Air Marshals Pulled From Key Flights

MSNBC News ^ | July 29, 2003 | Brock N. Meeks

[XHogPilot]

WASHINGTON, July 29 — Despite renewed warnings about possible airline hijackings, the Transportation Security Administration has alerted federal air marshals that as of Friday they will no longer be covering cross-country or international flights, MSNBC.com has learned. The decision to drop coverage on flights that many experts consider to be at the highest risk of attack...

[ravingnutter]

Yeah, what are they up to now, four, or five graduates?

The first graduating class had 46 students

[AAABEST]

I'm not afraid of flying or terrorists (or death for that matter)in the least. I just don't want any of these scrubby a$$holes touching me, my woman or going through my stuff.

Until they're gone, I don't fly.... Period. I've already passed on two out of state trips.

[small_l_libertarian]

Yeah, I hate the security doofuses, too. Knock on wood, so far I haven't been singled out for any special treatment.

I am afraid of terrorists, but I do have something up my sleeve when I fly (think James Bond and the snake, but don't type it out, 'cuz that'll just make them look for it) in case anything ever does happen. If they want to kill me and my fellow Americans, they're going to have a very rough and unpleasant time of it.

"Afraid" does not equal "helpless" to this young lady, but I still REALLY hate flying these days.

[kabar]

TSA should never have been established. Many Republicans were against it, including Dick Armey. Creating a federal bureacracy with over 30,000 employees was Bush's biggest mistake. We should have left the baggage screeners in the private sector with federal oversight. TSA will grow and prosper like every other federal bureaucracy including beyond its useful life. Look at the storm of protest about a limited cut back, which may make good sense economically and without affecting security. Having been a federal bureaucrat for over 35 years, I know how difficult it will be to reduce anything having to do with security. It has become the tail wagging the dog and will consume more and more resources affecting the programmatic mission of the various agencies.

[mewzilla]

CNN said in a report today that there is not truth to this, that in fact a memo went out over the weekend stating that in light of the new AQ threat re: planes that people would even be added to flights. Nobody's been pulled. MSNBC screwed up, at least if CNN's correct.

[The_Sword_of_Groo]

Maybe if we can confirm it in the New York Times we'll know for sure...

[VOA]

As the group grew from 2, 3, 10 to close to 20 it became all too clear that us
white/anglo-looking men need not apply.

Remember the tussle the Democrats made over union rights during discussions
over homeland security...I simply presumed that the TSA was a Democratic
jobs for votes agency.

[mewzilla]

Click here for the FR thread on how this story is bunkum. The story's from FOX, BTW. Nuff said.

[The_Sword_of_Groo]

Sorry, I should have included the </sarcasm> tag at the end of my previous reply

[mewzilla]

Ooops, no prob. I'm a bit dim this afternoon. You'd've probably needed a plank :)

[Archangelsk]

P.S. I'm still waiting for the TSA to acknowledge my application to join the Federal Flight Deck Officer (armed pilot) training program....

Go tell your carrier, I'm sure they'll help you. /sarcasm

[upchuck]

There you go again, making perfect sense. Don't you know that's not allowed?

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

...stems from a policy decision to rework schedules so that air marshals don’t have to incur the expense of staying overnight in hotels.

In TSA's infinite wisdom, it's either this current plan or throw the guys a sleeping bag and have them sleep in the airport terminal. Aren't they grand?

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

I can't tell y'all how terrified I am. My job requires me to fly a LOT between March and October. I just got back from SF on Monday and have to fly to Montreal tomorrow. Fly back Monday and then to Toronto in 2 weeks. When I get back from there, it's back to California (then Wisconsin, then Atlanta).

This purely sucks! I sincerely hope it's disinformation. I agree with the poster above who said that the security procedures from airport to airport are not very consistent.

I am seriously considering quitting a very cool job because it's just too dang dangerous!


Calm down-- as a fellow frequent flyer (two trips to Europe this month!), let me tell you how I get through the day.

It's simple statistics: Ask yourself, What was the worst day for commercial aviation ever? Easy answer, eh: 9/11. Okay, so what was the chance of being on an Al Qaeda flight that terrible day? Well, let's see: there were apparently five flights targeted, four of which actually got hijacked. That's out of many thousands of flights scheduled for that day.

So you see, even if we were to return to pre-9/11 levels of vigilance, your chances of being on a targeted flight are a very, very small fraction of a percent.

And meanwhile, as annoying as today's airport security procedures is (what with its politically-correct pantsing of elderly white males and groping of young girls while meanwhile Ahmed Q. Mohammed waltzes through without a second glance), they do represent increased vigilance over 2001. More luggage is X-rayed, more people are frisked, more carry-ons are inspected, more cameras and laptops and Walkmen are verified, and so on. I have lots of problems with Mineta's stewardship of the TSA, but security is better than it was.

Hope that helps.

[ExSoldier]

"Ask Richard Reid"

This guy came horrifyingly close to blowing up his intended target despite the efforts of about 20 folks trying to subdue him. ONE armed pilot could have strolled up to the fracas leaned over and plinked him just once in the forehead with a handy dandy .40 cal. And then strolled back to the flight deck....

[WoofDog123]

"The real stupidity was releasing this news to the general public. "

there is a decent chance it was released in order to cause it to be reversed.

[Reagan Renaissance]

When cities are short of money, they lay off firemen, policemen and gargage collectors. No administrators, city-hall secretaries, planners, inspectors, etc are laid off. When states are short of money, they lay-off teachers, but not social workers or psychologists. The federal government lays off military, border patrol, coast guard and air marshalls. Government "planning" at its best. From their perspective planning means finding the operating cash by making the public feel the heat the most making the next tax increase much easier. Kills two birds with one stone, so to speak. No-service with a smile, that's the government's motto.

[Dialup Llama]

>Depends. How many swathy-skinned folk with Vermont domiciles are boarding?

Do not be too hasty with assumptions. I believe that some of the 911 terorists a got on the Boston flight by originating in Maine. And I can show you pics of Chechen terrorists who are pasty white looking, but are exactly like Bin Laden.

[fight_truth_decay]

That was yesterday reported by MSNBC, heard this today and found the story:

WASHINGTON, July 30 — , the Transportation Security Administration will immediately begin scheduling air marshals back on cross-country and international flights, MSNBC.com has learned. The move comes less than 24 hours after MSNBC.com reported that air marshals were being pulled from those flights because of budget problems associated with the costs of overnight lodging for the marshals.

THE DEPARTMENT of Homeland Security on Wednesday blamed the confusion on a mixup in communication and said the department had been working with air marshal officials on Monday to correct the situation.

“America should know that every air marshal that we have is being deployed, and additional resources are being directed to that very critical mission,” Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Wednesday in a speech. Part of the plan to add resources includes a recall of 100 air marshals now doing other jobs with TSA, a spokesman for the said.

[fight_truth_decay]

http://www.msnbc.com/news/945774.asp : Source to above Flip Flop