Terrorists Flying Planes Legally? - Government Lies and Your Future

"We are doing everything possible to protect the security of Americans." How many times have you heard that? Don't believe a word of it. Here you'll see and learn why.

From what I can tell, potential terrorists can be flying commercial planes legally, and could easily be working within most of the aviation industry of the US with the blessing of our government - and nothing is being done to halt that possibility from my perspective.

But as bad as that possibility is, equally deadly is the policy of government to allow greedy corporate employers to decimate the economy of the US through the destruction of the job market for Americans. Jobs are being given to aliens that take less money, send it out of the country and potentially support anti-American nations, if not terrorism itself. Meanwhile, those companies expose our industry secrets, practices and technological expertise to a host of known and potential enemies.

To get a taste of how corporate greed and government complicity in undermining your personal security - and that of the nation - take this little tour. You will have follow directions here carefully.

For a little more of an eye-opener, close the search results window and go back to the beginning and do the same search - and select ‘Search all States' for the pilots and navigators. You'll see more than enough to question whether ‘everything possible is being done' to protect us from terrorists gaining potentially dangerous knowledge and expertise from within the aviation industry.

Last I want to share with you the email that has pointed to this information - and its impact on the lives of Americans attempting to compete in the job market with aliens given preference over them. Note that the main page of zazona has quite a bit of information about the H-1B policy, and the ramifications it has to national security, and your safety, as well as information about those aviation industries that figured in the WTC attack The website states:

I would highly recommend you do more than contact Congress and sign the petition. Three people need to hear from us in no uncertain terms. The President, the Vice President and the National Security Advisor CONDOLEEZZA RICE. Now here's that email, and I'm sure ‘John' would not mind hearing some support from you (link enhancement and emphasis are mine):

From: "John" <unemployed_engineer@nettaxi.com>
Subject: Where Did All The Jobs Go? - The H-1B Situation
Date: Wednesday, October 10, 2001 11:01 PM

I am a software engineer living in Silicon Valley. Since February, I have been looking for work. My job skills are current and I have experience working at software, biotech and semiconductor firms. During this time, I have submitted hundreds of resumes for various positions. I have only had a few job interviews. However, those interviews were quite informative. For example, on a recent interview, I immediately noticed that the software managers and engineers were from other countries since English was not their first language. This appears to be the situation at all the companies I have recently interviewed with.

I was aware that Congress had recently doubled the number of H-1B visas for skilled foreign workers. "The H-1B nonimmigrant program is a voluntary program that allows employers to temporarily import and employ nonimmigrants admitted under H-1B visas to fill specialized jobs not filled by U.S. workers."

Each company hiring an H-1B employee is required to file a Labor Condition Application (LCA). An LCA is an application filed by a company that wants to hire a foreign national to fill a position within the United States. With this in mind, I wanted to determine how many engineering positions were filled by H-1B engineers at a given company. Since this should be public information, I went to my trusty search engine looking for a LCA database. For some reason, it does not appear that the INS (http://www.ins.gov) or other government web sites provide a LCA database. However, I finally found a web site which has a LCA database at: http://www.zazona.com/ShameH1B

The database link is at (http://www.zazona.com/LCA-Data). Their advanced database search is very helpful. For example in the advanced search, select the state as California, enter a city as Santa Clara, enter the employer name as Hewlett Packard and enter number of records as 100 then press the submit query button. You can see the positions and salaries of the H-1B employees. Looking at the data, we are not talking about a few dozen positions. We are talking about literally hundreds of positions. This is only for the HP offices in Santa Clara. Go back and do the above search but leave the enter a city blank. You will see that Hewlett Packard employs hundreds and hundreds of H-1B workers. Moreover, we are not only losing engineering jobs but H-1B visas are being granted for almost any conceivable position. Just look at the LCA database to see what types of jobs are being denied to U.S. citizens.

This appears to be the only site with a LCA database so I was wondering who created the site. There is an interesting article about its creator at http://www.thestandard.com

Following the recent tragic events, many large firms have instigated massive layoffs. Many engineers have been unable to find work for months. As mentioned above, the H-1B program allows employers to temporarily import and employ non U.S. citizens to fill specialized jobs not filled by U.S. workers. Go back and look at the list of jobs filled at Hewlett Packard by H-1B employees. I personally know of many individuals who are qualified for those positions but are unable to find work. Something is seriously wrong.

I've been told by many hiring agencies that companies now prefer to hire H-1B workers and work them long hours at lower wages - knowing they won't say anything fearing they would lose their H-1B status. At my last firm, the engineering manager had his engineers working many weekends. When one of the H-1B engineers complained, he said that there were plenty of engineers in Taiwan that wanted his place. I have heard other engineers say that managers like to threaten H-1B engineers with losing their H-1B status unless they do exactly what they are told. I've also heard and personally noticed that many companies are hiring H-1B managers with the expressed purpose of having them fill engineering positions with H- 1B engineers from their respective country. Many companies are finding this an inexpensive way to lower costs.

