Pajamas Media

25 Comments

Dan:

The TSA is a cesspool of incompetence and waste. Everyone knows it. Now we know something else that we always suspected: corruption. Clearly, Hawley’s teeing up a lucrative job in the private sector. But amazing that some of them are too greedy to wait until they are actually OUT of government! Will Congress have the guts to do its job, finally, and hold people responsible? The TSA should go away.

Mar 15, 2008 - 9:44 am TSA Insider:

So we have sufficiently established that Mike Restovich is a cheat, but is he also a liar? Currently on the LinkedIn website, Restovich lists himself employed as the “General Partner” of Group 2M Consulting, LLC, and in such capacity, he has been contracted to be the “DHS Attache to the United Kingdom”. Legitimate, right? Not hardly.

What the above article didn’t mention, was that on March 10, 2006, Restovich’s security consulting company was closed down by the State of Texas for failure to pay taxes. Yes, that’s right, just two months before Restovich was awarded the Silver Medal by DHS Secretary Chertoff, the State of Texas was shutting down his company. Oh, and if your wondering what the Silver Medal is awarded for, let me enlighten you. Restovich was given the award for his “integrity, patriotism, and empowered leadership”. I wonder if Secretary Chertoff knew at the time he was crowning a tax cheat?

Which brings us back to the question, is Mike Restovich also a liar? Well how is it possible that Restovich is advertising online that he is the “General Partner” of a company, that doesn’t exist anymore? It sure looks like a liar, walks like a liar, and quacks like a liar.

So what we have here folks is a Liar and a Cheat being awarded for his “integrity, leadership, and patriotism”. This seams to be the status quo in the upper echelons of the TSA. “Hey old buddy, if I give you an award, will you give me one too?” All I know is, as a TSA employee, if I had a security consulting business on the side, I’d be investigated by the TSA Goon Squad, and probably terminated. And if I failed to pay my taxes on that business, I’d be terminated, lose my security clearance, and be banished from federal employment forever — unless of course I was a TSA manager. Then I’d be given a prestigious award, given a highly paid consulting job representing DHS, and shipped off overseas so I wouldn’t have to testify before congress about all my cheating and lying.

Oh, in case your wondering, you can see the tax cheat documents yourself here:

http://www.oscwatch.org/Documents/TSA/Restovich_Group2M_Scandal_Documents.pdf

Mar 15, 2008 - 11:08 am Suzanne:

Of course, this does not surprise me in the least. This agency has had such carte blanche authority that they have turned into megalomaniac narcissists thinking the sky is the limit in what they can do. They throw ethics, honor, and integrity out the window and could care less who they walk over to get to where they want to go. And watch this - the crook will probably get by with it to because I am sure he knows just the right people.

Mar 15, 2008 - 3:31 pm Inside Looking Out:

DHS/TSA/FAMS are classic example of how not to stand up a business that is responsible for security. I imagine this will be reflected in text books and be case studies at World Class Management Schools.

Can I say maladministration, corruption are systemic from one major factor cronyism! If you’re a crony you can be incompetent and it is okay and is often referred to as the Peter Principle. What are your manager’s formal qualifications? What are your mangers experiences or from whom did they acquire the experience. Most of this came from a dysfunctional organization such as the Secret Service, at a time most managers in TSA entered service that they entered the federal service when free thinking and a good education was not required but looked negatively against. If you drew a chart of whom knows who, it would look much like a spider web as most senior mangers in organizations are interconnected with each other and this than flows on from the micro level of the agency to the macro picture of the department as well.

I will say that when the FAMS extended from the 33 individuals they had on board at 9/11 to post 9/11 levels, offices quickly got leased not based on threats or the hub system but whom in the network of cronyism wanted to work at what locations. Can I say if the system was designed to meet threat on threat analysis terms the system would be designed with more field offices and smaller staffing levels at many! This would prove more cost efficient and effective in meeting the threat and the argument of cutting out overnight flights a few years ago would have not occurred. Fiscal responsibility, is this term out of the window? Many methods are available to improve the services and the nations security within DHS whilst being cost neutral, but the level of incompetence’s continue to rise to the top. It was amazing the reshuffle from temporary positions to permanent positions within the FAMS.

