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Air marshal program in disarray,Dozens quit
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Air marshal program in disarray, insiders say Dozens of top agents have quit the service
By Blake Morrison
USA TODAY
For years, the government touted federal air marshals as the best of the best -- an ''elite corps'' of undercover officers trained to stop hijackings on commercial flights.
But today, after rushing to hire thousands of new marshals, the program is so beset with problems that sources say at least 80 marshals have quit, and other marshals say they are considering a class-action lawsuit over working conditions that they fear put travelers at risk.
Documents obtained by USA TODAY and interviews with more than a dozen current and former marshals from around the nation suggest many have grown disillusioned with a program that one says has become ''like security-guard training for the mall.''
Hiring standards for marshals added since Sept. 11 have been lowered dramatically, sources say. No longer must applicants pass a difficult marksmanship course that used to be the make-or-break test for the program. In addition, many new hires were given guns and badges and put aboard flights before extensive background checks were completed.
The program has struggled to provide ammunition for shooting practice at some of its more than 20 regional offices, sources say. Despite the undercover nature of the work, officials have implemented a dress code that marshals worry identifies them to terrorists. And scheduling has been haphazard: Though some marshals have not flown for weeks at a time, sources say others are working 12- to 16-hour days and are falling asleep or getting sick aboard flights.
''This used to be an elite, great group. This used to be the baddest people you could find -- war heroes,'' says one marshal who joined the program just after the terrorist attacks. ''Now they've turned this into a laughingstock.''
At least three incidents involving the conduct of individual marshals are under investigation by federal authorities.
In one incident last month, a marshal was removed from a flight in Washington after smelling of alcohol. The head of the air marshal program confirms at least two cases in which marshals accidentally discharged their weapons, one in a hotel room in Las Vegas. And sources say one marshal was suspended after he left his gun in a lavatory aboard a United Airlines flight from Washington to Las Vegas in December. A passenger discovered the weapon.
By law, the marshals -- all with top-secret security clearances -- are not allowed to speak publicly about the program. All requested anonymity and say they have been told they will be fired or prosecuted for talking to the news media. Based on a presidential order first issued in 1979, they cannot form a union, either. That's why some of the marshals say they're considering contacting lawyers. They say they're frustrated that managers ignore their concerns, and they say they have little hope that the organization will improve.
Officials with the new Transportation Security Administration (TSA) downplay the concerns. They say any organization that has grown as quickly as the air marshal division is bound to have some problems. Although the precise number of marshals is classified, sources say about 6,000 have been hired since Sept. 11. Before the terrorist attacks, fewer than 50 marshals flew, and only on international routes.
Tom Quinn, the head of the program, disputes those figures and the number of marshals who have resigned. ''I'm not going to share the number, but it's significantly less'' than 80, he says. The marshals with complaints, Quinn says, represent ''a small number of disgruntled individuals who are total amateurs.''
''I'm very pleased with the way the program is going so far. . . . We've gotten it right,'' he says.
'It's not growing pains'
That's not how some marshals see it. They say they were lured to the program with promises of promotions and four-day workweeks to make up for the rigors of travel and days away from their families. Now, they say they've been misled or lied to, and they worry that new rules put them and travelers in harm's way.
''A lot of people were drawn to this agency because it was a fresh agency,'' says one manager involved in the hiring process. ''Now it's spoiled to the point that it's rotten. They tell us to bear with it, that it's growing pains. It's not growing pains. It's a disease.''
After Sept. 11, the air marshal program became especially appealing to hundreds of law enforcement officers who guarded the nation's borders, monuments and federal buildings. Promises of better pay enticed many applicants, who left jobs with federal law enforcement agencies and local police departments.
The typical marshal earns about $52,000 a year, officials say -- at least $2,000 to $5,000 more than a Border Patrol agent.
''The people I see staying are one of two types: people who were on the border working in the heat for 60 hours a week, and the other are local cops who are seeing another $18,000 to $20,000 a year in salary,'' says the marshal who joined the program just after Sept. 11.
But even some of those marshals have come to regret their decisions, says the president of the union representing border patrol agents.
''We've had over 700 people go over there, and we hear from a fair number of those people -- people who have left (the air marshals),'' says T.J. Bonner, head of the National Border Patrol Council. Bonner says the former agents he talks with say ''they made a mistake'' by becoming air marshals.
'Real issues with morale'
''The folks were lured over and were told they'd be flying three days a week with a day of training. Now they're flying five days a week and rarely train,'' Bonner says. ''They never in a million years thought they'd be taken advantage of the way they're being taken advantage of.''
Documents obtained by USA TODAY, including e-mails, minutes from meetings and standard operating procedures for the division, underscore their complaints. One memo from a June 18 teleconference of regional managers notes ''real issues with morale in the ranks'' of those applying for leadership positions in the program.
Among the concerns:
* A marksmanship test that simulates conditions a marshal might face aboard a jet was eliminated as a means of qualifying for the program, apparently to get more marshals on more flights quickly, sources say. A manager and two sources within the TSA say the difficult shooting course was cut from qualification tests after a high number of applicants began failing what had once been the program's critical requirement. Program officials insist the shooting standards for marshals are among the highest for law enforcement organizations.
* Regular training opportunities, such as time on the shooting range, are often precluded by the expanded flight schedules, marshals say. Even obtaining bullets for shooting practice has proven difficult.
Quinn denies any office ever has struggled to provide ammunition to marshals. ''It's never been true,'' he says. But one memo obtained by USA TODAY documents the problem last March: ''The question keeps coming up and believe me I feel your pain,'' says an e-mail to marshals from a manager in one regional office. ''We are getting bullets shortly. . . . You can shoot on your own time and buy bullets with your own money however.''
* Although they work undercover, marshals at some regional offices have been ordered to adhere to a dress code that requires them to wear ''conservative male or female business attire'' during most of their trips, documents show. Without special permission, they cannot dress more casually.
Quinn says working marshals reviewed the dress code before it was issued, and good marshals ''would clearly understand, respect and appreciate'' the policy. He says marshals who provided details of the dress code to USA TODAY ''are putting us all at risk.''
Do dress codes threaten cover?
