The horrific events of September 11, 2001 affected each United States States citizen in deeply personal, painful ways.

Leonard Pitts, a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist, with what he later called hot stinging tears in his eyes, wrote directly to the anonymous, cowardly terrorists:

"You beast. You unspeakable bastard.

What lesson did you hope to teach us by your coward's attack on our World Trade Center, our Pentagon, us?

What was it you hoped we would learn? What ever it was, please know that you failed.

Did you want us to respect your cause? You just damned your cause. Did you want to make us fear? You just steeled our resolve. Did you want to tear us apart? You just brought us together."

He is right.

Past all of the immeasurable suffering, anguish, pain, waste and senseless losses of this tragedy, the unspeakably evil persons who caused this have brought us together.

Pitts also wrote, "You don't know my people. You don't know what we're about. You don't know what you just started.

But you're about to learn."

Pitts is right there, too.

As bail bond agents, we are uniquely qualified to give something back to the country we love so dearly. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. As key players within the criminal justice system of the United States of America, we owe no less a debt and obligation.

Spend a minute on this web page to discover ways that we —as American bail bond agents — can help ensure that what happened on September 11, 2001 is never repeated.

Working together, we can make a difference.

What we are doing

We are establishing and coordinating formal open channels of communication between all bail bond agents throughout the country and the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Attorney's Anti-Terrorism Units.

We have enlisted the help of Bob Dicker, a licensed bail bond agent and former FBI agent to act as the first of what we hope will be a nationwide team of Surety Agent Terrorist liaisons.

Soon, we plan to offer a toll-free pager number to reach Mr. Dicker 24 hours a day to report suspicious activity that merits immediate attention. We will also be installing a form on this web page as well as a dedicated fax.

As the first Surety Terrorist Liaison ("STL"), Mr. Dicker will forward all information received to the appropriate law enforcement agencies. He will also collect and disseminate tips and information from the Federal Government that we, as bail bond agents, need to know about.

All information received in connection with this project must be in writing, though may be anonymous, and will be treated by the STL in a confidential manner.

I have this friend, Barry Hodus, who has written more bonds during the course of his career as a bail bond agent than you could imagine. He has this slogan he uses that I like. “I write bonds,” he’s always saying, “on defendants and not on collateral.” Meaning that he’s very good at reading people to decide if he can fulfill his obligation to make sure that the clients he bonds out go to court. I think most all bail bond agents who make a living at it are good at that, too — reading people.

Barry has taken countless intelligent risks over the decades. That’s his business. He has literally spent a lifetime across a desk or over the phone line from criminals, defendants, anxious family members, loved ones and attorneys, mostly listening and then evaluating what he hears. Which leads me to another expression of his that I like even more than his slogan.

If something a defendant or potential indemnitor says doesn’t fit somehow or sound right, Barry often refers to what he’s hearing by stating that, “It’s not symmetrical.” Whenever he says that, he passes on writing the bond. Doing so has made him a wealthy man.

In hindsight, so many of the things that have come to light following the horrible events of September 11, 2001 were “not symmetrical.”

There is nothing symmetrical about a man of Middle Eastern decent who pays cash for commercial flight instruction, yet appears to care little, if at all, about landing techniques. Certain individual’s travel patterns are just strange and don’t make sense. Rental agreements for apartments that are always paid in cash are odd. There is certainly something that doesn’t “fit” about a foreigner with a sudden interest in crop-duster payload capacity. A guy in the Keys who peddles novelty “Conch Republic” passports received a sudden surge of mail-order applicants from customers in Pakistan and India late last year.

Before September 11^th, none of this mattered. Now it all does.

If you make a living writing bail bonds, you have unique skills to offer that our country now desperately needs. We can make a difference because of what we do. Just as highly trained Army Rangers have certain skills that are critical in this effort, so do we. As bail bond agents we read people. We regularly work with informants to obtain information in the interests of justice. We listen carefully. We observe. Most importantly, we have an instinctive feeling for when something seems like it’s not symmetrical or doesn’t “fit.”

Circumstances now dictate that we put this skill to use in the aid of the United States of America.

What you can do

First, simply join with us in paying attention to anything suspicious — signs of suspected terrorism or terrorist activities.

Second, get involved in our effort. Report suspicious activity to the STL. Ask to be on our mailing / fax list to get current information from the government.

Funding for this effort is all by private, voluntary donations.

This is an opportunity to show your patriotism to this country and the world by taking part in the effort to end terrorism.

We need bail agents to attend the initial meeting with the United States Attorney's Anti-Terrorism AUSUA and help get the ball rolling. We need envelopes stuffed. We need telephone calls made.

You will earn a dividend of self respect and dignity for the work you do on the project.

If you are willing to help make this project a reality, please call (305) 525-1434 anytime.