If you think congressional mandates are meeting legislative requirements and facilities that will cause catastrophe like affects for the country are safe against aircraft being used as a projectile against major targets think again. Isn’t it funny the OSC in their reports acknowledged that the FAMS skewed their statistics but its okay, basically because no incident happened!

Maybe agencies like DHS/TSA/FAMS need accountability from outside (congress) since when insiders attempt to be honest with senior management they are targeted, threatened and eventually labeled a Whistleblower instead of being acknowledged as a dedicated employee concerned with their organizational mission and given the label of a patriot as they are!

Mar 15, 2008 - 4:08 pm Chris:

I reported a serious breach of security to my TSA Screening Manager. The individual was not screened and was left inside the sterile area for half an hour. TSA management covered up the breach,never dumped the terminal as required,never re-screened any passengers as required. They retaliated against me by firing me on false charges two weeks later. It’s time for Congress to hold hearings so we can shine the light of truth on the TSA corruption, and make things safe before we have a tragedy as a result of this corruption rotting the TSA from within.

Mar 15, 2008 - 5:25 pm Suzanne:

Of course, this does not surprise me in the least. This agency has had such carte blanche authority that they have turned into megalomaniac narcissists thinking the sky is the limit in what they can do. They throw ethics, honor, and integrity out the window and could care less who they walk over to get to where they want to go. And watch this - the crook will probably get by with it to because I am sure he knows just the right people.

Mar 15, 2008 - 5:34 pm Joe:

I am not surprised by this in the least. It is amazing how much corruption and cronyism exists in the TSA/FAMS. If you are former US Secret Svc, you can commit all forms of mismanagement, retaliation, and cover-ups of wrong-doing. You can hire and promote your buddies. They can double dip a full SS retirement and a full salary from the FAMS too. Yes, they are the only organization that can pull that off.

The former SS guys are pretty embarrassing in general. They originated and pushed the “Kill Me First” dress code. This shows their true level of competence as protection professionals. They alienated themselves from FLEOA publicly - a great organization of over 20,000 federal law enforcement officers. They practice the “Do as I say and not as I scam” form of leadership.

The SS guys have fraternized with staff and airline personnel. They would make Slick Willie proud!!! The former SS managers in DEN mastered these misdeeds and more. You name the violation or type of mismanagement - they’ve been there and done it. Repeatedly!

Investigators come and go and nothing seems to change except the morons ‘managing’ the organization get emboldened. There is one guy that brags about how he barely made it out of the SS before being fired. In the FAMs, they are just not smart enough to fire or prosecute him for his many misdeeds. They instead have him answer the phone and drive a desk doing nothing all day. He’ll probably retire again while under investigation. The waste and stupidity is a real shame.

Don’t forget Tom Quinn leaving the top spot at the FAMS to go directly to Datamaxx for a twilight career. How many millions in taxpayer dollars went to Datamaxx before he left the FAMS? Hmmm. I am sure upper level TSA management approved his civilian career too.

Mar 15, 2008 - 6:08 pm Anonymous FAM:

I have no faith that TSA will be cleaned up. I would love to see real hearings held on the sick joke that is my agency. Even the competant managers are more concerned with empire building than actually having an impact on the security of our civil aviation system.

The time to fix the corruption and cronyism of the former Secret Svc managers is now. I pray we are not going to wait until we have another attack and then go into cover-up mode.

Mar 15, 2008 - 7:02 pm Rich:

I’m a STSO at an Eastern Airport from which one of the terrorist flights of 9/11 took off from,
The TSA is laced with corruption from the top down on a local level.
I mean the TOP down.
They run it as if it was their own Fifedom and the TSA screeners were indentured servants.
When is it going to stop.

Mar 15, 2008 - 7:24 pm DemocracyRules:

WHAT DOES Hillary Know and When Will She Know It?
If these people can delay long enough, perhaps the ‘new’ president can pardon them! It could be a nice Quid Pro Quo for benefits exchanged but secrets not revealed, you know the drill…
THE PENALTY for such malfeasance, if proved, should not be just jail or fines. I want these people to PAY BACK THE SALARIES they were paid for the entire time that wrongdoing was occurring. Why should the American public have to pay the salaries of such people while the wrongdoing is going on?