But marshals say making them look and dress alike is what threatens their cover. ''This is really dangerous,'' says one marshal, who left the Justice Department for the air marshal program five months ago. ''We are so obvious, the terrorists don't need to bring guns on the planes anymore. They just need to gang up on us and take our guns.''
* New hires were given badges and guns and put aboard flights before extensive background checks necessary for national security clearances were completed. Quinn says that, in order to hire marshals quickly, the new hires were given waivers while the more extensive background checks were underway. ''Would I prefer it another way? Certainly,'' he says.
So would some marshals. ''If someone slips through the cracks, how do you not know they're not a terrorist?'' says one marshal who received a waiver. ''You've already put them on a plane.''
* Work schedules are disorganized. Schedules reviewed by USA TODAY show marshals often fly with different partners each day, even though they were told during training that developing rapport with a partner was crucial. Many end up flying more than 10 hours a day. ''It's ridiculous,'' says the marshal from the Justice Department. ''Guys are complaining about headaches and vertigo and dizziness. We're falling asleep. We're nodding off.''
And though one memo from a manager's teleconference says the agency is ''being judged on how many flights we can cover,'' more than a dozen marshals in each of two offices were not scheduled for weeks at a time, sources say.
''In May, for 3 weeks, they forgot about me,'' says one marshal. ''And not just me. There had to be 15 guys in the office they forgot about. We sat in the office watching kung fu movies.''
The marshal says many colleagues, cynical about the division's failure to offer them training, jokingly considered the Bruce Lee movies ''our close-quarters training.'' When the marshals repeatedly called the scheduling center in Atlantic City to try to get on flights, schedulers said, ''Don't worry about it. You're getting paid,'' the marshal recalls.
Charge 'totally erroneous'
Quinn denies the marshal's account. ''Totally erroneous,'' he says. ''There was no office with federal air marshals sitting there watching kung fu movies for a month.''
Other marshals say they routinely work more than 50 hours a week but, because of a government pay structure for law enforcement officers, never earn overtime.
Instead, based on a policy called ''law enforcement availability pay,'' they are paid for 50 hours of straight time each week even if they work more than that. Quinn says schedulers take into consideration whether marshals have worked long weeks and try to schedule them for less time in subsequent weeks.
But one manager says if marshals report more than 50 hours, time sheets are changed to reflect only the 50 hours. ''I do it on a weekly basis,'' the manager says. ''I'm having to white 'em out.''
When he speaks with marshals at regional offices, Quinn says he stresses two points: ''Professionals embrace change. Amateurs cling to the past and what somebody may have said to them along the way.''
But for some marshals, what they were told when they applied affected their decision to join the program.
In an Aug. 1 letter of resignation obtained by USA TODAY, one former marshal wrote of frustrations stemming from ''the lies that were fed to myself, and most of my colleagues.'' The letter details concerns about scheduling, pay and promotions. The marshal who wrote it would not comment on the letter, but he accepted a position outside the division ''because I can trust the people and organization that I will be working for,'' he wrote.
The new job, he wrote, pays ''$11,000 less'' than his air marshal salary.Cover storyCover story
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20020815/4362661s.htm
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
By Blake Morrison
USA TODAY
For years, the government touted federal air marshals as the best of the best -- an ''elite corps'' of undercover officers trained to stop hijackings on commercial flights.
But today, after rushing to hire thousands of new marshals, the program is so beset with problems that sources say at least 80 marshals have quit, and other marshals say they are considering a class-action lawsuit over working conditions that they fear put travelers at risk.
Documents obtained by USA TODAY and interviews with more than a dozen current and former marshals from around the nation suggest many have grown disillusioned with a program that one says has become ''like security-guard training for the mall.''
Hiring standards for marshals added since Sept. 11 have been lowered dramatically, sources say. No longer must applicants pass a difficult marksmanship course that used to be the make-or-break test for the program. In addition, many new hires were given guns and badges and put aboard flights before extensive background checks were completed.
The program has struggled to provide ammunition for shooting practice at some of its more than 20 regional offices, sources say. Despite the undercover nature of the work, officials have implemented a dress code that marshals worry identifies them to terrorists. And scheduling has been haphazard: Though some marshals have not flown for weeks at a time, sources say others are working 12- to 16-hour days and are falling asleep or getting sick aboard flights.
''This used to be an elite, great group. This used to be the baddest people you could find -- war heroes,'' says one marshal who joined the program just after the terrorist attacks. ''Now they've turned this into a laughingstock.''
At least three incidents involving the conduct of individual marshals are under investigation by federal authorities.
In one incident last month, a marshal was removed from a flight in Washington after smelling of alcohol. The head of the air marshal program confirms at least two cases in which marshals accidentally discharged their weapons, one in a hotel room in Las Vegas. And sources say one marshal was suspended after he left his gun in a lavatory aboard a United Airlines flight from Washington to Las Vegas in December. A passenger discovered the weapon.
By law, the marshals -- all with top-secret security clearances -- are not allowed to speak publicly about the program. All requested anonymity and say they have been told they will be fired or prosecuted for talking to the news media. Based on a presidential order first issued in 1979, they cannot form a union, either. That's why some of the marshals say they're considering contacting lawyers. They say they're frustrated that managers ignore their concerns, and they say they have little hope that the organization will improve.
Officials with the new Transportation Security Administration (TSA) downplay the concerns. They say any organization that has grown as quickly as the air marshal division is bound to have some problems. Although the precise number of marshals is classified, sources say about 6,000 have been hired since Sept. 11. Before the terrorist attacks, fewer than 50 marshals flew, and only on international routes.
Tom Quinn, the head of the program, disputes those figures and the number of marshals who have resigned. ''I'm not going to share the number, but it's significantly less'' than 80, he says. The marshals with complaints, Quinn says, represent ''a small number of disgruntled individuals who are total amateurs.''
''I'm very pleased with the way the program is going so far. . . . We've gotten it right,'' he says.
'It's not growing pains'
That's not how some marshals see it. They say they were lured to the program with promises of promotions and four-day workweeks to make up for the rigors of travel and days away from their families. Now, they say they've been misled or lied to, and they worry that new rules put them and travelers in harm's way.
''A lot of people were drawn to this agency because it was a fresh agency,'' says one manager involved in the hiring process. ''Now it's spoiled to the point that it's rotten. They tell us to bear with it, that it's growing pains. It's not growing pains. It's a disease.''
