Terror-Op Head-Roll Update
Who will pay for scaring all of Manhattan last Monday? Obama promises action! Bloomberg promises... forgiveness! We promise finger-pointing.
Obama is ordering his staff to "conduct a review" into how, exactly, the Pentagon decided to conduct a flyover of lower Manahttan—a flyover they knew would cause panic in the streets!—and further decided to keep it a secret. As Letterman said last night, if they'd just told us no one would've cared. Everyone loves picture day!
Plus, as Brian Williams pointed out last night on Keith Olbermann's show last night, we would have been more than happy to spread the word.
Obama's review will focus on Louis Caldera, the soon-to-be-former director of the White House Military Office. He approved the "mission," and didn't tell Obama.
Back here in New York, Mike Bloomberg's own review of the situation took a day or two. He blamed Marc Mugnos, the lowly manager of the Office of Citywide Event Coordination and Management. Mugnos is a marketing major who came up through the city Sports Commission. His job, as Event Coordination Manager, is basically to approve parade permits.
This flunky is apparently the FAA's guy in New York, because why would they need to coordinate with anyone actually involved in running the city? So Mayor Mike, who didn't know about this little flyover because Mugnos never forwarded the email, sent Mugnos a letter of reprimand and then forgave him, because hey, he is just some guy who made a mistake.
We don't care if this guy, New York's own Brownie, loses his job or not, but we'd like to see the blame spread around a little more. Like: what about fucking Ray Kelly? The NYPD was told about the floyover, they had to know it would cause a panic, but they didn't tell anyone because the feds told them it was a "secret."
"We would have hoped that common sense had prevailed concerning the altitude of the flights," Kelly said yesterday. "I think going forward we would never tolerate that again."
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly now says he will never follow an order that dumb again, but why did he follow it that time? Shouldn't the cops have been a little more prepared for the building-evacuating panic? Shouldn't the cops with bullhorns announcing the all-clear have been ready to go at the first sign of trouble?
So. Fire Ray Kelly. Because it would be pretty funny if he went down for this.