I believe with the current economic conditions the H-1B issue will become a very important topic in the coming months. Frankly, the media and press have not discussed the seriousness of this subject. Why? I believe they did not have the tools and databases required to see the size of the problem. Fortunately, the LCA data is now available at (www.zazona.com/ShameH1B). You can now determine how many and what type of jobs are being denied to unemployed U.S. citizens at a given company and location. What needs to be done to correct this grievous situation.

Congress needs to immediately change the law such that companies must provide immediate employment to qualified unemployed U.S. citizens if an H-1B employee is filling a position a citizen is qualified for. When a company has layoffs, the law should force that company to discharge H-1B employees before U.S. citizens. Let me repeat that the H-1B law says "specialized jobs not filled by U.S. workers". The law was clearly not intended to deny U.S. citizens jobs but this is precisely what it is doing.

Many companies will cry that there are not qualified replacements. I offer them the following challenge. Let me look at each position taken by an H-1B employee. Then let me find an unemployed citizen with similar qualifications. I personally know many unemployed individuals who are qualified for these positions.

Frankly, the U.S. is one of the few countries which now offers unlimited access to its job market at the expense of its own citizens. While going to college, if I had any idea that most of the engineering positions would be taken by H-1B labor, I would never have become an engineer. I advise young people not to become involved in engineering since companies find it easier to hire less expensive foreign labor. The H-1B managers prefer to hire more foreign labor - it's only human nature - so you have a vicious cycle. The end result is that U.S. citizens need not apply.

The recent terrorist events have shown the importance of having U.S. technology handled by U.S. citizens. If the current H-1B situation is not immediately changed, U.S. citizens will abandon the engineering field and our entire technology industry will be controlled by non-citizens. Think about it. You just lost your job and go to the LCA database to learn that 25 H-1B employees are still working in your position. You will not be a happy camper. What can you do to help?

Encourage them to look at the LCA database. http://www.zazona.com/LCA-Data/ The job they are losing may be on the list.

Your most powerful action is to write your U.S. Congressperson and Senators. Remember, H-1B employees cannot vote but as a U.S. citizen, your vote counts. Even though powerful companies have heavily contributed to your congressional leaders to keep the H-1B laws in place, companies cannot vote - only you can. Don't let your job be eliminated next.

You can find your congressional representative at these links. Your Congressperson
http://www.house.gov/writerep/ Your Senators
http://www.senate.gov/contacting/index_by_state.cfm

Sign the petition. You will find a petition to send to your congressional representatives at

And finally, don't forget to make a phone call to your local Congressperson and write your local newspaper.

A few more tidbits, from The Guardian (UK)

In October last year, two months before the Securicor buyout, it was fined more than $1.5m (£1m) for allowing untrained employees, some with criminal records, to operate security checkpoints at Philadelphia international airport. Fourteen had criminal backgrounds that included drug dealing, kidnapping, firearms offences, aggravated assault and theft. Three executives pleaded guilty to conspiracy and fraud-related charges.
The company agreed to pay $1.2m in fines and costs for falsifying training and background checks, and was ordered to pay $350,000 to 38 airlines. It was placed on probation for three years.
Ten months ago, Securicor made an initial payment of $185m for Argenbright to its Atlanta parent, AHL Holdings, with the final price to be based on this year's performance.
Frank Argenbright, 53, who founded AHL in 1979, received $2m for delivering the deal and was appointed chief executive officer of Securicor's US security operations. He retains 53% of AHL, worth an estimated $62m, and stands to gain a bonus of up to $3m this year.

The real problem here for this guy is being a white male engineer, unemployed in Californicate. The bias against them is very real. You can tell when you interview by the attitudes of foreign nationals that now dominate many of the Valley firms. When I was an unemployed CA engineer I learned quickly not to waste time, gasoline, and money seeking employment at these kinds of firms. Even when you do manage to score a job at foreign dominated companies your potential is severly limited. The foreigners play all the traditional industry games with great expertise. Limiting your authority to get anything done, with holding critical information while colorbating with their own kind, with holding resources from your project, etc.

When I worked for companies that were traditional American friendly I was a good performer. When at one of the "other" foreign preference companies, it made me hate getting out of bed in the morning.

I interviewed at one wafer manufacturer that was dominated by Indian types, and quickly observed they were bumbling along and in need some competent expertise. The hiring manager could hardly conceal his anti white bias so I told him he had wasted half a day of my time and walked out.

