DAX 4704.36 +034 CAC40 4415.02 +031 MIB30 31564 +0000 HSI 10348.65 -0017 30 _99.0

2001-09-11 03:03:11 Arch [1617998] D ALPHA smartlady|thinking of you |Hi Gody, Sorry so late, I just replied to your email. Glad to know u r home safely. I miss u... Karen |129

2001-09-11 03:03:11 Arch [0960635] C ALPHA Wendy Javier|Please check queue |Hello there, I am working on a launch. Can you please check the queue? It doesn't look like it's moving... Thanks, Wendy|153

2001-09-11 03:04:50 Skytel [007555619] A ALPHA netrangr@prodrubdir.hew.us.ml.com|Alm: 4 3150:0 1|Tme: 2001/09/11 03:03:26 Src: I tpcb.teleplex.ml.com:3897 Dst: I 216.35.94.76:21 NSX: [10008.12501.41] SID: 3150 "FTP SITE" Msg: "SITE"

2001-09-11 03:05:24 Arch [1164259] A ALPHA From Kristin Allbright Sub:x75245 remedy#10024876 Communications to Puerto Rico buying office were down due to circuit issue. Circuit has recovered. AT&T still engaged to find resolution. Msg:

2001-09-11 03:06:00 Metrocall [1458228] B ALPHA 3000 CHINABERRY DR CAR VS TREE POSS ENTRAPMENT HAMM

2001-09-11 03:07:48 Metrocall [002510081] A ALPHA [McBride, Greg]FW: American Airlines Net SAAver Fares-- Dear Greg McBride, Today's American Airlines Domestic & International Net SAAver Weekend Getaway Fares e-mail offer is valid for travel next weekend. Domestic Departure dates: Sep

2001-09-11 03:08:09 Arch [0915948] D ALPHA From:NJROS1NHA01/SERVER/Prudential@PRUDENTIAL Subject:ServerWatch Notification - Server NJROS1NAP39/SERVER/Prudential is NOT Responding Body:WARNING: Server NJROS1NAP39/SERVER/Prudential is Not Responding. Reason: Remote system no longer r

2001-09-11 03:09:36 Skytel [002839867] C ALPHA 23985@emc.fedex.com|pushback on early departures and chase city aircraft asap...

2001-09-11 03:11:35 Skytel [005207087] D ALPHA FLT1011 APPROX 45 MIN LATE, FLT1153 ETA 0444

2001-09-11 03:13:20 Arch [1614034] A ALPHA From:NJROS1NHA01/SERVER/Prudential@PRUDENTIAL Subject:ServerWatch Notification - Server NJROS1NAP39/SERVER/Prudential is Responding Body:Server NJROS1NAP39/SERVER/Prudential is Responding or has been restarted.

2001-09-11 03:16:35 Skytel [007523119] D ST NUM 0-212-222-9018

2001-09-11 03:18:48 Metrocall [002178488] C ALPHA EMAIL goodtining@www40.net Rates may NEVER be Lower !!

2001-09-11 03:20:36 Skytel [002839867] C ALPHA 23985@emc.fedex.com|attention second floor: please move your exception bags asap

2001-09-11 03:22:44 Skytel [003862901] B ALPHA BTY 50.67 -1.28 NWS 30.81 +0.10 WCOM 12.88 -0.10 DJIA 9654.71 +48.86 (1

2001-09-11 03:26:35 Skytel [005327015] B ALPHA frank,mike can u give me status? is khh on battery or gen? Michael Bishop

2001-09-11 03:29:58 Metrocall [1064378] C ALPHA TRICHET SEES EUROZONE GROWTH OF AROUND 2.0 PCT FOR 2001

So far a quiet night, not much going on except for sysadmins doing their usual nightly maintenance on the servers that keep the Internet and business operations going.

2001-09-11 03:30:44 Skytel [002402427] C ALPHA < <86901:534>>PAC 03:23 9/11/01 FINAL AT&T VANTIVE SYSTEM WENT DOWN. ABLE TO ACCESS WHEN USING URL https://www.acss.att.com/Login. URL IS CASE SENSITVE. SERVER WAS REBOOTED BUT UNSURE IF THIS RESOLVED ISSUE. IMPACT: NO KNOWN. 18028 GMIR/92

2001-09-11 03:33:31 Arch [0801351] B ALPHA (25)06:ABS: Tkt:5002798, Sev:1, Opened, Sname:BNK, CIS Id:195942813, Contact:JOSEPH GANDIA/NOC @ 2122507800 Note:HOST IN NYC BOUNCING\\PWR VRFD\\RECOVER ON OWN\\NO PATTERN\\DLCI 35\\RED ALARMS ON ROUTER\\NO CHANGES\\OK TO TEST\\ROTI PSN2 SHOWS UP,

2001-09-11 03:35:01 Metrocall [1576347] C ALPHA Frm: Swoon Horoscopes Sub: Gemini Daily Horoscope Txt: Dear SWOON user, If you have used the SWOON Personals in the past, we've got some great news: Through an exciting partnership that has blossomed between Match.com and SWOON, Persona

2001-09-11 03:35:20 Metrocall [1064378] C ALPHA EURO PUSHES TO DAY'S HIGHS AGAINST DOLLAR, YEN

2001-09-11 03:35:52 Metrocall [0905692] D ALPHA (1/1) NOVA STC I-295 NB On MD Side Vehicle Accident Right lane Blocked. Event open and Closed shortly after. EOC/KMT. 9/11/01 3:31:15 AM

2001-09-11 03:38:34 Skytel [005105954] A ALPHA CALL MY CELL PHONE INSTEAD OF MY HOUSE PHONE CAUSE I DON'T WANT IT TO RING, AND CRYSTALS BEEN GOING AROUND SAYING STUFF ABOUT YOU AND ME. I LOVE YOU.

