[23164] in Privacy_Forum
[ PRIVACY Forum ] Script of my national radio report yesterday on
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Lauren Weinstein)
Tue Feb 17 11:52:19 2026
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2026 08:43:15 -0800
From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com>
To: privacy-dist@vortex.com
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This is the script of my national radio report yesterday on conflicts
between the Pentagon and the FAA that resulted in the recent, sudden
closure of airspace over El Paso, Texas without any prior warning,
related to a new weapon system. As always there may have been minor
wording variations from this script as I presented this report live on
air.
- - -
Well, this story is unlike anything I've ever seen before. It is
genuinely so bizarre and frankly disturbing that it really is in a
category all to its own. About a week ago the FAA -- in charge of U.S.
flight safety -- suddenly and without warning or initially a public
explanation, announced the closure of the airspace over a major U.S.
city, El Paso, Texas, saying the airspace would be closed for 10 days.
As you might imagine, this caused a great deal of immediate
controversy, and after some hours they lifted the restriction. What
caused all this? It took days to basically understand, and there's
still some confusion, but here's the best explanation I've seen.
Reportedly Secretary of Defense (or Secretary of War if you prefer the
unofficial title) Pete Hegseth sent a new laser weapon system for
testing out to the El Paso area, apparently related to border
protection and Ft. Bliss which is located very nearby El Paso
International Airport. This weapon system was seemingly going to be
tested against cartel drones that reportedly carry contraband across
the U.S. border. Now to what extent cartel drones are actually an
ongoing significant problem there is subject to argument, but leave
that aside for now.
Early reports said that the laser system WAS used to shoot down a
cartel drone incursion. But later reports said that what was actually
shot down was ... a party balloon. In any case, the FAA was upset that
they had not apparently received the kinds of briefings and
coordination from the military that would normally take place before
such a weapon deployment. And since the FAA felt that it was not safe
under those conditions to be testing the weapon in an area of heavy
commercial and general aviation air traffic, for fear of an innocent
aircraft being downed, that's what triggered the announcement of the
airspace closure.
The obvious question is why these federal departments apparently are
not coordinating properly about such important issues, especially when
they're safety related. The military and FAA have different classes of
objectives, but proper coordination between them should be a
fundamental requirement of the federal government.
And there has been friction between these two that predates the El
Paso incident. You'll recall the tragic collision of an army
helicopter with an American Airlines jet near Ronald Reagan National
Airport in Washington D.C. a little over a year ago, when that
military training mission and FAA air traffic control apparently did
not fully coordinate. There were 67 deaths. And there have been
various near misses related to conflicts between military flights and
civilian flights.
There still is no clear indication, at least publicly, that this
serious situation has actually really been properly addressed yet.
Luckily the El Paso incident didn't ultimately result in any
casualties other than that one unfortunate party balloon. But beyond
this specific incident, there are obvious absolutely critical broader
but related issues surrounding the lack of coordination and
communication between the military and the FAA.
It's understandable that the military often wants to keep its
operations secret, but when it comes to safety in the air, it's simply
not practical to separately silo military and civilian flight
operations -- or for that matter the testing of weapons systems that
can impact flights. One of the most basic functions of the federal
government is helping to keep us safe, on the ground and in the air.
Inter-agency conflicts and lack of coordination that puts this at
risk, should absolutely never be acceptable.
- - -
L
- - -
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com (https://www.vortex.com/lauren)
Lauren's Blog: https://lauren.vortex.com
Mastodon: https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/@lauren
Signal: By request on need to know basis
Founder: Network Neutrality Squad: https://www.nnsquad.org
PRIVACY Forum: https://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility
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