ot: freedom is as freedom does
The Librarian
DENVER -- You could be on a secret government database or watch list
for simply taking a picture on an airplane. Some federal air marshals
say they're reporting your actions to meet a quota, even though some
top officials deny it.
The air marshals, whose identities are being concealed, told 7NEWS that
they're required to submit at least one report a month. If they don't,
there's no raise, no bonus, no awards and no special assignments.
"Innocent passengers are being entered into an international
intelligence database as suspicious persons, acting in a suspicious
manner on an aircraft ... and they did nothing wrong," said one federal
air marshal.
These unknowing passengers who are doing nothing wrong are landing in a
secret government document called a Surveillance Detection Report, or
SDR. Air marshals told 7NEWS that managers in Las Vegas created and
continue to maintain this potentially dangerous quota system.
"Do these reports have real life impacts on the people who are
identified as potential terrorists?" 7NEWS Investigator Tony Kovaleski
asked.
"Absolutely," a federal air marshal replied.
7NEWS obtained an internal Homeland Security document defining an SDR
as a report designed to identify terrorist surveillance activity.
"When you see a decision like this, for these reports, who loses here?"
Kovaleski asked.
"The people we're supposed to protect -- the American public," an air
marshal said.
What kind of impact would it have for a flying individual to be named
in an SDR?
"That could have serious impact ... They could be placed on a watch
list. They could wind up on databases that identify them as potential
terrorists or a threat to an aircraft. It could be very serious," said
Don Strange, a former agent in charge of air marshals in Atlanta. He
lost his job attempting to change policies inside the agency.
That's why several air marshals object to a July 2004 memo from top
management in the Las Vegas office, a memo that reminded air marshals
of the SDR requirement.
The body of the memo said, "Each federal air marshal is now expected to
generate at least one SDR per month."
"Does that memo read to you that Federal Air Marshal headquarters has
set a quota on these reports?" Kovaleski asked.
"Absolutely, no doubt," an air marshal replied.
A second management memo, also dated July 2004, said, "There may come
an occasion when you just don't see anything out of the ordinary for a
month at a time, but I'm sure that if you are looking for it, you'll
see something."
Another federal air marshal said that not only is there a quota in Las
Vegas for SDRs, but that "it directly reflects on (their) performance
evaluations" and on how much money they make.
The director of the Air Marshal Service, Dana Brown, declined 7NEWS'
request for an interview on the quota system. But the agency points to
a memo from August 2004 that said there is not a quota for submitting
SDRs and which goes on to say, "I do not expect reports that are
inaccurate or frivolous."
But, Las Vegas-based air marshals say the quota system remains in
force, now more than two years after managers sent the original memos,
and that it's a mandate from management that impacts annual raises,
bonuses, awards and special assignments.
"To meet this quota, to get their raises, do you think federal air
marshals in Las Vegas are making some of this stuff up?" Kovaleski
asked.
"I know they are. It's a joke," an air marshal replied.
"Have marshals in the Las Vegas office, I don't want to say fabricated,
but 'created' reports?" Kovaleski asked.
"Creative writing -- stretching a long ways the truth, yes," an air
marshal replied.
One example, according to air marshals, occurred on one flight leaving
Las Vegas, when an unknowing passenger, most likely a tourist, was
identified in an SDR for doing nothing more than taking a photo of the
Las Vegas skyline as his plane rolled down the runway.
"You're saying that was not an accurate portrayal of a potential
terrorist activity?" Kovaleski asked.
"No, it was not," an air marshal said.
"It was a marshal trying to meet a quota ..." Kovaleski said.
"Yes, he was," the air marshal replied.
Strange said he didn't have a quota in the Atlanta office when he was
in charge.
"I would never have done that ... You are going to have people
reporting every suspicious looking activity they come across, whether
they in their heart feel like it's a threat, just to meet the quota,"
Strange said.
Strange and other air marshals said the quota allows the government to
fill a database with bad information.