2001-09-11 03:39:35 Skytel [005359140] B ALPHA ATTN OUTBOUNDS, EXPECT HEAVY NON-CON PULLS AND FLOWER VOLUME FROM THE NORTHEAST..

2001-09-11 03:40:09 Metrocall [1064381] D ALPHA ICRC SAYS 165 REPORTED DEAD IN JOS, 928 WOUNDED

2001-09-11 03:41:08 Arch [0015079] B ALPHA Tom.Marble@dtn.c|Operations Notification ,|Final Notify: Apwire is once again updating. The problem was with an application in New York. Questions regarding this outage should be directed to x 5467 Thank-you, OPS(Document link: Database 'OPs

2001-09-11 03:44:18 Metrocall [1145662] D ALPHA Frm: StormCenter.COM Sub: Storm Advisory (1/2) Txt: FORECAST FOR For Fairfax County TODAY-SUNNY. HIGHS IN THE LOWER 80S....

2001-09-11 03:44:30 Metrocall [1145662] D ALPHA Frm: StormCenter.COM Sub: Storm Advisory (2/2) Txt: ..NORTHWEST WIND 10 TO 15 MPH.

2001-09-11 03:48:03 Skytel [004690331] C ALPHA netrangr@prodrubdir.hew.us.ml.com|Alm: 4 2153:0 1|Tme: 2001/09/11 03:44:25 Src: I 216.35.60.62:0 Dst: I 216.35.39.152:0 NSX: [10008.17001.41] SID: 2153 "ICMP Smurf attack" Msg: " "

2001-09-11 03:55:32 Metrocall [1064376] C ALPHA GOVPX TREASURY 30__99.03 /05+5.437 10_101.07+/09 4.841 5Y_101.07+/08+4.329 2Y_100.06+/07 3.513 6M 3.110/100 3M 3.167/157

2001-09-11 03:58:57 Skytel [004732386] A ALPHA wn@solutions.att.com|Tkt#0570912-CITICORP|MEXMONT-01-CU-DL3800-E1 up after manual restore-monitoring-GCSC 9194741488

At this time several men of Middle Eastern descent were reportedly seen entering the airport in Portland, Maine, where several 9/11 hijackers will fly to Boston and take a connecting flight, American Airlines flight 11, which they will then hijack.

2001-09-11 04:03:36 Skytel [003273267] A ALPHA julie.rodriguez@fritz.com||We have just been informed that Customs has gone manual as of 2:50am.

2001-09-11 04:04:42 Skytel [004682599] B ALPHA rddoyle@fedex.com| Can't call now, had a emergency landing in PHX. Have fun....I'll miss ya....

2001-09-11 04:06:32 Metrocall [1064381] D ALPHA BRUNEI CUTS AUG SERIA LT CRUDE PRICE TO $25.16/BBL,DOWN $1.17 VS JUL-TRADE

2001-09-11 04:16:44 Skytel [005092733] D ALPHA dss@tcysnp34.travelocity.com|TCYSNP34 Error occurred in cruisedata.csh at Tue Sep 11 03:16:25 CDT 2001|

2001-09-11 04:20:36 Skytel [004697392] A ALPHA ovmail@sexo4066.whq.ual.com||OpenView ITO alert. Node: skypath1.whq.ual.com Msg: Old wind data for Skypath

2001-09-11 04:25:40 Skytel [005107544] C ALPHA OPEN/CLOSE:Link TRGR54A (Tarragona, Spain) --> BLR54A (Bilbao, Spain) is down. TOP:03:21 TOR:03:45. TKT#1484962 -- From: SMT - 248.528.7000

2001-09-11 04:27:55 Skytel [002673372] D ALPHA alert@msn.com||Hotmail MSNBC Sports:msnbc: Jordan all but confirms return to NBA

2001-09-11 04:29:57 Skytel [007509738] C ALPHA alert@msn.com||JDSU 6.19 -0.24 Merrill Lynch - Be Bullish

I need more caffeine. I’m usually going to bed by this time of night. But it’s very difficult to pull myself away from this traffic, mundane as most of it is.

2001-09-11 04:36:04 Arch [1026292] B ALPHA Backup@NYED.usco|Operator Attention|(Server: "NYEPSROGUE" Job: "Monday backup" Device: "HP 1") Please inser t overwritable media into the changer using the slot import command.

