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‘This Isn’t Another 9/11’: Homeland Security Secretary Mullin Says No Sign of an Attack Behind the Ground Stop
By Catalina Clarke
Photo: United States Senate / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin became the first senior administration official to face cameras over the nationwide ground stop on Friday, telling reporters outside the White House that there is no indication the failure that grounded every departing flight in America was an attack.
“This isn’t another 9/11,” Mullin said. “There is no reason for the public to be afraid or scared for your loved ones.”
Mullin confirmed the outage behind the Federal Aviation Administration’s order, saying communication was being overwhelmed at certain levels, though it had not ceased entirely. He offered no updated timeline for lifting the ground stop, which the FAA imposed at 3:54 p.m. Eastern time and which remains in effect until further notice.
In an exchange carried on CNN, Mullin confirmed that the President has been briefed. Asked whether a cyberattack — or an artificial intelligence system — could be responsible, he said officials cannot rule out anything at this point and are investigating; asked about AI directly, he quipped, “We call it SI, remember,” and said the government will take appropriate action once the cause is determined.
His assessment matches the one other official word of the afternoon: the Justice Department’s judgment, reported by MS NOW, that the failure is not a national security matter. No agency has attributed the outage to any person, group, or country, and claims circulating on social media blaming Iranian hackers remain speculation with no official statement behind them.
Mullin’s appearance was also the exception to the day’s rule. He is the first Cabinet secretary to take questions on the grounding. The President has said nothing publicly, the White House has issued no statement, and the Gang of Eight — the congressional leaders entitled to the government’s most sensitive briefings — had not been briefed as of mid-afternoon. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, whose department oversees the FAA, has communicated only in a single social-media post attributing the stop to a communication issue affecting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers.
What Mullin did not resolve is the question underneath the silence: what failed, and who decided. That the President has been briefed is now established. Whether he was involved in the decision to ground the nation’s flights has not been addressed by anyone in the government, and the underlying cause remains unestablished. The Library Media is following this story and will update it as officials say more.
Catalina Clarke
National Desk, The Library Media
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