Posted on 02/11/2002 4:24:27 PM PST by ATOMIC_PUNK
Nation: Government wants to replace security company at airports
WASHINGTON (February 11, 2002 7:22 p.m. EST) - The government wants to put troubled Argenbright Security Inc. out of the security business at the nation's airports.
The Federal Aviation Administration is seeking bids from other security companies to take over Argenbright's airline security operations. Argenbright has 40 percent of the market.
The FAA now oversees airline security, but that responsibility shifts to the new Transportation Security Administration beginning Sunday. The new agency also will supervise security screeners, a job now done by the airline industry.
By Nov. 19, some 30,000 federal employees, hired and trained by the TSA, will screen all passengers and luggage. Until then, private companies will continue to handle security screening as the new federal work force is phased in.
An Argenbright spokeswoman, Cynthia Faulkner, said the company was "ready to work with DOT and TSA and the aviation authorities during the transition period."
Last week, Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta said the government would not sign any new contracts with Argenbright but the company would continue its current operations. Now, the Transportation Department doesn't want Argenbright to handle any airport security.
Argenbright staffed security checkpoints at Newark and Washington Dulles airports, where two of the planes hijacked on Sept. 11 took off from. The company also handled some security at Boston's Logan Airport but not the areas where the two other hijacked planes took off from. The company lost its Boston contract after post-Sept. 11 security lapses.
There have been other problems as well. In November, Argenbright screeners allowed a man to pass through a Chicago checkpoint with knives and a stun gun. Last month, a company screener allowed a man whose shoes set off an explosive detection device to disappear from the San Francisco airport.
Argenbright, accused of hiring criminals to staff security checkpoints, was fined more than $1 million in May 2000 for failing to conduct background checks. Federal prosecutors charged in October 2001 that the company was still hiring convicted criminals.
Oh, goody. Yet another Administration. We're saved.
Argenbright, I read somewhere along the line, is a British company owned by Israelis. Does anybody know if this is true?
I heard that the compromise legislation that was signed specified that they can be fired. Anybody know anything more specific?
Were ANY of the 911 hijackers "convicted criminals?
Frankly I'd rather have a seach crew made up of red-blooded American felons than nice clean cut Arab Muslims with no discernible criminal record.
Blood is thicker than water, and most American-born felons are more loyal to this country than just about any of the recent immigrants we have to this country. Most of our immigrants fly the flag of their foreign country and boo the US team at soccer competitions. And these are the guys that have been searching me at the airports.
It occurs to me, upon further reflection, that this
statement is merely a tiny subset of the fact that
our legislators would like to replace, or control,
everything.
That occurred to me, too, when the idea was first proposed. And I don't even own a tinfoil hat.
(Sorry, I couldn't resist. ;-)
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