The Real Reorg - Which Posts Should Be Closed?

“Neither does [reorganization] involve rhetoric that accuses our diplomats of being ineffective, lacking accountability and concern for American interests.” The problem is, of course, that the voters are not of one mind about what those interests are. https://t.co/jpXJtL4UZj

— TSB (@TweetingTSB) April 24, 2025

Now that all the journalists, commentators, public policy analysts and barristas - those last two categories overlap - have gotten tired of chasing their tails around and around over last week's preposterous phony reorg plan leak, finally we have the real thing released by the SecState himself. 

Bottom Line Up Front, as we're told to say in memos, State is looking at a 15 percent reduction in force and the closure of a not-yet-defined number of overseas missions. 

The first round of voluntary deferred retirements reduced the ranks a bit already, and a second round was initiated last Friday by a late afternoon email from the new M-DR. In addition to that, I know that some PSC contractors were let go, as were probationary employees. 

How many more reductions will be needed to hit the 15 percent goal? Beats me, but I've seen estimates as low as 700 and as high as 2,500. 

Now, what about the closure of some embassies and consulates? Which ones will go? Lists have floated around for weeks but to the best of my knowledge nothing official has been released. 

Moreover, and much more interesting to me, how will that decision to close a post be made? Instead of publishing a list, whoever is in charge should instead identify rational criteria for making that choice. Such an approach would be fair and be seen as fair, and could be defended before Congress and our various special interests. It might even make sense to the public.  

For instance, how many reporting cables did a post send last year? How many visas issued? How many ACS cases handled? How many desk positions does it support? At some tiny posts all of those figures are in the single digits. 

Objectively and empirically, some overseas posts are not worth the considerable costs to keep them open. And their regional bureaus back in DC know that better than anyone. 

None of this is new, of course. Back in the Clinton administration days the Department reevaluated its overseas presence and identified 20 or 25 posts that could be closed, according to the official history of those years. 

That happened back when VP Al Gore was nosily 'reinventing government' as his ticket to succeeding Clinton in 2020. The reinvention worked out about as well as Gore's political future did. OTOH, they reduced the size of government by about 400,000 positions, or around twenty percent.

I say, always take the long view. We've been here before, and we'll be here again. Government never really gets reinvented. If you want to have a career that lasts a considerable time you've got to roll with the punches. 

  

 

The Real Reorg Chart is Released

Contrary to yesterday’s panic-mongering faux leaks, it appears that AF, INL, and Policy Planning are still with us. https://t.co/oa8q4ipA4u

— TSB (@TweetingTSB) April 22, 2025

Among the glaring mistakes made by the hoaxster who passed off yesterday's faux leak to a credulous news media, my favorite was the merger of OBO with OFM. Overseas Buildings Operations might sound a lot like the Office of Foreign Missions, but confusing them is a dead give-away that someone didn't bother to so much as search those terms. 

On the other hand, most or all of the news media wasn't any more diligent before they passed those phony leaks on. 

Happily, the real reorg draft plan as released today is considerably more reassuring than the half-informed speculation we saw over the weekend.

Out: Embassy in a Box. In: FLEX

Good detail here, given the limitations of secondary reporting. https://t.co/Jto6pl0l0B

— TSB (@TweetingTSB) April 16, 2025

Closing diplomatic posts and changing our overseas presence must be a complicated process, so you'd expect there to be a manual or instructions of some kind. Well, you'd be right, and it's right here in a publicly available document. Feel free to really explore the bureaucratic minutia. 

Assuming you've read that Punchbowl article, let's discuss a few things. 

First, is "FLEX" an acronym, and if so what does it stand for? The answer is yes, and it stands for Fast, Lean, Efficient, and Expedient. In practice that sounds like diplomatic missions of limited scope and scaled-down facilities. Like what a tiny house is to a regular house. 

Another term that probably made you curious is the concept of closed missions being “folded into” nearby embassies. Very odd. My guess is that means some functions and personnel would simply be moved to those nearby missions, and maybe ambassadors would be regionally-accredited to more than one country.  

And what about that plan for our Tri-Mission posts (Rome, Paris, Brussels, Vienna, etc.)? They're in for a shock if the international missions are moved into our bilateral embassies. Can three ambassadors share a single building??? Who gets first dibs on the pool or tennis court??? Endless petty annoyances would ensue. 

Nothing will bring out in-fighting better than a struggle over an up-to 50 percent budget cut. Coming soon.

