Sources: Air marshals missing from almost all flights

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: CNN

By Drew Griffin, Kathleen Johnston and Todd Schwarzschild

(CNN) -- Of the 28,000 commercial airline flights that take to the skies on an average day in the United States, fewer than 1 percent are protected by on-board, armed federal air marshals, a nationwide CNN investigation has found.

That means that a terrorist or other criminal bent on taking over an aircraft would be confronted by a trained air marshal on as few as 280 daily flights, according to more than a dozen federal air marshals and pilots interviewed by CNN.

The investigation found those low numbers even as the Transportation Security Administration in recent months has conducted tests in which it has been able to smuggle guns and bomb-making materials past airport security screeners.

The air marshal program began in 1970, after a rash of airline hijackings, and it was expanded significantly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Specially trained to safeguard passengers and crew aboard crowded aircraft, air marshals were seen as a critical component in the overall effort to secure America's commercial aviation system.

One pilot who crisscrosses the country and flies internationally told CNN he hasn't seen an air marshal on board one of his flights in six months. A federal law enforcement officer, who is not affiliated with the air marshal service and who travels in and out of Washington every week, said he has gone for months without seeing a marshal on board....

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/TRAVEL/03/25/siu.air.marshals/index.html

[babylonsister]

1. Everyone feeling safer? nt

[soup]

9. No worries

"Air marshals?
We don't need no stinkin' air marshals."

Announcing a spot-check of every third vehicle entering short-term parking every six months oughta snag those bad guys.

Airports stepping up vehicle inspections

By Steve Huettel, Times Staff Writer
Published Friday, March 21, 2008 1:38 PM

Be prepared to pop open the trunk for a security check the next time you drive to Tampa International Airport.

The Transportation Security Administration is stepping up random vehicle inspections at the airport as a visible deterrent to bad guys and to train officers in case of real security threats.

>>snip<<

On Friday morning, officers stopped every third car at gates to the airport's short-term parking garage. Drivers were asked for permission to search their vehicles, then instructed to open the trunk and door locks and turn off the engine. Searches took about a minute. They were not in response to a specific threat, Milano said.

Drivers who refused to let an officer look through their vehicle would have been kept out of the short-term garage. But no one did during the first two hours of checks Friday morning, a TSA supervisor said.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/airlines/article427072.ece

[Dr.Phool]

15. Nobody would ever think of driving across the Bay.

They have commercial flights coming in and out of Clearwater-St. Pete.

[LibDemAlways]

16. At Burbank airport I've been told by a bored

employee to pop the trunk latch. He glances in for about a second, then shuts it and tells you to go ahead. It's a complete joke.

[MindPilot]

37. I don't think so!

Any request to search my vehicle better be accompanied by some serious probable cause or a warrant.

Is driving into an airport parking lot now an automatic wavier of the Fourth Amendment?

[underpants]

2. Was just about to post this-Hmm reasons?

All those political crony positions in DHS?

Just more of the same incredibly inept and incompetent Bushness?

:shrug:

[havocmom]

3. Reason? Actually hiring people to do the real work of security is not as profitable

as just sending invoices for 'stuff'

Real people have to get paid or they start squawking. 'Stuff' may or may not actually exist, but seldom makes noise at all.

[underpants]

7. I left that out

just to see if anyone would post it

Well done

[havocmom]

27. Wish we could see the REAL DOD spreadsheet

Would be an education to see that they really spend on troops v what they spend on hardware and other contracted services.

I don't feel safer knowing our troops get food, water, ammo from the likes of Halliburton subsidiaries. They are being held hostage by a handful of corporations. We don't pay, soldiers don't survive the week.

[Dr.Phool]

14. Who needs an Air Marshall?

When you've got Barney Fife firing his gun in the cockpit?

That oughta keep 'em skeered!

[RedSock]

4. incompetent?

you mean incredibly competent, right?

everything they do is exactly what they want to do, from iraq to katrina to 9/11 to the economy.

they are only incompetent if you do not understand their goals.

[Lasher]

6. Everybody's off on the adventure in Iraq.

All offense, no defense. They're spending all their borrowed Chinese money to stay the course. None left for silly things like protecting US airlines and port security.

