June 3, 2011, - 2:50 pm

Homeland Security?: During Bomb Threats, Agency Policy to Lock Down Agents in Bldg to Get Blown Up

By Debbie Schlussel

Apparently the Department of Homeland Security learned nothing from 9/11 . . . and has zero just plain common sense.  DebbieSchlussel.com has learned that it is official Department of Homeland Security policy for all agents to stay in buildings when a bomb threat is made, even if an actual bomb is discovered.  Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, who make up the largest group of DHS agents, are angry, as they’ve learned their agency values their lives very little (if at all).

dhsrecruitmentmuslima.jpg

Official Dept of Homeland Security Policy: Agents Must Stay in Bldg, Get Blown Up During Bomb Threats

You may recall that, in March, I broke the story that ICE agents at Detroit’s McNamara Federal Building were not told about a live bomb discovered in the building, until many hours later.  They were not told about it even after the bomb was moved just outside of the windows of their offices.  Their Islamo-pandering boss, ICE Michigan/Ohio Special Agent in Charge Brian Moskowitz a/k/a “Abu Moskowitz,” didn’t even inform them about the bomb, until hours after it was discovered in their building.  Agents were rightfully upset, given that they could have blown up.  Most of them have families, with kids who would lose a parent.  Had the bomb not been discovered and removed to be detonated elsewhere, they might all be dead.

But, apparently, what Moskowitz did is official Department of Homeland Security policy, as ICE agents in Dallas recently learned, when they were not allowed to leave their office building during a bomb threat.  Yes, agents are sitting ducks, their safety deliberately put at risk by the Department of Homeland Security.  The agency cannot, and refuses to keep its own agents safe.  Think it’s gonna keep America safe?  Ha.  Think again, suckers.  Here’s what one agent told me:

I work for the Immigration and Customs EnFARCEment office at 7701 N. Stemmons Fwy., in Dallas, TX. The below forwarded email is in reference to a suspicious package incident that we had in our building on Wednesday, May 18, 2011. The email is from the Assistant Director of my office. [DS: The agent redacted the person’s name to protect the innocent.]

On May 18, we had a suspicious package left in our building. The office of approximately 300 employees, was informed that no one was allowed to leave and that guards were stationed at each door to physically prevent any of us from leaving. Upon further inquiry, I was informed that there was a possible bomb in the building. Being somewhat fond of my life, I decided that this ridiculous edict that nobody could leave a building that possibly had a bomb in it was not going to be acceptable. I attempted to exit the building and was told by the armed Federal Protective Service guard at the door that he was not going to allow me to exit. Subsequently, I took my team with me and used one of the other doors that our completely inept security team failed to cover.

I’m sure that you are as appalled by this “no evacuation during a bomb scare” rule as I am. Especially when there actually is a suspicious package that has been located as opposed to just a random bomb threat call from some lunatic. The following day, I was informed that this is a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policy and not just a local policy that lacks common sense and attention to safety. I emailed Mr. Roy Castillo (roy.castillo@dhs.gov) who is our Building Superintendent and asked him to provide me with the contact information of the person at the DHS level who is responsible for the policy of not allowing employees out of a building when there is a possible bomb in it (I am still stunned by the stupidity of this every time I type it). To this date, I have not received a response from Mr. Castillo.

I believe that this type of complete ineptitude and willingness to sacrifice lives in order to……your guess is as good as mine as to why the hell this policy is in place.

I thought you might be interested in the kind of complete ineptitude and disregard for human life that DHS and ICE displays on a daily basis.

—–Original Message—–
From: XXXXXXXXXXX
Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2011 2:40 PM
To: Anderson, Mary FE V; Andrews, Quomika L; Arnold, Sally; Ayers,
Lawrence M; Brito, Rafmar R; Brown, Joseph E; Burch, Barbara D;
Crockett, Bobby; Curiel, Mario; Doty, Marilyn L; Hancock, David;
Horwitz, Greg; Jackson, Christopher L; Morigeau, Kenneth W
(KWMorige@fins3.dhs.gov); Peavler, Dan P; ransom, wesley; Stark, Stephen Craig; Stephens, Julian M; Stiegler, Elaine; Teichmann, Terry L; Thomas, Demetress; Thomas, Jill; Trujillo, Christopher H; Volkmer, Colette S; Wang, Tasha R; Webb, Anthony D; Werner, Peter; Williams, James G; Youngblood, Stacee S
Subject: Building On Lock Down

We have been notified by the guards that the building is currently on
Lock Down and no one is allowed to leave because there is a suspicious
package in the building and HAZMAT must come and check it before anyone is allowed to leave. There is no estimation on how long this will be.

Once I know more, I will let you know. Thanks.