2001-09-11 04:37:04 Arch [0983370] C ALPHA "Andrews, Rick" |travelweb|travelweb is back up 01:35

2001-09-11 04:44:49 Arch [0515405] D ALPHA (3)ERIN MOVIN SLOWLY NORTHWARD & CONTINUING TO WEAKEN HURR ERIN NOW @ 37.2 N. LAT 65.9 W. LON MAX WIND ARE NEAR 90 MPH. MOVIN TOWARD THE NORTH NEAR 7 MPH. PRES. IS 976 MB...28.82 IN.

2001-09-11 04:59:45 Arch [1184785] A ALPHA From:PAERSCNHM01/SERVER/Prudential@PRUDENTIAL Subject:ServerWatch Notification - Server PAERSCNML25/SERVER/Prudential is Responding Body:Server PAERSCNML25/SERVER/Prudential is Responding or has been restarted.

By this time practically nothing’s talking except the computers. And the monkey.

2001-09-11 04:59:48 Metrocall [0300391] B ALPHA _01Z00_02A)_1B"n6_1A8_1C3_09Odd_1A5 but _1A8True_1A9_1B&a _1C1MONKEY SIGHTINGS: It's not `Planet of the Apes.' It's more like town of the monkey. About a dozen people in Danville, New Hampshire, report seeing a large monkey on the

2001-09-11 04:59:50 Metrocall [0300391] B ALPHA loose, including Fire Chief David Kimball. He describes the animal as being about four feet tall, with woolly, brown fur. Kimball figures it's an escaped pet, but the owner doesn't want to report it because monkeys are illegal in the state. _0D_1C2TOU

2001-09-11 05:04:23 Arch [0553455] D ALPHA MUHAMMED, MUSTAFAH UNAUTHORIZED RETURN 09/11/2001 4:59AM

2001-09-11 05:07:49 Arch [0944991] D ALPHA PAGE FROM lifeline: alert 8931351 AMDB_FD dba nyfdpsyb01.gsam.gs.com FD_PROD nyfdpsyb01.gsam.gs.com_DBA (FD_PROD): 01-09-11 05:07:19 DBmaint.func_dump: ERROR: Dump for FD_PROD.SMART_data failed

2001-09-11 05:21:38 Skytel [004539594] C ALPHA delay code for flights holding due to late arrival MP. main cargo door broken from 0246 (block in) to 0320 (cargo door open). sort was from 0302 - 0341.

2001-09-11 05:25:17 Arch [1400339] A ALPHA LIRR MVB-AMD,THERE ARE 94 CARS OUT OF SERVICE.. TRAIN 1013 WILL BE RUNNING 2 CARS SHORT..

2001-09-11 05:32:19 Arch [1749363] A ALPHA |P2 NOTICE #4243326 |Etisalat link Dubai to Cairo failed impacting users WAN connectivity. Etisalat contacted Cairo PTT. OUTAGE START: 11 Sep 10:21 CET NO ETU. walho x4112 |172

2001-09-11 05:39:12 Skytel [005524707] A ALPHA PBSS@NA2.US.ML.com|NS MSG: MarginCall has startedStarted Operation: OP7_CMSma...|2001-09-11 05:41 am: MarginCall has startedStarted Operation: OP7_CMSmargincall

2001-09-11 05:39:52 Metrocall [1064381] D ALPHA OPEC CRUDE BASKET EDGED UP TO $25.56 ON MONDAY

2001-09-11 05:47:31 Skytel [005255305] C ALPHA Please join the following bridge for a Netcap PTP link issue. Bridge 888-789-0276 Pin 592965. Thank You Serena/SMC - Serena Doore * wcomnet.com paging

2001-09-11 05:48:36 Arch [0983449] C ALPHA Time to wake up!!

2001-09-11 05:54:41 Metrocall [1543599] D ALPHA Remember morning medication.

As the country wakes up, Mohamed Atta and Abdulaziz Alomari breeze through security and board Colgan Air flight 5930 to Boston, which departs at 6 a.m.

2001-09-11 05:59:36 Skytel [005384638] D ALPHA oracle@hqfas14.desc.dla.mil|Errors found in routine alert file checkup of fest on hqfas14 at 09/11/01 06:00:00. Check /u001/app/oracle/admin/scripts/dba/data/monAlertLogErrors.fest.ERROR_LOG.110901_060000 for error message.|****************

2001-09-11 06:02:41 Metrocall [1064378] C ALPHA GOLD FIXED PRICE LONDON FIX $271.39

2001-09-11 06:05:31 Skytel [007555205] B ALPHA jjlongwell@fedex.com|Numerous calls on service disruption|Please inform; John Longwell 262-1015

2001-09-11 06:12:07 Arch [1274765] D ALPHA 11-THIS IS RORY CONCEPCION. I AM UNABLE TO GO INTO WORK TODAY. WE ARE GOING TO MY AUNT'S !1/2 011

2001-09-11 06:12:09 Arch [1274765] D ALPHA 11- WAKE TODAY AT CHERRY HILL. SHE DIED RECENTLY. !2/2 011

2001-09-11 06:13:41 Metrocall [0639948] D ALPHA Frm: Southwest Airlines Sub: southwest.com Weekly Internet Specials September 11, 2001 Txt: Southwest Airlines e-mail update for September 11, 2001

2001-09-11 06:25:06 Arch [0904389] B ALPHA LIRR MVB-AMD,AT 6:16 ALL DEBRIS REMOVED FROM TRAIN 901. REQUESTING RESTORE POWER.. TRAIN IN PROCESS OF RECEIVING PAPERWORK.

