important it is to america. the thing is, if i had insurance, i would not have to take my son of school. i would not have to have someone to try to help me out. host: we will get any answer from larry minnix. guest: she is talking about the very problem that class is set up to resolve. should become disabled and at his having to pull her son out of school. -- and is having to pull her son out of school. she is becoming more and more poor in doing so. if she had this plan and comcast would have made available not at comcast's expense, but her expense, she would have cash in hand to help her supplement her daily needs. think about what impact that has on her son and other family

members who are probably doing a lot of things to help her make it. it can make it difficult on a whole family. host: larry minnix is the ceo of the american association of homes and services for the aging. the website is aahsa.org. what will folks to see if they go to the website? guest: they will see an update on class and the long-term financing reform. there is a website that we have developed with a number of other groups called the seniors to seniors that has another bit of good information on it. a r p and a lot of other groups have done -- aarp and a lot of other groups have done some good things there. these are hard things to talk about and any of our lives can change in a heartbeat. a traffic accident, an accident on the playground where suddenly

you thought you were in renewable and everything is alright and suddenly you are living a life of family coping with long-term disability. the good thing is, there are solutions. we think class is a huge step in that direction. host: thanks for calling. -- thanks for being here. guest: hey, if you get old, call me. guest: [laughter] bubble just about do it for today's "washington journal" and we will see you tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] . .

>> the engines are now throttling down to reduce stress. discovery is at an altitude of 4.7 miles or 26,500 feet and traveling -- >> discovered, go at throttle pop-uup. >> roger, go at throttle up. >> discovery is performing at full capability. the shuttle weighed more than 4.5 million pounds. one minute 27 seconds into the flight, the wait has been reduced by about half. the salt rocket boosters are burning 11,000 pounds of

propellant -- the solid rocket boosters are burning 11,000 pounds of propellant per second . discovery is traveling 2,700 miles per hour. all three main engines are working as expected. the three pods so we power units are producing pressure. everything is performing well. two minutes and seven seconds into the mission. the solid rocket booster separation and everything -- all systems are continuing to function well. two orbital systems are now firing as well providing an extra boost into orbit. one minute 44 seconds.

>> two engine. >> the space shuttle launch into orbit this morning. there were three members. the shuttle should arrive at the outpost on wednesday. one year ago today, president obama announced his nuclear disarmament strategy. he returns to the country on thursday. the centers for strategic and international studies post a preview of that trip. at 1:00 p.m., will be live from the national press club as douglas shulman talks about his role in overseeing more than $2 trillion in taxes. we will have live coverage of a

discussion on the free market systems in today's global economy. it is hosted by the american enterprise institute. >> if you have a process where its six years to get an answer, and you are bogged down in the courts, it does not make the agency effective. >> tom tauke calling on the government to take a fresh look, tonight, and c-span2. >> until our live discussion about president obama's upcoming discussion, we have more from "washington journal." inspector general of the homeland security back in the bush administration. here to talk to us about these new screening procedures for folks coming in to the united

states announced on friday by the administration, what changes? guest: as you know, in the immediate aftermath of the christmas day bombings there was a blanket targeting really of those with passports from 14 countries of concern, countries that have been linked to terrorism -- yemen, saudi arabia, pakistan, now nigeria, etcetera. people transiting to the united states from those countries and also americans who happen to transit from those countries are automatically -- or work automatically subject to secondary screening, pat downs, technology screenings. that has changed now. instead based on intelligence. if there is a reason to believe based on a person's name, nationality, backgrounds, other information that other intelligence agencies have, then that person will be subjected to secondary screening but not a blanket approach to these countries as a whole. host: where is the intelligence

coming from? guest: a variety of sources. different parts of homeless security, cia, national security agency, state department. an attempt to bring relevant intelligence streams to the other to target people who should be of concern, as opposed to a blanket approach. host: were all of these changes to limit -- driven by the attempted christmas day bombing? guest: to be fair, the department of homeless security, secretary of napolitano, has been working for quite some time before the christmas day bombing to improve aviation security, as we would expect. but there has been an intensified pushed since the bombing. and there was a lot of objection to the blanket approach. these new measures have drawn praise from wide quarters, including the privacy community, and i think rightly so, the step in the right direction. host: are they doing this to shape the bugs out of the system ahead of the summer traveling season? guest: certainly the summer travel season will intensify the

number transmitting data but i think there has been such opposition to these measures that there was considerable pressure on the administration to relax them. host: clark kent ervin, particularly we are talking about folks coming in to the united states. the numbers are -- if you are watching us from outside the united states, online, or whatever, y tsa has been operating -- the administration started without a leader, a confirmed head through congress. has that been a debilitating situation for them?

