{"id":1766,"date":"2010-05-13T12:03:22","date_gmt":"2010-05-13T17:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=1766"},"modified":"2010-05-13T13:56:32","modified_gmt":"2010-05-13T18:56:32","slug":"the-feds-post-911-purge-of-airport-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/13\/the-feds-post-911-purge-of-airport-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Feds’ Post-9\/11 Purge of Airport Workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the Future of Freedom Foundation’s <\/a>Freedom Daily <\/a><\/strong>(February 2010)…<\/p>\n

American travelers are at far greater risk from weasely cabinet secretaries than from fast-food workers. Operation Tarmac illustrated how \u201cretail\u201d lying is dangerous and can result in a prison sentence \u2014 while \u201cwholesale\u201d lying is a steppingstone to fame and greater power.<\/strong> <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Feds’ Post-9\/11 Airport Worker Purge<\/strong>
\nby James Bovard<\/p>\n

In the wake of the 9\/11 attacks, the federal government feared that people would lose faith in the government\u2019s promise to protect them. The feds had dismally failed to stop the 19 hijackers who took down four planes and sowed panic from coast to coast. So the government did what it does best: Round up the usual suspects. <\/p>\n

Starting in late 2001, the government carried out a series of mass arrests of airport workers. \u201cOperation Tarmac\u201d and similarly named crackdowns spawned press conferences around the nation at which federal attorneys proudly announced roundups of Hispanic immigrants who were portrayed as would-be terrorists. More than a thousand airport employees were arrested and indicted nationwide. <\/p>\n

Salt Lake City was the first airport hit by federal sweeps. Sixty-nine people were indicted on December 11, 2001, for false statements on employment applications or bogus Social Security numbers. Though U.S. Attorney Paul Warner declared that \u201cthere is no evidence that anyone indicted as part of Operation Safe Travel has attempted any kind of terrorist activity at the airport,\u201d he still characterized the crackdown as a \u201cjoint anti-terrorism effort.\u201d <\/p>\n

However, Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson denounced the investigation as \u201cgrandstanding\u201d and complained, \u201cAt the end of the investigation, state and federal officers arrested and imprisoned dozens of workers. These arrests left many families in turmoil, with children waiting at home for their parents to return from work.\u201d <\/p>\n

Authorities were chagrined at the negative publicity over the three-day lockup of a food-service worker who was also a breast-feeding mother. While federal officials portrayed the crackdown as a triumph, the Salt Lake Tribune later reported that \u201cnearly two-thirds of the original 69 indicted workers either had their cases dismissed or were sentenced to probation, for terms that ranged from 36 months down to a single day.\u201d Most of those arrested were married, under 35, and had young children \u2014 not the usual terrorist profile. The Tribune noted, \u201cMost had valid Social Security numbers, which were intended only for driver\u2019s licenses. They allegedly broke the law when they illegally used those Social Security cards to gain employment.\u201d Some of those arrested no longer even worked at the airport. <\/p>\n

Access Denied and Fly Trap <\/strong><\/p>\n

In Charlotte, North Carolina, in March 2002, 66 people were indicted in Operation Access Denied. Almost all of the current or former airport workers arrested were Hispanics charged with abusing Social Security numbers or immigration violations. U.S. Attorney Bob Conrad declared, \u201cIn the wake of 9\/11, our mandate has changed. Our efforts now include terrorism \u2014 rooting it out and preventing it \u2014 especially at the airport.\u201d Conrad warned, \u201cTerrorists could use the fact that workers are illegal aliens to blackmail them into assisting the effort to sabotage a plane. That\u2019s the concern that motivated this investigation. This is a preventative effort.\u201d The Charlotte investigation involved 70 federal agents. At a time when the Bush administration was continually portraying the nation at risk of additional terrorist attacks, the feds concentrated their resources on janitors who wrote the wrong number on a job application. <\/p>\n

The U.S. attorney puffed up his resume by also charging each person arrested with \u201centering an aircraft or airport area in violation of government security requirements.\u201d The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University reported, \u201cIn previous years, these 66 cases almost certainly would have been classified as simple immigration matters. But in the post\u20139\/11 world, the choice was obvious and each one was officially placed in the \u2018domestic terrorism\u2019 category.\u201d TRAC noted that this categorization allowed the mass arrests in Charlotte to be portrayed as \u201can outstanding example of the government\u2019s successful \u2018war on terrorism.\u2019\u201d Everyone arrested was given a choice of going to trial \u2014 and getting a sentence of up to 20 years if he lost \u2014 or pleading guilty to a misdemeanor and getting out of jail after only a few weeks. <\/p>\n

U.S. Attorney Conrad bragged, \u201cIt\u2019s probably the first time in the court\u2019s history that 50 defendants have been indicted, convicted, and deported all in the span of one month.\u201d He talked as if deporting a busload of janitors was the same as vanquishing al-Qaeda. <\/p>\n

On April 23, 2002, Operation Fly Trap arrested 94 workers employed at Dulles International Airport and Reagan Washington National Airport. U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty characterized the raids on employees as an \u201canti-terrorism initiative\u201d but admitted that there was \u201cno evidence at this point of any connection of these individuals to any terrorist organizations.\u201d Attorney General John Ashcroft appeared at the victory press conference and proclaimed, \u201cOur response has been to weave a web of terrorism prevention that brings together all agencies of justice and every level of law enforcement\u201d and said the sweep was \u201cthe result of the unprecedented interagency, multi-jurisdictional cooperation among law enforcement that defines our effort to prevent terrorist attacks.\u201d <\/p>\n

