I'm not sure that I agree with the Washington Times editorial board's assessment that the Obama Administration is "quietly ending the FFDO program" — that is, without having more information. What does 'ending' mean? They don't say.

What I do know, and have written extensively about, is that the FFDO has always battled extinction because of the TSA — not because of Obama or his administration. The TSA expressly aims to keep its Federal Air Marshal Program aloft, to the tune of $350,000 per air marshal; FFDOs fly armed for free. You do the math.

Tim Sumner of 9/11 Families for America has a great recap of the FFDO's uphill battle. 

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During his first week in the White House, President Obama signed an executive order pledging to promote transparency in government by making public information more available. This could be good news for whistleblowers. From the Las Vegas Review Journal: 

A coalition of government watchdog organizations has asked President Barack Obama to restore the jobs of some federal employees who were fired or marginalized during the Bush administration.

The groups, led by the Washington-based Government Accountability Project (GAP), are seeking an executive order on behalf of national security whistle-blowers who reported mismanagement and wrongdoing within the federal government.

One good example of someone who reported wrongdoing, and got the axe for it, is former air marshal Robert MacLean:

Robert MacLean, a former Las Vegas air marshal whose name is on the list, lost his job after informing a television reporter of Transportation Security Administration plans to remove agents from long-distance flights in 2003.

The agency's proposed measure came at a time when the TSA was warning of a heightened risk of terrorist attacks using commercial planes. The plan to cut back security for these flights sparked congressional outrage and was scrapped, but the government fired MacLean, claiming he had revealed sensitive security information.

The Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, or FLEOA, supports the move. The group's president, John Adler, told the paper

"A tourniquet has been placed on the vocal cords of proud men and women who have served in (federal) law enforcement," Adler said. "They should be reinstated and be given all the compensation they lost, so they can resume doing the jobs they love."

(photo courtesy of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's office. At left, federal air marshal P. Jeffrey Black, has filed more than a dozen whistle-blower complaints since 2004. Standing beside him is Senator Harry Reid, D-Nev., discussing whistle-blower protection legislation on Capitol Hill last year.)  

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I was on Frank Beckmann's radio show this morning, discussing the Muslim family of nine — men in beards, wives in headscarves — kicked off an AirTran flight out of Reagan National Airport yesterday. The family, called the Irfans, said they were headed to a "religious conference" in Orlando, Florida. 

The last high-profile incident of this kind was a little over a year ago, in November of 2006. In that similar incident, a group of Muslim clerics were removed from a flight for saying and doing things that scared other passengers. The men had just been to a "religious conference" in the mid-west; the Irfans were on route to one. The 2006 incident, and subsequent lawsuit, garnered international attention and came to be known as The Case of the Flying Imams. 

In yesterday's incident, Fox News reports that one AirTran passenger said "they overheard one member of the [Irfan] family talking about the safest place to sit on a plane if a bomb was on board."

The family denies ever having used the word 'bomb.' 

"We're very careful about what we even say on the plane," Atif Irfan, who was kicked off the flight, told MyFOXDC.com. "Even if we were to say that's the bomb, we wouldn't even say that on the plane because we know to avoid certain buzz words, and we're very careful about this kind of stuff so, I don't know where they would have thought this whole incident even started from, quite frankly, what words we used."

Ultimately, even with the FBI advocating on the Irfan's behalf, AirTran refused to let the family fly. They refunded them the price of their tickets and referred them to a different carrier. The airline says it stands by its position.

AirTran spokesman Tad Hutcheson agreed that the incident amounted to a misunderstanding, and he speculated that it probably began because of the passengers' appearance. But he defended AirTran's handling of the incident, which he said strictly followed federal rules. And he denied any wrongdoing on the airline's part.

The TSA is also standing behind the decisions of its two federal air marshals who happened to be on board the flight. According to the Washington Post, the air marshals reported the situation to airport police, which led to a police report on the incident.

As a result of that report, federal officials made the decision to order all 104 passengers from the plane and re-screen them and their luggage before allowing the flight to take off for Orlando — two hours late and without the nine passengers. 

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Earlier this week, I wrote a piece called Air Marshal Email Exposé: Deputy Director Robert Byers Caught Playing Dirty.

Good news for rank-and-file air marshals that the Washington Post is covering the same, critical issue. That inept, power-mad air marshal managers are bad for national security and the ones who retaliate against national security whistleblowers need to go.

The Post quotes from Obama's transition team:

"Often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing government employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out. Such acts of courage and patriotism, which can sometimes save lives and often save taxpayer dollars, should be encouraged rather than stifled."

