www.newsreview.com/issues/sacto/2001-10-25/cover.asp
Apparently, the terrorists are indeed causing instability. Scheide Photo by Larry Dalton Does this man frighten you? The "suspicious" journalist shows his ticket and ID at Sacramento International Airport. The Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 sighed as its wheels kissed the Los Angeles International Airport tarmac. Flight 1206 out of Sacramento taxied to the gate, and my fellow passengers and I released our white-knuckle grips on the foam-covered armrests of our seats. The bureau urged Americans to report any suspicious activity. Friday morning, armed troops from the California National Guard were deployed at Sacramento International Airport. America, as we've been told over and over since September 11, is forever changed. Nowhere is this change more evident than in our approach to national security. Practically overnight, major metropolitan airports across the country have been turned into militarized zones crawling with armed soldiers and police. Their presence is designed to deter terrorists and provide us with a sense of security, but as I was about to discover, that security has come at a high price. I'd purchased a roundtrip ticket from Sacramento International to LAX to observe firsthand the unprecedented measures being taken to combat terrorism. There'd been more than a little fear and paranoia in Sacramento and I expected to find more of the same in Los Angeles. I didn't expect to be ordered to destroy photographs by an irate National Guardsman. I didn't expect the Los Angeles Police Department to confiscate and read the notes I'd taken on my trip. I didn't expect to be questioned by the FBI and detained for nearly three hours for no probable cause. I didn't expect any of these things, but that's what happened. As I followed my fellow passengers up the jetway and into the LAX terminal, I had no idea I was stepping onto the War on Terrorism's first domestic battlefield, where, as in all wars, truth was about to become the first casualty. Terminal 1 at LAX is usually jam-packed with people, but there were no friends or relatives waiting to greet loved ones at the gate. As part of the heightened security precautions, only ticketed passengers are permitted to pass through the metal detectors and into the boarding areas. In Sacramento, I'd taken photographs of Guard members, armed with M-16s and pistols, taking positions behind the personnel operating the metal detectors at the security checkpoints. I figured I'd snap a few pictures of the LAX security checkpoint and board my return flight. As I reached the checkpoint, I saw that the four guardsmen were deployed in exactly the same fashion as in Sacramento, behind the metal detectors. I removed the small digital camera from the right breast pocket of my leather jacket and took several photographs of the armed citizen-soldiers. I had just turned to head back to the gate when a loud voice boomed at me from the direction of the checkpoint. He came so close it seemed impossible he wasn't touching me. He moved next to me, shoulder-to-shoulder, so he could view the camera's display screen. I was 99 percent certain that I had every right to take photographs of the California National Guard at the LAX checkpoint. Nothing I had read about the new security precautions, no one I had talked to, including other Guard members, had advised me otherwise. But these are anything but normal times, and the slight shadow of doubt that had entered my mind, weighted by the intimidating behavior of the guardsman, caused me to make a questionable decision, at least from a journalistic viewpoint. I showed him the photos I had taken of the checkpoint, he objected to every one of them, and he ordered me to delete them. The guardsman's anger seemed totally out of proportion to the situation. Only the timely intervention of a female Los Angeles Police Officer smoothed the scene over. He didn't ask to look at it more closely, to see if it was actually a valid ticket, so I left, beaten (I'd been forced to delete my photographs) but not broken--I was still going to catch my flight home. I reached the gate at the absolute last second and was permitted to board the plane. The flight was nearly full, and I took one of only two empty seats in the back. Several passengers chuckled at my hurried, flustered appearance. I began to furiously scribble in my reporter's notebook, trying to capture all the details of what had just transpired before they faded from memory. The plane was on the verge of pulling out of the gate when an LAX Southwest Airlines employee--not a member of the plane's crew--materialized in front of me. As I limply followed the Southwest employee out of the plane and up the jetway, I knew who would be waiting on the other side of the door. The California National Guardsman was standing behind them. Photo by Larry Dalton Like the guardsmen he supervises, Capt. Jeff Wurm received two days of training before being assigned to the Sacramento airport. I don't even carry a business card, just my California Driver's License, my Social Security card, and a bunch of credit cards. Ticketed Passenger walking around the terminal taking notes and photographs, which, I was still 99 percent certain, was completely within my rights. I had followed the guardsman's direct order to delete the photographs, against my better judgment. I couldn't help feeling that the guardsman and the LAPD were now harassing me for daring to put up any verbal resistance at all. Brennan's explanation that I had been detained because unnamed persons had observed me acting suspiciously on both flights didn't wash. In fact, the idea that a pen could literally be used as a weapon had occurred to me before boarding Flight 1206. A month ago, such thoughts would have been considered unusual. Now, they constitute the mindset of the average American air traveler. I'd discovered as much earlier that day at Sacramento International. The California National Guard had deployed earlier in the morning, and it was big news. Reporters, photographers and TV camera operators were gathered on the terminal's second level, observing ticketed passengers as they moved through the metal detectors. Occasionally, a guardsman shouldering an M-16 could be glimpsed behind the checkpoint, but otherwise, it was a dull photo opportunity. The only way to pass through the checkpoint and into the sterile zone, where the Guard was actually posted, was to buy a ticket. It took 25 minutes to pass through the line at the Southwest Airlines counter. The customers waiting in line were clearly more jittery than usual; A healthcare executive from Kansas City who said he'd flown seven times since September 11 told me about two women he'd seen detained for periods of time in two separate airports. I also removed my camera and my tape recorder, just in case. When it was my turn, I placed my devices, along with the backpack, on the conveyor belt and passed through the checkpoint without setting off any alarms. I proceeded to photograph the half-dozen or so guardsmen at the Sacramento checkpoint from approximately 30 feet away. I took several shots, then interviewed California Air National Guard Captain Jeff Wurm, the officer in charge of the detail. In civilian life, Wurm is a computer programmer and analyst. Now he's commanding a squad on the frontlines of the War on Terror. Like all National Guardsmen currently patrolling the nation's airports, he and the members of his unit had received two days FAA airport security training before being deployed. Translation: The Guard were there to be seen, and the citizen-soldiers at Sacramento didn't flinch when an occasional passerby snapped a photograph of the newly militarized checkpoint. Although a few people gaped at the camouflaged men carrying automatic weaponry in the airport, most thanked the Guard for being there. During the half-hour I observed the checkpoint, I saw no obvious profiling of passengers going through. The California National Guard is supervising the process; A few passengers complained about being subjected to extra searching, usually because metal objects they didn't know they had been carrying had set off the metal detecto...
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