After Sept. 11, the air marshal program became especially appealing to hundreds of law enforcement officers who guarded the nation's borders, monuments and federal buildings. Promises of better pay enticed many applicants, who left jobs with federal law enforcement agencies and local police departments.
The typical marshal earns about $52,000 a year, officials say -- at least $2,000 to $5,000 more than a Border Patrol agent.
''The people I see staying are one of two types: people who were on the border working in the heat for 60 hours a week, and the other are local cops who are seeing another $18,000 to $20,000 a year in salary,'' says the marshal who joined the program just after Sept. 11.
But even some of those marshals have come to regret their decisions, says the president of the union representing border patrol agents.
''We've had over 700 people go over there, and we hear from a fair number of those people -- people who have left (the air marshals),'' says T.J. Bonner, head of the National Border Patrol Council. Bonner says the former agents he talks with say ''they made a mistake'' by becoming air marshals.
'Real issues with morale'
''The folks were lured over and were told they'd be flying three days a week with a day of training. Now they're flying five days a week and rarely train,'' Bonner says. ''They never in a million years thought they'd be taken advantage of the way they're being taken advantage of.''
Documents obtained by USA TODAY, including e-mails, minutes from meetings and standard operating procedures for the division, underscore their complaints. One memo from a June 18 teleconference of regional managers notes ''real issues with morale in the ranks'' of those applying for leadership positions in the program.
Among the concerns:
* A marksmanship test that simulates conditions a marshal might face aboard a jet was eliminated as a means of qualifying for the program, apparently to get more marshals on more flights quickly, sources say. A manager and two sources within the TSA say the difficult shooting course was cut from qualification tests after a high number of applicants began failing what had once been the program's critical requirement. Program officials insist the shooting standards for marshals are among the highest for law enforcement organizations.
* Regular training opportunities, such as time on the shooting range, are often precluded by the expanded flight schedules, marshals say. Even obtaining bullets for shooting practice has proven difficult.
Quinn denies any office ever has struggled to provide ammunition to marshals. ''It's never been true,'' he says. But one memo obtained by USA TODAY documents the problem last March: ''The question keeps coming up and believe me I feel your pain,'' says an e-mail to marshals from a manager in one regional office. ''We are getting bullets shortly. . . . You can shoot on your own time and buy bullets with your own money however.''
* Although they work undercover, marshals at some regional offices have been ordered to adhere to a dress code that requires them to wear ''conservative male or female business attire'' during most of their trips, documents show. Without special permission, they cannot dress more casually.
Quinn says working marshals reviewed the dress code before it was issued, and good marshals ''would clearly understand, respect and appreciate'' the policy. He says marshals who provided details of the dress code to USA TODAY ''are putting us all at risk.''
Do dress codes threaten cover?
But marshals say making them look and dress alike is what threatens their cover. ''This is really dangerous,'' says one marshal, who left the Justice Department for the air marshal program five months ago. ''We are so obvious, the terrorists don't need to bring guns on the planes anymore. They just need to gang up on us and take our guns.''
* New hires were given badges and guns and put aboard flights before extensive background checks necessary for national security clearances were completed. Quinn says that, in order to hire marshals quickly, the new hires were given waivers while the more extensive background checks were underway. ''Would I prefer it another way? Certainly,'' he says.
So would some marshals. ''If someone slips through the cracks, how do you not know they're not a terrorist?'' says one marshal who received a waiver. ''You've already put them on a plane.''
* Work schedules are disorganized. Schedules reviewed by USA TODAY show marshals often fly with different partners each day, even though they were told during training that developing rapport with a partner was crucial. Many end up flying more than 10 hours a day. ''It's ridiculous,'' says the marshal from the Justice Department. ''Guys are complaining about headaches and vertigo and dizziness. We're falling asleep. We're nodding off.''
And though one memo from a manager's teleconference says the agency is ''being judged on how many flights we can cover,'' more than a dozen marshals in each of two offices were not scheduled for weeks at a time, sources say.
''In May, for 3 weeks, they forgot about me,'' says one marshal. ''And not just me. There had to be 15 guys in the office they forgot about. We sat in the office watching kung fu movies.''
The marshal says many colleagues, cynical about the division's failure to offer them training, jokingly considered the Bruce Lee movies ''our close-quarters training.'' When the marshals repeatedly called the scheduling center in Atlantic City to try to get on flights, schedulers said, ''Don't worry about it. You're getting paid,'' the marshal recalls.
Charge 'totally erroneous'
Quinn denies the marshal's account. ''Totally erroneous,'' he says. ''There was no office with federal air marshals sitting there watching kung fu movies for a month.''
Other marshals say they routinely work more than 50 hours a week but, because of a government pay structure for law enforcement officers, never earn overtime.
Instead, based on a policy called ''law enforcement availability pay,'' they are paid for 50 hours of straight time each week even if they work more than that. Quinn says schedulers take into consideration whether marshals have worked long weeks and try to schedule them for less time in subsequent weeks.
But one manager says if marshals report more than 50 hours, time sheets are changed to reflect only the 50 hours. ''I do it on a weekly basis,'' the manager says. ''I'm having to white 'em out.''
When he speaks with marshals at regional offices, Quinn says he stresses two points: ''Professionals embrace change. Amateurs cling to the past and what somebody may have said to them along the way.''
But for some marshals, what they were told when they applied affected their decision to join the program.
In an Aug. 1 letter of resignation obtained by USA TODAY, one former marshal wrote of frustrations stemming from ''the lies that were fed to myself, and most of my colleagues.'' The letter details concerns about scheduling, pay and promotions. The marshal who wrote it would not comment on the letter, but he accepted a position outside the division ''because I can trust the people and organization that I will be working for,'' he wrote.
The new job, he wrote, pays ''$11,000 less'' than his air marshal salary.Cover storyCover story
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20020815/4362661s.htm
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Comments
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | There is no tyranny like petty tyranny, as Fred Hubbell has learned to his sorrow. Hubbell, 80, was tired and cranky as he was undergoing his second pat-down by security guards at Bradley International Airport in Connecticut August 2. Hubbell lost it when one of the Transportation Security Administration screeners started going through his wallet.