Mar 15, 2008 - 9:35 pm Anon FAM:

I wish Congress would hold some sort of hearings soon. I fear every single quality flying FAM will either leave the service or give up on the hope of responsible leadership. We have lost so many good men who have just been disgusted by the corruption.

I am not surprised by this article one bit. This is how they operate. The IG and other IA organizations are so laced with retired Secret Svc that I have no hope for a real investigation. I think the FBI would be the best hope to investigate TSA corruption.

Mar 16, 2008 - 6:18 am Benjamin Wright:

This exposure by PajamasMedia, including TSA Insider’s review of Restovich’s LinkedIn page, are exmples of a larger principle. Digital technology makes corruption and misbehavior by authority figures progressively more risky. Massive electronic records make government more transparent.

Mar 16, 2008 - 8:12 am Bob:

Good afternoon. If you’re interested in reading the TSA’s side of the story, come on over to http://www.tsa.gov/blog

Thanks,

Bob

TSA EoS Blog Team

Mar 16, 2008 - 10:52 am TSA Insider:

I went over to the TSA blog and left the same comment as I did above regarding Restovich not paying his business taxes. They blocked my comment and deleted it. What a joke.

Mar 16, 2008 - 12:22 pm In The Know:

Ms. Jacobsen,

This is an excellent article. Unfortunately, it doesn’t go deep enough. You have stumbled across a type of corruption that is rampant among the TSA managers who are retired Secret Service agents. Do not stop! Keep digging. You will find more. - Trust me I know.

To get you pointed in the right direction, this should assist you:

http://www.tsa.gov/who_we_are/people/bios/dana_brown_bio.shtm

Mar 16, 2008 - 3:56 pm Annie Jacobsen:

TSA is working overtime to put the spin on this newest TSA scandal. They’ve even put a blog post about it on the TSA Blog where they are frantically censoring comments about how bogus their Restovich defense really is.

TSA has yet to answer the following question which I asked Spokesman Christopher White on March 11th at 12:12 p.m. and which he/TSA continues to avoid answering:

Is Mike Restovich a paid employee of the United States Department of Homeland Security with a government salary and government benefits, or is he a paid consultant for DHS/TSA?

If Mike Restovich is currently a consultant being paid as DHS Attaché to the United Kingdom, than that is clearly a case of self-dealing. His consulting company, Group 2M, was set up (with the help of fellow TSA Official Morris “Mo” McGowan) while Restovich was Federal Security Director at Love Field.

If Mike Restovich remains a government employee with a government salary and government benefits in his role as DHS Attaché to the United Kingdom, then why does he say his online resume that his work for Homeland Security ended in 2007 and that he is now General Partner with Group 2M?

Either way, Mike Restovich has some explaining to do. And so does TSA.

Fed up with TSA? Take action. Go to Congress.org. Type in your zip code and find out who represents you. Send them this article and ask Congress to investigate.

Annie Jacobsen
Annie@TheAviationNation.com

Mar 16, 2008 - 5:10 pm A faceless bureacrat:

The Mike and Mo show began before TSA. They worked together at MCI when Mike got a job there after he retired from the Secret Service. His contact there was Kevin Houlihan, another retired USSS agent. Kevin, who has been a behind the scenes guy at TSA from the begining, brought Mike and Mo onboard TSA with him. You might also be interested in Mo’s book deal when he left his job with a police department in Texas.

Mar 17, 2008 - 7:47 am Passenger:

Very interesting stuff. As a Passenger who flew 85% of my time pre, during and post 9/11, I find this disgusting. But I have personally experienced in my small town airport, how easy it is to get through the system when you are known by everyone in the airport because of multiple flights a day sometimes…slipping through with makeup that should have been thrown away, hanging onto a pocket knife for me for a few days so I wouldn’t have to trash it. I did appreciate that as I am not threat, but a serious business traveler; however, I’m sure we have threats posing as such. My Father is the GM for a private airport and has been in aviation for over 20 yrs. He has one of the safest airports…IMO, besides FAA regulations, etc. airports should probably go into the private sector in order to control security, really control it. It’s the corruption of top Gov’t officials who cause events like 9/11, whether out of personal gain, power trips or just pure laziness. It’s disgusting. I will forward this article to every news outlet in hopes to bring this to TV news. It’s sad, because there are very qualified TSA staff who do thier job by the book and have integrity and who actually care about the safety of people traveling…but those are the TSA staff who have been personally effected by 9/11 or know someone who has been. It takes voices, lots of them; you can’t walk away from being wrongly fired without contacting the EEOC…there are LOTS of cases out there.