Get out of Californicate and your life gets back on track pretty quickly.

And more...this from Excite (UK).

Note the date of the article.

U.S. accuses Securicor firm

12/10/01 14:09

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Securicor-owned airport security operation has been accused by federal prosecutors in Philadelphia of hiring screeners with criminal records and of violating federal rules at 13 major airports.

In court papers made public on Thursday, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia accused Securicor subsidiary Argenbright Holdings of potentially jeopardizing public safety and asked that the firm be found in violation of its probation for previous violations.
"Even though it was sentenced less than a year ago for an astonishing pattern of crimes that potentially jeopardized public safety, and despite this court's order requiring it to fully implement all of the terms of its probation, defendant Argenbright has failed to do so and in fact has committed additional violations of the type which resulted in its prosecution last year," the court petition said.
Argenbright, America's largest airport security firm, was fined $1.2 million in October 2000 for numerous violations at Philadelphia International Airport, including falsifying records, performing inadequate background checks, and hiring airport workers with criminal records.
According to court papers, the company, among other things, has continued to hire pre-departure screeners at the Philadelphia airport who have "disqualifying" criminal convictions.
The government also alleged that Argenbright had violated FAA regulations at 13 airports, including Dulles International outside Washington, Logan in Boston, New York's LaGuardia, and Dallas-Fort Worth.
Argenbright president Bill Barbour said on Thursday he was puzzled by the new allegations and said the company planned to contest what he said were inaccuracies contained in the court papers.
"In light of the recent positive audit of our company by the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), we are puzzled by both the timing and substance of today's actions by the U.S. attorney," Barbour said in a statement.
Barbour said nearly all of the alleged violations occurred before the company changed its practices to meet FAA concerns.
The latest charges leveled against the Atlanta-based company were made public on the same day that the U.S. Senate unanimously approved an air security bill that would put airport baggage screening in the hands of federal workers.
The move comes in the wake of the Sept. 11 hijack attack on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon near Washington. More than 5,000 people were killed.

The terrorist attacks have made me rethink my views on H-1B visas. I am much closer to your view on this issue than I ever have been. That said, there is part of what you wrote that I think is just not a winning way of presenting the argument:

But as bad as that possibility is, equally deadly is the policy of government to allow greedy corporate employers to decimate the economy of the US through the destruction of the job market for Americans.

This is a losing issue for us in a number of ways:

The painting of corporations as greedy is counterproductive. When conservatives start making that argument, it enables to political left to persue their agenda of pushing anti-business legislation, punishing tax rates, social engineering through environmental regulations, and so on.

You say that corporations are greedy. They are not. Corporations are neutral. They may have greedy people in positions of power within the corporation, but they are not greedy in and of themselves. There are greedy people in all aspects of life, and it is unlikely to be changed by the laws we pass.

Besides, when you start in with the populist speil about the corporate boogeyman, you are fighting the war on the turf of the collectivists, the socialists, the communists, the Democrats, and their minions in the upper echelons of big labor. You fall into the same trap that northeast Republicans have fallen into. There, Republicans have often acted like Democrats, only not quite as extreme. You know them as RINOs. When having to choose between Democrats and faux-Democrats, the voters end up going with the "real thing" more times than not. The same priciple applies here, and should have been one of the lessons learned from the Buchanan campaign of 2000. When faced with candidates that sell the anti-corporate line (traditionally favored by the collectivists), those voters who decided to cast their vote that way went for the real enchilada- a leftist like Nader or a leftist like Gore.

I also know that not all of the jobs given to H-1B visa holders correspond to jobs that otherwise would have gone to Americans. My company has several programmers hired on these visas, and the reason we have them is the Americans who applied for the jobs were unqualified AND wanted even more money. The choice is not between them or an American, the choice is between being able to do the job at a price that would allow us to win contracts and get the work, and us not (and without those contracts, there goes this American's job, and the jobs of the 95% of my company that are citizens). Maybe you then say, if every company faced the same thing, then it would not be a problem, and I would say then that this would mean that doing work would cost more overall, which would mean that less work would be done. It is a balancing act that is not as simple as the populist mantra makes it seem, and many people sense this intuitively. As such, making this appeal turns them off the way Al Gore's "I will fight for you" calls turned me off.

This is a legitimate issue, however. The H-1B visa program has spiraled out of control as you have pointed out, and there are security issues that go beyond questions of employment. In other words, the policy you are driving for is the right one, but I implore you to press upon everyone you know in the party to come up with another way to drive the point home and sell it to the voters.

"... one of the lessons learned from the Buchanan campaign of 2000."

