http://www.onlinejournal.com/11-26-03_Kupferberg.pdf
Excerpt:
November 26, 2003—In the immediate aftermath of September 11, the mainstream newspapers were replete with items implicating Argenbright security (which was charged with overall security at Logan Airport) with lax procedures, thereby largely giving a "free pass" to the two companies that actually handled passenger screening for the hijacked planes out of Logan.
Besides Huntleigh, the other security company at Logan screening passengers was Burns Security, through its subsidiary, Globe Security. Burns Security, the former employer of Timothy McVeigh and suspected al-Qaida member Mohamed Abdi (connected by authorities to attempted "millennial" bomber Ahmed Ressam), also happened to make the news in the most high profile incident preceding September 11. Just a few days before the Twin Towers came down, a disgruntled Burns security guard by the name of Joseph Ferguson went on a murderous rampage, killing, among several others, his supervisor at Burns—a Ukrainian immigrant by the name of Nikolay Popovich, in the Sacramento suburb of Rancho Cordova. Before Ferguson turned his gun on himself, he claimed that he was inspired to follow in the footsteps of Timothy McVeigh and Nikolay Soltys, a Ukrainian immigrant who, only a couple weeks before Ferguson, had went on his own mass murder rampage in the suburb of Rancho Cordova. In Ferguson's home, authorities found right-wing militia literature, particularly that of the World Church of the Creator. The Ferguson episode also caused a temporary disruption in Burns' West Coast operations, forcing many of its employees to steer clear of work, out of harm's way, until Ferguson could be apprehended.
A postscript on Nikolay Soltys, the Sacramento mass murderer who inspired Ferguson's rampage: on February 12, 2002, Soltys' lawyer, Tommy Clinkenbeard, revealed in an Associated Press article that a Sacramento County social services agency was tracking Soltys before the slayings, and that Clinkenbeard was barred by court order from seeing all of Soltys' social services records, which were sealed. Clinkenbeard said that he intended to subpoena those records, but Soltys was found hanging in his jail cell the very next day. His cell had been under 24-hour surveillance.
What, if any, was the connection here to September 11? Were these copycat mass murder episodes just random occurrences—or perhaps indicative of a far more murky, complex drama playing out just below the surface? Yet none of this would have merited any notice in chronicling the Legend of 9/11 had there not been a crucial Burns/Al-Qaida/Right Wing Militia/Sacramento nexus in the millennial lead-up to 9/11.
In the weeks leading up to January 1, 2000, the news media were swamped with speculations of impending catastrophe. We had already experienced the domestic terror wrought by Timothy McVeigh (representing the right-wing militia set) and Ted Kaczynski, alias the "Unabomber" (representing the lone wacko set). Now we were told to expect an apocalyptic meltdown of our technological infrastructure by way of the Y2K "bug", or, alternatively, an attack by America's self-declared Number One Enemy—Osama bin Laden. The expected catastrophe came 21 months later than expected, with the blow struck in New York City.
Yet according to the Official 9/11 Legend, the expected millennial catastrophe was actually averted two weeks before the new year, with the arrest in Seattle of al-Qaida operative Ahmed Ressam. Ressam, as was later discovered, was on his way to mastermind a massive terror attack on the West Coast—at Los Angeles International Airport, a facility secured through the services of Burns Security. After September 11, authorities arrested a former Burns security guard named Mohamed Abdi in Washington, D.C., on the pretext that he was connected to Ressam.
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1001/saunders102601.asp
Airline bill needs liftoff
Excerpt:
"FEDERAL doesn't mean quality,'' a House Republican aide said to explain why House Repubs oppose a bill passed unanimously by the Senate that would federalize some 28,000 airport security jobs.
OK. Problem is: Private doesn't mean quality, either.
Consider a federal review of airport security biggie Argenbright Security Inc. The company hired security screeners with criminal records -- folks convicted for burglary, firearms possession and other crimes -- as well as illegal aliens. Last year, Argenbright pleaded guilty to several charges and agreed to pay $1.2 million in fines for falsifying records and conducting inadequate personnel background checks.
Last year, the General Accounting Office presented the findings of an investigation to see if undercover workers using bogus credentials could get into the secured areas of two airports with private security. Bingo. The phony IDs got GAO personnel and their valises -- which could have contained anything -- through security without screening.
An airport's motto should not be: Have gun, will travel.
The other problem is: Federal workers don't guarantee security either. GAO personnel also made it past guards without being screened at FBI headquarters and at the Department of Energy, where federal workers provide security. The workers and their valises were even able to get close to the energy secretary's and FBI director's office suites.
What to do?
First, understand that both systems are flawed, and both have their advantages. Then pass the best bill you can get, pronto.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., believes that the public will only feel secure flying with the federal government providing airport security. Since confidence translates into ticket-buying, that's an important point.
House Republicans cite the success of private airport security companies operating under tough government scrutiny in Europe and Israel. House Transportation Committee Chairman Don Young therefore introduced a bill that would make the federal government responsible for airport security, but let the president decide whether to require airport security personnel to be federal workers. President Bush supports it.