Annnd, Away We Go! State Budget Cuts On the Table

Up to 30+ posts would be closed, $$ to multinationals, NGOs such as the East-West Center, UN peacekeeping, and INL zeroed out, migration and refugee programs cut in half. We’ll see how much Congress shares the enthusiasm. https://t.co/FiYgrC62JI

— TSB (@TweetingTSB) April 14, 2025

There's still a world of politics and process between an unofficial budget proposal and an actual congressional appropriation, so don't everyone take a deferred retirement just yet. 

Last Stand at U.S. Institute of Peace (Includes a Gun Safe and the Car Left Behind)

Changes of power often entail the use of a bit of force to shake up the bitter-enders among the losing side. The USIP seems an unlikely place for that, nevertheless that's what happened here in the nation's capitol last week. 

According to a law suit and multiple news reports, the USIP leadership and a few loyalists barricaded themselves in the USIP's large and impressive headquarters building, even to the point of removing outer lock keyways from its entrance doors, trying to disable them. Reportedly they also disabled elevators, electronic access controls, and phone systems. 

According to a lawsuit filed last week the dastardly DOGE invaders finally gained entrance by enlisting former security guards employed by a private security agency that USIP recently ended its contract with. The agency did not return USIP's master key when the contract ended. 

Reportedly, DOGE was able to gain the agency's assistance by threatening to cut off all its federal contracts. (Here I am reminded of Machiavelli's warning that mercenaries cannot be trusted.)

Once the lower battlements had thus been breached, USIP’s leadership barricaded themselves on the building’s top floor. A sound tactical move, that, since the top floor usually makes the best place for a last refuge during a siege, whether in an embassy's safe haven or a castle's Keep.   

The siege was soon over, but DOGE offered merciful terms of surrender and the defeated survivors were permitted to leave unharmed, although without their personal property or even the car belonging to the vanquished former President of USIP. 

One big surprise, to me at least, came in a court declaration filed Wednesday by USIP's outside counsel George Foote where he stated that after the former security agency's employees heard his protest that they were trespassing “they ignored this and proceeded to walk toward USIP’s gun safe.”  

WHAT? The institute of peace felt it necessary to have firearms on the premises? Evidently our professional peacekeepers think there are limits to the practical value of conflict resolution techniques. Like, if they feel personally threatened they want the option of bustin' a cap in some troublemaker's ass. 

Not that I disagree, but, well, I now feel disillusioned. How were those guys going to end conflicts and  create peace in the whole world if they don't trust themselves to cool down a few former contract employees? 

SCOTUS to POTUS: Bring Me the Head of Abrego Garcia

 

Not to be confused with the object of that 1974 second-tier Sam Peckinpah movie, but the coincidence of names is worth noting. 

As it was with Alfredo, so it is with Abrego - some powerful people want him returned, only in this case with his head still attached to his body. Read the SCOTUS decision here. 

The current Garcia is, of course, a Salvadoran citizen who is in the custody of the Salvadoran government. That'll make him very easy to find but very hard to return. 

In any case, all SCOTUS asked of the Trump administration was that it "facilitate and effectuate" his return. So, short of ordering SEAL Team 6 to rescue him from Salvador's Center for Terrorism Confinement, I'd guess the administration will be unable to deliver.

SCOTUS should brace itself for disappointment. 

DSS Investigates a Human Smuggling Network

DSS flexes that new(ish) illegal alien bustin’ value. https://t.co/nQYJuRd4WQ

— TSB (@TweetingTSB) April 9, 2025

See the local Peruvian news here in inglés. 

DOGE, are you seeing this? Worth immunity from RIFs, unless I miss my guess. 

What Goes Around Comes Around and Burns You Down (A Story of the Japanese Empire and Harvard's Chemistry Department)

While browsing today's Higher Ed newsletter (don't laugh, everyone needs to keep a few job irons in the fire in these uncertain times) I saw a book review that included this nugget:  

In 1967, in the midst of the Vietnam War, Harvard University English professor Neil Rudenstine intervened in a protest on campus, where a recruiter from Dow Chemical Company, which made napalm, had been surrounded by students upset about U.S. attacks on Vietnamese civilians. He helped defuse the tension by negotiating with students to release the recruiter.

Well, that immediately made me think about the history of napalm, which by a great irony was the brainchild of Harvard itself when it was doing war work for the USG in 1942. True story, which you can read all about in this Harvard Crimson article.

