Posted on 05/18/2002 9:42:46 AM PDT by forest
Instead of setting uniform standards for airport security personnel and their training, Congress hurried through a bill that, in effect, federalized security functions at all major airports. So, of course, these new federal workers now think they are in charge and no longer have to answer to anyone about who they bother (or assault) or why.
One problem is, usually the very same low paid security workers are on the job as before the new law. There has been no increase in the quality of security personnel or training. Even when the "new" training is available, it will consist of no more than a two to four day class made up mostly of watching videos. Some of these "security" personnel cannot even speak English, so there is little or no gain expected there.
Already, the dissent between airport managers and the new "security forces" is rampant. For instance, last month the Raleigh (NC) News and Observer reported that the typically mild-mannered director of Raleigh-Durham International Airport called federal security regulators "dictatorial" and threatened a "showdown" after they frustrated his attempts to add an extra lane at a terminal checkpoint. He was told by the new federal security representative that if he didn't do as instructed, they would shut down his airport. "If I wind up in jail one day," director John Brantley told Airport Authority members, "it's not because I wasn't trying to help our customers."
The federal government mandated new explosive detection equipment to scan checked baggage. Except, there's a little problem: The equipment is too big and too heavy for many of the older airports. They're still in the head-scratching stage on that one.
Then, there were going to be air marshals protecting flights. But that fell through fast. Pilots and government officials all conceded that the program to put thousands of Federal Air Marshals on flights was stymied by insufficient training and poor-quality of agents on loan from other agencies.
Another problem is that flight crews have often have to go through screening with passengers. And, they often get pulled aside for special searches. The pilots call it "gate-rape." It seems that the screeners target them because that is an easy way for them to meet their "quota" of random searches. Screeners know that flight crews would be punished by their airlines if they complain.
Is seems that a great many airport security problems are with the airport workers themselves. At Washington area airports alone, federal authorities arrested 94 workers on charges of fraudulently obtaining airport security badges. Last month's arrests were at Washington Dulles International Airport and Ronald Reagan National Airport. Attorney General John Ashcroft said that was "part of an ongoing investigation to ensure that people who have access to secure areas of our airports are worthy of the trust granted to them by the public. There will be zero tolerance of security breaches at our nation's airports."
Recently, a few hundred airport workers around the country have been arrested for significant security violations. The LA Times reported, as an example, that private guards hired by major airlines at LAX have smuggled international passengers from the Middle East and elsewhere into the United States. It appears that some of the security escorts have helped smuggle in travelers supposedly en route between foreign countries under the little-known federal Transit Without Visa program.
That program permits foreigners to stop briefly in the U.S., without a visa -- sometimes with over a day lay- over in which to shop, smooze and/or just disappear. LAX served 56,000 such passengers last year. Over the last three years, INS has cited airlines for nearly 6,000 violations. Passengers without visas just walk out of the airports or hotels and blend in.
Earlier this month, The Washington Post reported that a woman who hired screeners at the Philadelphia airport was charged with altering job applications and allowing people with murder and weapons convictions to get jobs. The Philadelphia airport has a history of security problems, The Post reports. Argenbright Security, Inc. hired more than a dozen guards with criminal convictions to run security checkpoints in Philadelphia. Argenbright has since left the airport security business. But, how many of those workers are still there?
The list goes on and on and on. Now, today, we have zero tolerance for everything at airports. The problem is, there is also zero consistency of security procedures between airports.
At the Hebron, Kentucky (better known as the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International) Airport, some bright light closed and evacuated the main terminal of the airport for three hours last Sunday because a passenger was found to have a little marijuana (and, someone thought, maybe a cigar cutter). Thousands of passengers had to be re-screened after the terminal reopened. Not only that but -- talk about a totally stupid abuse of power -- they also had passengers on 10 flights that had already taken off re-screened when they reached their destinations.
