Homeland Security Meets The Sopranos
The Transportation Security Administration seems to have taken a page from the mob.
In “Ticket to American University or Ticket to Paradise?” this reporter chronicled Jeffrey Denning’s run-in with a watch-listed Saudi male named Anwar Al-XXXXX which occurred on October 16, 2006, at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. Al-XXXXX had entered the country on falsified documents and slipped past U.S. Customs illegally. At the time, Denning didn’t know any of this. He only knew the man was acting suspiciously — he’d left a bag in the middle of a busy concourse. So in his capacity as an air marshal, Denning questioned the man who claimed he was a University of Arkansas student but that he did not speak English.
Denning requested a field interview. Headquarters granted the interview and determined the name Anwar Al-XXXXX matched a name on the terrorist watch list. Denning and an airport police officer guarded Al-XXXXX for the next few hours while DHS agents worked behind the scenes to figure out what to do next.
The Federal Air Marshal Service notified the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) about what was going on. JTTF is made up of homeland security agents, FBI agents, and local police officers, all of whom work together to deter and detect terror-related crimes. The theory behind JTTF is that by using the talents of multiple agencies — each coming at the threat with expertise in different arenas — the greatest results can be achieved.
JTTF tried getting an Arabic speaker to the scene but, according to Denning, “no fluent [Arabic] speaker was around.” JTTF tried getting the bomb-sniffing dogs over to the scene to examine Al-XXXXX’s bag but, according to Denning, the dogs were “tied up with something else.” So Denning and the airport police officer searched the bag.
In interviewing federal agents for this story last year, I learned that JTTF was working to get an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent to the scene. That’s because The 9/11 Commission Report determined that examining a terror suspect’s travel documents in a situation such as this one is critical. ICE agents are the only agents trained to examine such documents; air marshals are not.
Surely, now that alarm bells have been sounded inside the uppermost echelons of six U.S. federal agencies — DHS, TSA, FAMS, ICE, JTTF, FBI — and with a match hit on a terrorist watch list, Anwar Al-XXXXX would be under intense scrutiny and taken in for further questioning. At least in theory he would be.
Unfortunately, that proved to be only theory.
Denning explained what happened next: “They [i.e., DHS/JTTF and the airport police] couldn’t get an ICE agent to the scene so I was asked to examine [Al-XXXXX's] travel documents. This struck me as odd because I have no training in examining travel documents. None of the Federal Air Marshals have received training that I’m aware of. Finally word came back from the MOC [Mission Operations Control]. They said, ‘we’ve been waiting on the FBI. We can’t get them to verify. Let him go.’”
Denning followed orders.
Watching Anwar Al-XXXXX pick up his bag and disappear into the throngs of travelers at Reagan National Airport, Denning told me that he thought to himself, “I seriously hope this guy doesn’t show up on the evening news.”
Anwar Al-XXXXX did not show up on the evening news. But Jeffrey Denning did. Last week, CNN aired a three-part piece in print, on TV, and on its blog that focuses on Denning’s witch-hunt-like plight.
Jeffrey Denning was originally praised by the Federal Air Marshal Service for his work. He conducted surveillance on a man in an airport who turned out to be on the terrorist watch list. Denning was given an award. “I left FAM Service on good terms,” Denning explained, “but the reason I left was because the agency was grossly mismanaged at the expense of the traveling public. I felt I could better serve elsewhere.”
After leaving the Federal Air Marshal Service, Denning spoke out. Now, more than a year later, he’s the target of a federal investigation. Could the mob be right? Is revenge really best served cold?
When Congresswoman Shelia Jackson Lee asked DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff last week, “Are we targeting people because of their critique or criticism?” she should have also asked Secretary Chertoff if he was aware that his underlings appear to be running their federal agencies on principles that include revenge.
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Annie Jacobsen writes about aviation and intelligence. She blogs at TheAviationNation.com and is working on a new book for Little Brown and Company.
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38 Comments
1. Dog T3:TSA is a rogue agency being run with no meaninful oversight. Congressional committees think giving or withholding funds is enough to keep the TSA in line, but that is gross dereliction of duty.
Meanwhile, the TSA doles out millions of dollars in federal contracts to friends, and even current employees.
It’s spokesperson, Christopher White, reminds me of a Nazi Party hack. He will say anything, attack anyone, to protect his bosses at TSA, starting with Kip No-Experience-in-Aviation Hawley. Hawley, by the way, is using the TSA as another career stepping stone on the way to the real big bucks in the private sector, just like Tom Ridge and others before him. Cashing in.
It’s all rigged, people. Meanwhile, the public and the shlubs at the TSA bottom, pay the price.