The first napalm experiments were even conducted right there on the Harvard campus, as you can see in the photo above. That came as an uncomfortable surprise to Vietnam War protestors on campus.

 

The great historical irony is that the USG was in need of a new incendiary in 1942 only because latex, which had been used in earlier incendiaries, became a scare commodity after the Japanese Empire invaded and occupied Malaya, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand early in the war, thereby capturing most of the world's natural rubber sources.

Napalm was used in all theaters of the war, and was later used in Korea and Vietnam, but by far it's greatest concentration was in the U.S. fire-bomb campaign against 60-some Japanese cities. 

How's that for unintended consequences? 

 

Great Foreign Service Is Just a Short Walk Across the Border

It might seem strange but one of the oldest, most historically rich, and simply useful posts in the U.S. Foreign Service is within sight of Brownsville, Texas. 

Don't look too closely at what the city's Spanish name means, and please read this article in the current State Magazine: Matamoros - Building American prosperity and protecting American citizens for two centuries. 

There is so much to know about that post that the article doesn't even go into Matamoros' role in the U.S. Civil War, a time when the contraband trade flowed from north to south because Matamoros was the only port available to the Confederacy that was not blockaded by the Union Navy, or its diplomatic role vis-a-vis the Republic of Texas when the later was a separate country.

You can't miss with that post, although one does have to sympathize with junior officers who find themselves doing 'foreign' service at a place where they can swing over to the USA to get groceries or to fill up their cars.   

DOGE Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, The View From State

Please read The Inside Story of DOGE's State Department Reforms by Peter Van Buren. 

PSCs and LES have been the hardest hit by The Trumpening 2 up to this point, but just wait for the RIFs and FAM revisions! 

His bottom line from this excellent article:

Everything is in flux at present and no one should make any decisions based on this or any other article. But what is clear is that this time Trump means business. Unlike the small-scale RIF which took place at State during the Clinton administration, this time it’s for real, a seemingly determined effort to downsize the State Department both at home and abroad while at the same time likely increasing the authority of political appointees. It is both a paradigm shift and a power shift away from a more-or-less independent State Department (and other agencies) toward a concentration of power higher in the executive branch.

The Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration is bound to take most of the hit, but there will probably be some effect on every office that isn't doing public safety, law enforcement, or immigration enforcement. 

If you aren't in one of those functional areas, brace for impact. 

Is the 'Coalition of the Willing' Willing to Be Killed In Nasty Ways?

NATO Plans Switch From Sexy to Sensible - They are “trying to re-dimension what they were doing to something that could be more sensible… with the situation on the ground and the U.S administration as it is, it's not very sexy." https://t.co/TqdxKgmrje

— TSB (@TweetingTSB) March 27, 2025

And who can blame them? From the link above: 

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in late February that the U.K. would be "ready and willing" to deploy British troops in Ukraine as part of a potential peace deal.

Brave, Brave, Sir Starmer is - as we say over here - letting his mouth write a check that his body can't cash. 

When the happy songs of his minstrels run up against the disparity in UK versus Russian military capability, who'll be happy then?

 

Can This Odd Couple Share a Presidential Ticket Without Driving Each Other Crazy?

A May Day-Decembrist ticket! (Obscure reference maybe, but it amuses me.) https://t.co/hHos0h5ihI

— TSB (@TweetingTSB) March 22, 2025

Well, the Decembrist part is definitely obscure, as well as not really the best historical fit for Comrade 'honeymoon in the USSR' Sanders, but you get the idea.

Is this just the ticket to revive the political fortunes of the Democratic Party, which are currently at a historically low 29 percent favorability rating? 

I wouldn't care to speculate about that except to note that young men are probably going to remain alienated from the AOC-and-Bernie appeal. 

Is NATO Eager For WWIII? Most Unlikely.

 

In today's peace settlement in Ukraine news we read an implied threat that our EU peacekeepers might just go into world-ender mode the first chance they get:

An anonymous Western official offered another option, saying the [French and UK] forces could launch direct, immediate strikes on Russian targets if a cease-fire is violated.

Wow. French and UK troops going toe-to-toe with the Rooskies? All the way up to nuclear combat? That's a hell of a prospect. 