2001-09-11 06:27:40 Skytel [003928287] D ALPHA TOM. THIS IS RAY, MY CONTINENTAL FLIGHT CANCELLED MHT TO EWR. NEXT FLIGHT IS AT 9:40 AM ARRIVING 11 AM. PAGER NUMBER 1 888 935 8317

2001-09-11 06:31:04 Arch [1276083] A ALPHA "NJDOT TOC North|Cave in|Route 1&9 Southbound left lane closed at 86th Street. Northbound all lanes = closed due to cave in. In North Bergen. Duration 4 - 8 hours. Crew 219, = 2006 on scene in construction project. TOC-N FS

2001-09-11 06:31:48 Skytel [003918495] D ALPHA 148411@emc.fedex.com||lets go...traffic on the gw bridge

2001-09-11 06:36:03 Metrocall [1064381] D ALPHA IRAQ SAYS IT SHOOTS DOWN U.S. RECONNAISSANCE PLANE

The five Flight 11 hijackers arrive at Logan Airport in Boston, the two from Portland and three more who drove to the airport. Flight training manuals are later found in the rental car they left behind. The Flight 175 hijackers also start arriving.

2001-09-11 06:47:03 Metrocall [0753507] A ALPHA Bill, check your WTC email for a message regarding Panacea.-Kent(x6137)

2001-09-11 06:56:47 Arch [0912340] B ALPHA Bomb Scare, ND, 700 W. 40TH Male caller stated a bomb in the bldg, set to go of at 0815. 7811 notified.

Flight 93 hijackers begin checking in.

Several hijackers are selected for additional security screening, but this only means that their bags are scanned for explosives and held off the plane until they board. No one had ever anticipated that a hijacker would blow up a plane while still on board.

2001-09-11 07:01:33 Arch [0911009] A ALPHA <opsosf @GlaxoWel|SYSTEM STATUS AS OF 7 AM|GOOD Morning! ALL TASKS THAT SHOULD BE UP NOW ARE UP!

2001-09-11 07:05:22 Metrocall [1064379] C ALPHA LONDON SILVER FIXED AT 418.00 CENTS - SEP 11

2001-09-11 07:06:35 Skytel [003071916] D ALPHA alert@msn.com||Manhattan - Tuesday: Sunny (Clear at night) 80/60*Wednesday: Mostly Sunny 78/60*Thursday: Showers /

OK, I admit defeat. There’s much too much traffic here to read through and post in one sitting. At this rate it will take at least a week just to skim through it all. I’ll continue doing so throughout the holiday and post anything I find of interest.

Update: Declan McCullagh posted a much more interesting report on the contents of the pager traffic. As it turns out, the pager messages had been leaked on a file-sharing site before WikiLeaks could complete their release. I’ll be going through them as time permits over the next few weeks.

(HT: Schneier the Security Rock Star, again)

If only the terrorists were this easy to find.

Hard to believe somebody actually was dumb enough to walk out in public with this T-shirt on.

I’ve been looking around the Internet to find someplace to buy this T-shirt, but I’ve come up empty. Anyone seen this before?

The closest I’ve been able to come is this.

Anonymous photographer; courtesy FAIL Blog

For less than $150 you can buy all the parts necessary to construct an improvised explosive device that can be carried undetected into virtually any federal building in the country, thanks in large part to security weaknesses with the Federal Protective Service, the agency charged with protecting those buildings.

So said the Government Accountability Office, which released preliminary findings Wednesday in testimony to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. And being able to sneak in bombs was only the beginning of the problems GAO found.

GAO investigators were able to carry the disassembled IED into all ten of the high security federal buildings where they conducted covert testing, assembling the devices in the nearest restroom once inside, and were then able to walk around the buildings freely, including into the offices of a U.S. Representative and Senator.

The IED was of the same design GAO used in 2007 to penetrate security at 19 different airports. As with the federal building tests, TSA screeners never detected any of the bomb components.

Along with its testimony, GAO released a video showing one of its investigators entering a federal building, along with the IEDs being detonated at a test site.

Bomb experts say there is not that much that can be done today to detect explosive devices of this type.

Again, “while better training will help — if screeners know the types of liquid IED components and materials to look for — that will help, but the only definitive way of detecting liquid explosives is the detection equipment that’s been designed to spot these types of explosives,” a bomb authority at the Department of Homeland Security toldHSToday.us.

Training obviously needs to be improved, the official said, but in order to stay “on top” of terrorists’ ability to change their bomb-making designs, FPS screeners also will need to have a program that provides for a steady stream of threat analysis intelligence and information made available to them at all times.

