Conversation Corner No. 51: Janice Kephart and Biometric Passports

Janice Kephart former 9/11 Commission staffer that served as border counsel, and was a key author of 9/11 and Terrorist Travel, and 9/11 final report recommendations who has testified before Congress 16 times on various border, homeland and identity issues. Currently founder and CEO of the Secure Identity & Biometrics Association. (SIBA).  Janice joins us to discuss biometric passports in light of the Malaysian Airlines disappearance.

Have a listen:

Kindle Free Pick of the Week - Surviving September 11th: Tenth Anniversary of 9/11/2001

Appropriate title for this week.

“A cigarette and a clipboard saved my life” begins Dan’s book, Surviving September 11th. Standing only ten feet from the blast of a commercial airliner crashing into the Pentagon, the author shares his personal experience on 9/11/01 to offer the wisdom necessary to navigate today’s troubling world. Surviving September 11th is a journey through surviving our nation’s worst tragedy while learning the beauty of life. Dan challenges his readers to appreciate the life they are living right now, and to appreciate the people around them for the contributions made. This book defies the status quo by claiming that real success is found by living in humility while giving gratitude.

Today 18.8 million people live depressed, terrified by the economy and desperately seeking external answers to “Why am I here?” As we allow others to define us, we fail to find ourselves. Surviving September 11th draws on the incredible power of gratitude and connects it between ourselves, and those we know, to help us manifest our purpose.

If you need a message of hope in this fast paced, anxiety driven culture, this book is calling your name. Surviving September 11th challenges readers to believe that they can live this life of gratitude because Dan has lived it in response to our generation’s Pearl Harbor.

Astronauts Watched 9/11 from Space Station

A great image released by NASA.

The only American not on Earth on that day in 2001, NASA astronaut Frank Culbertson, had a unique vantage point on the attacks. From the International Space Station, Culbertson snapped a photo of smoke streaming from the World Trade Center wreckage that day after two hijacked planes crashed into the Manhattan towers.

"I didn't know exactly what was happening, but I knew it was really bad because there was a big cloud of debris covering Manhattan," Culbertson said in a new video released by NASA for the 10th anniversary of the attacks.

Culbertson, a retired U.S. Navy captain, was commanding the orbiting laboratory's Expedition 3 mission and was living on the outpost with Russian cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Turin at the time.

"My crewmates have been great," Culbertson wrote in a letter published the day after the attacks. "They know it's been a tough day for me and the folks on the ground, and they've tried to be as even keeled and helpful as possible. Michael even fixed me my favorite Borscht soup for dinner," he added, referring to Turin.
Ultimately, though, the NASA astronaut couldn't help but be affected by his position as the only American in space.

"The most overwhelming feeling being where I am is one of isolation," Culbertson wrote. "The feeling that I should be there with all of you, dealing with this, helping in some way, is overwhelming."

"I zipped around the station until I found a window that would give me a view of NYC and grabbed the nearest camera," Culbertson wrote. "The smoke seemed to have an odd bloom to it at the base of the column that was streaming south of the city. After reading one of the news articles we just received, I believe we were looking at NY around the time of, or shortly after, the collapse of the second tower. How horrible."

Kindle Free Pick of the Wk: Escape From The World Trade Center

As we approach the 10-year anniversary of 9/11, we should all do a little reading and think back to this day where out lives changed forever in so many ways.  This is a free Kindle book we should all read.

 9/11 Survivor’s True Story

This is the riveting account of Leslie Haskin’s escape from the World Trade Center after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The former insurance executive shares what she saw and endured as she struggled down 36 floors in a doomed and dying building and away from a life focused on perks, prestige, and power.

Obama Calls for Americans to Remember 9/11

President Barack Obama wants Americans to mark the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks by recapturing the sense of common purpose felt on that dreadful day.

"If there is a lesson to be drawn on this anniversary, it is this: We are one nation — one people — bound not only by grief, but by a set of common ideals," the president said Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address.

President Obama will onserve the day nearly 3,000 people died in terrorist jetliner attacks with a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m., the time the first plane hit the World Trade Center in New York City. The president also planned to attend a memorial service at the Pentagon and participate in a service project in the Washington area.

First lady Michelle Obama was to join former first lady Laura Bush in Shanksville, Pa., where the fourth plane crashed after passengers rushed the cockpit. Vice President Joe Biden is in New York for the service at ground zero.

At a White House news conference Friday Obama denounced the threatened Quran burning, said Muslims have the same right as any other religion to build near ground zero and issued a full-throated appeal for religious tolerance, reminding Americans: "We are not at war against Islam."

In the GOP's weekly address, Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., echoed Obama's plea for a common purpose. Kyl called for the country to "recapture the unity that allowed us to come together as a nation to confront a determined enemy."