[KansDem]

5. Well, with pilots now packing heat, are AMs necessary?

I mean, now that every airline flight can be transformed instantly into an "O.K. Corral" with armed pilots, what terrorist/BFEE contractor would want to take the chance?

[shraby]

8. Aren't the cockpit doors reinforced to keep

intruders out? If the pilot opened the door to confront the hijacker, he opens the cockpit to intrusion and possible take over.

[KansDem]

10. Nah, the terrorist/BFEE contractor can just shoot the lock off the door.

...like in the movies! ;)

[LibDemAlways]

18. My husband flies twice a week, a short flight of just

about two hours. You'd think the pilots could remain in the cockpit that long, but no. They inevitably emerge to use the bathroom. Before one comes out, the cabin attendants are notified and they position a drink cart in the aisle - supposedly to stop someone trying to get in there. Actually it would make a hell of a battering ram.

Why pilots can't stay in the locked cockpit for two hours remains a mystery.

[benEzra]

33. I think the idea of armed pilots is in case hijackers managed to breach the door.

Opening the door would defeat the purpose, as you point out.

[DeepModem Mom]

13. Apparently, a flight is now "covered" if someone on board is packing heat. From the article --

"In a phone conversation with correspondent Drew Griffin, Alter said he uses the term 'covered' to mean that a federal marshal is on board. But air marshals and pilots CNN spoke with say that's not exactly the case.

These sources say the marshal service considers a flight 'covered' even if a marshal is not on board -- as long as a law enforcement officer or pilot in possession of a firearm is on board, even if that person is flying for personal reasons. The 'covered' designation includes pilots armed in the cockpit.

'Yes, they've specifically told us that we're a covered flight when there's an armed, trained person on the plane, then that's a covered flight,' said the pilot who regularly flies in and out of New York and who is trained under a federal program to carry a weapon in the cockpit."

[burythehatchet]

11. GIVE ME BACK MY SHAMPOO

[shanti]

17. and my hand lotion!!!

:grr:

[burythehatchet]

19. Paul Mitchell Jojoba is some pricey shit!

[wordpix]

28. how about my water for those long waits on the tarmac?

:grr:

[shanti]

44. they do allow that now

at least they do in sacramento, but you have to buy it after you go thru security.

[wtmusic]

12. Silly Americans

All al Qaeda has to do is wait five years, and the lazy complacent Americans will have set off their airport alarms so many times with bottles of Evian that sneaking a bomb through will be a piece of cake.

After a point more bandaids don't help.

[Voice for Peace]

20. If the airlines were responsible for their own security, the skies would be safer.nt

[Az_lefty]

21. what's the color code today? Green, yellow, red???

We haven't heard about this since bush was reinstalled four years ago...

[sergeiAK]

26. Orange

At least that's what it was Saturday, when I was flying home from FL.

[pitohui]

35. it's orange at all airports and will be orange indefinitely

the only reason it is "yellow" outside the airport is because the states could no longer afford to be in compliance with the precautions you have to take during an "orange" alert

[Javaman]

22. Well, in the post 9/11 era, everyone is a Air Marshal!!

From the flight attendants that don't approve of how women dress, to the annoyed passengers complaining about screaming babies.

No risk is to small, no ego is to big in our self entitled society!!!

Even though, various bombs, guns and knives have been "smuggled" through security to test it's effectiveness, we have armed pilots!!! Because, it's really important to have a pilot in a locked cabin with a gun while all the passengers get killed by the hi-jackers. Weee!!!!

No worries, because everyone is an Air Marshal!!!

Terrorists you have been warned, you will be piled on, kicked to within one inch of your life and bound and gagged by our fellow amerikans if you show even the slightest bit of terrorist activity!

Such as: demanding that you be reseated because the guy next to you is so drunk he thinks your his trash can, or complaining that you have a heart condition and that you need help, the list goes on and on.

So be on the look out all you crazed terrorists, we civilians are on the watch for you!!!

heyyyy, is that an 8 oz bottle of water you have there???? Get him!!!!

[Catchawave]

23. all anonymous sources ?

Good going CNN. I know differently, so I call this investigation bullsh*t.