This is an absurd policy, and it won’t help catch anyone who leaves a bomb in a federal building. It will only blow everyone else up and jeopardize innocent federal agents’ lives.

Can you imagine if they locked down the towers of the World Trade Center on 9/11? The count of dead Americans would probably be double.

I repeat the obvious here: if Homeland Security doesn’t give a damn about the lives and safety of its own agents, the agency management certainly won’t give a crap about yours. Keep that in mind anytime Homeland Security tells you the agency is doing something–anything–to keep America safe.

Riiiiiight.




Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,


21 Responses

“Stupid is as stupid does”

And it starts at the top

Sam Adams on June 3, 2011 at 3:22 pm

Their own agents are disposable! Jihadists (Alhamidullah, Praise Allah) have discovered America’s weak spot. The stupidity and thoughtlessness of its federal security management. Its an accident or rather a terrorist attack waiting to happen. Think those at the top will pay the price?

Think again. They could care less about the lives of their own employees. Don’t look for them to be as vigilant when comes to public safety.

NormanF on June 3, 2011 at 3:28 pm

The names listed above are NOT, repeat NOT agents. As a former ICE employee, I personally know about half the names – they are all in the ICE Contracting Office at 7701 N. Stemmons FWY. There are no ICE agents permanently stationed in that building – they are at another location in the DFW area.

While the policy is in and of itself stupid, don’t exaggerate it beyond its original stupidity.

BD: The names in the e-mail are completely irrelevant and a distinction without a difference. The person who wrote me the e-mail is, in fact, an agent, and was NOT allowed out of the building, nor were the agents he supervises. DS

Bob DuFrane on June 3, 2011 at 3:41 pm

It doesn’t matter what title you give them. Agents, employees, Officers… who cares! They are PEOPLE! Human beings who work, have families, love and are loved by someone. do they deserve to be harmed or die due to ‘policy’?

Bella on June 3, 2011 at 4:11 pm

BDF, really a stupid comment. What do you think would happen to any agents who were in the building?

You have no reading comprehension skills, or deliberately try to distort. Didn’t you read that there was an agent and team of agents that were told they couldn’t leave the building?

The fact that others besides agents are imperiled just makes it worse. Although from the tone of your letter, you think the others are beneath contempt; I’m sure they have families just like the agents do.

You are probably a creep getting kickbacks like that weirdo who use to respond and was found to be a crook.

Little Al on June 3, 2011 at 4:13 pm

    Dear Little Al,

    I am not one of those weirdos – I am a 24-year Air Force veteran who is truly conservative. I check this site regularly because I see things reported here that appear no where else. I appreciate the work Debbie does.

    I am not looking down on those who are not agents. I did not insult Debbie or anyone else with my comment, nor am I insluting you now with this response, so I would appreciate it if you would not stoop to fifth grade tactics when responding to me. I stand by my original comments as someone who worked in ICE for five years and has been in that exact building over a dozen times during those five years. ICE agents are not normally inside that building. It is a DHS facility that contains mostly administrative staff from 3-4 DHS components: CBP, ICE, and USCIS among them.

    The issue is not what would happen to anyone in the building. The issue is the stupid policy – stick to that.

    BD on June 3, 2011 at 8:28 pm

Bob is right. Also, ICE Agents are armed law enforcement officers. If there is one thing that would not stop one from leaving a building, and that’s an “armed” security guard, even if he/she is a federal security guard.

As to the Detroit situation, as Sam said, stupid is as stupid does. Common sense is apparently not a major job requirement above the field agent level.

JS: Wrong. The person who wrote me is an armed federal agent. HE was stopped. And FYI, he was stopped by other armed federal agents who work for the Federal Protective Service. Yeah, like he’s gonna start a shoot-out and lose his job, too. DS

Jus Soli on June 3, 2011 at 4:26 pm

We all know that federal bureaucrats are mindless and stupid; they rise to their own level of incompetence, but Bob and Jus Soli redefine ‘stupid’ down. Just be honest enough to admit it is an idiot policy and shows disregard for all the federal employees, agents as well as support staff.

I really get sick and tired of reading bureaucratic rationalizations for the stupid, selfish, and, in this case, bordering on criminal, behavior of government bureaucrats.

Little Al on June 3, 2011 at 4:40 pm

LA,

Top management is not even bothering to defend the policy. You can’t defend stupidity.

But it does nothing for those endangered by it and it won’t change until federal agents are killed. Yup, that what it takes to wake up a somnolent bureaucracy. A tragedy.