"You better look at it real good. There may be a rifle in there," Hubbell snapped, according to Dana Cosgrove, head of the local TSA security force. Hubbell was led away in handcuffs, fingerprinted, and locked in a holding cell. Eventually he was released without charges being pressed. But, of course, he missed his flight.
In Philadelphia in January, a pilot for US Air was strip-searched. He asked the screeners why they were searching him for tweezers or nail clippers when - since he was the pilot of the airplane - he could crash the plane in his underwear if he wanted to. The pilot was arrested.
Judy Powell, 55, a British tourist, bought a G.I. Joe doll for her grandson, George, while on a visit to Los Angeles. When she tried to board a flight home to London, security screeners at LAX confiscated the two inch plastic M-16 the doll was "armed" with. The Transportation Security Administration has a list of 66 items - including toy guns and transformer robots - that are now banned from airplanes. If you are caught with one in your luggage, you could be fined up to $1,100.
A security guard at JFK airport in New York forced Elizabeth McGarry, 40, to drink from the three bottles of breast milk she was carrying with her for her baby daughter Maggie to prove it wasn't dangerous.
The Flight Attendants union has written twice to Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta to complain that female flight attendants are being groped by male security guards. The flight attendants aren't alone. As she tried to board a flight from Phoenix to Sacramento in February, 50-year-old Susan Schmidt said a screener "ran his hands under her sweater, up to her bra, then down to her hips."
The Transportation Security Administration unquestionably has been effective in protecting us from grumpy old men, wisecracking pilots, and lactating mothers. But it has been less vigilant in other areas. Roughly a third of fake guns and bombs have gotten past screeners in TSA tests. And although passengers and aircrews routinely are searched, thousands of mechanics, caterers and ramp workers who have access to airplanes are not.
Airport security isn't rocket science. But it also can't be conducted effectively by arrogant idiots who lack both judgment and discretion. The job of the TSA is to protect air travelers, not to harrass them. What is needed is less petty fascism, and more common sense.
The great danger, as we learned on Sept. 11, is that hijackers will turn an airliner into a flying bomb. But if the pilots have guns, and the hijackers don't, the odds on a successful hijacking drop to near zero. Those pilots who wish to carry guns (which is most of them) should be permitted to do so forthwith.
The list of contraband items should be winnowed down to real weapons. If the TSA clowns spent less time rummaging through luggage for tweezers and nail clippers, they might actually find more of the guns and the bombs in the tests.
More attention should be paid to employees who have access to aircraft. If screeners weren't so gloriously incompetent, the easiest way for a hijacker to get a gun on an airplane would be to have a confederate in the food service or cleaning crews to preposition it for him.
Random searches should be ended. Senior citizens and small children are unlikely to harbor terrorist sentiments, and unlikely to be able to overpower the aircrew even if they did. The only people who should be singled out for special attention are those on law enforcement watch lists, and those who fit a terror profile. This means swarthy males in their 20s to 40s; people who travel without luggage, or who buy one way tickets for cash.
Finally, lose the attitude. Frustrated people shouldn't be arrested just for calling stupid and arrogant screeners stupid and arrogant. The First Amendment wasn't repealed on Sept. 11. We're fighting the war on terror to make sure it never will be.
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0802/jkelly.html
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
By BRYON OKADA
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
IRVING - Dallas/Fort Worth Airport is deep into the war on terrorism. About 2.5 tons deep in confiscated items, including 15 handguns, 10 illegal knives and three clubs.
Like many of the nation's 429 commercial airports, D/FW Airport made myriad changes to its passenger security checkpoints. And, despite repeated warnings from the aviation industry - including information on extensive lists of items banned by the Federal Aviation Administration and the Transportation Security Administration - passengers are still showing up at the terminals carrying prohibited items.
Since Sept. 11, D/FW has had 28 weapons violations, most of which were caught by X-ray machines, said Alvy Dodson, the airport's vice president of public safety.
"We arrested every one of them. They went to our jail," Dodson said Wednesday at the Texas Transportation Summit in Irving. "Most of them told us they forgot it was in there - it was the Barry Switzer syndrome."
Switzer, then coach of the Dallas Cowboys, was arrested in August 1997 at D/FW Airport after an employee at an X-ray machine found a loaded revolver in his duffel bag. He said at the time that he had forgotten the gun was in the bag.
Airport security chiefs from across Texas discussed the details of implementing federally mandated security measures at the nation's airports. They include restricting parking near terminals and meeting the Dec. 31 congressional deadline for screening all bags with bomb-detection machines.
Opinions were mixed about whether the Transportation Security Administration should hire federal security directors with more aviation experience, as opposed to the law enforcement emphasis employed now. Some said customer service had taken too much of a back seat. Others said passengers should get used to the move away from the FAA's more regulatory approach to security.
Almost all the participants said they expected the security agency would be "more inclusive" dealing with aviation industry input under new leader James Loy, who replaced John Magaw last month.
Most also favored extending the Dec. 31 deadline to give bigger airports more time to implement more complex - and more thorough - baggage-screening systems.
"Some of these deadlines are somewhat unrealistic. We all know that," said Mark Mancuso, deputy director of public safety for the Houston Airport System.
Extending the deadline might allow private companies to develop more effective screening technology. The bulky Explosive Detection Systems machines can give false warnings up to 30 percent of the time, Mancuso said. He compared security checkpoint workers dealing with false warnings to an I Love Lucy episode where Lucy can't keep up with a conveyor belt full of chocolates.
Consultants are still reviewing how best to redesign airport security checkpoints. By the Nov. 19 deadline for screening duties to be taken over by federal employees, officials would like the checkpoints to be as uniform as possible.
Loy, who toured D/FW Airport on Tuesday, said other security measures such as secondary passenger screening at the jet bridges could only be relaxed when checkpoint screening was "100 percent solid." And while it is rare for banned objects to be confiscated at the jet bridge, Loy said it still happens.
Another obstacle could be whether passengers are willing to comply with the new rules. For example, parking at the curbside outside D/FW's baggage claim area has been banned. Did that translate into empty curbsides?
"We've had an average of 1,700 citations a month for leaving your vehicle unattended at the curbside," Dodson said.