Sheila Jackson Lee has sat through plenty disgraceful prsentations to her committee of the TSA’s failures and fecklessness. What has she done? NOTHING.
She’s big on grandstanding. That’s it. She doesn’t fix things. Doesn’t even try. It’s all about the appearance of action.
Disgraceful…the whole lot of them.
Jul 24, 2008 - 8:44 am 2. Fred Gevalt:Sadly, I suspect TSA is only the tip of the iceberg. In the research for our movie (Please Remove Your Shoes (go to http://www.pleaseremoveyourshoesmovie.com)) we have discovered issues far more serious than the ones posted in this article, including a complete failure by Senator Kerry, Jane Garvey and the entire upper management staff at FAA in the spring of 2001 to listen to FAA’s “Red Team,” and individuals on it like Steve Elson and Bogdan Dzakovic, who documented very specific risks and evidence of threats of multiple aircraft hijackings for purposes of demolition of US targets like WTC. Had the US Congress actually listened to these lower level, sincere, hard working Americans, there is every possibility that 9/11 might not have happened, or might not have happened in as spectacular a fashion as it did.
Jul 24, 2008 - 9:33 am 3. J.J. Sefton:And since we now understand the US reaction to 9/11, particularly after two wars in the middle east, the subprime mortgage crisis, (largely precipitated by the Fed’s interest rate adjustments after the attacks) and the enabling of an entire “welfare class” of security types (both private and public) we can begin to evaluate the actual cost in dollars, civil liberties, lost opportunity, and degradation of our children’s futures by the people we have elected into government. Despite the tragedies to the 9/11 families, the cost is almost immeasureably out of proportion out of proportion to the attacks – in trillions of dollars, and with thousands and thousands of lives lost in retaliation – US troops and mid east civilians alike
But we elected Congress. So we should be able to “un” elect them. As suggested by the previous poster, most in Congress are less interested in actually accomplishing something than the appearance of accomplishing something – for purposes of re-election, or as a defensive mechanism against not getting re-elected.
First we have to get rid of the jackboots. Next we have to figure out a way to put term limits on Congress. It’s the only way we’ll ever regain control of our country.
Before 9/11, security screeners were essentially burger-flippers with badges. Post 9/11, they’re UNIONIZED FEDERAL EMPLOYEE burger-flippers with badges. One of President Bush’s big mistakes. Should’ve fired the lot of them, hired retired and/or ex-police, FBI, law enforcement types, paid them the same wage (plus some free travel tix for them and family as a perk) and have them PROFILE (now there’s a word for ya) people at the gates. Cheaper, faster, more efficient and effective.
Nah, the hell with that. We need incompetent bureaucracy.
Jul 24, 2008 - 9:50 am 4. OmegaPaladin:Fred,
You made a good case up until you started talking about the war. Then I saw that you were simply a peacenik trying to help us lose and accommodate Islamic Supremacists.
Jul 24, 2008 - 9:50 am 5. HonestJohn:J.J – you are doing burger flippers a great disservice. I have only ever had one problem in 30 years of visiting fast food chains (although admittedly,it’s mainly for coffee). What about getting Starbucks to run TSA? it might even turn a profit
Fred- Force former members of Congress to get real jobs? make them actually live outside of their political bubble,in the world they helped shape? you are a very cruel man indeed! Where do I sign!
Jul 24, 2008 - 2:27 pm 6. Amchop:Anyone notice that all the people who are “inexplicably” ending up on this watch list are people that criticized the TSA or DEMOCRATS? Funny how no Republican congressman are having these “accidental” problems.
Jul 24, 2008 - 2:36 pm 7. Bogdan Dzakovic:Prior to 9-11 the FAA already had the moniker of Tombstone Agency (look the term up on the internet), meaning they never did anything to prevent the loss of lives but would wait till something happened and then make dubiously effective changes. Congress didn’t hold any one accountable in FAA for holding the door open for the terrorists which not only killed the nearly 3,000 victims of 9-11 but led to the series of events described by Fred Gevault. TSA management, knowing full well that the ONLY thing they will be held accountable for is playing the political game with their paymasters (IE: Congress) and big business has become nothing less than a cult. There is an anti-Constitutional culture in our entire federal government. The basic premise of which is a system of checks and balances to prevent one branch of government getting too powerful. TSA as an unacountable executive branch agency, has as its primary mission the perpetuation of its own bureaucracy. Somewhere down the line securing the transportation system of this country is a secondary priority, if that. One must expect an unaccountable agency to act according to its nature by engaging in these pitiful internal investigations to protect itself and intimidate hero’s like Denning and others. Prior to 9-11 my greatest concern that motivated me to work within the system with Steve Elson, Brian Sullivan and others was to get the bureaucracy and Congress to wake up to the threat we faced and do something about the sorry state of security the taxpayer was paying for. Now, I’m less concerned about the next terrorist attack and fear most what out government’s obscene knee-jerk reaction will be to that attack. The situation Annie Jacobsen describes is merely a symptom of a very deseased agency.