“Otherwise, as we’ve found at airports, liquid explosives are going to be sneaked past screeners,” the official said. “The alternative is installation of liquid explosives detection equipment, but they cost money.” — Homeland Security Today

GAO’s testimony identified further problems with the Federal Protective Service’s use of 13,000 contract guards to protect most federal buildings. The majority of contract guards’ training and certifications had lapsed or was not documented, GAO said, and in one case a contractor was caught taking bribes to falsify the certifications.

GAO also noted that FPS conducted inspections inconsistently, and rarely on nights and weekends. When it has conducted inspections, it found guards not complying with post orders. One FPS guard was caught sleeping at his post after taking the prescription painkiller Percocet. Another night guard was illegally using government computers to manage his own for-profit adult website.

It just keeps getting better. One FPS guard attached an unapproved motion sensor outside the garage he was supposed to be guarding to alert him whenever somebody was coming toward his post. Another accidentally fired his sidearm while practicing drawing it in the restroom. Apparently he’d never heard of firing ranges or gun safety training.

In yet another incident, a baby was accidentally x-rayed when the guard left the x-ray machine and a safety feature of the x-ray machine, to prevent the conveyor belt from running while the guard was not present, had been disabled. The guard was fired, but it’s not known whether the x-ray machine was fixed.

FPS has also conducted its own internal testing, GAO noted, with less than flattering results. In one such test, a fake bomb was brought into an FPS loading dock. The fake bomb was then somehow misplaced. A guard then picked it up and took it to the mail room, opened it, and panicked when he saw the fake bomb. Intrusion testing in that region was canceled after that incident.

“FPS has recently taken some actions including increasing the frequency of intrusion testing and guard inspections,” the testimony noted. “However, implementing these changes may be challenging, according to FPS.”

“In this post-9/11 world that we’re now living in, I cannot fathom how security breaches of this magnitude were allowed to occur,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, ranking member of the committee.

Chairman Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., said that in all his years of reading GAO reports, this one represented “about the broadest indictment of an agency in the federal government I’ve heard.” — Government Executive

Government Executive also notes that Congress did not want to wait for GAO’s full report, due in September, before taking action, and urged FPS director Gary Schenkel to ask Congress for whatever it needs to remedy the problems.

Congress is also considering moving FPS from within Immigration and Customs Enforcement to the National Protection and Programs Directorate, which most observers say is a much better fit for the agency.

Did you buy extra ammunition after Barack Obama was elected President, and are you still concerned that he might ban your guns? Are you concerned that the economic crisis could devolve into a depression, or worse? Do you think the federal government has overstepped its authority under the Constitution? If so, the government thinks you’re a right-wing extremist and a potential terrorist threat.

Last week the Department of Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis published an “analysis” of “right-wing extremists” in the United States in which it claims, quite vaguely, that: “Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.”

Naturally the document was leaked and has provoked a firestorm of controversy, with conservatives saying it unfairly paints their viewpoints as extremist. You’ll have to read it for yourself to see how far it goes in demonizing anyone who believes in individual rights and limited government. But here’s a sample:

(U//FOUO) Rightwing extremist chatter on the Internet continues to focus on the economy, the perceived loss of U.S. jobs in the manufacturing and construction sectors, and home foreclosures. Anti-Semitic extremists attribute these losses to a deliberate conspiracy conducted by a cabal of Jewish “financial elites.” These “accusatory” tactics are employed to draw new recruits into rightwing extremist groups and further radicalize those already subscribing to extremist beliefs. DHS/I&A assesses this trend is likely to accelerate if the economy is perceived to worsen. . . .

(U//FOUO) Historically, domestic rightwing extremists have feared, predicted, and anticipated a cataclysmic economic collapse in the United States. Prominent antigovernment conspiracy theorists have incorporated aspects of an impending economic collapse to intensify fear and paranoia among like-minded individuals and to attract recruits during times of economic uncertainty. Conspiracy theories involving declarations of martial law, impending civil strife or racial conflict, suspension of the U.S. Constitution, and the creation of citizen detention camps often incorporate aspects of a failed economy. Antigovernment conspiracy theories and “end times” prophecies could motivate extremist individuals and groups to stockpile food, ammunition, and weapons. . . .

(U//FOUO) DHS/I&A assesses that rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat. These skills and knowledge have the potential to boost the capabilities of extremists — including lone wolves or small terrorist cells — to carry out violence. The willingness of a small percentage of military personnel to join extremist groups during the 1990s because they were disgruntled, disillusioned, or suffering from the psychological effects of war is being replicated today.

That’s just the beginning.

Interestingly, the report draws a distinction between “right-wing extremists” and “law-abiding citizens,” as if good, honest, moral people could not possibly hold any of these viewpoints.

A DHS spokesman told FOX News that nothing was wrong with this assessment, citing a January assessment of left-wing extremists the department also issued.

DHS spokeswoman Sara Kuban said the April 7 assessment is one in an ongoing series published by DHS “to facilitate a greater understanding of radicalization in the United States.”

“DHS has no specific information that domestic right-wing terrorists are currently planning acts of violence, but right-wing extremists may be gaining new recruitments by playing on their fears about several emerging issues,” Kuban said. . . .