Bryon Okada, (817) 685-3853 okada@star-telegram.com
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/local/3867345.htm
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
WASHINGTON -- How is it that John Ashcroft's hard-line Justice Department flinches like a gun controller at the thought of arming airline pilots? That tendency can be traced to a veteran career bureaucrat from Pennsylvania named Sarah Hart, brought into the Justice Department a year ago by Attorney General Ashcroft.
Hart not only has attacked guns in the cockpit but also has expressed affection for the COPS program, Bill Clinton's federal subsidy for local police forces that the Bush administration wants to terminate. If Hart shares Clintonian ideals, she has found plenty of company at a Justice Department where holdover Clinton administration bureaucrats abound.
When Ashcroft entered the attorney general's office after a brutal Senate confirmation process, a veteran of previous Republican administrations told me the new attorney general's immediate test would be how he staffed his department. From conservatives, Ashcroft gets an "A" for high-level appointments and an "F" for the mid-level bureaucracy. Assailed by the Left as anti-civil libertarian, he is attacked by the Right for leaving his department unchanged.
Three of Ashcroft's most criticized senior bureaucrats follow:
Lawrence A. Greenfeld, director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS): Starting as a probation officer in Fairfax County, Va., 33 years ago, he joined the Justice Department in 1976 and the BJS in 1982. He was its principal deputy director under President Clinton and was promoted to director by President Bush. He is viewed by conservatives as supporting COPS and other Clinton programs.
Michael Katz, deputy assistant attorney general in the Antitrust Division: A University of California at Berkeley professor starting in 1987, he became chief economist -- and staunch regulator -- at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1994. He next became chief economist at Clinton's Antitrust Division, supervising its economic analysis as it attacked Microsoft. Ashcroft has retained him in that strategic position.
Sarah V. Hart, director of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ): A Philadelphia prosecutor for 16 years, she became chief counsel of Pennsylvania's Department of Corrections in 1995. Since joining Ashcroft's Justice Department, conservatives complain, Hart has done nothing to reduce NIJ funding for left-wing academic institutions.
Hart particularly distresses conservatives. When Republican Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona planned a critical study of COPS, he could not get help from Justice because Hart indicated support for the program. Kyl's staffers did not even think it worthwhile to contact Greenfeld, who at BJS had the numbers at hand but was known as an ardent COPS booster.
When Congress passed its transportation security act last December, it required Hart's NIJ to report any alternatives in airline cockpits to stun guns or other non-lethal weapons. According to Justice sources, she recommended only "passive" behavior by pilots. Since she has publicly suggested that stun guns may be "impractical," Hart in effect is calling for pilot passivity in the wake of the terrorist attacks.
A draft report to the Senate by the General Accounting Office (GAO), the congressional investigative arm, cites Hart as a source for objection to guns in the cockpit. "Arming pilots," says the GAO draft, "would introduce 10,000-100,000 guns into society, contradicting other efforts to discourage the number of firearms in the population." That aligns a Bush presidential appointee with the gun-controllers. When my office called her, Hart pleaded she was in the midst of a meeting and hung up the phone.
Hart had the power to stop federal financing for an anti-gun study by the National Academy of Sciences, which is expected to be issued just in time for the 2004 presidential election campaign. She did not. John Lott, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, has called this a one-sided study with a foregone conclusion conceived by the Clinton administration.
Beneath the level of Hart, Katz and Greenfeld, platoons of liberals infest the Justice Department. I have previously reported that Stuart Gibson, a lawyer in Justice's Tax Division, is a liberal political activist elected to office in the Virginia suburbs. His existence became known only when he was identified as lead litigator publicly revealing a tax shelter used by William Simon, Republican candidate for governor of California. How many more liberals pursue their agendas inside John Ashcroft's Justice Department is anybody's guess.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/rn20020815.shtml
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
By BRYON OKADA
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
DALLAS - The new head of the Transportation Security Administration says the corps of federal directors appointed to oversee airport security may have the wrong backgrounds to do the job right.
James Loy, undersecretary of transportation security, also said it is becoming unlikely that the agency can meet the Dec. 31 federal deadline for screening luggage with bomb-detection machines. Other Bush administration officials have voiced similar doubts about meeting the deadline.
Loy is in the middle of a five-week trip, meeting with the airlines, airports and legislators who felt alienated by John Magaw, the previous head of the agency. Loy took the helm of the agency in July, after serving four decades in the Coast Guard.
Earlier this week, Loy was at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, which has emerged as a political clearinghouse for airport directors' efforts to weigh in on the aviation-related security debates on Capitol Hill. For four hours, Loy met with several regional officials and his agency's local personnel, putting a face on a Washington, D.C., agency that has been, at best, distant.
A persistent criticism of the Transportation Security Administration is that the 118 directors appointed so far to oversee security at commercial airports are law enforcement officials, sometimes with no aviation experience.
For example, Chicago's O'Hare Airport got Willie Williams, a former chief of the Los Angeles Police Department. Dallas/Fort Worth Airport's security director, Jimmy Wooten, is a former Dallas special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Love Field's security director, Michael Restovich, was a U.S. Secret Service agent assigned to Dallas.
Loy said a rethinking may be in order.
"I am a little bit frustrated when I look inside the organization. I've got to look four or five levels down before I find airport experience, airline experience," he said.
Loy said he has been recruiting within the aviation industry, asking representatives to "forward some resumes so we can do some hiring that's smart - and breeds that kind of expertise."
Infusing the security agency with aviation industry personnel would create a better bond among industry groups that should be "pulling the same harness," Loy said. It's the kind of consensus the agency has been unable to muster since it was created this year.
Dallas/Fort Worth Airport was a critic of the Magaw-led agency when it submitted to the agency a $195 million plan to reconfigure its terminals to meet the Dec. 31 deadline for screening bags with bomb-detection machines. The plan would create a system of machines incorporated into the airport's baggage handling system. The Transportation Security Administration fought with Congress over the agency's budget, and the Dallas/Fort Worth plan was never approved.
Magaw's apparent inability to take the advice of the industry he regulated was a motivating factor in 39 airports forming an alliance that is lobbying for an extension of the Dec. 31 deadline.
David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association, put it succinctly: "He didn't listen."
Kevin Cox, senior executive vice president at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, who met with Loy on Tuesday, said the meeting was productive, and Loy had been impressive. Rodney Slater, a Dallas/Fort Worth lobbyist and a former secretary of transportation for President Clinton, said Loy is the right man for the job.