[mikeytherat]

24. Almost all post-911, DHS-type security is a sad, sick joke.

My band did a corporate holiday party gig at the Ronnie Reagan International Building a few years back. We were told to expect super-heavy security: total inspection of vehicles and personal belongings, bomb-sniffing dogs, x-rays, under-vehicle scanning, etc. When the two very bored 20-something "security" dudes saw the trunk of my car, packed to the gills with band equipment, they said, "Screw it. Go on in."

If I had really been a nefarious person, the number and lethality of things I could have been carrying in those guitar and amp cases is staggering.

mikey_the_rat

[ladywnch]

25. I remember hearing that they were having trouble keeping air marshalls

They were working excessive overtime and virtually impossible to get time off, lack of support/training. I expect they just quit trying to backfill.

[wordpix]

29. and where are the RAIL marshals? I guess that's the conductor...

[MindPilot]

38. Absolutely! Conductors can be some bad mo fo's.

In my rail travels, I've seen conductors tame some exceptionally unruly riders. One guy who was too drunk to quit smoking when he was asked--for the umpteenth time--was simply put off the train.

Bus drivers too are not to be messed with. I watched one single-handedly (I offered to help) bodily remove an extra-obnoxious drunk from the bus to the sidewalk.

[Blue_Tires]

30. i don't think i've ever seen one

do they wear uniforms or regular suits?

[sergeiAK]

32. No, they're all "undercover" -nt

[pitohui]

36. they're undercover but wear sports coats to "conceal" their firearm

you know the look, big clean-cut guy who is surprisingly well-dressed for today's airports where everybody else is wearing sweat pants and pajamas

also there are certainly highly desirable seats that they also like and if you get "bumped" out of such a seat and get a look at the guy -- yeah, you can tell

i did like the one who bumped me out of my seat once who was "pimping" a white guy pimp look in a tasteful orange sports coat! his use of color in his wardrobe brought a smile to my face in the tense post-911 flight environment...anyway, halfway thru the flight he gave up that seat and went drifing up to hang out in first class so i don't know how hard they work, i guess it's a boring job most of the time -- now you may ask, how do i know he wasn't a REAL pimp? well, friends and neighbors, pretty sure they wouldn't have let a REAL pimp have a firearm on the plane...so he had to be an air marshall

[sergeiAK]

39. They don't always wear sportcoats/blazers

I've seen one with his gun beneath a polo shirt, one dressed in a buttondown and slacks, and a few that looked "touristy" for lack of a better description. They used to be painfully obvious, but have improved somewhat (though a good eye can still spot most of them).

[pitohui]

40. yeah the one guy i describe that really wasn't long affter 911

i almost think he WANTED people to see the weapon, i guess it would slow down any freaks and it would reassure the rest of us that somebody was on the job

[lovuian]

31. this whole Homeland Security is full of BS

its stupid

[pitohui]

34. i will admit i've not seen an air marshall in awhile

i thought perchance that they had learned not to dress so distinctively in "bodyguard chic" -- and don't even pretend you don't know what i'm talking about, guys -- but apparently they are not there at all in many cases

[tom_paine]

41. Come now! You think protecting the peasantry is a Bushie Priority

You could put a bonfire of a pile of 1,000,000 of the Imperial Subjects of Amerika on the White House Lawn and Bushler would just enjoy the pretty colors.

Of course, he would have an appropriately glycerine and onions fueld quick 'cry' to be broadcast to show that Der Fuhrer cares.

[Peace Patriot]

42. Where has all the money gone? nt

[MidwestTransplant]

43. I feel safe. We have a no fly list which solves everything. Even 14 of the dead 911 hijackers are

on the list.

[MetaTrope]

45. "fewer than 1 percent are protected"

By a strange coincidence, that's the same as the proportion of U.S. beef that gets tested for mad cow. And meanwhile, Homeland Security can afford to put guards carrying machine guns in Amtrak stations. Your tax dollars at work!

[Zhade]

46. Great job, CNN. You just informed anyone who wants to harm/kill passengers that it's safe to do so

So fucking irresponsible.

[Psephos]

47. I don't have a problem with this

Rather surprising that so many upthread do.

The only real safety lies in awareness that anyone who pulls tricks is going to be serially stomped on by a plane-full of pissed-off people. Works for me.