Federal Air Marshals Too Busy Smuggling Coke and Molesting Kids to Protect You

[Joanne98]

Shawn Nguyen bragged that he could sneak anything past airport security using his top-secret clearance as a federal air marshal. And for months, he smuggled cocaine and drug money onto flights across the country, boasting to an FBI informant that he was "the man with the golden badge."

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.

And when Brian "Cooter" Phelps wanted his ex-wife to disappear, he called a fellow air marshal and tried to hire a hit man nicknamed "the Crucifixer."

Since 9/11, more than three dozen federal air marshals have been charged with crimes, and hundreds more have been accused of misconduct, an investigation by ProPublica has found. Cases range from drunken driving and domestic violence to aiding a human trafficking ring and trying to smuggle explosives from Afghanistan.

The Federal Air Marshal Service presents the image of an elite undercover force charged with making split-second decisions that could mean the difference between stopping a terrorist and shooting an innocent passenger.

But an examination of police reports, court records, government reports, memos and e-mails shows that 18 air marshals have been charged with felonies, including at least three who were hired despite prior criminal records or being fired from law enforcement jobs. A fourth air marshal was hired while under FBI investigation. Another stayed on the job despite alarming a flight attendant with his behavior.

This spring, after U.S. embassies, airlines and foreign police agencies complained about air marshal misconduct overseas, the agency director dispatched supervisors on international missions.

From 33 to 3,000

Before 9/11, the Air Marshal Service was a nearly forgotten force of 33 agents with a $4.4 million annual budget. Now housed in the Transportation Security Administration, the agency has a $786 million budget and an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 air marshals, although the official number is classified.

Only a fraction of them have been charged with crimes, and some degree of misconduct occurs at all law enforcement agencies. But for air marshals, the stakes are uniquely high. Their beat is a confined cabin with hundreds of passengers in firing range. There are no calls for backup at 30,000 feet, putting a premium on sound judgment and swift action.

Since 9/11, air marshals have taken bribes, committed bank fraud, hired an escort while on layover and doctored hotel receipts to pad expenses, records show. They've been found sleeping on planes and lost the travel documents of U.S. diplomats while on a whiskey-tasting trip in Scotland.

Continued>>>
http://www.alternet.org/story/107021/exposed%3A_federal_air_marshals_too_busy_smuggling_coke_and_molesting_kids_to_protect_you/

[PM Martin]

1. I hope that this will end with a new Obama administration.

[Vanje]

2. Heck of a job, Brownie nt

[TomInTib]

3. Those guys stick out like sore thumbs.

If I was going to hijack a plane, I would just incapacitate the guy in the cheap suit.

[kimmerspixelated]

4. Jeepers H. Christ!

OMFG! WHo can you trust??!!!

[indepat]

5. When the fish is rotten at the head, what else could you expect lower on down?

:P

[nichomachus]

6. Who would have thought mercenaries would be so - well -- mercenary?

Every day, we slide further down the slippery slope into Third World status.

While the wingnuts would have you think the Roman Empire fell because the Romans wouldn't accept Jesus and had orgies, the empire fell because of:

Wars that overtaxed the treasury and stretched the military
Reliance on mercenaries
Too much money on war and not enough on infrastructure
Too big a gap between rich and poor
Contaminated water

and a host of other ills that we're seeing replicated right here.

[formercia]

7. Hiring an escort?

Nothing new there. That's SOP for a lot of people on TDY's. If they fired everyone that got laid on a trip, half the civil service and most of the military would be gone.

When I first started, I would try and calculate my expense report to the penny and got laughed at.