guest: i think it has been. on a day-to-day basis, of course, the agency operates just fine but just fine is not an acceptable standard for transportation security administration. the kind of bold moves that need to take place as far as policy deployment, for example. there are a number initiatives, like 100% screening of air cargo. these measures can only be undertaken by somebody appointed by the president and -- united states senate. it is incredibly troubling, nearly two years into the administration would don't have it confirmed tsa head. host: back to the issues of people flying into the united states but let us talk about the no-fly list and also profiling. a first of all, the no-fly list. does this new decision change that at all? guest: it does not. it really does not have anything to do with the no-fly list. it is the secondary list. those are people are automatically subjected to

intensified screening. the no-fly list is a relatively small. 2000, to 4000 people, about loan there is in the kit -- information to indicate those people are a particular threat to aviation. at least in theory, it is possible someone not known of being suspected of being a terrorist, but nonetheless expressed a desire to for an aviation, would be on a no fly list. conversely, there are people on the no-fly list that are not terrorists. it really is specifically limited to people about whom there is particular concern and they might be a threat to aviation. that said, i would argue that certainly in the post 9/11 environment and certain post christmas day bombing, that the no-fly list should be expanded significantly because anybody known to be a terrorist, knowing that terrorists targeted -- it should include a larger share of people about on their general terrorist concerns. host: what about the term of profiling which can be kind of a politically loaded term, depending on how you use it.

would you say that these new measures to reduce -- produce -- reduce ethnic/country profiling in favor of -- guest: i think it was a fair criticism of the prior system, one could call the profiling because of was focused on people from those 14 countries, in respect of of whether there was particular information with regard to any individual person from the country. conversely, now only if there is specific intelligence against a specific person will that person be subject to intensified scrutiny and this seems like that is how it should be. coach -- host: "the new york times" said it is picking up -- based on picking up fragments of information. however they put together? guest: let us take the example of the christmas day bomber, abdulmutallab, we have pieces of insulation -- his father came into the embassy and expressed concerns that his son had gone to yemen.

he of course gave the agencies the name of his son, umar farouk abdulmutallab, and the nsa, the eavesdropping agency, picked up intelligence that a nigerian with the first two names have been sent to yemen. you put it together and umar farouk abdulmutallab shows up at an nigerian airport down to at an nigerian airport down to the united states, he at host: so ideally, he would have been caught. guest: the likelihood is greater. it is striking we have not had a system like this in place beforehand. i think it would be logical to your the words. host: was there talk about a system like this back court dates all of this information?

guest: not really. the customs and border protection uses a system like this once base sa flight is boud for the united states. the person is on the flight already. in the abdulmutallab case, that can be and would have been too late. we need to do this at the inception of flights. host: lots of callers waiting for you. caller: hello. we are creating all of this terrorism and we would not need homeland security if israel did not exist. host: i will stop you there. we have a rule. you can only call once every 30 days. please honor the rules. us go to david in louisiana.

go ahead. good morning. i commend you on the program, transportation security agency. there is definitely a need for improvement in the way in which to that agency operates. in the years since it has been in existence -- i have been kind of watching the performance of this agency and it is really, really in need of some improvement. one of the things, talking about the profiling and so forth. that is a necessary feature of this agency. and along the lines with with the latest of before, i am not going to say that israel should not exist but any time we have this situation where we continue to send signals out to the

other folks around the world that we are going to support is run the matter what -- and i am not anti-semitic, and i respect their right to exist and everything, but they also have to respect other people's, too. host: we will get your response. guest: the only part of the comment i would respond to it is the, of necessity, in his judgment, for profiling. i strongly disagree. i think it is not only wrong as a matter of morality but it is also proved to be a very, bad counterproductive counterterrorism strategy. tracking but two recent cases of deepa did jane and the pauline ramirez case indicate terrorist come from all races and genders and ethnicity so i think it makes sense to apply these techniques to all people in perspective of what the background is if, if -- evidence that they pose a threat. host: new port richey, florida. caller: are you there? host: we are, go ahead.

caller: i wanted us all to take a deep breath because now we are stepping forward with taking these pieces of communication, now finally putting them together and hopefully they will communicate with each other. that has been needed for a very, very long time. just a little background. i am here in florida. a little old lady, i'm white. i have been to other countries. i have seen how things happen in other countries after 9/11. my twins, who are now 25, two are going to fly, one on a honeymoon, on a cruise ship. please answer this question -- my number one question. how our cruise ships being handled under this new communication of but three -- homeland security, passport, and transportation authority? cruise ships, can you address that?