The last time UK and other NATO troops engaged in a standoff with Russian forces was in 1999 during the Kosovo War in what has become known as the Incident at Pristina Airport:

The following morning, Sunday 13 June, [U.S. General] Clark arrived at [UK General] Jackson's HQ in Skopje. It was pointed out to Clark that the isolated Russians could not be reinforced by air and that, in light of how vital Russian support had been to get a peace agreement, antagonising them would only be counterproductive. Clark refused to accept this and continued to order that the runway be blocked, claiming to be supported by the NATO Secretary-General. 

When again directly ordered to block the runway, Jackson suggested that British tanks and armoured cars would be more suitable, in the knowledge that this would almost certainly be vetoed by the British government. Clark agreed. Jackson was ready to resign rather than follow Clark's order. The British Ministry of Defence authorised British force commander Richard Dannatt to use 4 Armoured Brigade to isolate the airfield but not to block the runways. Clark's orders were not carried out, and the United States instead requested neighbouring states not to allow Russia to use their airspace to ferry in reinforcements. Russia was forced to call off the reinforcements after Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania refused requests by Russia to use their airspace.

“I’m not going to start World War Three for you,” Newsweek reported Jackson as telling Clark. And okay, probably discretion was the better part of valor that day. 

Does anyone believe that the present day UK and French Generals are any more eager for nuclear combat than Jackson was in 1999?

Only in Zelensky's wet dreams. 

DOGE Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

 

So far DOGE has been snapping at the heels of us feds, coming for probationary employees and the more easily intimidated of the geezers who were on the verge of retirement anyway. (The dismantling of USAID was an exception to this rule.)

But the rumors today are that the Trump Administration is planning a second Reduction In Force pass aimed at tenured employees. That will largely depend on the reorganization plans that all departments are to file by the middle of next month. The TechyBoyz of DOGE will scrub those plans on high alert for signs of redundancy or duplicated efforts, even among those functions which have a statutory basis. 

But exactly how good are those Boyz? They've stepped on their dicks a few times already, you know. 

They sent that What Did You Do Last Week email to legislative and judicial employees, as well as the intended targets in the executive branch of government. Apparently they need to ask Grok to read the Constitution for them and explain that thing called "separation of powers."

They also made the rookie mistake of not considering out-of-office and automatic replies to that omnibus Reply to This if You Want to Retire Now email. What do you suppose that some people who do not want to retire now have been receiving a welcome to the deferred retirement program anyway based on their auto replies. Ooops.

And those are just minor mistakes compared to the absurdity of the premise that someone, somewhere, was going to read 2.4 million emails, or even scan them for key words. That's not going to happen.

Maybe the TechyBoyz have some super-tricky algorithm that will do that DOGE work for them? They better hope people will believe they do, otherwise they're just IT guys in tee shirts.  

I say, take heart, and don't give in to exaggerated fears. But also update that resume and, if the worst comes, remember that the world always needs substitute teachers. 

He's So Sly, There's No Telling Where the Money Went

 

Imagine that's Zelenskyy upfront, only wearing a suit, and a pack of lovely Ukrainian women behind him dancing. 

There! Just the thing to tip U.S. public opinion over to support endless taxpayer's money flowing to Ukrainian interests with no audit.   

How can it be political? 

I'll compromise my principle (yeah, yeah) 

Ukrain-y love is mythical 

The cost is so untypical! 

It's a craze you'd underight 

Just don't audit that big fight 

You're obliged to comply 

Or else Putin's missiles fly 

It used to look good to me 

But now I find it - - -

Simply can't be audited!

Simply can't be audited!

 

Madame Ambassador Markarova, It Must Be Five O'Clock Somewhere

Don’t look so down, it’ll be Wheels Up in no time. https://t.co/OKVter0eRW

— TSB (@TweetingTSB) February 28, 2025

Stick a Fork in It, the Retirement Buyout Offer is Over

According to The Hill, 75,000 of us feds accepted the deferred retirement offer (here), and we can trust The Hill to be accurate and unbiased about that since it's probably been state-supported media all along.

The figure — 3.75 percent of the nation’s 2 million federal employees — falls short of the projected 5 percent to 10 percent of federal employees the White House expected to take the deal.

Add to that the normal annual attrition of federal employees, which IIRC is just under six percent, and you almost get to the ten percent reduction target by the end of the fiscal year. 

Fans of statistics will object that we aren't correcting those numbers for what proportion of feds were not allowed to take the offer, etc., which if we did, might make that 3.75 number larger. But those guys have probably been laid off by now, so ignore that quibbling. 