Jul 24, 2008 - 3:04 pm 8. Roderick Reilly:In 2002 I had a letter printed in the Washington Times where I stated that America did not need a “Department of Homeland Security” and it’s attendant sub-organizations. The Times did the unusual thing of embellishing my letter because they agreed with me. Even George Bush was reluctant at first to create such a department. I assume he caved because of the enormous popularity for such an agency among politicians and bureaucrats (what a surprise!).
Now we have The “Big O” himself promising to add literally hundreds of thousands of new personnel to all sorts of “service organizations,” some already extant (Peace Corps, Americorps), and some to be newly created. Oh goody, goody. Can’t wait.
Jul 24, 2008 - 3:34 pm 9. cedarford:Keep in mind that a significant portion of the public has been trained and conditioned to worship any government employee in uniform and in a position of authority as a “hero”.
And many of the same people say they would crawl naked on their knees to lap tha boots of a TSA employee and submit to a body cavity search and being flown in handcuffs “if doing it made us any safer from the Islamofascists or saved just one innocent life..”
Jul 24, 2008 - 6:41 pm 10. TSA = Mob « Buttle’s World:[...] — buttle @ 9:49 The incompetent, unionized, kabuki theatre operator known as the TSA is acting like the mob. Jeffrey Denning was originally praised by the Federal Air Marshal Service for his work. He [...]
Jul 25, 2008 - 10:49 am 11. Dan Friedman:“Revenge is a delicacy (sic) best served cold,” is not a “mafia saying” nor is it the correct expression. And Jacobsen’s piece goes downhill from there.
Jul 25, 2008 - 11:00 am 12. Kevin:As someone with a name “similar” to someone on a watch list (and isn’t that just an amazing thing really? Besides it being a convenient dodge, an inability to discriminate past “similar names” in this day and age!), I second the notion of disbanding the TSA.
Oh, sure, in 2002 0r so, this level of incompetent disorganization and overreach might be tolerable in the rush to “get something in place.” But it’s seven years on now. You would think that some politician would be taking up this issue.
They rode roughshod over the Constitutional problems with government-controlled internal checkpoints when they set TSA up. It should therefore not come as a big surprise that all the bureaucratic evil expected by the Founding Fathers has come to pass.
Disband the TSA, and put this back in the hands of airline security departments. Make them pay $20/hour for screeners if that’s an issue, but leave me the ability to fly another airline when the screeners behave badly.
Of course, I’ve said this all before. Maybe that’s shy “a name similar to mine” is on the watch list in the first place.
Jul 25, 2008 - 11:07 am 13. Tom Paine:To: Amchop – 2:36 pm
Excellent shilling!!
The Obamessiah himself has directed that you get a nice bonus in your next paycheck. Congratulations!
Keep up the good work!
Jul 25, 2008 - 1:00 pm 14. Anna Keppa:Amchop’s not even correct.
from Wikipedia article on the No Fly list:
In February 2006, U.S. Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) stated in a committee hearing that his wife Catherine had been subjected to questioning at an airport as to whether she was Cat Stevens due to the similarity of their names.[24][27]
U.S. Representative Don Young (R-AK), the 3rd-most senior Republican in the House, was flagged in 2004 after he was mistaken for a “Donald Lee Young”.[28]
So Amchop: No hope-and-chump change for YOU!
Jul 25, 2008 - 2:44 pm 15. jt007:This kind of crap is inevitable when the federal government runs anything. Bush was right when he demanded that the incompetents not be unionized.
Jul 25, 2008 - 5:26 pm 16. Christian:“Many of these screeners lacked….college degrees…”
There’s a crisis.
Jul 25, 2008 - 5:33 pm 17. Len Frankel:All this inconvenience, mindless bureaucracy and cloak and dagger business is such a drag, isn’t it? Why don’t we just go back to those good old days and the way things were on Sept. 10th, 2001? The creeps would never dare try it again!
Jul 25, 2008 - 5:59 pm 18. ZEITGEIST:[...] HOMELAND SECURITY meets The Sopranos. [...]
Jul 25, 2008 - 6:12 pm 19. Chuck Pelto:TO: All
RE: Is the Memphis Police Department and the City of Memphis….
….taking lessons of the same sort?