and then the next one is, inside the united states, but -- like, my daughter is going to new orleans next month. when she goes next month, will these new procedures be something that is going to change specifically, will it take extra time to go through intrastate kinds of checks and how will it delay flights that way? and the last thing is, i have to say, we all just need to take a deep breath and i'm talking to superman because i know clark kent has had enough of those jokes. a good morning, please answer if you can. guest: the first time as to anybody made the connection. on the first question, cruise ships, the measures that i am talking about really only applies to aviation. there is considerable scrutiny of cruise ship passengers, but this applies only to aviation security. it in terms of whether these measures apply in the united

states, the relief focused largely on passengers coming to the united states from abroad. . guest: i am glad you asked about this. there was an assessment of surface transportation. we were attacked on nine special up by means of aviation. we focused most of our time by shoring up aviation security. we spend only a fraction on commuter rail a long distance rail. we continue to see around the world and in russia the vulnerability of mass transit to terrorist attacks. it is striking to me nine years after 9/11 and there has yet to be a successful attack on rail

transit. there are a number of reasons. we tend to be reactive. we have not been attacked in a mass transit context and we have not focused on it. if there were a successful attack tomorrow, we would see intensive focus. the csa is not the aviation transportation. on friday, there released a strategy that we are still digesting the calls for greater information sharing and coming up with a method to evaluate grants. a lot more needs to be done before there is a successful attack on mass transit. host: this is bill honor democrats line. caller: how many israelis are on the no-fly list because of dubai, when they sent their

factions to kill palestinians. it seems to me that israel is the number 1 terrorist nation on the planet. host: are there more than just suspected arab terrorist? of other terrorist from different countries? includes people in the united states and from all over the world who there is reason to believe post a threat to aviation. the key is whether they post a threat to aviation. >> if an american ends up on the no fly list, how do you get off? >> there is a redress procedure. you can apply to prove that you are not the person they think you are. part of that redress procedure needs work. it's very, very difficult, everyone says to actually get off the list and be able to convince the government. part of the problem is that

these lists are name based. there are a lot of people with the same or similar names around the world. that's particularly true in the arab, muss lynn world. we need going forward a list with full names. they need to be biometric going forward. that's the direction we are moving forward in. >> the future of the no fly list includes this new intelligence information that's going to be these fragments not just based on name? >> really what we are talking about today has been applied to the secondary list. therein tensive scruntity. that really goes to the list as opposed to the no fly list. if there's reason to believe

you should not fly at all, that's a different matter. host: going to the phones again caller: good morning. you keep bringing up the christmas day bomber and 9/11 as an excuse for all of this increased security. what you keep on leaving out@@@ the man was actually eight u.s. agents. you failed to the about the fact there was another man filming the christmas day bomber on the plane. the second man was arrested that day on the plane. the fbi changed the story five

times. you failed to live eave that the was something in the debris of the wreckage. it is a high great military explosive that nine scientists estimate there were 10 tons of it that brought the explosives -- host: that is a lot out there. guest: this is another example of conspiracy theories. there have been a plethora theories about how the plots that claimed the government was involved. that is the claim by the caller is making. host: you were inside homeland security. you must have heard a great deal of these theories about 9/11. how were they handled? guest: they were dismissed as

the ridiculous allegations. they were taken seriously. this kind of notion the government is behind these kinds of things is very pernicious. the plot we saw the person flying the airplane into boston, the minnesota it instant, there is a climate -- flying the airplane into austin. i really hope all americans if there are legitimate disagreements, that is fine. this could have a damaging consequence. host: witter talking about the new security measures put in place -- we are talking about the new security measures put in place. on sunday, michael chertoff talked about his reaction to the new procedures. let's take a look. >> what this does is take the

technique would have used at the border for the last three years and pushes it out so it will be applied when people board planes overseas. it is a good thing. we have a lot of experience kurt it has worked well when people arrive at the airport. it makes a lot of sense. a critical issue is, will our allies be willing to implement the plan the way we have laid it out? it will be a win-win for everybody. host: he talked about our foreign partners. what is the early read on how this will play out? guest: we are more likely to get corp. after the incident. -- likely to get cooperation after the incident. it concentrates the

international community as to the urgency of the undertaking these measures. secretary and napolitano and others have travel to europe to consult with our international partners. there seems to be a consensus to get serious about these kinds of steps. host: mike and why. -- mike in hawaii. caller: i traveled frequently. i go to nigeria quite often to do with orphans and aids. i have a multi-metal parts in my body. i am always screened currie i have been held many times, sometimes for over seven hours to go to nigeria. is in any way around that? i have a purple heart.

i believe in this country. i know we do things wrong. we need to have better views. i am jewish. i do think we treat the palestinians wrong. for those who do serve and honor this country, how do we get around seven-hour holds into just getting out? host: you have been held for seven hours for questioning? caller: yes. i was held at the passport office. fate misspelled my name by one letter. -- they have misspelled my name by one letter. they held my passport. host: thank you for sharing your story. guest: the measures we're talking about are a step in the right direction.