Of the federal 300-foot rule that bans parking near airport terminals, Loy said, "There's a number of rules that have been sort of generated in the wake of the event on 9-11 and the legislation that we should be scrubbing pretty hard to see whether they still make sense."
Loy said his agency would meet a Nov. 19 deadline to have federal screeners at the passenger checkpoints. So far, the government has hired 13,400 of the 30,000 screeners needed, and hiring should be increasing quickly.
Making the Dec. 31 deadline is another story.
Dallas/Fort Worth Airport officials have long maintained that requiring airports to make the deadline by installing a hodgepodge of security devices would do more damage than good. Loy said that he agreed with that assessment.
Echoing recent statements by Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta, Loy said, "My sense is that given the budgetary realities, the deadline is unreachable."
Deadline or no deadline, the Transportation Security Administration needs more money to do the job right the first time, Loy said. The agency will probably seek a budget amendment for the funds. A key to the equation will be whether Loy can successfully reshape the security agency's image with Congress after such a rocky start.
The House has already passed a homeland security bill that would extend the baggage-screening deadline. The Senate has not yet passed its version of the bill.
"If all that happens, and in the meantime ... the Senate produces a bill for the Department of Homeland Security, and if, in fact, deadline-extending language is in both of those bills, and it becomes the bill for the president to consider, I'll be glad to support it," Loy said.
In that process, having the Senate attach legislation extending the deadline is the most difficult part, officials said.
Behind the scenes, Dallas/Fort Worth officials are circulating a letter crafted last week - addressed to senators and signed by airport executives - requesting that the deadline be extended. The Senate is expected to take up the homeland security issue when it reconvenes Sept. 3.
http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/nation/3871774.htm
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
By Blake Morrison
USA Today
Aug. 15, 2002
For years, the government touted federal air marshals as the best of the best, an "elite corps" of undercover officers trained to stop hijackings on commercial flights.
But today, after rushing to hire thousands of new marshals, the program is so beset with problems that sources say at least 80 marshals have quit, and other marshals say they are considering a class-action lawsuit over working conditions that they fear put travelers at risk.
Documents obtained by USA Today and interviews with more than a dozen current and former marshals suggest many have grown disillusioned with a program that one says has become "like security-guard training for the mall."
Hiring standards for marshals added since Sept. 11 have been lowered dramatically, sources say. No longer must applicants pass a difficult marksmanship course.
At some of the agency's more than 20 regional offices, the program has struggled to provide ammunition for shooting practice, sources say.
Despite the undercover nature of the work, officials have implemented a dress code that marshals worry identifies them to terrorists. And scheduling has been haphazard: While some marshals have not flown for weeks at a time, sources say others are working 12- to 16-hour days and are falling asleep or getting sick aboard flights.
At least three incidents involving the conduct of individual marshals are under investigation by federal authorities.
In one incident last month, a marshal was removed from a flight in Washington after smelling of alcohol. The head of the air marshal program confirms at least two cases in which marshals accidentally discharged their weapons, one in a hotel room in Las Vegas. And sources say one marshal was suspended after he left his gun in a lavatory aboard a United Airlines flight from Washington to Las Vegas in December. A passenger discovered the weapon.
Based on a presidential order first issued in 1979, the marshals cannot form a union. That's why some of them say they're considering contacting lawyers.
Officials with the new Transportation Security Administration downplay the concerns. They say any organization that has grown as quickly as the air marshal division is bound to have some problems. http://arizonarepublic.com/news/articles/0815marshals15.html
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
The federal air marshal program is so troubled that at least 80 agents have quit and others "are considering a class-action lawsuit over working conditions that they fear put travelers at risk," USA Today reported today.
Among problems cited by the newspaper:
Hiring standards since Sept. 11 have plunged. "No longer must applicants pass a difficult marksmanship course that used to be the make-or-break test for the program. In addition, many new hires were given guns and badges and put aboard flights before extensive background checks were completed."
The program sometimes doesn't even have enough ammunition for target practice.
"Despite the undercover nature of the work, officials have implemented a dress code that marshals worry identifies them to terrorists."
Scheduling is crazy even by the federal bureaucracy's low standards. "Though some marshals have not flown for weeks at a time, sources say others are working 12- to 16-hour days and are falling asleep or getting sick aboard flights."
One marshal complained: "This used to be an elite, great group. This used to be the baddest people you could find - war heroes. Now they've turned this into a laughingstock."
http://www.newsmax.com/showinsidecover.shtml?a=2002/8/15/211227
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Mark Steyn
National Post
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I wasn't surprised to hear that airport security at Los Angeles had seized from a British granny the 2" toy rifle of a GI Joe she'd bought for her grandson. Nor by the news that security at Reno Airport inspected a woman's breasts to check it was only underwiring she had in her brassiere. Nor by the news that a Long Island mom boarding at JFK had been made to drink bottles of her own breast milk in front of other passengers to prove it wasn't a dangerous liquid. Here at the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, we regard these as important victories in the war against terrorism. Whether these three suspects are, indeed, the world's most wanted evil masterminds -- where's my secretary's Post-it note? Ah, yes, here we are ... Whether these three suspects are indeed the notorious Osama bin Lactate, Mullah Ol' Bra and Saddam Hippain it's too early to say, but we do know that it would have been all too easy to insert a toy miniature rifle in the top of the rubber nipple of a baby bottle, give it a surreptitious squeeze and send the plastic projectile flying into the aisle to give the stewardess a nasty nick in her pantyhose. The day that happens you'll know we're not doing our job.
The breast feel? That came from the top, my boss, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta. "Think about it," he said. "If Osama's still alive, he's not wandering around looking like some crazy bearded Islamist terrorist. He'll have had the best plastic surgery money can buy -- Pamela Anderson's collagen lips, Anna Nicole Smith's hooters. Take it from me, Osama bin Stacked, baby! We need to keep a look-out for any breasts over 38D. Oh, what the hell, 36B."
"Now that's what I call profiling!" I said. The Secretary had swung by because I'd mentioned to him that we needed a bigger holding facility. "I got wall-to-wall terrorist suspects in there," I told him. "Unless you'd rather I didn't detain quite so many."