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/jul/22/police-director-sues-find-identity-blogger-critica/
Enquiring minds want to know….
Regards,
Chuck(le)
Jul 25, 2008 - 6:27 pm 20. aloysiusmiller:[When in the course of human events.....]
What a stupid blog. How many words and no names named? Who are these bureaucrats? Their neighbors need to know who they are so they can mock, scorn and shun them. Internet searches need to produce their names and their infamy for generations. Their children need to feel the stigma.
Jul 25, 2008 - 6:43 pm 21. Feldar:Granted, writing such a thing is no reason to be put on a watch list. But what’s the importance of letting the enemy know how few air marshals are in service? It’s more of that “gotcha shit” the press loves to serve up for the edification of those who hate Bush.
Jul 25, 2008 - 8:39 pm 22. Daedalus:TSA = Terrorists Subjugating Americans…….
Jul 25, 2008 - 9:10 pm 23. Kent G. Budge:“TSA is a rogue agency being run with no meaninful oversight. Congressional committees think giving or withholding funds is enough to keep the TSA in line, but that is gross dereliction of duty.”
Unfortunately, my experience as a contractor for Department of Energy is that Congressional oversight very often does more harm than good. Politicians have powerful incentives to score the cheap debating points regardless of whether it gets to the bottom of a problem.
Why is morale so bad among the rank-and-file? Bad management is a distinct possibility. Being resented by millions of American flyers who dislike being treated like criminal suspects is another distinct possibility. There are no doubt many other possibilities.
One thing’s for sure: While it’s also my experience that the press rarely get the story right, blacklisting an obnoxious reporter is only going to make things worse. It will be harder than ever for anyone to figure out what’s going wrong at TSA.
Kind of a tangential observation, but one feature of good security is that it is unobtrusive. Secret Service somehow manages to give the President excellent security without keeping from doing his job. Draw your own conclusions about TSA.
Jul 25, 2008 - 11:08 pm 24. insidejob:If the govt. had only invented the terrorist threat and the whole airport security thing were about targeting normal US citizens for subservience training then that seems to me to be how things would be run.
Jul 26, 2008 - 8:26 am 25. Javelin:Isn’t it funny that most of the people here who are blasting the TSA are thw same ones who approved of the War on Iraq, warrantless wiretaps, torture, etc etc which all stemmed from a lack of security on our airlines? Irony is lost on the dishonest and the fools.
Jul 26, 2008 - 12:34 pm 26. The TSA is a joke « David Kirkpatrick:[...] then I find this story: Last spring, shortly after airing a news report that embarrassed the TSAand the Federal Air [...]
Jul 26, 2008 - 7:15 pm 27. » Drew Griffin, CNN Typewriter Terrorist Government Accountability is a Citizen’s Responsibility: Because Democracy is Not Free — we all have to work at it:[...] Current Events, Equity & Fairness, Whistleblowers Pajamas Media recently ran an article, Homeland Security Meets the Sopranos, in response to the Transportation Security Administration placing CNN reporter Drew Griffin on the [...]
Jul 27, 2008 - 2:00 am 28. Zopilote:Sheila Jackson Lee asking an intelligent question? Wow!
Maybe she’s walking to her office a block from her apartment
Jul 27, 2008 - 10:16 am 29. Jaime:now rather than hire a limo…more time to think.
They do use mob tactics. People are routinely beaten and humiliated at the airport. The airport police at Reagan National Airport beat a young woman and let police officers beat up passengers and keep their jobs. Fly through Reagan National Airport at your own risk!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPNmxZwhMag
Jul 27, 2008 - 2:21 pm 30. WAR-PARTY:The TSA makes the Postal Service and the IRS look good. Fast tracking these boobs to carry a weapon, is the very last thing we need in busy packed terminal. I’ll take the bus! TYVM
Jul 27, 2008 - 3:58 pm 31. Helen of Troy:I thought the tin foil hast people were on Kos and DU’ers. Once again, CNN is more interested in getting people to tune in than the truth and you guys are buying into it.
Getting someone on a watchlist is not as easy as calling in the name of a reporter when he writes a bad story about you. An agency nominates someone who is a known threat to airplanes – a terrorist – to get on the no-fly list. That alone doesn’t get you on the list – there’s a thorough review but other security agencies before it’s approved, and the list is reviewed and scrubbed daily. Drew Griffin, the CNN reporter, is not a known threat and is not on the No Fly list. He’s just like those guys on 60 Minutes whose name is misidentified with someone who’s really on the list. Odds are he knows that but likes getting his mug on tv so he keeps up his false reporting.