Mar 18, 2008 - 8:05 am Wife of FAM:

I hope someone in Congress does something about the corruption and cronyism in my husband’s agency. If you are one of the SS boys you do as you will and there is no repercussions for your wrong-doing. My husband has more experience and education that most of his supervisors. He is not ex-SS though. If he didn’t have so much time invested towards retirement, I’d beg him to just leave.

I hope someone will finally investigate the misdeeds of the past director too. If only half the stories are true…

Mar 18, 2008 - 9:25 pm Head Shaker:

More and more of these top federal agency managers are getting exposed for failing to act in good faith. I’ve experienced it first hand in the FAMS. I’ve always wondered how so many men could accept the responsibility and the pay to provide the required protection and then completely fail their country, instead. How do they portray themselves to their families? What must they really think when they look in the mirror? Cowardice and failure can’t feel very good during those quiet times when nobody’s looking. Is the Kool-Aid just that good? I really have to wonder.

From what I’ve now observed, there’s a significant problem with people being put into critical positions of authority strictly because someone paid them a favor, rather than them being the most capable of performing the duties and fulfilling that responsibility to the American public. Good ole boys hooking up good ole boys. It’s criminal. I don’t have a problem with it just because people are getting fat government paychecks for little or no work. I do, however, have a problem with it because our country is not getting the protection and service it absolutely needs in this critical time, due to the buffoons lounging around soaking up a fat second paycheck and blatantly neglecting their duty.

Whoever stroked a pen and put hundreds of former Secret Service agents in charge of the FAMS, without requiring them to be qualified, did our country a severe disservice. That person should be exposed and shamed. Too many Americans are smarter than that. We know that doesn’t work. However, there it is. The FAMS was expanded rapidly after 9/11, then decimated, as its agents were systematically demoralized and chased off by incompetent and insecure managers who were protecting their gravy train at our county’s expense. How much more vulnerable is our country, due to the failure of these good ole boys? I wonder if they think about that when they’re congratulating themselves in front of their friends and families at parties, or when they’re alone with their own thoughts. I wonder if they can cope with the fact that, in reality, they’ve done more damage to our national security than many of the individual terrorists have. How do we calculate the damage they’ve done, until we get hit again by the next major terrorist attack, which should have been prevented by better men? We’re paying for it, but we’re not getting it. America-0, Good ole boys-1.

None of these recent revelations surprise me in the least. What keeps surprising me is that America continues to suffer the cost without being adequately notified of the situation. I don’t know who our next president will be, but I pray they have the metal to flush the toilet, so to speak, on all the federal corruption. We need someone like Buford Pusser with strong convictions and his big stick!

Exposure is the greatest fear of these federal crooks. They cry the most when their cesspool is uncovered. That’s what hurts them where they live. If you’re in a position to expose federal corruption with hard evidence, you must do it. The crooks only survive if enough people are scared to do anything about them. America deserves better.

God Bless America.

Mar 19, 2008 - 4:52 pm Steve:

The perception of impropriety is certainly present in the Mike & Mo liaison. If TSA doesn’t take strong and positive steps to correct this appearance of cronyism, within the top levels of their organization, the message traveling down to the lowest levels of the TSA food chain will be that there are one set of rules for the ‘elite’ ex-SS troops and quite another set of ‘ethics and conduct’ rules for average Joe Screener. It is going to be very difficult for them to bolster employee morale under these conditions. Additionally, uniformed screeners will take the brunt of this fiasco from the traveling public while these ‘plainclothes’ elite ex-SS troops will be able to blend and fade into the shadows.