"Remember what I told you that first day?" said Norm. " 'You know the rules. Go by the book.' "
"I went and bought the book," I said. "The Rules by Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider. They had it at the airport newsstand and, boy, thanks for the tip. It's got a lot of great dating advice and, for those of us at the metal detector, it sure helps while away the mid-afternoon lull when they're boarding the flight to Riyadh."
But we were at the detention centre and I could tell the Secretary was impressed by the number of suspected terrorists we'd managed to cram in. He peered at their cold terrorist faces as they pressed up against the wire mesh of the cage. "Hang on," said Norm. "You've filled up the joint with a lot of nancy boys."
"That's just their brilliant cover," I explained. "They showed up at the US Air counter claiming to be the touring company of a famous Broadway production. Yet, when I asked them to name the show, they shouted, 'Annie, get your gun!' Fortunately, we wrestled them to the ground before they could yell any further instructions to their accomplice. We shut down the terminal for four hours but so far we haven't managed to find this 'Annie' -- or, more probably 'Amir.' But I'm confident we can get more out of this one," I said, indicating Ronnie Twinkle, his chilling Islamist fanaticism all too obvious even in his cunning disguise of leotard and tap shoes. "I asked him, 'What do you know about bombs?' and he said, 'Well, I did Sondheim in Des Moines.' "
"*!" hissed Ronnie.
"Good work, Mark!" said Norm. But suddenly he spotted a whimpering figure at the back of the pen, her terrorist nerve utterly broken, though we'd given her a copy of the Koran and her own prayer mat. "Isn't that Anna Wintour, the celebrated long-time editor of Vogue? What on earth did you arrest her for?"
"You told me to be alert for alarming bangs," I replied.
"Excellent!" said Norm. "But who's that fellow over there?"
"That's the critically acclaimed poet Thom Gunn. I asked to see some picture ID and he produced his California driver's licence. It was a very good likeness, so I arrested him for attempting to board a plane while carrying a replica of a Gunn."
"You'll go far in this department," said Norman. "Hey, what's that awful smell?"
"Sea bass," I said. "It's a couple of days old now, but we're still waiting for the lab results to come back. I went to grab a bite and I found this terrorist had managed to infiltrate the terminal restaurant and was slipping firearms to his terrorist pals under the guise of being a waiter. The buddy, posing as a customer, says, 'So what are your specials?' and then this terrorist guy, Walter, says, 'Well, today, for $12.95 we have a striped bass in a saffron sauce on a Ruger.' "
Walter exploded and lunged at the cage wire. "For the thousandth time, you jerk! It's striped bass in a saffron sauce on arugula."
I grabbed the striped bass and slapped him hard on the cheek with it. "The mullahs can't help you now, punk!" Tossing aside the fish, I whispered to the boss, "Seems this 'arugula' is Italian for 'rocket.' Could be we intercepted something real big here."
"You've done a terrific job," said Norman, as we strolled back down the concourse past a man with dark black eyes and a long grey beard who seemed vaguely familiar. "Nabbing that British granny was a stroke of genius. Hey, what's that on the security camera? More suspicious old ladies?"
"No, that's the Golden Girls rerun," I said. "The guys on the conveyor belt scanner like to switch over once in a while. Like to join me?"
Yet, even as we settled down to watch, I felt vaguely uneasy, as if we were missing something. "Surely, Mr. Secretary, if Osama's the fiendish mastermind he's supposed to be, he'll know you're on the look-out for a gal with colossal knockers and he'll have had a reduction job like Pammy did. He could be wandering around with small but exquisitely pert breasts."
"Good thinking, Mark," Norm said. "Okay, from now on we check out all the racks."
I glanced around. "Wow!! Get a load of the bazookas on that bombshell!!!"
"What are you on about?" said Norm, scanning the gate. "There's not a hot-looking gal with stand-out mammaries anywhere in sight."
"I was referring to that young swarthy male coming out the men's room with an old bomb shell he's fitted a couple of bazookas on to."
"Try and stay focused on the job," said Norm sternly. "Here come the Dallas Cowgirls. I get to frisk first."
c Copyright 2002 National Post/
http://www.nationalpost.com/commentary/story.html?id=0065DAF3-2881-418B-842B-E2836F5658D2
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Could G.I. Joe be a terrorist?
By Jacob Sullum
Ryan Scott probably should consider himself lucky that he wasn't arrested for trying to carry firearms onto an airplane. True, there were a few extenuating circumstances: Ryan is only 9, and the guns were toys that no one would mistake for actual weapons.
But rules are rules, and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) lists "toy weapons" among its "Items Prohibited in Aircraft Cabins." So when Ryan tried to take a rubber, four-inch G.I. Joe rifle and a few miniature toy pistols aboard a flight at the Central Wisconsin Airport earlier this month, he was nabbed.
"It says a toy gun, and that's a toy gun," a spokeswoman for the company the TSA pays to screen passengers at the airport told the Wasau Daily Herald. After Ryan's family complained, the airport's director of operations saved the toys from destruction. "I personally think it's foolish," he said, "but that's how [the rule is] being interpreted."
A TSA spokesman said he had not heard about the incident, but "it may be that we had an overzealous screener that wanted to follow the letter of the rule." In other words, the problem is stupid screeners, not a stupid rule.
If so, the stupidity seems to be rampant, which is something the TSA might want to consider when it writes its rules. Around the same time that Ryan Scott's toys were taken away, screeners at the Los Angeles International Airport told a British tourist, Judy Powell, she could not take an armed G.I. Joe doll on her plane.
The doll, which Powell had bought in Las Vegas, was carrying the same sort of little rifle that got Ryan into trouble. Eventually, she was allowed to pack the doll in a checked suitcase--without the rifle. That edict presumably was improvised, since TSA regulations allow passengers to transport real guns in checked luggage, "so long as they are unloaded and declared to the airline at the ticket counter."
Powell told the BBC that "security examined the toy as if it was going to shoot them and looked at the rifle. I was really angry to start with because of the absurdity of the situation. But then I saw the funny side of it and thought this was simple lunacy."
Not everyone agrees. Unlike the Central Wisconsin Airport, where a sensible official intervened to rescue Ryan's toys, LAX seems to be run by the sort of "overzealous" people who take TSA regulations at face value. "We have instructions to confiscate anything that looks like a weapon or a replica," an LAX spokesman said. "If G.I. Joe was carrying a replica, then it had to be taken from him." It's not clear whether Joe put up a fight.