As for the other 96.25 percent of us, many were scrambling this past week to document the statutory authority which justifies their function. Frankly, though, crying you will respect muh authoritah! is a thin reed to cling to when the Reduction in Force winds begin to blow. Some of those functions just plain do not align with current administration policies. Some are directly opposed to those policies. 

"Elections have consequences" as another POTUS famously said, and we will see those consequences played out in the next few months.

It may be some comfort to recall that this is not the first time a POTUS has taken an ax to government staffing.

Trump Admin Springs US Citizen Prisoner From Russia

13 years early on his 14 year sentence. https://t.co/a81wtExvia

— TSB (@TweetingTSB) February 11, 2025

Mr. Fogel is breathing the sweet air of freedom tonight, plus all the weed he wants.  

Disaster Assistance Response Team Employee Misses Opportunity To Make the Case For USAID Funding

An American aid worker describes the implosion of the humanitarian mission to support rape and famine victims in Sudanhttps://t.co/EMzWQT89ti

— Rolling Stone Politics (@RSPolitics) February 7, 2025

DART is a small and specialized part of what USAID does, and it represents the agency's most politically defendable and humanitarian mission. The Rolling Stone story is worth the four minutes it will take you to read. 

Here are the first two paras of a transcribed chat:

What is your role with USAID? I work on the Disaster Assistance Response Team for the Sudan Complex Emergency, [funding] partners like WFP, UNICEF, and other international NGOs. I work with impressive, dedicated, honest people who want the same thing: to help alleviate suffering from the most vulnerable. We just found out we have all been terminated; for me, in less than 30 days.

What does that mean for your work? Though we were treated poorly during this, we aren't the real casualties of this political war. The programs we delivered saved lives by providing food and nutrition to SAM (severe acute malnutrition) children, and clean water and health needs for women in Sudan who were raped or impregnated by soldiers and gangs. All down the drain. We have abandoned all of it, as of now. Our NGO partners have laid people off and aid is no longer getting to those most vulnerable. It's a horrible feeling to let all that go. I feel empty and angry, sad, unvalued, confused. It hurts.

You get the sense of it from that snippit. I won't dispute anything the DART guy said. But I will point out that DART delivers all that humanitarian aid by funding its implementing partners - those NGOs and UN programs - who are the parties actually delivering the assistance. 

That being the case, does USAID need much of a field presence other than to audit contract compliance? Probably not. 

And could that necessary presence be provided just as well by DOS instead of USAID? Probably so. 

But notwithstanding all of that, what annoys me about this media piece in defense of USAID is its complete one-sidedness. No mention of the money spent on totally non-humanitarian programs, especially on funding news and opinion media outlets both at home and around the world, which is what brought USAID down. 

The humanitarian mission has public support. Funding the BBC and Politico does not. 

The interviewee and his co-workers could have improved the public perception of USAID's value by objecting to the millions USAID spent on buying media influence and other 'soft power' whim-wham rather than on his starving Sudanese. You know, be whistleblowers instead of whiners.  

That would have been an attractive proposition for MAGA and The Trumpening, I'd bet. But it's an opportunity lost, and from the looks of it, permanently.

Will U.S. Security Sub-Contractors Man a Gaza Checkpoint??

Read about it here, but frankly, I hit my limit for belief at this sentence: "It was unclear what would happen if the Americans were attacked or captured, or which nation's law would govern the contractor's actions." 

All of that has been unclear in every previous incident of armed contractors in war zones, so why would we have any clarity about it this time? It's not like we learn from past experience, after all.  

 

Are we really doing that again? No way, surely. 

WASHINGTON (Reuters)  A small U.S. security firm is hiring nearly 100 U.S. special forces veterans to help run a checkpoint in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas truce, according to a company spokesperson and a recruitment email seen by Reuters, introducing armed American contractors into the heart of one of the world's most violent conflict zones.

UG Solutions - a low-profile company founded in 2023 and based in Davidson, North Carolina - is offering a daily rate starting at $1,100 with a $10,000 advance to veterans it hires, the email said. They will staff the checkpoint at a key intersection in Gaza's interior, said the spokesperson, who confirmed the authenticity of the email. 

Some people have been recruited and are already at the checkpoint, said the spokesperson, speaking on condition of anonymity. He did not say how many contractors were already in Gaza. 

-- snip-- 

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel on Tuesday told reporters, without naming UG Solutions or the United States, that Israel had demanded that the deal include the use of a private security firm, working with "an Egyptian security company or forces" to help maintain security and humanitarian aid flows in Gaza. 

