"You Have to Begin by Imagining the Worst" - BY WILLIAM KEARNEY, JANET NAPOLITANO

[Klaralven]

Janet Napolitano has held many distinguished leadership positions, most recently as the president of the University of California and before that as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and as two-term governor of Arizona. In a conversation just days before reports of a massive cyberattack on the Pentagon, intelligence agencies, national nuclear laboratories, and Fortune 500 companies, Issues in Science and Technology editor William Kearney asked Napolitano about the pandemic and how threats to the homeland have evolved in the 20 years since 9/11.

You were probably better prepared than most university presidents to manage a crisis on the scale of a pandemic given your experience leading DHS, but can you describe the shock to the system at the University of California when COVID-19 hit?

Napolitano: It really affected us in two major ways. First, we are a large health care provider as well as health care research enterprise, so we had to transform our hospitals to be basically COVID hospitals, not knowing how many patients we would be getting. We postponed a number of procedures in order to do that, and like all health care providers in the country, we were in a scramble for masks and PPE [personal protective equipment] and other things necessary to safely care for COVID patients. Our research laboratories also all basically converted to being COVID labs. We took quite a financial hit to our hospitals, and it’s going to take a while to catch up.

The second major impact was on the academic side where we had to turn on a dime and depopulate the campuses and convert to online remote learning. Faculty at all our campuses did a terrific job at that, so students could continue taking classes, making progress toward their degrees. Again, there was a financial implication in that we had to immediately refund more than $300 million in housing and dining fees, which was the right thing to do, but nonetheless that’s money out the door. I served as president until August 1, and throughout the summer we were working through various iterations to determine whether we could open the campuses in the fall. Could we return to in-person instruction? Could we put students back in the dorms? What kind of testing regimen would we need? How would we pay for that?

But as time went on, it became more and more clear that returning to in-person instruction was just not a viable option for the fall—and it looks like it won’t be in the spring either given that California just went back into shelter-in-place restrictions. So campuses have all adjusted, and classes continue to be taught, and students continue to make progress toward their degrees.

...


You refer to the other major threat we face as Terrorism 3.0. What do you mean by that?

Napolitano: Terrorism 1.0 was al-Qaeda as evidenced by the attack of 9/11, which was the precipitant for the creation of DHS. Terrorism 2.0 is all of the other terrorist groups like AQAP [al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula] and al-Shabab that have similar beliefs to al-Qaeda. When I was secretary, we continued to get threats against aviation. In a way, I think aviation was viewed as the gold standard for terrorism given the success of the attacks on 9/11. But slowly but surely, I think the United States got control over that situation.

I think aviation was viewed as the gold standard for terrorism given the success of the attacks on 9/11. But slowly but surely, I think the United States got control over that situation.

Terrorism 3.0 is domestic. It’s the rise of domestic militia groups. It’s the rise of the so-called lone wolf. It’s primarily on the far right, if you use that kind of political spectrum, but there’s some on the far left as well. And here, you have a complication, because as you know the Constitution governs and limits what you can do as a law enforcement agency, and you can have real difficulties tracking a lone wolf, the individual who gets radicalized and decides to commit an act of violence. That’s almost impossible to prevent. We certainly don’t have good predictors for that. And we really don’t have good prevention methodologies.

https://issues.org/janet-napolitano-cybersecurity/

[Rorey]

1. Terrorism 3.0

I'm not going to lie - I feel a bit terrorized. I don't feel terrorized yet to the point that I'm freaking out, but I have a feeling of impending doom. I've felt it ever since we really started noticing these far right individuals and groups coming out of the darkness for all of us to see.

I think I'll feel a little bit of a sense of relief after President Biden takes over, but because asshole traitor trump is doing everything he can to slow the transition (or maybe it's whoever is pulling his strings, because I do believe he's just a useful idiot puppet), it'll probably be quite awhile before I start feeling a bit more secure.

I've been doing what I can to remain stocked up on supplies that I think my family might need in case there are disruptions, or for some reason we're unable to go to the grocery store. I'm concerned about disruptions to our means to communicate, which could be catastrophic, and I don't know what I can do about that, other than making a plan with family members.

I hope I'm overreacting, and I'm sure one of my sons would think I might be. Another son is sort of on the same page as I am, though he doesn't really talk about it. He has weapons, and he knows how to use them. I don't. I have never shot a gun, and I'm quite sure that I don't have what it takes to use deadly force against another person. I guess I'd never know unless I was in the situation in which it might be necessary.

Whatever happens, I have learned that doing things to be prepared helps ease those feelings of impending doom that I mentioned. Sometimes I feel like I'm just a step away from paranoia, but I know that would mean loss of control, and I can't afford to do that.

Is it just me? Is anyone else feeling like this? As Janet Napolitano said in the article, it was a mistake to not use our imagination prior to 9/11. I think that's correct, but I don't want my admittedly over-active imagination to keep me from actually living a normal life.

[ChazII]

4. You are not alone in the way you feel.

Janet Napolitano was a great governor for Arizona. In my case it is due to the loss of my son in March of 2020 to the same type of brain tumor that took Pres. Elect Joe Biden's son, Beau, and senators Kennedy and McCain. I also lost three more friends to the same brain tumor in 2020.

[Rorey]

6. First, I am SO sorry that you suffered that unimaginable loss

What in the world is up with this brain tumor thing? What is the cause? Was this type of thing always around, but now we know about it because of advances in medicine? Or is it an environmental thing because of the destruction to our planet?

I know that feeling of vulnerability that we get when we suffer a great loss. The loss of a child is unimaginable to me.

[ChazII]

7. All good questions.

This tumor is always diagnosed at Stage 4. Headaches, blurry vision, slurred speech and loss of balance are some beginning symptoms. Of course, no one is going to leap to the conclusion that you have a stage 4 brain tumor and order an MRI. What is difficult for me is that I lost four friends to this tumor and no one to the covid virus.

It will be one year in March. However, I know that I will be in the group of people that have more pain the second and/or third year than this first one. Thanks for the hugs. Virtual hugs are the only kind we can give and receive these days.

[BSdetect]

2. The bothside tag "...but there's some on the far left as well." Makes it sound like its equal

[Rorey]

3. I can't think of any instance when anyone on the far left wanted to destoy our democracy

So I definitely don't think the two "fars" are in any way close to equal.

[Klaralven]

5. "It's primarily on the far right" doesn't sound like equal

It’s primarily on the far right, if you use that kind of political spectrum, but there’s some on the far left as well.