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How San Francisco Is Letting Its Guard Down on Terrorism

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Last week, the city of San Francisco announced that it is suspending its involvement in the Joint Terrorism Task Force—the primary mechanism for counterterrorism cooperation among law enforcement.

This task force has allowed the law enforcement community to stop terror plots such as the 2015 plot to attack a public venue in North Carolina with a rifle, the plot by a radicalized former member of the National Guard to attack military personnel in 2016, and most recently, a plot to blow up a train station in Missouri with pipe bombs at the beginning of this year.

A Joint Terrorism Task Force is made up of multiple law enforcement agencies, spanning local and federal organizations. Most formed after 9/11, and there are currently over 100 task forces based in cities across the United States that help coordinate investigations among law enforcement to ensure that terrorists are uncovered before they strike.

Communication between law enforcement agencies is vital to the fight against terrorism. With the decision to suspend its cooperation with the Joint Terrorism Task Force, the city of San Francisco has created an opportunity for information that is vital to potentially stopping terrorism to slip through the cracks.

Without an organized communication line open between law enforcement agencies, the danger becomes that investigations into suspected terror organizations will stall for lack of evidence that may in fact be held by another agency, or that investigations will not be opened at all.

When agencies are not fully communicating and sharing information, some pieces of information that would stand out to one law enforcement agency may be viewed as irrelevant or inconsequential by another agency that doesn’t have the same background information.

The suspension of San Francisco’s involvement in the Joint Terrorism Task Force does not mean that all information sharing between law enforcement agencies will come to a screeching halt. Agencies will still have the opportunity to work together, but without the same level of organization.

The problem is that this ad hoc arrangement requires far more effort to make sure all the various partners are on the same page, and it makes information sharing and cooperation vulnerable to mistakes, delays, and forgetfulness.

Law enforcement officers are busy enough with their day-to-day responsibilities keeping us safe. We shouldn’t be making their jobs harder.

The potential for mistakes makes San Francisco’s suspension of the Joint Terrorism Task Force an unwise decision that leaves its residents less safe. The best course of action for the city of San Francisco is to reinstate its cooperation with the task force as quickly as possible.

Of course, the relationship between Joint Terrorism Task Forces, the FBI, and local law enforcement isn’t perfect. While local law enforcement has increasingly done a better job sharing information with the FBI through tools like the Joint Terrorism Task Force, the FBI needs to continue to improve the information that it shares with state and local partners.

The priority of the law enforcement agencies is to protect the American people, and sharing information even without a Joint Terrorism Task Force is a vital part of ensuring the safety of American citizens. (For more from the author of “How San Francisco Is Letting Its Guard Down on Terrorism” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

San Francisco Combats the Stench of Urine With Pee-Repellent Paint

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Don’t get into a pissing match with walls in San Francisco.

The city’s Public Works agency is testing a pee-repellant paint on walls in areas that have been saturated with urine. Anyone urinating on the specially treated walls will get the spray splashed back onto them.

San Francisco’s director of public works, Mohammed Nuru – whose Twitter handle is @MrCleanSF – got the idea when he read on social media about the use of the paint in Hamburg, Germany’s nightclub district to stop beer drinkers from relieving themselves in the street.

The paint, called Ultra-Ever Dry, is sold by Ultratech International Inc and is billed as a superhydrophobic coating that will repel most liquids.

“The urine will bounce back on the guys pants and shoes. The idea is they will think twice next time about urinating in public,” said Rachel Gordon, a Public Works Department spokeswoman. She said the super-hard coating made the “bounce back” effect much stronger than when peeing on a regular wall. (Read more from “San Francisco Combats the Stench of Urine With Pee-Repellent Paint” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

FBI Investigating 11 Attacks on San Francisco-Area Internet Lines [+video]

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The FBI is investigating at least 11 physical attacks on high-capacity Internet cables in California’s San Francisco Bay Area dating back a year, including one early Tuesday morning.

Agents confirm the latest attack disrupted Internet service for businesses and residential customers in and around Sacramento, the state’s capital.

FBI agents declined to specify how significantly the attack affected customers, citing the ongoing investigation. In Tuesday’s attack, someone broke into an underground vault and cut three fiber-optic cables belonging to Colorado-based service providers Level 3 and Zayo . . .

Fiber-optic cables are essentially bundles of slender glass fibers that use light waves to transmit data. They are the interstate highways of the information superhighway, carrying vast amounts of data between decentralized hubs. From there, Internet services are delivered to homes and businesses by lower-capacity cables, including DSL . . .

In April 2009, underground fiber-optic cables in California were cut at four sites, knocking out landlines, cell phones and Internet service for tens of thousands in Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties. (Read more from “FBI Investigating 11 Attacks on San Francisco-Area Internet Lines” HERE)

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NTSB Fed Fake, Offensive Pilot Names to Media After Asiana Air Accident at SFO (+video)

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Photo Credit: YouTubeBy Nick Gass. The NTSB said late Friday that an intern had confirmed to a California news station the fake names of the pilots aboard the crashed Asiana flight in San Francisco, sparking an outcry in the national media and prompting an on-air apology from the station.

