[World'sGoneInsane]

Seven O'Hare security workers have been fired for letting Gurung get as far as he did.

First the news reports said they were fired. The sing-a-long news on CNN or FOX last night said they were SUSPENDED.

[KCKTXAM]

Question. The argument against having Fed employees for airport security is that Civil Service employees "Can Not" be fired. WHY???????? I wish some Democrat would explain to me why a civil service employee cannot be fired. WHY????????

[Tacis]

Hey, I believe that federalized airport security forces would do every bit as good a job of keeping bad guys off airplanes as the FBI and INS have done in keeping bad guys out of the country. If these guys did become federal employees, my bet is that the staff picture at most airports would look a lot like the team photo of the local NBA team.

[RightRules]

This prattle isn't even well-written. A cheesy attempt to make ArgenFraud Security the victim in all of this. How many of us get the sympathy treatment from our employees when we fail to deliver on a material obligation?

And only one slap at a republican; not even a back-hand swat at the POTUS! The Head DemocRat cannot be impressed at this feeble attempt. I don't see any gold stars or brownie points for the LAT out of this pablum!

Please, Tom Ridge, get our military folks into these airport security positions before this thing becomes even more of a political football. The solution is not a higher-priced version of what we already have.

[ctdonath2]

The ultimate reason why FEDERAL agents should NOT be arbitrarily checking luggage in a NON-FEDERAL facility provided for the use of PRIVATE businesses:

Bill Of Rights, Amendment IV:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

[WilliamWallace1999]

If you like the idea of Federal security, spend a little time in a VA hospital. We need to improve security, not create another Federal jobs program. The American people got exactly what they demanded through market forces. Carriers like Valujet only existed because consumers demanded low prices above all else. Now let the free market do its job. Make safety and security the driving factor in choosing a flight and the carriers will respond. Anyone who has flown in the last ten years knows that security was a farce before Sept. 11th.

WW1999

[Starboard]

Blue-ribbon commissions, Washington Post investigative reports and even the Office of Personnel Management itself have concluded that public managers, faced with literally year-long or more crusades to rid themselves of the indolent and incompetent, simply don't try.

I personally witnessed one federal manager who spent nearly a year documenting excessive abuses of the agency's phone system by a person on his staff. The manager prepared an air tight case against the employee, but the net result of the effort was that the person was simply reassigned to another position--where the abuses continued. The employee has since been promoted. Another obstacle facing federal managers is that there are unions for government employees that are quick to defend their members. The grievance process can be very painful for managers, and that is another reason why they tend to avoid disputes with employees.

[OldFriend]

Why not let the INS take over airport security too.

[Hostage]

Very good background summary on Federal Civil Service. The evolution of federal workforce policy has also affected the States. I know first hand that very competent supervisors in US civil service are continually frustrated with getting rid of incorrigible workers. If they are not careful, they'll end up with "all the responsibility and none of the authority". Since it is near impossible to get authority, the game boils down to slipping away from responsibility.

The federalization of airport security will allow for more careful background checks in the long run and for better retention because of better pay. But that is where the advantages end. Terrorists will still find ways to hijack airplanes, and when they do, the article is correct in stating that the federal workers responsible will suffer very little punishment. Also the federal government tends to circle the wagons to any attendant lawsuits.

To go down the road of federalizing airport security will result in curtailed travel and collapse of travel related industries. It would also facilitate national IDs and soon impose a real sense of police state.

It is very hard to smuggle guns and other weapons onto an airplane. The terrorists involved in the 9-11 hijackings had obviously studied and planned how to take over those airplanes. They used seeming innocuous instruments such as box cutters. They used distractive techniques such as killing crewmembers at the rear of a plane to lure pilots into the cabin and allow their accomplices to then enter the cockpit.

They could have been stopped by pilots who had been trained in the use of deadly force with special ammunition such as frangible bullets. Cockpit doors such as the ones Alaska Airlines is now installing and cabin cameras could go along way in alerting pilots to dangerous passengers. These measures have been discussed previously. They could go further requiring cabin flight attendants to be trained in martial arts.

The point is that the airline industry has actually done an admirable job and the events of 9-11 will make them tighten up even more.

It is the Federal workforce that has failed miserably on so many fronts. Just for starters consider the border. For Gephardt and others to malign the American private sector for lax standards is laughable. Gephardt's cherished constituency, the government unions, are more culpable of real damage done and yet to be made manifest. There's no doubt that terrorists have crossed the borders illegally, and that they potentially transported materials, now hidden, that can inflict more damage that those jetliners that were conmmandeered on 9-11.

[scooter2]

Every commercial airport in the country is operated by some sort of "Port Authority" or its equivalent. Why not provide federal grant funding to hire more local (Port) Police Officers and let them conduct airport security? The FAA could establish the standards and let the locals be resposible for enforcement and compliance. I'm definately not in favor of federalizing airport security nor am I in favor of letting private security companies continue with thier minimum wage, poorly trained screeners doing (or not doing) the job.

[Paleo-Con]

Isn't it odd that they complain that security workers are underpaid and then award contracts to the Lowest qualified bidders? The gov't does stuff no one in their right mind would do. If you needed a contract worker you would pay enough to get a good one.. Not our stupid gov't, and then they propose to fix the problem they created by doing it themselves..

[Angelique]

I believe it was in the eighties that France and Britain tried to federalize this function, and it proved to be a disaster. Why? Perhaps a study about the failure is important, but not as important that it was failure.

I am very skeptical of any government project when someone such as Bill Clinton is elected into power. There can be federal guidelines, but there is not one scintilla of evidence that airport security is best handled by creating yet ANOTHER fed agency!

[swampfox98]

If Federal baggage checkers are anything like the INS, there will be ll million deaths in the next few years.