“This is the job of DHS, to assess what is happening in this country, with regard to homegrown terrorism, and determine whether it’s an actual threat or not, and that’s what these assessments do. This is nothing unusual. These assessments are done all the time. This is about awareness,” the official told FOX News on Monday. — FOX News

You might be tempted to believe that if you hadn’t actually seen the left-wing extremist assessment, so I invite you to read it for yourself and contrast it to the right-wing extremist document. It’s much more clear about its definition of left-wing extremists and even gives examples of organizations it considers to be left-wing extremists (and they’re quite difficult to argue with, unfortunately for my more liberal readers).

As you’ll see, the left-wing document is narrowly focused on specific groups and activities while the right-wing document covers almost any belief to the right of, well, Barack Obama. It names no organizations as examples, and as one commentator pointed out, doesn’t even say there’s an actual threat! You right-wing extremist loonies are just a potential threat to the nation, and so the government is going to have to keep an eye on you.

This report smacks of profiling and harassing American citizens based on their political views, and specifically based on their opposition to the Obama administration’s proposals.

This used to be called “democracy” and “free speech” protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution. But under Obama, “Homeland Security” has become an instrument of oppression of opposing points of view. — WorldNetDaily

Oh, Bush would have done the same thing if he thought he could get away with it. Let’s not pretend this is a purely Democratic problem. The problem is that the institution of government allows people who disagree with each other to beat each other over the head with the world’s largest hammer, and whoever is out of power must suffer at the hands of whoever is in power. That whoever is in power can be changed every couple of years makes it no less of a problem; it just means that everyone gets a chance to wield the hammer, and to be hit by it, in turn.

Oops, that’s an antigovernment sentiment. I must be a right-wing extremist.

The Transportation Security Administration compromised security testing of airport security screeners at as many as 11 airports by sending out an e-mail about the tests and failing to report the compromise, according to a report released Friday by the Department of Homeland Security inspector general.

On April 28, 2006, an unidentified official in TSA’s Office of Security Operations sent the e-mail to an internal distribution list with the subject of “Notice of Possible Security Test.” While the e-mail was “recalled” 14 minutes later by the OSO’s assistant administrator, the inspector general found that 187 of the 388 users of the mailing list had already read it, including four individuals at three airports which were about to be tested by the IG.

The e-mail “provided key details about our covert airport security testing program, including our test methodology and the physical description of one of our undercover testers,” the report said. “TSA’s disclosure of our covert testing procedures was inappropriate and interfered with a legitimate function of our office. In addition, at no time did any TSA official inform us that our testing was compromised.”

The TSA disagreed strongly with the conclusions, saying that it never intended to tip off covert testing and that its sending out of the e-mail message about the upcoming tests did not actually compromise anything, and this under idiot Kip Hawley’s own hand. You can read the report (Kip Hawley’s response is attached to it) and judge for yourself.

While you’re judging, listen to what a TSA spokesman had to say about the report:

“There’s no evidence that the release of the message compromised covert testing,” said TSA spokesman Greg Soule. “There was never any intention or an attempt to circumvent covert testing. This incident happened two years ago, changes have been made to the field communications system, including a high-level review to ensure this type of event doesn’t occur again.” — Nextgov

I’d be more inclined to believe it if this was the first time such a compromise had happened, but it isn’t. TSA officials at San Francisco International Airport compromised airport security testing there in 2003-2004. That’s just one incident that comes to mind offhand. And the reason there’s such testing in the first place is that TSA is so focused on illegal water bottles that it consistently misses fake bombs — and real ones.

Most of the screeners on the front lines of airport security might be trying to keep people safe in the only way they know how, but some of the management above them clearly have some strange ideas about what constitutes security. So you’ll forgive me if I don’t fly anywhere as long as the TSA exists in its current form.

Last July, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conducted a raid of a home allegedly looking for a fugitive alien. Instead, they found a Customs and Border Protection officer.

K-9 officer Jim Slaughter, a seven year veteran of CBP who works at the San Luis, Ariz., border crossing, told KSWT-TV that five ICE agents entered his home without a warrant, but immediately backed off when he told them he was a CBP officer.

His wife, Sheila, asks the important questions:

“Here they invaded my home, think of this, my children weren’t home. What if my husband hadn’t of been home? What would they have done to me?” says Sheila. — KSWT-TV

The Slaughters now believe that ICE agents simply had the wrong address, but he is suing the Department of Homeland Security because, he says, ICE refused to apologize or even explain the incident.

Unfortunately I’m afraid the suit, which cites the Fourth Amendment, isn’t likely to go anywhere. Courts have repeatedly ruled that when police raid the wrong house, citizens have no recourse, as long as the police simply made an “honest” mistake. Police being honest? When does that happen? And this bizarre miscarriage of justice is a direct result (you might say unintended consequence) of Richard Nixon’s war on drugs.

It’s that time again, time for outgoing government bureaucrats to make room for fresh new faces and to say goodbye. Today, outgoing Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff said goodbye to the country in a video. Of course, the government can’t seem to do anything right, and now we can add making simple videos to that list.