“The National Transportation Safety Board apologizes for inaccurate and offensive names that were mistakenly confirmed as those of the pilots of Asiana flight 214, which crashed at San Francisco International Airport on July 6,” the NTSB said in a statement released Friday night.

“Earlier today, in response to an inquiry from a media outlet, a summer intern acted outside the scope of his authority when he erroneously confirmed the names of the flight crew on the aircraft,” the agency said.

KTVU, San Francisco’s Fox affiliate, broadcast the incorrect names of the pilots during its noon newscast on Friday, despite the fact that the names of the pilot and co-pilot, Lee Gang-guk and Lee Jeong-min, had already been released. The fake names were racially charged and phonetically offensive.

KTVU apologized during its 6 p.m. newscast.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Asiana Airlines considering legal action against TV station, NTSB

By Ben Brumfield and Khushbu Shah. Asiana Airlines is considering legal action against Oakland’s KTVU television and the National Transportation Safety Board.

This, after a summer intern at the NTSB mistakenly confirmed “inaccurate and offensive” names as those of the four pilots of Flight 214 that crashed last week in San Francisco.

The bogus names that phonetically spelled out phrases such as “Something Wrong” and “We Too Low” were read during KTVU’s noon broadcast Friday.

“Regarding the KTVU-TV’s demeaning report of the pilots on July 12, ASIANA Airlines is reviewing possible legal action against KTVU-TV and the NTSB,” the airline said in a statement. Read more from this story HERE.

72 Shot, 12 Killed in Chicago Over Weekend, Yet Media Obsesses on a Plane Crash Where 2 Die

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Photo Credit: Irish CentralSan Francisco International Airport was ground zero for national media attention as it focused on a jet crash which claimed the lives of two passengers.

Although the crash was spectacular and captivated our attention….The very fact only 2 people lost their lives in the fiery mishap should have been enough to realize many other weighty events were happening around the country.

Miracles happened that morning that prevented a far larger loss of life and averted tragedy of mass proportions….

Yet 2,000 miles away, far more Americans were losing their lives in horrendous violence plaguing one of our largest cities.

The miracles in San Francisco that prevented far more death, were absent on the mean streets of Chicago…and there are no breathless, glamorized national talking heads reporting on it.

Out of the headlines and buried on the back pages is the fact that over the 4th of July holiday, 72 American citizens were shot and 12 of them were killed in one violent city in America: Chicago, which is starting to be renamed “Chiraq” due to the violence. See video.

President Obama said if only one child’s life was saved due to his proposed gun control mandates, then his efforts would be worth it. But his hometown of Chicago is the poster child for strict gun control and has the same or worse statistics for violence as a war torn 3rdworld country.

Chicago: The most difficult city in the US for a law abiding citizen to legally own a firearm. Yet criminals rule the streets having gunfights while innocent bystanders get shot in the crossfire.

Chicago: Under one party rule for decades and the epicenter of gun violence. Gun crime so horrendous it skews the nation’s violence statistics.

Yes the crash of the jet in San Francisco was a tragedy, but in the whole scheme of things, it was an extremely rare occurrence and the loss of life miniscule in comparison to the daily violent meat grinder of violence that the citizens of Chicago must suffer with.

It is time for the media to turn its priorities to what is at the core of this violence in one of our biggest cities. Because taking away guns from law abiding American citizens is not the solution.

Chicago was awash in illegal money and violence after the government declared a war on alcohol during the Prohibition era …..Perhaps it is time to examine who profits from the governments “war on drugs” and who/what is behind that violence.

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Ed Farnan is the conservative columnist at IrishCentral, where he has been writing on the need for energy independence, strong self defense, secure borders, 2nd amendment, smaller government and many other issues. His articles appear in many publications throughout the USA and world. He has been a guest on Fox News and a regular guest on radio stations in the US and Europe.

Early Indicators Suggest Pilot Error Factor in Fatal Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 Crash (+videos)

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Seconds before Boeing 777 crash, passengers knew they were too low

By Holly Yan and Greg Botelho. Asiana Airlines Flight 214 was seconds away from landing when the passengers sensed something horribly amiss.

The plane was approaching San Francisco International Airport under a beautifully clear sky, but it was flying low. Dangerously low.

Benjamin Levy looked out the window from seat 30K and could see the water of the San Francisco Bay about 10 feet below.

“I don’t see any runway, I just see water,” Levy recalled.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Fatal crash-landing not mechanical error – airline

By ONE News/ Reuters. Asiana Airlines does not believe the fatal crash of one of its Boeing 777 planes in San Francisco was caused by mechanical failure, although it refused to be drawn on whether the fault lay with pilot error.

Two people were killed and more than 70 injured when the Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 crashed on landing at San Francisco International Airport.

“For now, we acknowledge that there were no problems caused by the 777-200 plane or (its) engines,” Yoon Young-doo, the president and CEO of the airline, told a media conference on Sunday at the company headquarters.

Asiana said the two people who died in the crash were female Chinese teenagers who had been seated at the back of the aircraft. Read more from this story HERE.