But, she said, it remained to be seen if the arrangement "actually works." 

--snip--

A separate source familiar with the deal said Israel and unnamed "Arab countries" that worked on the agreement are funding the consortium. The U.S. government had no direct involvement in the decision to include a security company in the ceasefire deal or in the awarding of the contract, the source said.

This genius scheme ought to come undone as soon as the USG acquires some direct involvement in that decision. 

About Those "Military Aged Males" Who Crossed Our Border: Hell No, They Won't Go! Or Will They?

Hey, Tom Homan, you're missing a good one here. It appears there is a new and very large group of alien criminal offenders who are prime for your attention.  

This story may have been lost amid all the other news about immigration enforcement lately, but it points out a surprising deportation predicate that's gone ignored, and, for those of us of a certain age, it's also a blast from the past. 

To wit, the fearsome draft card.

A top government accountability group will send a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the U.S. Selective Service System (SSS) for data on illegal immigrants who did not register for the draft and therefore committed a felony.

By law, all U.S. males aged 18-26 must register with the SSS under penalty of felony conviction and $250,000 fine under the Military Selective Service Act of 1917, Howell’s group noted in their filing.

Additionally, the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952 makes failure to register with the SSS a deportable offense, and the SSS website clearly states undocumented aliens are required to sign up for the draft, Howell noted.

-- snip --

In a Thursday interview, Howell and attorney Kyle Brosnan said SSS registration has been flat during the Biden administration as far as it relates to the obvious uptick in "military-aged males" crossing the border and being "caught-and-released" by federal immigration authorities.

"The absence of such a surge indicates that there is widespread criminal non-compliance by such aliens," they wrote in their FOIA request. "There should be a large increase in [SSS registration] with 10 million illegals that have come over the border in the last four years."

Well, well, well. When the Biden administration was processing and releasing all those male border crossers over the last four years, did it register them with Selective Service?

Rhetorical question, of course.

But if it did not, then what is there to stop the new administration from charging them with a serious crime and expediting their deportation?

SecState Rubio Sends an ALDAC and a Shot Across the Bows

On his first full day as SecState, Mario Rubio delivered a strong message about the priorities and missions of State under the second Trump administration. 

Here's the gist of them:

The State Department will no longer undertake any activities that facilitate or encourage mass migration … [Western Hemisphere priorities will become] stopping illegal and destabilizing migration, and negotiating the repatriation of illegal immigrants.

President Trump issued an executive order eliminating “DEIA” requirements, programs, and offices throughout the government. This order will be faithfully executed and observed in both letter and spirit.

[E]liminating our focus on political and cultural causes that are divisive at home and deeply unpopular abroad.

[S]upport and defend Americans’ rights to free speech, terminating any programs that in any way lead to censoring the American people.

[D]o away with climate policies that weaken America … [and support] a return to American energy dominance.

You can't fault the man for either directness or promptness.

Unfinished Business With Jordan and Justice - Will Trump Make Extradition Great Again?

A year ago, the Conference of Presidents which speaks for America's major Jewish groups wrote an emphatic letter to Sec of State Antony Blinken. He didn't answer. This week, the COP renewed its call, this time to the Trump Administration. It concerns Jordan, justice, the… https://t.co/U7sOYMRbhA pic.twitter.com/SenocSHePC

— Arnold Roth (@arnoldroth) January 21, 2025

Now that we have a new-ish administration, I wonder what appetite it may have for bringing justice to a notorious most wanted terrorist who is hiding in plain sight in Jordan? 

See this old post or this one for details but, trust me, this is exactly the kind of business that ought to interest the Trump administration, or so you would think. 

Al-Tamimi murdered U.S. citizens, so she has an ass-kicking coming to her from the fellow citizens of those victims. 

Will Trump finally act on her now that he has a second chance to run our foreign affairs with his customary heavy hand? No one would deserve that more. 

 

Vehicle Ramming Attacks in Public Spaces: Isn't Anyone Serious About Defense?

I don't wish to be too hard on the authorities in Magdeburg, Germany, and their costly durcheinanderbringen that left their Christmas market vulnerable to a vehicle ramming attack last month. Our own authorities in New Orleans did exactly the same stupid thing, and that one cost ten lives. The photo above is of the aftermath on Bourbon Street.  

There is quite the cultural difference between central Germany and New Orleans, of course. For instance, what German city would ever adopt the motto "Let the Good Times Roll?" It's easier for me to understand a huge security screw-up in New Orleans. 

