This has been
diaried by The Baculum King much earlier this morning, but has long since scrolled off the page. So I will do a redux. It appears as though the Air Marshals are now resigned--in the face of such sheer non-terrorist activity on planes--to make shit up in their reports. To please their bosses. To make their raises. To get bonuses.
You...your grandma...your 3 year-old son...could make the list...at random...just to give Joe Sidearm a good performance eval...
From
A Denver affiliate via
TPM :
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
Who's rich enough in today's economy to forego a raise? Thought so. I don't think these are dishonest men/women, only desperate to keep the job and forced into shitty circumstances. Consider:
"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.
The article is fury-inducing...one last taste, here:
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."
< snip >
"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.
Ok, enough cut and paste. Go read the whole thing, and think twice about snapping pictures of anything outside the plane. Hell, think twice about flying. I'm guessing once you've been placed on this list by some nefarious Marshall, you're never getting off. Perhaps I'll ride my bicycle from Kansas City to Las Vegas on my next trip out West...