Drew Griffin and anyone else who is told “you’re on a watchlist” can point their finger directly at the airlines. Airlines do the watchlist matching right now – they have the No Fly list and match pasengers’ names against it. They look at similar names and determine who will get hassled because of misidentification. Airlines know that people will be furious with TSA for the inconvenience – not them – and it costs them money to come up with a system to clear people who aren’t really on the list, so there’s no real carrot or stick to cause them to reduce passenger’s hassle.
Jul 28, 2008 - 8:03 am 32. Fred Gevalt:OK. In order: OmegaPaladin – since I don’t know you (or your age, political party, or anything else) re: your comment about me being a “peacenick,” I guess all I can do is say if I am, I’ve earned the right to be one honestly, as a Vietnam Vet. When I returned to “the world” in 1968, some hippies at the SeaTac airport spat on me, calling me a ‘baby killer.” So I guess in the world of the prejudiced, I’ve come full circle. Goodie for me. Huh? (Lesson – take it from a 62 year old war veteran that it’s frequently a lot easier and more cost effective to impose some brains and judgement on your trigger finger than to try to stuff the bullet back down the barrel later.) If you’re wrong, and you really need to shoot ‘em, you can do it tomorrow. (Bush and Cheney never learned that one, and I’m disappointed that Colin Powell was so easily compromised.) If I cared enough about educating the locals (remember, I’m from Massachusetts…..my bumper sticker would simply say “War is Sometimes the Answer.” So much for the peacenick.
Javelin: For your benefit, I’m spending a bunch of hard earned dough to try to get TSA to behave. Contrary to your stereotype, I did vote against the Iraq war. Problem was my congressman (Ed Markey D. Massachusetts) is more interested in getting re-elected than doing what’s right, and I guess my sales pitch wasn’t any more convincing than it was for Javelin, so he didn’t listen. But please meet at least one person who isn’t inconsistent by your measure. My guess is I’m not alone.
Helen of Troy:
Why don’t you (and everyone else for that matter) come out from behind the bushes and identify yourself. If you know some stuff that the rest of us don’t about the formation of the watchlist, we’d like to interview you.
Fred Gevalt
Jul 28, 2008 - 11:21 am 33. Aztec:In my heart of hearts, the Department of Homeland Security is one perceived threat away from becoming BIG BROTHER. Kudos to Ms Jacobsen for single-handedly protecting our rights and Constitution.
Jul 28, 2008 - 6:44 pm 34. warren trout:As an airline employee, you are not hearing 1% of the BS. If the public really knew what was going on, heads would fly. The TSA keeps everyone hush, hush or will arrest you.
Jul 29, 2008 - 11:34 am 35. Chuck Pelto:TO: Aztec
RE: The Threat Is REAL
“In my heart of hearts, the Department of Homeland Security is one perceived threat away from becoming BIG BROTHER. Kudos to Ms Jacobsen for single-handedly protecting our rights and Constitution.” — Aztec
Unfortunately…most people didn’t begin to perceive it until the Oklahoma City Bomb. It is a curious fact that at the very same time, there was a proposed Omnibus Anti-Terrorism law put before Congress. Well…actually….it was introduced a bit ahead of the bombing.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
Jul 29, 2008 - 12:40 pm 36. Annie Jacobsen:[I believe in coincidence. I just don't trust it. -- Garrick, Cardasian Tinker/Tailor/Soldier/Spy, Star Trek: Deep Space 9]
For the record, the airlines can not put individuals on the watch list. Only federal agencies can. Getting angry at the airlines over the DHS mess is silly.
Helen of Troy writes “the [watch list] list is reviewed and scrubbed daily.”
Not only is this wrong, it is hilarious! It took a recent Act of Congress to get Nelson Mandela off the watch list.
“WASHINGTON (CNN) — Former South African President Nelson Mandela is to be removed from a U.S. terrorism watch list under a bill President Bush signed Tuesday. Mandela and other members of the African National Congress have been on the list because of their fight against South Africa’s apartheid regime, which gave way to majority rule in 1994.”
The Bill is H.R. 5690.
Annie Jacobsen
Jul 29, 2008 - 3:52 pm 37. Pajamas Media » Setting the Record Straight On Terror Watch Lists:[...] a government agency really punish a reporter by watch-listing him, as recently claimed? August 6, 2008 – by Stewart [...]
Aug 6, 2008 - 12:44 am 38. TSA’s ‘Insult The Messenger’ Approach Backfires » The Aviation Nation:[...] had Assistant Secretary for Policy at DHS, Stewart Baker, write a lengthy denial (in response to an earlier piece I wrote) saying that Drew Griffin was just plain paranoid: "So why does Griffin think [...]
Aug 22, 2008 - 12:40 pm