"New Orleans resembles Genoa or Marseilles, or Beirut or the Egyptian Alexandria more than it does New York, although all seaports resemble one another more than they can resemble any place in the interior. Like Havana and Port-au-Prince, New Orleans is within the orbit of a Hellenistic world that never touched the North Atlantic. The Mediterranean, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico form a homogeneous, though interrupted, sea." A. J. Liebling, THE EARL OF LOUISIANA

Did you ever read Confederacy of Dunces? That above quote is from the foreword. Totally true. New Orleans is the only place in North America - which includes Mexico, don't forget - where I've ever felt I needed a visa. 

A news report on yesterday's New Orleans attack is here: 

A set of security barriers that were installed in 2017 to prevent terrorist attacks along Bourbon Street were being replaced when a driver barreled down the city’s most famous thoroughfare hours into the New Year on Wednesday, killing 10 and injuring dozens. 

The removable stainless-steel bollards are designed to be securely locked at each crosswalk along Bourbon Street between Canal and St. Ann streets, according to Mayor LaToya Cantrell's administration. The attack occurred near the intersection of Bourbon and Iberville streets. 

New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said the suspect drove “at a very fast pace” down Bourbon Street about 3:15 a.m., striking dozens, and then shot at first responders after crashing. Two officers were struck and are in stable condition. The suspect, too, was shot and has died. The FBI is investigating the incident as a terrorist attack. 

The bollard project began in November and was scheduled to last three months. It involves removing and replacing sections of road to take out the existing bollards. A city press release on Tuesday night noted the project was ongoing, but did not provide details of work done thus far.

The old barriers never worked too well, said Bob Simms, who until recently oversaw security initiatives for the French Quarter Management District. 

'They were very ineffective. The track was always full of crap; beads and doubloons and God knows what else. Not the best idea,” Simms said. “Eventually everybody realized the need to replace them. They’re in the process of doing that, but the new ones are not yet operational.” 

Simms said the old barrier at the crosswalk of Canal and Bourbon streets was removed a few weeks ago. Equipment for a replacement is in place, he said. 

"They're doing it in time for the Super Bowl," Simms said. "It's ironic in a way." 

-- snip -- 

Simms said preventing the kind of carnage that took place early Wednesday was "exactly what [the bollards were] built for." 

The bollards were put in place before NBA All-Star Game in 2017. The plan was partly a reaction to the July 2016 mass murder in Nice, France, when a terrorist used a truck as a weapon to plow into a Bastille Day crowd, killing 86 and injuring hundreds more. A few months later a copycat killed 12 shoppers in a Berlin Christmas market. 

That's a major screw-up in any language. 

The still-fairly-serious press is now paying attention, and today the NYT has an article about the rising threat of vehicle ramming attacks, and it's NOT barricaded behind a paywall, so they must really want you to read it. 

You'll find there links to an FBI handout and also a British academic journal article from 2019, both about the spectacularly obvious tactic of vehicle ramming. In short, ramming attacks have left a death toll that exceeds that of almost any vehicle bomb attack. 

The NYT article ends with these two last paragraphs:

“The problem in the most recent case [in Germany] is that the perpetrator used a lane reserved for ambulances,” said Nicolas Stockhammer, a professor of security studies at Danube University in Krems, Austria. “He approached the area through a side where there was no protection.”

The city of New Orleans was upgrading security bollards along a section of Bourbon Street in the area where the attack occurred, according to its website. The city’s police superintendent said at a news conference that the perpetrator “went around our barricades” to conduct the attack.

So, it appears that our best intellectual talent in security studies and our foremost municipal police leaderships are capable of appreciating the threat of vehicle ramming attacks. 

That's good. But the NYT ends the matter there. It doesn't take the next step and ask our responsible officials why those attacks have been succeeding. 

The answer to that question is BECAUSE YOU DID'NT BLOCK VEHICLE ACCESS TO YOUR CITIES' MOST ATTRACTIVE TARGETS, that's why. You left gaps open and unprotected which the attackers could exploit. 

Are you not as serious about defense as your attackers are about offense? 

It's all the more aggravating that our responsible officials already know how to counter those attacks, since they know our federal government has done just that for decades around its domestic and overseas buildings. They know better but they did a half-assed job anyway. 

Maybe we citizens and voters might now ask those responsible officials why they have been derelict in their basic duty of public safety.