Contrast that "security" fiasco with the security at Miami International Airport on the same day: On her way to LA, singer and spokeswoman for the "Psychic Friends Network", Dionne Warwick, got busted for carrying eleven joints hidden in a lipstick case. All that happened was that she was required to sign an affidavit promising to appear in court. Then, she was released. No other passenger was bothered. The Miami airport was not closed.
The Wall Street Journal nailed it in the title of an article last Tuesday: "Inconsistency Is the Only Constant At Airport-Security Checkpoints." Unfortunately, the stupidity is consistent. And, for that, we can put the blame squarely on Congress.
Bet that 30% of the workers have criminal backgounds.
How is the TWOV program a security risk? These folks are never left unsecured and are traveling to destinations outside the US. There are very very few incidents were someone on the TWOV program has absconded.
There has been less that 100 violations nationwide reported for TROV absconders. Most of these violations have not been for the TROV passengers absconding, but for violations of the TROV policy.
TROV passengers are never held at hotels.
I believe I also heard they are thinking of staging something like a mass "sick day" (assume they can't strike?) to bring air traffic to a halt to protest the unfairness of having to be/become citizens! I don't remember the statistics, but a significant fraction are not currently citizens.
These folks are basically unemployable elsewhere; that is why the shuffled dirty underwear. Now, as government employees, their pay and benefits are higher than they could ever have dreamed and the are immune. Airport manager? Let's see what he says after a couple of days of top security inspections as he tries to get to and from his office! He'll keep his mouth shut afterwards! They will NEVER make mistakes or at least mistakes anyone will hear about. Mineta? The FAA? It will be the passengers who strike first! And them a couple of airlines will go out of business. But, we'll still have government security because, as federal employees, they have jobs FOREVER!
=============================
In the last three years, airlines have been cited by the INS for nearly 6,000 violations nationally in which the carriers could not document that program participants left the U.S. in a timely manner. Federal officials could not say how many of those passengers remained in the U.S. . . .
Federal law enforcement sources say their inquiry at Los Angeles International Airport has yet to turn up evidence that violent extremists have gotten into the country via the transit program. "We are not far enough into the investigation to know if it has been exploited by terrorists," one source said.
Agents, however, are aggressively tracking down hundreds of clients -- most of them Middle Eastern -- of a phony-document ring that may be linked to the suspected airport-smuggling scam. Investigators suspect some of those who bought bogus Social Security cards from the ring arrived at LAX as transit passengers and remained in the country illegally. A former LAX transit guard from Jordan -- who obtained an INS stamp -- is among those who pleaded guilty in the false-document ring.
Airlines vigorously defend the decades-old Transit Without Visa program as both safe and economically vital. But leading INS officials say the threat of terrorism demands a reexamination. . . .
Once in the United States, transit passengers typically remain in the airport for several hours. More than 1 million a year are directed to secured lounges. But those lounges are sometimes poorly guarded, according to the post-Sept. 11 critique by the Justice Department's inspector general.
Some Without Visas Leave Airports: An additional 200,000 passengers a year, escorted by private guards, are allowed to mingle with the general airport population, transfer to other terminals or even leave the airport. Some visit restaurants, hospitals or consulates, or stay overnight in hotels while waiting for their connecting flights.
=============================
This is hardly the only report on this topic. But, it is close to the source (LAX) and was still in my files.
So, as you say, I could be wrong. However, then so were many major newspapers writing on this subject independently over the last couple years.
Nope. The President had to know about the problems months ago, so the one-word summary is: BUSH.
INS could say, but they won't. The INS knows exactly how many of these violations are absconders, and how many are not. In reality, there are very few absconders.
Why is Mineta still on the job? Does he have something on Bush?
if they applied the same tactics as the IRS, the INS could round up ALL people on expired visas with pin-point accuracy and have searched THOROUGHLY every last man, woman and child in the U.S. by turning them upside down and shaking them, all within the next 24 hours.
then they would carry on with cavity searches.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.