Mar 27, 2008 - 2:01 am TSAer:

A year ago, it was Brian Ross at ABC generating focus on the criminal, incompetent senior leadership at TSA. Lots of blogging, no follow-up, no action. Hawley is a great idea man, but an incompetent manager. Rossides is the devil incarnate. McGowan is stupid, perhaps even more so than his predecessor, Restovich. Dana Brown, the successor to the crook and autocrat, Tom Quinn, is a nice man, whose being manipulated by all of his senior people, who live in a law enforcement fantasy world. Kevin Houlihan is a pompous blow hard, who acts like he’s the center of wisdom for all. By the way, 5 of the 7 I mentioned above are ex-secret service, and the other two are USSS ass kissers. What do they all have in common - group think. They all suck up to each other and do not tolerate independent thought (just like the greater Bush Administration). Bottom line… when are all the pieces of the puzzle going to be put together by an investigative element that is willing to find the facts and hold these people accountable without protecting the good old USSS tards. Ms. Jacobsen, here are some more tips for you to look into:

1. Recent press about FAMs flying less than 1% of flights. Do you know that approximately 40% of FAMs who should be flying are assigned to ground-based assignments. In addition to significant overhead positions, such as assistants to the assistant special agents in charge, the deputy assistant directors and their assistants to the assistant deputies, working stiff FAMs are assigned to non-necessary functions such as FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces. Like the FBI can’t survive without the FAMs on their task forces. Why? For no other reason than for the USSS managers at TSA to bolster their self image (remember, most of them were low level supervisory grunts, at best, when they where in the USSS). From their perspective, no true law enforcement guy rides an airplane all day as a security guard (I guess they ride limos as a security guard). Why are all the supervisors of Federal Air Marshals called special agents in charge? Those they supervise are Federal Air Marshals. So, why aren’t their bosses called Federal Air Marshals in charge? Cause that doesn’t sound secret service enough!
2. When the head of TSA HR left TSA to enter the private sector shortly after Hawley/Rossides came back into the picture, why did he suddenly come back to TSA a month after he left? Because he was Rossides puppet, who had played her hatchet man, while she kept her fingers supposedly clean. She needed him back. Someone who would just do as told, no questions. Now, here’s the best part of it all. Rossides worked a deal for him to come out of retirement, back to the job he left one month earlier, into a rehired annuitant position, without penalty. That means, he retired from his $158,000 job one month, began collecting retirememt, was re-hired into the job he just retired from one month earlier without giving up his retirement, and was given a new salary of $162,000. So, Mr. Whitford’s new compensation package for working at TSA became approximately $252,000.
3. You should look into whether Rossides did the same thing for herself as she did for Whitford.

Keep up the pressure - what is going on is outlandish!!!

Mar 27, 2008 - 4:25 pm TSA officer:

I have been a screener working for TSA, and currently a BDO working for TSA, and I can truly say that TSA is the most incompetent, corrupt, and dysfunctional agency in US history. I personally believe that the headquarters level management of TSA are on al-quaeda’s payroll. That would explain why they would put a security force in place with ONE week of training on how to run a machine and absolutely no training on explosive detection, or IED recognition. It would also explain why upper level TSA management would go to former contract security companies ( Globe, and Argonbrite) to train to set up their security screening program, instead of turning to federal agencies who were already doing a similar job at the airport such as US Customs. They instead went to the same companies that TSA was set up to replace. This would also explain why every suggestion to start an actual TSA office of law enforcement (non FAM) have been ignored. Also as bad as the Air Marshall service is, the front line screening operation is far worse. TSA uniformed personnel have no employee rights, no employee protections, very low wages, (among the lowest in the fed) and no respect. TSA screeners have also been subjected to unfair hiring practices, sexual harassment, racism and physical intimidation by TSA management. At the same time screeners are the subject of constant scrutiny and blame for policies that they have no decision in.

Apr 1, 2008 - 8:52 am bokbok:

La lng!!!!!!!

May 1, 2008 - 6:09 am TSOhou:

It is so disgusting to read all these comments and know that most of them are statements I have made and hear each day where I work as a TSO. You can never really know how disheartening it is to go to work each day and know the people you work for are so incompetent, corrupt and dysfunctional and who are not held accountable for their actions. The morale where I work and apparently at every airport in the system is abysmal. But those at the top could care less as long as their pay-off is so big.

Jul 2, 2008 - 6:47 am

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