NormanF on June 3, 2011 at 4:46 pm

Remember 9-11? The PA system in the WTC was telling people to stay put. At 6 World Trade Center on 9-11 there were some 760 Customs employees in the building, their titles (although irrelevant to the underlying problem) were Special Agent, Entry Officer, Inspector, Import Specialist, Attorney, even librarian and chemist, and others. They were almost all Customs Officers of one form or another or their support staff. One employee was rescued by the Fire Department, all the others were evacuated by themselves or each other.

After the February 1993 attack the senior person in the building was very strict about evacuating in emergencies. Apparently he thought saving lives was important. Although there were injured, NO US Customs employee died that day. Tower 1 fell across building 6, the 8th floor equipment was on the B-5 level. That manager’s strictness in my opinion saved the lives of many hundreds of people. Bodies were removed from 6 WTC, but they were mostly from Tower 1.

If you know the device is a biological weapon locking the employees in might make sense. Otherwise get out and take your coworkers with you.

JimK198 on June 3, 2011 at 5:39 pm

Frickin’ unbleivable, boggles the rational mind

jake49 on June 3, 2011 at 7:28 pm

Anybody go through Dulles Airport lately? You know, where the plane that crashed into the Pentagon came from? Guess who works for Homo-land, err, Homeland security there? Yup, Muslim women with the dressed up with the head coverings. Muslim men also worked in security.

In Chicago, I was stopped and groped by security. Not the woman dressed in the full chador, though. They let her breeze right through.

No wonder they tell American jokes in Poland. And elsewhere.

Jonathan E. Grant on June 3, 2011 at 8:13 pm

Do a search on this site.

Homeland Security is run by inmates from the asylum who don’t know what they’re doing besides groping people’s “junk” and locking up their own agents when there’s a bomb threat.

Better believe it!

NormanF on June 3, 2011 at 11:22 pm

Where is the MSM? Aren’t they ever embarrassed any more, not being the ones to break these stories and follow them through? Maybe they’ll pick it up in a year or two. I don’t understand what they do anymore.

David Lanham on June 4, 2011 at 12:50 am

David, the stories Debbie breaks here are picked by the MSM months or years after they’re already news.

Their natural curiosity evaporates if a story comes anywhere near Islam.

NormanF on June 4, 2011 at 5:29 am

There is a good reason you don’t suddenly evacuate a building on a bomb threat: it can create a situation where more people are targeted should they immediately evacuate though the fire escapes. Unless the bomb is large enough to take down the whole building, most people are safer dispersed inside the building. Terrorists are not stupid and have used multiple bombs to force evacuating people in particular directions before setting off more deadly bombs designed to kill the unprotected evacuees. An example of this is the Bali bombing in 2002 where the first bomb was intended to bring people out onto the street, and the second van bomb is the one that did the main killing.

Having said that, people also need to be informed to stay away from windows and to report any suspicious packages in their work areas in case there are bombs planted inside the building as well. Bombs big enough to take down buildings are large, and so most people are better off moving to a protected place inside a building until their escape routes are cleared.

Bill on June 4, 2011 at 6:04 am

Well, look at hospital policies, too. Our policy in every
hospital where I worked was:
-evacuate patient and visitors
_GO back in the building and look for suspicious
devices and packages

Always did bother me. Sort of figured once the patients were
out, we should be, too. NOT>

cthelight on June 4, 2011 at 9:55 am

I was the supervisor of a large police department bomb squad for many years prior to retirement. A major assignment was lecturing to business personnel the proper method of dealing with bomb threats and suspect items discovered during building searches. First and foremost is to remove the effected personnel from the blast area instead od removing the bomb from the populated. After the personnel are removed from the building the bomb squad will deal with the explosive device. First. I must comment that the individual who wrote this policy, that flies in the face of every sane bomb search procedure is a complete moron and should immediately be dismissed. Secondly, I must state that the officers involved are as ignorant as their supervisors for tolerating such nonsense, and thirdly I must state unequivically that fire-rescue should be standing by in order to treat any armed guard that attempts to stop me from leaving a potential bombing scene. Unfortunately, it will be business as usual until a competency ruling is placed within that system. Are the effected employees filing suit? I think not. Than they deserve what they get.

John B. Lurvey on June 4, 2011 at 11:27 am

    They could always perform a citizen’s arrest for illegal imprisonment under color of authority.

    Let management defend it in court. It doesn’t have a legal leg to stand on.

    NormanF on June 4, 2011 at 3:53 pm

THis is what amazes me about our government; They speak as if they know everything and they act as some stupid gillibles. Why is that; I don’t have a clue.

G. R. SCHAROUBIM on June 4, 2011 at 12:19 pm

From an agency that can’t even remotely perform the “mission” (they still haven’t figured that one out yet) they are tasked with, you expected different?!

Once again, LMFAO!

IceNoMore on June 5, 2011 at 5:23 am

Leave a Reply

* denotes required field