“I’m here at the Freedom Center, one of the many facilities created after the Sept. 11th attacks to protect our country from terrorist threats and to improve coordination during major disasters and emergencies,” Chertoff says to introduce himself. “In this case, threats to our aviation system.”

Formerly known as the Transportation Security Operations Center, it was renamed last year to the Freedom Center. The operations center is responsible for virtually all of the Transportation Security Administration’s day to day activities, including preventing infants and Congressmen from boarding planes and responding to other threats to aviation security.

You may as well just watch the video. I’ll warn you now, it’s rather poor quality. It’s not YouTube’s fault; this is how it was received from DHS. Apparently even Windows Movie Maker is beyond them.

Someone get this man a glass of water!

Chertoff says we are “far better protected and far better equipped to deal with 21st-century threats” than before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Of course this says absolutely nothing about whether the American people are actually any safer, and it can be argued that we are not.

“We’ve completely overhauled our aviation security system,” Chertoff reminds us, as if we hadn’t noticed. “Today, more than 20 layers of security protect air travelers, from hardened cockpit doors and Federal Air Marshals to 100 percent screening of passengers and bags.”

Which of those layers of security actually works? Fake boarding passes, guns and bombs — real ones — getting onto planes, rigged internal tests, and more show that aviation security remains as fragile as ever. Your kids could probably hijack a plane, if it ever entered their mind.

And then there’s the border. Chertoff boasts about the hundreds of miles of new border fencing, a few spots of which he welded himself as a publicity stunt, the new surveillance technology, thousands of new Border Patrol agents, and hundreds of thousands deported. Yet the border remains porous since it’s easy enough to go over, under, through — or most frequently, around — the few spots where fences exist. And it’s easy enough for at least some people to evade thousands of Border Patrol agents, too.

Not to mention what is bound to happen when illegal immigrants build sections of the fence.

“There’s a transformation taking place in border towns and communities that were once plagued by drug smuggling and overrun with illegal immigrants,” Chertoff says. The transformation, of course, is that different border towns and communities are now overrun with illegal immigrants. Sort of.

It seems that over the last year, fewer people have been immigrating to the U.S. illegally. “This is a direct result of heightened security and enforcement,” according to Chertoff. According to the illegal immigrants, it’s a direct result of the U.S. economy going straight to hell. With so many people out of work, we need those jobs to go to Americans, right?

“We’ve cracked down on employers who blatantly violate immigration laws,” Chertoff says, “while giving businesses better tools, like E-Verify, to maintain a legal workforce.” After all, those millions of people in Michigan who need a job are going to travel halfway across the country to work in a meat packing plant, right? Somehow I don’t think that’s going to happen.

Of course, to ensure the workforce is legal, the workforce has to be identified. “We’ve implemented new standards for secure driver’s licenses across the United States to prevent the use of fraudulent or stolen documents,” Chertoff says. That’s the much-maligned REAL ID Act.

Nobody is required by law to have an ID in this country. Unless they want to do things like open a bank account, or get a job, or travel. It’s a distinction without a difference, since virtually everyone is thereby forced to carry their papers just to live from day to day, and in most circumstances, forced to show them on demand. And the requirement to show your ID at the airport doesn’t even make you any safer. Chertoff even admitted as much.

Chertoff goes on to mention new regulations on chemical facilities and transportation of chemicals by rail, as well as deployment of “early-warning surveillance systems to 30 major metropolitan areas under our BioWatch program” to warn of a biological attack. In 2005, those sensors went off in Washington, D.C., right in the middle of an anti-war protest. It appears to have been a malfunction.

“Finally,” Chertoff saves the best for last, “we’ve integrated lessons from Hurricane Katrina and other disasters to ensure the federal government is fully prepared to support our state and local partners and the American people during a major disaster.” Chertoff says he’s given FEMA more power, improved emergency communications somewhat, and improved coordination with other government agencies and the private sector. It remains to be seen what the results will be, but if you’re in an area that has natural disasters, I wouldn’t place my bets on the government being there to save you. Government is, after all, the world’s largest man-made disaster.

Chertoff is clearly proud of what his department has accomplished over the four years he has been at its head. He’s managed to spend countless billions of dollars creating and growing a bureaucracy the sole purpose of which is to take Americans’ essential liberties and trade them in for a false sense of security, all the while maintaining almost the lowest morale of any government agency through poor — or nonexistent — management.

To give credit where credit is due, Homeland Security actually has managed to do some things right. I just can’t think of what they are right now.

Perhaps the webmaster at Lamperd Less Lethal needs an electric shock.

The Sarnia, Ont.., based defense company told theWashington Times last week that it had removed from its Web site a letter from a Department of Homeland Security official who the department claimed was receiving death threats.

The 2006 letter, from Paul S. Ruwaldt of the DHS Science and Technology Directorate, requested information on a “Security Bracelet” which could be used for “restraint of large numbers of individuals” in “prisoner transportation, detainee control and . . . it is conceivable to envision a use to improve air security, on passenger planes.”

The letter, accompanying a video on the company’s web site which shows a theoretical use in which every airline passenger would be forced to wear a bracelet capable of delivering a powerful electric shock, received national attention a month ago after being posted on aWashington Times blog.