And a mean lesson that was too, Hugh. Certainly what you say about "fighting the war on the turf of the collectivists, the socialists, the communists, the Democrats, and their minions in the upper echelons of big labor" is not a place one wants to be perceived as being - for conservatives.

I'm most thankful for your thoughts, particularly the part about "another way to drive the point home and sell it to the voters." In addition, I'm painfully aware of the problem you cite in that many Americans who apply for the jobs are simply unqualified - and want more money than temporary H-1B employee will gladly take.

My problem isn't so much with smaller companies that must compete with greater intensity than the behemoth corporations like Hewlett Packard (the example pointed to by author of the email.) My mega-corp-employer has laid off the experienced and hired lower priced H-1B in place of greater ability. That ‘plays' as bald-faced greed - and sheer stupidity - but hides more.

Next week, I was told, I'll be offered for the fifth time a buy-out, two years of full pay - if I'll just go away (I won't.) Yet, the company has a severe shortage of my expertise - filling that shortage with far less capable H-1B hires, while studiously ignoring several Americans who have repeatedly applied and are of top caliber, experienced in the sciences needed. This again, appears as sheer greed and stupidity. But it is much, much more than that.

These corporations are led by wholly incompetent CEO's and boards (business wise) that are noted for links to far-left organizations and their activities are openly destructive to the corporations - and successfully so. (As their means covered a ‘boom' period.)

The problem you point to is how to call a spade a spade without hurting the cause of conservatism and fair and competent business interests. We are watching a nation being destroyed from within by corporate socialists - while their pals in government write law to assist in their efforts.

I agree with you. What the GOP has to do is come up with better terms to describe the problems we've outlined here - and tell it like it really is. At the same time however, I would like to see the GOP attract more Democrats and union members, while making life easier for the smaller businessman like myself and the mid-sized companies that are having a hard time. The solution isn't importation of labor - it is proper education and training - and exposure of not only greed (real,) but purposed destruction of successful major corporations.

All too well I remember the great schools within these corporate giants - that were destroyed, and eventually virtually eliminated. Now they complain they can't find qualified? No - sorry. That doesn't wash. They did want less expense, and capitalized on it, but they also wanted an excuse. Meanwhile the American worker is paying for their folly, and missing the bottom line intent and purposed means to an end.

I think some help may be coming, but not near enough of it - Congress and the President seem almost oblivious. There are promising questions over the visa issue - but we'd better keep a sharp eye on what Congress actually does - while we view with scepticism what they say. In addition, we have to begin exposing more of corporate stupidity (where it exists) - as well as what I believe is purposed subversion, that has led to excuses which cover up the socialist-means used to undermine our society and its productive might.

Thanks much for your feedback, Hugh. It was the best of the bunch! 8^)

Good morning!

Hugh, thank you for saving me the time it would take to type out everything that you said, I couldn't agree with you more.

Ron, when I read words like "greedy corporations" and have these corporations blamed for every ill found in America, the hairs on the back of my neck begin to rise, it sounds so familiar.

Greed built the American economy, the extraction of greed and the elimination of the ability of individuals to amass personal wealth is what makes communism, as a political system, an economic failure.

Corporations answer to investors, ordinary people who wish to participate in the corporate dream of growth through aggressive expansion, and these investors walk away from the corporation if it fails to meet their requirements for a return on their investment.

I believe that the whole H-1B visa program is about to slow itself way down as a result of the combined impact of the war, and the economic downturn we are currently experiencing. US employers will do the right thing in the face of a recession, they will endeavor to put America back to work, not for any other reason than greed; unemployed Americans cannot purchase the products that these corporations "peddle".

If I remember correctly, prior to the current economic downturn, the US had an unemployment rate of less than 4%, that fact, coupled with the information that US firms heavily recruited overseas for trained help during the boom, tells me that damned near everyone who could and was willing to work, was working. There will always be a certain percentage who, for one reason or another, will not work.

I agree with Hugh 100% on the dangers of using terminology that can be easily construed as socialist when speaking of American business.

That's my rant, not as well thought out as Hugh's, and not as eloquent, but hey! it's a second language to me.

Luis

We are watching a nation being destroyed from within by corporate socialists - while their pals in government write law to assist in their efforts.

The problem in a nutshell, made worse by the fact that most people immediately put socialists and communists out of their mind when they think about corporations, since the presumption is that corporations and those of that mindset are adversaries.

Before we can win this battle, we have to clear this ground, and get people to see that corporations can be controlled by adversaries to our way of life, and have people start using due diligence in this regard. If we win the information battle here, and get people to see what is happening, we won't even need to change the laws. The companies that are advancing the subversive causes will lose their business IF we figure out how to get people to see, and when they lose their business they lose their money and their power.

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