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Boeing 777 Records First Fatalities in Its 18 Year History

By Gillian Mohney. The Boeing 777, considered one of safest aircrafts in the sky, recorded the first fatalities since it was launched 18 years ago when the Asiana Airlines crashed at San Francisco Airport today.

“The triple-7 is one of the safest airplanes in use, it’s been a marvelous bird,” ABC News’ aviation analyst John Nance told ABC News Radio. “These airplanes are over the water, over the ocean all the time and Asiana has been running them many years very successfully.”

On Saturday an Asiana Airlines flight crash landed at San Francisco International Airport, catching fire, tearing off its tail and injuring at least 40.

The Boeing 777 — called the “Triple 7” within the industry — began flying in 1995. According to Boeing, the first Boeing 777 plane is still in service and has accumulated 5 million flights and accumulated more than 18 million flight hours. The plane that crashed today was seven years old. Read more from this story HERE.

Rise in Gay Homeless People Threatens San Francisco’s Name as Gay-Friendly Mecca

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Photo Credit: independent.co.uk

Photo Credit: independent.co.uk

When “Strawberry” was ejected from his student digs in Denver, Colorado, following a rental dispute, he headed to San Francisco thinking it would provide a sanctuary for a young gay man.

Not so. After six months of living on the streets he had lost the shirt on his back – literally. Identified as an easy target he was chased, beaten and robbed of the backpack containing all his worldly goods. “He grabbed me by the hair, threw me to the ground and started dragging me,” he said of his attacker. “My shirt was ripped off and I got a black eye and a bloody nose,” he said. “San Francisco is not the gay-friendly mecca that they say it is.”

Thanks to the equality rights work of pioneers such as the politician and activist Harvey Milk, San Francisco has a reputation as the gay capital of the world. But as the city recovers from its 43rd gay Pride festival at the weekend, attended by more than 1.5 million people, it must confront an uncomfortable issue. The streets through which about 200 colourful parades – from drag queens to the motorcycle-riding Dykes on Bikes – travelled, are also home to increasing numbers of gay homeless people, many of whom are exceptionally vulnerable to prejudice and violence.

Research produced by the Human Services Agency of San Francisco (SF-HSA) has revealed that 29 per cent of the city’s homeless population are from the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. “Strawberry” is now living in a shelter but says his sexuality places him at risk.

Read more from this story HERE.

Wikileaks Suspect Manning Named Honorary Grand Marshal of San Francisco Homosexual Pride Parade

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Photo Credit: DonkeyHoteyRainey Reitman, a member of the Bradley Manning Support Network, said Friday that her group was notified this week that a committee of former San Francisco Pride grand marshals had voted to select the imprisoned intelligence specialist for the distinction that each year recognizes about a dozen celebrities, politicians and community organizations for their contributions to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities.

Manning is openly gay, and his lawyers have argued that his experience as a soldier before the repeal of the U.S. military’s ban on gay service played an important role in his decision to pass hundreds of thousands of sensitive items to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks.

“As a longstanding Manning supporter, I’m thrilled to see our community publicly embrace his courage in disclosing classified truths about the war in Iraq and other facts, which empower the American public to promote smarter future policy,” Reitman said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Video: Vicious Attack By “Muslim Extremists” in San Francisco on 62 Year Old Cameraman

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Restoring Liberty recently commented on a story about San Francisco’s proposed public nudity ban, saying that the city might be “experiencing a fit of sanity.” We were wrong.

In the footage below, you’ll see crowds of pro-Hamas demonstrators screaming profanities and reacting in other very uncivil ways to the Israeli-Gaza conflict.

A cameraman who films one young miscreant is cussed out and then, according to the You Tube editor, is “kicked karate style in the abdomen…”

The camera cuts to a scene where police officer are arresting the individual who continues to react profanely.

The YouTube editor states that the “crowd of Far Left and Muslim extremists was hyped up into hateful frenzy by anti-Semitic speakers.”

Here’s the video:

Public Nudity Ban Eyed in Fed-up San Francisco

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photo credit: APSAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco may be getting ready to shed its image as a city where anything goes, including clothing.

City lawmakers are scheduled to vote Tuesday on an ordinance that would prohibit nudity in most public places, a blanket ban that represents an escalation of a two-year tiff between a devoted group of men who strut their stuff through the city’s famously gay Castro District and the supervisor who represents the area.

Supervisor Scott Wiener’s proposal would make it illegal for a person over the age of 5 to “expose his or her genitals, perineum or anal region on any public street, sidewalk, street median, parklet or plaza” or while using public transit.

A first offense would carry a maximum penalty of a $100 fine, but prosecutors would have authority to charge a third violation as a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $500 fine and a year in jail. Exemptions would be made for participants at permitted street fairs and parades, such as the city’s annual gay pride event and the Folsom Street Fair, which celebrates sadomasochism and other sexual subcultures.

Wiener said he resisted introducing the ordinance, but felt compelled to act after constituents complained about the naked men who gather in a small Castro plaza most days and sometimes walk the streets au naturel. He persuaded his colleagues last year to pass a law requiring a cloth to be placed between public seating and bare rears, yet the complaints have continued.

Read more from this story HERE.