Town Hall Meeting with Congressman Mo Brooks at Scottsboro

Mayor Potter introduces Congressman Mo Brooks at last nights Scottsboro Town Hall meeting.

Congressman Brooks presentation was redundant. This was the 3rd Town Hall meeting I have attended. His presentation was a repeat of others with very slight differences. Brooks provided no disclosures as to his current actions on "Capitol Hill" as our 5th Congressional District Representative, or in any committee he is a member.

There were 3 highly questionable statements made by Congressman Brooks at last nights Town Hall Meeting in Scottsboro. (quotes)

1) "Regulation is the epitome of socialism."

 2) "The other side [Democrats] want to make the creation of business evil." 

3) "The Obama administration is transferring heavy weapons to Mexican Drug lords." This comment was made in regards to the "Fast and Furious" program's selling, purchase,  and tracking of firearms which reach Mexico's narco traffickers. Brooks went on to say, "This program began during the Bush administration but tracking chips were placed in weapons by the Bush administration and agents would confiscate weapons."

Our nation has enough problems without the false rhetoric from our political leaders. The riff between the Democrat and Republican Party grows wider and deeper. There are no efforts by political  leadership from either political party to focus on problem resolution for the benefit of our nation.

 Congressman Brooks was provided a letter with information and references concerning 3 specific issues with questions listed below.

Issue 1: LIBOR BANK FRAUD AND THE MANIPULATION OF THE DERIVATIVES MARKET.
Currently there are over 1000 trillion dollars of derivative financial market instruments which are outstanding that have been traded and sold by U.S. and world banks today. The total world economic worth today is between 70 and 80 trillion dollars. The derivative financial market trading and the manipulation of the interest rates of the derivatives were enabled in the U. S. by the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, Pub.L. 106-554, 114 Stat. 2763A (as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2001).

What are you going to do Congressman Brooks to reverse the 2000 Commodity Futures Modernization Act’s further destruction of the United States economy?

ISSUE 2: NATIONAL SECURITY VIOLATION, “LEAK” OF TOP SECRET NATIONAL SECURITY DOCUMENTS. THIS VIOLATION STANDS TO COST THE LIVES OF MILITARY AND CIA OPERATIVES IN THE SOUTHWEST ASIA MILITARY THEATER OF OPERATIONS.

Reference a Reuters News article release link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/01/us-usa-syria-obama-order-idUSBRE8701OK20120801 There are 4 distinct security compromises apparent in the Reuters article: 1) Obama signed the top secret intelligence authorization; 2) Mission disclosure- “Obama's order, approved earlier this year and known as an intelligence "finding," broadly permits the CIA and other U.S. agencies to provide support that could help the rebels oust Assad.” 3) “United States was collaborating with a secret command center operated by Turkey and its allies. This "nerve center" is in Adana, a city in southern Turkey about 60 miles from the Syrian border, which is also home to Incirlik, a U.S. air base where U.S. military and intelligence agencies maintain a substantial presence.” 4) “Free Syrian Army had obtained nearly two dozen surface-to-air missiles...shoulder-fired missiles, also known as MANPADs, had been delivered to the rebels via Turkey.”

This obvious violation of National Security is atrocious, what are you going to do Congressman Brooks to stop the disclosure of Top Secret National Security information which could result in the loss of U.S. Military or Civilian Assets on the ground in the Southwest Asia Military Theater of Operations?

ISSUE 3: NATIONAL SECURITY VIOLATIONS, LACK OF CIVILIAN CONTRACTOR SECURITY ACCOUNTABILITY AT NUCLEAR INSTALATIONS AND FACILITIES.

There are serious issues within our government today concerning holding accountable the leadership within the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) regarding nuclear security. The lack of regulatory enforcement has allowed serious short comings related to security surrounding nuclear facilities. The failures involve civilian security contractors and regulatory managers.

(A)    Y-12 Facility, Reuters News Service, August 3, 2012- Officials said the facility was shut down on Wednesday at least until next week after three senior citizen activists, one being a Nun and 82 years old, cut through perimeter fences to reach the outer wall of a building where highly enriched uranium, a key nuclear bomb component, is stored. http://news.yahoo.com/u-nuclear-bomb-facility-shut-security-breach-115609328.html 

The activists painted slogans and threw what they said was human blood on the wall of the facility, one of numerous buildings in the facility known by the code name Y-12 that it was given during World War Two, officials said.

While moving between the perimeter fences, the activists triggered sensors that alerted security personnel. But officials conceded the intruders were still able to reach the building's walls before security personnel got to them.

Civilian contractors- WSI Oak Ridge, the contractor responsible for protecting the facility at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, is owned by the international security firm G4S.

If the senior citizens had been a trained terrorist group the Southeast U.S today would be a much different place. Retraining is not sufficient; this reflects a serious breach of security, not to mention a breach of WSI’s contract to provide security.

(B)    Civilian Nuclear Power Plants Security Violations- CNN June 29, 2011. 24 civilian nuclear power plants are tested annually. “Last year's results are roughly analogous to those in recent years. In the three previous years, between two and four plants were breached and targets "destroyed," NRC records show.” That equates to an 8% to 16% failure rate, which is an unacceptable failure rate for security operations at civilian nuclear power reactor facilities.

Acceptance of contractor negligence by the NRC:  http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/force-on-force.html The problem once again appears to be civilian contractors and a failure of the regulator to hold accountable those who fail the security exercises. The NRC official’s comment, “We don't characterize (the results) as good or bad because the plants must adhere to our security regulations, period," said NRC spokeswoman Holly Harrington. "If there are these failures, which from time to time occur, they are fixed and the plants are told they have to meet these requirements." That is an excuse; there are repetitive failures at nuclear plants by the civilian security contractors.

“To improve the program, the NRC worked with the nuclear industry to develop a Composite Adversary Force (CAF) that is trained to standards issued by the Commission. The new adversary force has been used for all FOF exercises conducted after October 2004. NRC expects the CAF to be a significant improvement in ability, consistency, and effectiveness over the previous adversary forces. The CAF will be evaluated at each exercise using rigorous NRC performance standards issued in April 2004.”

“The CAF is managed by a company (Wackenhut) that provides much of the security for U.S. nuclear power plants and is, therefore, well-versed in the security operations of power plants. The NRC recognizes that there may be a perception of a conflict of interest where the management company cannot adequately test either the CAF or the plant security force. NRC established a clear separation of functions between the CAF and plant security force to ensure an independent, reliable, and credible mock adversary force. In addition, no member of the CAF may participate in an exercise at his or her home site.”

Utilizing contractors to conduct security testing which have security contracts at nuclear facilities is an example of the ridiculousness and the intentional skewering of security exercises.  Even so, 8-16% fails annual security tests. Special Forces units of Department of Defense should be conducting the tests. Managing security operations testing in the current fashion at nuclear reactor facilities is the epitome of management failure and corruption

QUESTION CONCERNING THE NUCLEAR FACILITY SECURITY ISSUES- Congressman Brooks, what are you going to do to improve the security systems at our nuclear power plants and high security nuclear facilities in the Tennessee River Valley area?

Congressman Brooks assured me he would conduct an inquiry and reply to the issues brought forward to him.

Update: As of August 1, 2014 Mr. Brooks has said nothing about the questions asked of him