And former Air Marshal Robert MacLean gets quoted as well:

"Whistleblower Robert MacLean, a former air marshal, wants Obama to issue an executive order that 'would send a loud message' that his 'administration will not tolerate reprisal against those who expose wrongdoing.'"

More bad news for the brass. Read Whistleblowers May Have a Friend in the Oval Office.

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Well, well. The Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) continues to play dirty on the playground. That would be the playground that you (the taxpayer) finance but have no access to. As far as I know, the Air Marshal Service remains the only DHS agency whose budget breakdown is classified. They keep other things away from the oversight eyes of Congress, too.

This story, from Indrid Drake at the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), comes on the heels of a scathing report done by POGO on the Air Marshals Service. In that report, POGO reveals how the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) has, since 9/11, colluded to bury air marshal whistleblower cases.

OSC Cheif Scott Bloch got the heave-ho from the playground after federal agents raided his home and office last spring. Who at the Air Marshal Service is next in line?

Email Misfire Provides Inside Look at FAMS
By Indrid Drake

In what appears to be an example of the excruciating mistake of sending an email reply to the wrong person, POGO just got an unexpected glance inside the Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS).

It all began when Richard Hoskins–a former FAMS Security Assistant whose experience we highlighted in our recent report, Breaking the Sound Barrier: Experiences of Air Marshals Confirm Need for Reform at the OSC–sent FAMS Director Robert Bray an email requesting that Bray work with air marshals who have filed formal and informal complaints against FAMS and who are interested in getting rehired. Shortly thereafter, Hoskins received an email from FAMS Deputy Director Robert Byers, apparently intended for Bray, in which Byers states his preference to insulate Bray from any contact with federal air marshals.

This is troubling, especially since Byers had developed a reputation through his work with former FAMS Director Quinn as a dedicated whistleblower retaliation coordinator.

I've been interviewing rank-and-file air marshals and writing about the Federal Air Marshal Service for 4.5 years now. The dirty moves that are commonplace among top management there never cease to amaze me.

Read the POGO report: Breaking the Sound Barrier: Experiences of Air Marshals Confirm Need for Reform at the OSC.

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Michael Grabell, reporting for ProPublica.org has a fantastic piece in USA Today on air marshal insanity: Crimes by Air Marshals Raise Questions About Hiring.

It's Fantastic the way "Bad Lieutenant" was fantastic. Remember that movie starring Harvey Keitel? But of course that was a Hollywood film and this is real.

Never mind how troublesome it is that "since 9/11, more than three dozen federal air marshals have been charged with crimes, and hundreds more have been accused of misconduct." It's the personal-touch stories that are so appalling: 

[Air marshal David] Slaughter was convicted of abducting a female escort during a July 2006 layover in the Washington, D.C., area. In an interview, he said he hired the escort because he was having marital problems and wanted a woman's perspective. As they talked about how to spend their time, he went into the bedroom of his hotel suite and returned with his gun and handcuffs. The woman tried to flee, but he prevented her from leaving and unplugged the phone, prosecutors said.

The two struggled, and when the woman got the door open, Slaughter pinned her to the ground, held her in a chokehold and handcuffed her, according to prosecutors and the woman, Cherith Zorbas. 

Or how about air marshal Brian "Cooter" Phelps, who wanted his ex-wife to disappear:

In 2005, Phelps, known as "Cooter" among fellow air marshals, told a colleague that he wanted to see his wife's picture on a milk carton, court transcripts say. He asked the air marshal, who'd worked in Chicago's housing projects, whether he knew of anyone who could help.

The colleague said he did: The Crucifixer. The colleague told the Air Marshal Service, and after numerous contacts with FBI agents posing as hit men, Phelps was arrested and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Or air marshal McGowan?

Michael McGowan used his position as an air marshal to lure a young boy to his hotel room, where he showed him child porn, took pictures of him naked and sexually abused him.

It goes on and on…

The Federal Air Marshal Service issued a silly denial (surprise). But far more serious (for them) is the fact that behind the scenes, the story is getting long legs. I have been privy to a slew of emails going back and forth among air marshals and also emails among pilots.

No doubt, Grabell's story has done a great service to the flying public. It has reignited the fire among Air Marshals and pilots who have stories too. But their stories are also about the conduct of Air Marshal brass — notoriously swept under the rug and kept out of the public eye.

The real problem — and everyone who reports on the Air Marshal Service knows this — is the management. Leadership starts at the top and goes down. The secretive Air Marshal Service, overseen by the equally draconian TSA, has been riddled by scandals since day one. Corruption, mismanagement and abuse of power often appear to be the very principles on which the agency runs.