A Las Vegas air marshal said he didn't write an SDR every month for
exactly that reason.
"Well, it's intelligence information, and like any system, if you put
garbage in, you get garbage out," the air marshal said.
"I would like to see an investigation -- a real investigation conducted
into the ways things are done here," the air marshal in Las Vegas said.
Although the agency strongly denies any presence of a quota system, Las
Vegas-based air marshals have produced documents that show their
performance review is directly linked to producing SDRs.
IRONY: wouldn't it be IRONIC if LV's name was on the Denver list???
@yerCervix!
Stinks of Party Member.
McCarthy
Hitler
Stalin
Mao
This sewer needs a clean-up post '08.
DGDevin
news:9w6xg.39153$AB3.20018@fed1read02...
>> IRONY: wouldn't it be IRONIC if LV's name was on the Denver list???
Second or third time in the past week that The Mule has mentioned LV. Sure
glad Marc is over LV, think how often he'd mention him if he wasn't.
Claude V. Lucas
Just think how pleasant it would be in AGA if Willie's fartcatchers followed
him to RAT or wherever he wandered off to...
Rick N. Backer
courageously avow:
You are free to join him any time you want.
--
Ken Wilson
Claude V. Lucas
dolt.princess Kenni, spokesloon for the Al-Queef brigade of the People's
Liberation Jihad for the Independence of the Democratic People's Republic
of Kanuckistan, posing as Rick N. Backer, <ken.w...@shaw.ca>, mournfully bleated:
They still haven't changed that diaper for you, eh?
@yerCervix!
Sweety- as usual, you're wrong. Illiterate.
@yerCervix!
Another illiterate weighs in. Now two are wrong. Must be a fact. AGA ;-).
DGDevin
>>
>> Second or third time in the past week that The Mule has mentioned LV.
>> Sure glad Marc is over LV, think how often he'd mention him if he wasn't.
>
> Sweety- as usual, you're wrong. Illiterate.
Not wrong at all sock-puppet, you mentioned LV in the Pignose thread and now
you've done it again, face facts, you're obsessed with the man, you can no
more stop posting about him than you can stop breathing. Mind you, both are
worth the attempt on your part.
Rick N. Backer
did courageously avow:
And you are obsessed with his obsessions. The two of you should marry
so you can be at each other 24/7.
--
Ken Wilson
@yerCervix!
Yes, you're wrong...again.
The Librarian
is in Denver and it would be funny if the old boy's name were in one of
those reports. Don't tell me you can't see the irony in it.
@yerCervix!
Ken, you betrayed your own "pay attention to ME!" homosexuality-a-la
little girl streak months ago -and I nailed you for it. Next, you
jumped on the "you're not gon' have no frenz", train, so I tried to
hip you to my trip as iconoclast. Are you merely an inveterate
pop-up-whack-a-mole?
Rick
may I have aNother sir?
Backer
?!
If AGA were chess, you'd have been checkmated. Sailing, you'd be in
irons, incapable of tacking or coming about. Wrestling, pinned.
Boxing- K.O. on A.
Man up!
@yerCervix!
Dead Gas will hear NONE of THIS BALDERDASH! ;-)
DGDevin
> The Librarian wrote:
>> DG - Marc didn't mention LV. I did. I did becaase reportedly his shop
>> is in Denver and it would be funny if the old boy's name were in one of
>> those reports. Don't tell me you can't see the irony in it.
Ah, okay, I stand corrected, that's what happens when people don't snip
posts to remove previous layers, my mistake. So Mulay only mentioned LV
twice in the Pignose thread, his obsession is only at two-thirds power then,
the Zoloff must be helping.
@yerCervix!
DGDevin wrote:
> Ah, okay, I stand corrected, my mistake.
Rick N. Backer
did courageously avow:
>"@yerCervix!" <D...@geocities.com/mvm55555.org> wrote in message
His or yours?
--
Ken Wilson
The Librarian
:)
> --
> Ken Wilson