Former CIA Agent Sam Faddis, who wrote a book called Willful Neglect: The Dangerous Illusion of Homeland Security, appeared Tuesday on the WNPV talk program Comment Please by Univest. He said he worked with terrorists for years during his CIA days so, in preparing to write the book, he identified high-risk targets and went out and walked the grounds.

“I would look at all of these targets in the way a terrorist would look at them and make my own objective, street-level evaluation of what security there was and whether it looked like we had things under control or whether we did not.  I went into it, not surprisingly, with a rather cynical view.  I came out of it, unfortunately, with a much more cynical view.  Security was by and large atrocious.”

He said Washington has a tendency to create huge new bureaucracies, throw a lot of money at a problem and confuse that with success, and many times the wrong people are making decisions.

“A lot of people who are charged with security matters in regard to terrorists really don’t have any idea how terrorists think or how terrorists operate.  They sort of end up implementing security measures that make a lot of sense if you’re trying to stop teenagers from vandalizing your building or stop guys from stealing things that don’t want to get caught, but don’t have much to do with stopping a suicide bomber or a guy who doesn’t care if he lives through what he’s about to do.”

He said a few security experts could look at chemical and nuclear plants and other high-risk targets and have effective, low-cost, common-sense measures in place within a couple of days.