I've written countless articles and so have others. Nothing has changed. Not yet. The power lies in the pen, people. Call your local journalist now. (anniejacobsen@mac.com)

In an Air Marshal dialogue I was privy to, one Air Marshal writes: 

This article was just preparation of a greater [article] to come. [One that will] expose how often corrupt FAMs and TSA employees have committed crimes AND KEPT THEIR JOBS, while at the  same time the Agency went after whistleblowers with impunity, and  fired them. This article just broke the ice. 

And a pilot shared this pilot circular with me which is being passed around under the heading, "This Week's Security Horror Story:" 

But now think about what is required for a Federal Air Marshal to take a loaded pistol into the passenger compartment of a plane, and possibly to make a shoot/don't shoot decision in a cabin full of passengers:  These days, the Homeland Security Department will recruit pretty much anyone off the street, no matter what their background, and even if they have no prior law enforcement experience.

P. Jeffrey Black, a Las Vegas air marshal who in the past has testified before Congress about agency policies told Grabell, "These are highly trained federal air marshals with guns on planes. If they need chaperones, then we're all in serious trouble." 

Any good news in all of this? But of course. Once the new administration takes charge, several key whistleblowers inside the agency plan on coming forward.

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In my February column for Pajamas Media, I wrote about the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) extrajudicial investigation of Federal Air Marshal and whistleblower P. Jeffrey Black.

Now, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wants answers. At right is a photograph of P. Jeffrey Black and the Senator from Nevada meeting on Capitol Hill last month.

A recap from my earlier column:

In the fall of last year, a man in a dark suit walked into a UPS Store in Las Vegas, Nevada, flashed a badge, identified himself to the store manager as a Special Agent H. Charles Maurer of the Department of Homeland Security and demanded to see private files on an individual who keeps a postal box there. Familiar with state law, the store manager, M. E. Burks, told the man that he’d have to produce a subpoena first.

According to a federal grievance document viewed by this reporter, the federal agent told the store manager, “I don’t need a subpoena, I have this badge. Now, get me the files.” Burks refused to hand anything over and notified the customer in question instead. The customer, as it turned out, was a U.S. Federal Air Marshal named P. Jeffrey Black. Special Agent Maurer was his boss and was conducting an extrajudicial and unauthorized investigation on Black.

At issue for Senator Harry Reid is the fact that whistleblowers like Black — who is critical of Agency policies — have been severely disciplined for seemingly fabricated infractions while other tow-the-party-line Air Marshals have been given light punishments after being arrested on rather un-federal-agent-like criminal charges including drunken driving and reckless use of weapons.

From the Las Vegas Review Journal:

"I believe it is very important for the Transportation Security Administration to fully examine these allegations," the Nevada senator said. 

…Last month, Black, who is president of the Nevada chapter of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, met with Reid on Capitol Hill to discuss whistleblower protection legislation.

Meanwhile, Government oversight groups familiar with the story agree that the Federal Air Marshal Service, which is overseen by the TSA, leads government agencies in "bureaucratic incompetence." 

Tom Devine, legal director of the Government Accountability Project, a Washington-based government watchdog group, said no agency better illustrates the need for stronger whistleblower protections than the Federal Air Marshal Service.

He called the agency's management "a lowest common denominator in bureaucratic incompetence."

"Hopefully, the House and Senate will roll up their sleeves and iron out their differences to get a final bill," Devine said.

(photo: Las Vegas Review-Journal: Federal Air Marshal P. Jeffrey Black and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid discussed Whistleblower legislation last month on Capitol Hill)

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I have a piece over at Pajamas Media called Homeland Security Meets The Sopranos: The Transportation Security Administration seems to have taken a page from the mob.

“Revenge is a delicacy best served cold,” the mafia saying goes. Recent events involving the Department of Homeland Security — a CNN reporter watch-listed and a former federal air marshal being threatened with obstruction of justice — are enough to make one ask: has the TSA been watching too much mob TV?

Last spring, shortly after airing a news report that embarrassed the TSA and the Federal Air Marshal Service, CNN’s investigative reporter Drew Griffin was suddenly placed on the TSA’s terrorist watch list. Last week, CNN ran a follow-up piece. Anderson Cooper interviewed Griffin — a reporter who had suddenly moved from telling an important story to being part of it.

The day after the Cooper-Griffin exchange, Congresswoman Shelia Jackson Lee (D-Texas) formally called for a probe into the TSA’s seemingly vengeful act. Jackson Lee asked DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff the following: “My question is why would Drew Griffin’s name come on the watch list, post-his investigation of TSA?” Jackson Lee said. “What is the basis of this sudden recognition that Drew Griffin is a terrorist? Are we targeting people because of their critique or criticism?”

Find out the answer.  

(Photo: James Gandolfini as Anthony 'Tony' Soprano for HBO.) 

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