Many on both sides of the political fence who heard of the story were outraged at the idea of strapping an electric shock device to airline passengers. The company’s EMD Security Bracelet is capable of storing personal information about a passenger, matching each passenger to his or her luggage, tracking passengers as they move through an airport or other large area, and delivering an electro-muscular disruption to individual bracelets on command. The electric shock, more powerful than a standard Taser, is capable of immobilizing a person for several minutes.

Although DHS spokesman John Verrico said that the department was not considering using the bracelet for airline passengers, the attention resulted in Ruwaldt receiving threatening phone calls at home, and the company receiving hate mail, according to Lamperd Less Lethal CEO Barry Lamperd.

“We decided we certainly didn’t want him to get more threats, so we took [the letter] off,” Lamperd told theTimes.

Yet the letter remains on the company’s Web site as of this afternoon. It appears the company removed some links to the letter, but not the letter itself. (See for yourself: Page 1, Page 2) Despite being notified a week ago that the letter was still online, the company has not actually removed the letter and it remains available for download.

Removing the links which point to a document on the Internet doesn’t actually remove the document; it can still be accessed by anyone who knows the Web address or through any links from third-party sites and search engines. Biofilm, Inc., manufacturer of Astroglide personal lubrication products, learned this lesson the hard way last year when it leaked 260,000 customer records by publishing the records on its Web site and then blaming the search engines for doing what they naturally do.

No word on whether the bracelet will be used for the other suggested purposes of detaining illegal immigrants and transporting prisoners.

The federal government has tried almost everything in its various bids to get undocumented immigrants out of the country. Now it’s trying something simple and unusual: just asking them to please leave.

Under “Operation Scheduled Departure,” a pilot program set to run tomorrow through August 22 in Charlotte, N.C., Chicago, Ill., Phoenix, Ariz., San Diego and Santa Ana, Calif., illegal immigrants who have been ordered deported and who have no criminal records will be able to turn themselves in at local Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices in those cities.

Anyone who does so, ICE officials say, will not be arrested and will be given 90 days to wrap up their affairs and leave the country. In some cases, they may be required to wear electronic tracking bracelets. Such individuals would be able to avoid the risk of being picked up in a raid and going through the government’s convoluted, time-consuming, often unjust excuse for a justice system while their families starve.

[ICE director Julie Myers] said the idea derived from a common complaint voiced by immigrant detainees: If given the opportunity, they’d rather just go home than be holed up in immigration prisons. . . .

“It’s pure fantasy,” said Doug Rivlin, spokesman for the National Immigration Forum in Washington. “An attempt to entice people to sign away their rights and get out of the country as quickly as possible before even talking to a lawyer.”

If people truly wanted to leave on their own, they’d buy their own bus or plane ticket home without checking in with ICE first, Rivlin said.

Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, the country’s largest anti-illegal-immigration lobby group based in Washington, said he’d have to concede that point.

The government would have to offer some kind of incentive to entice immigrants to sign up, such as telling them that by leaving voluntarily they would be allowed to apply to come back legally, Mehlman said. — San Antonio Express-News

Interestingly, this plan might actually work. Word has certainly gotten around by now about the injustice perpetrated on the immigrants picked up in the May 12 Agriprocessors raid in Postville, Iowa, where hundreds of illegal immigrants were railroaded into pleading guilty to trumped-up charges in an on-site temporary court which resembled an assembly line.

This may be part of the reason why illegal immigrants are now leaving the country on their own in droves. From August 2007 to May, the estimated number of illegal immigrants in the country dropped from 12.5 million to 11.2 million according to the Center for Immigration Studies. CIS “seeks fewer immigrants but a warmer welcome for those admitted,” according to its Web site.

Another part of the reason may be economic. Despite claims to the contrary, the U.S. economy was already headed south in mid-2007 and the pace of decline is only accelerating now. And when jobs leave, the workers must follow.

“The problem is it’s difficult to know what’s causing a change like this,” says Tamar Jacoby, president of ImmigrationWorks USA, an organization of employers nationwide lobbying for comprehensive immigration reform. “But the one thing we know for sure is that the country is in a deep economic downturn, if not a recession, which means there’s much less need for workers, especially those providing services for the middle class.”

“Immigration is a market-driven phenomenon and that’s why immigration is beneficial to the economy,” she says. “When we need them, they come; and when we don’t, they go home. Has enforcement had some effect? Perhaps. But there’s no question that the economic downturn would in and of itself have a huge effect in attracting fewer [illegal immigrants] and sending more home.” — Christian Science Monitor

ImmigrationWorks USA, a federation of pro-immigration business coalitions, lobbies against anti-immigration legislation which it says hurts small business owners.

The truth is likely to lie somewhere in between. Rats jump off a sinking ship before the captain even knows anything is wrong. Immigrants leaving the country on their own is either a sign of hard economic times ahead, or stepped-up worksite enforcement, or perhaps some of both.

How many of the estimated 572,000 illegal immigrants who qualify for Operation Scheduled Departure actually leave will give a good indicator as to which is the major cause of illegal immigrants heading south. Though I’ll predict in advance that, as someone once said, it’s the economy, stupid.