Surely these are isolated incidents, just like last month's arrest of a competitive boomerang thrower who tried to board a plane in Connecticut with her sports equipment. Boomerangs are not explicitly banned from aircraft cabins, but the TSA emphasizes that its list "is not all-inclusive": "Other items that may be deemed to present a potential threat may also be prohibited."
No doubt it was also an aberration when a woman at JFK was forced to drink from three bottles of her own breast milk to show that the contents did not "represent a potential threat." But once you see enough isolated incidents (and we have to assume that many cases do not get reported in the press), you start to see a pattern.
You might think that security screeners who are vigilant enough to intercept tiny toy guns would be highly effective at spotting real weapons. Yet as of June screeners were still missing one in four dummy guns, bombs, and knives in government tests. Historically, these tests have practically been designed to be passed.
By casting its net too widely, the TSA is making it harder for screeners, overzealous or not, to zero in on genuine threats. Now that the old model for responding to hijackers, based on the assumption that cooperation was the safest course, has been abandoned, terrorists will never again be able to take over airplanes armed with box cutters, let alone with scissors, pliers, wrenches, corkscrews, golf clubs, hockey sticks, or pool cues, to pick some of the sillier items on the TSA's list.
We may, along with the woman whose G.I. Joe was disarmed, "see the funny side of it." But airline security shouldn't be a joke.
c Copyright 2002 by Creators Syndicate Inc.
http://www.reason.com/sullum/081602.shtml
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
You couldn't melt me and pour me on a commercial airplane.
SIG pistol armorer/FFL Dealer/Full time Peace Officer, Moderator of General Discussion Board on Gunbroker. Visit www.gunbroker.com, the best gun auction site on the Net! Email davidnunn@texoma.net
By Ted Lang
Published 08. 14. 02 at 20:21 Sierra Time
It is doubtful if another terrorist attack will be as devastating as that of September 11th. Improvements in security monitoring techniques relative to communication and radar surveillance have undergone modifications and improvements providing for earlier emergency response to future hijacking attempts. But certain electronic enhancements and physical security objectives are not proceeding on schedule.
Recently Congress extended the Transportation Security Administration's original deadline for airport compliance for the installation of explosive-detection system [EDS] baggage monitors by the end of the current year. Airports admitted that they wouldn't be able to meet the TSA deadline now extended to the end of next year.
Additionally, the 33,000 employees estimated as required for airport screening positions is at only a fraction of that number. The air marshal program is also behind both in terms of recruitment and training. According to an article in Government Executive on-line, "While the number of marshals stood at fewer than 50 before September 11, that figure has since exploded to a reported 2,000 (the Transportation Department maintains that the actual number is classified). But even with this increase, [which purportedly is "on schedule"] air marshals-who usually work in pairs or in groups of three or more-still sit on just a fraction of the nation's 35,000 daily flights."
The June 4th article by Mark Murray originally appearing in National Journal, continues: "And for that reason, many members of Congress believe that armed pilots are a much better last line of defense. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., introduced legislation that would reverse the Transportation Department's decision and allow pilots to carry guns. Burns points out that in publicized aviation incidents since September 11 (such as the attempt by suspected terrorist Richard Reid to blow up an American Airlines flight in December), air marshals were nowhere to be found, and it was passengers and flight attendants who actually subdued the threat. `We place our lives in the hands of pilots every time we board a flight,' Burns said, `so it only makes sense that we provide them with the tools and options they need to safely and effectively do their job.'"
Murray points out that the "The message from the Transportation Department was obvious: Skilled air marshals - not pilots armed with guns - should be the last line of defense aboard commercial airliners. .[Former TSA] Director John McGaw announced the department's decision to bar pilots from carrying guns. `It's clear in my mind, when I weigh all the pros and cons, pilots should not have firearms in the cockpit,' McGaw told the Senate Commerce Committee on May 21."
But according to Tom Barrett of ConservativeTruth.com, in his article "Extreme Views" posted July 14th, "Until late in 1987, commercial airline pilots had carried small arms as a matter of course on their aircraft. There was never a problem. Most airline pilots receive their flight training in our armed forces, so they are well trained in the safe use of firearms." Barrett reports that in spite of this, "a suicidal passenger broke into the cockpit of an airliner, killed the pilots and crashed the airplane." It was this incident that motivated the FAA to disarm pilots," an illogical reaction given the facts.
GovExec.'s Brian Friel in his article "Marshal Draw," dated August 1st, exposes yet another problem. The drive by TSA to provide an adequate number of air marshals is causing a drain of officers in other federal law enforcement agencies. Air marshal pay and benefits are better than in other federal agencies reports Friel, and as a result, a large drain of talent from these agencies to officer positions at TSA is occurring. Agencies affected include Veterans Affairs, the Mint Police, Secret Service, Park Police, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service's Border Patrol, among others.
But the drain of law enforcement officers has most adversely affected the Border Patrol. Friel reports that, "In the wake of Sept. 11, [INS-Border Patrol] already had faced the massive task of hiring 8,000 employees this year. Now, with losses to TSA, the turnover for several occupations, including Border Patrol agents, has doubled. The Immigration and Naturalization Service lost 396 Border Patrol agents, 50 detention enforcement officers and 73 immigration inspectors to the air marshal program in just four months this spring."
TSA has had a tumultuous beginning caused by problems implementing security procedures on schedule. In spite of the highly inconvenient, and in some cases, humiliating passenger screenings, an inordinate amount of knives, guns and dummy explosive devices have passed through airport security measures during efficiency checks.
The harsh inconveniences of passenger screening at the nation's 429 air ports has created delays as well as many publicized screener overreactions, including strip searches of the elderly and infirm, pat-downs of toddlers, and confiscation of plastic two-inch toy rifles. And air travel has suffered. Presently, USAir is proceeding with Chapter 11 bankruptcy, United Airlines is expressing concerns over revenue losses, and American Airlines has announced yet another 7,000 layoffs in addition to the 20,000 reductions that were made immediately after September 11th.
http://www.sierratimes.com/02/08/15/artl081502.htm
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878