A Chicago Tribune analysis of Operation Fly Trap noted, \u201cAmong those swept up were two nursing mothers, a 54-year-old Bolivian grandmother with rheumatoid arthritis, a National Guardsman, a man who operates a shoe shine business in one of the office buildings for the House of Representatives, and a student who made $6.35 an hour by taking notes for a deaf classmate.\u201d The Tribune concluded, \u201cRather than striking a major blow against terrorism, the arrests ended up turning people\u2019s lives inside out, causing tremendous embarrassment, anger and despair.\u201d <\/p>\n

The wrong bad guys<\/strong> <\/p>\n

In Hampton Roads, Virginia, Operation Plane View erupted on June 6, 2002, with feds ordering many of the targets to \u201creport to a secure basement area for a fictitious training program.\u201d The targets soon learned that only federal officials had the right to make false statements in the vicinity of airports. Federal agents also zipped through the Hampton Roads area \u201crousting former workers from their beds at dawn,\u201d the Virginian-Pilot reported. Those arrested were cuffed and marched before the television cameras. At the celebratory press conference, U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty, after conceding that none of the suspects was linked to terrorism, proclaimed, \u201cI think there should be considerable concern that individuals who could be a threat to safety have been employed at the airport.\u201d McNulty stressed, \u201cAll of these individuals present a risk. We don\u2019t have information as to exactly what risks have occurred. We just know that the potential for harm is there.\u201d <\/p>\n

Most Operation Plane View cases quickly collapsed as a result of false charges, government paperwork screw-ups, and other problems. Two weeks after the initial raids, a Virginian-Pilot editorial observed, \u201cIn contrast with the government\u2019s loud trumpeting of its \u2018very successful\u2019 roundup, it is remarkably silent on its embarrassing and possibly illegal goof-up. In the government\u2019s hasty retreat, suddenly nothing is in plain view.\u201d The paper denounced the operation as a \u201cdangerous flop\u201d and declared, \u201cThe only thing the government succeeded with in these pre-dawn raids on innocent citizens was to further shatter the public\u2019s confidence in its ability to catch the right bad guys.\u201d <\/p>\n

Houston proudly conducted the biggest roundup in the country, bagging 143 people on September 9, 2002, for having bogus Social Security numbers, making false statements on job applications, having fake identification, or other offenses. U.S. Attorney Michael Shelby proclaimed, \u201cOur goal is to make the airports secure for every man, woman, and child in the southern district of Texas so when they look up into the sky and see that airplane overhead, they can have some assurance that it is not being used as a manned missile.\u201d But many of the people arrested had quit their jobs months or weeks before and were no longer in a position to aid Muslim fanatics. The crackdown was based on a list of airport employees that the INS had received in February; it took the feds more than six months to get around to dropping the hammer. <\/p>\n

On September 17, 2002, 110 workers at Denver International Airport (DIA) were indicted as part of Operation Safe Sky. The vast majority were accused of using false Social Security numbers to get their airport security badges. U.S. Attorney John Suthers announced, \u201cIf you were a terrorist, you could do a lot of damage.\u201d Suthers conceded that none of those arrested was a terrorist suspect but stressed, \u201cWe have every reason to believe a person who has terrorist motives could come into secure areas of the airport through the means we\u2019ve described.\u201d The cases were classified as \u201cinternal security \u2014 terrorism.\u201d <\/p>\n

Six months later, the Rocky Mountain News reported that two-thirds of the people indicted had never been arrested. Very few of those indicted who escaped the heavily publicized federal raid at DIA were ever caught. Many of the cases were dismissed and none of those arrested was sentenced to additional jail time (aside from time already served). <\/p>\n

Wholesale lying <\/strong><\/p>\n

The airport mass arrests were, according to Attorney General Ashcroft, one of the greatest achievements in the war on terrorism. In an October 1, 2002, speech to a conference of U.S. Attorneys, he bragged, \u201cWe have conducted the largest investigation in history; disrupting and punishing possible terrorist-related activity throughout the United States. It\u2019s working. Let me note just a few instances….\u201d After invoking the arrests of Zacarias Moussaoui and John Walker Lindh, Ashcroft mentioned \u201cCharlotte: 67 undocumented aliens indicted for identification-document fraud. Dulles and Reagan National Airports: 94 workers arrested and charged with falsifying Social Security applications and immigration violations.\u201d But these cases had nothing to do with al-Qaeda. <\/p>\n

Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta hailed Operation Tarmac\u2019s busts: \u201cWe will not stop until we are satisfied we have a work force that the traveling public can trust.\u201d But what of the far more dangerous whoppers told by high-ranking government officials \u2014 such as their lies to the public that flying was safe before 9\/11? American travelers are at far greater risk from weasely cabinet secretaries than from fast-food workers. Operation Tarmac illustrated how \u201cretail\u201d lying is dangerous and can result in a prison sentence \u2014 while \u201cwholesale\u201d lying is a steppingstone to fame and greater power. <\/p>\n

Unfortunately, few people recognized the political racketeering involved in the post\u20139\/11 roundups of airport workers. That practically ensures that, if there is another major terrorist attack or some similar debacle, mass arrests will once again be used to burnish the government\u2019s image. <\/p>\n

James Bovard is the author of Attention Deficit Democracy [2006] as well as The Bush Betrayal [2004], Lost Rights [1994] and Terrorism and Tyranny: Trampling Freedom, Justice and Peace to Rid the World of Evil (Palgrave-Macmillan, September 2003) and serves as a policy advisor for The Future of Freedom Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the Future of Freedom Foundation’s Freedom Daily (February 2010)… American travelers are at far greater risk from weasely cabinet secretaries than from fast-food workers. Operation Tarmac illustrated how \u201cretail\u201d lying is dangerous and can result in a prison sentence \u2014 while \u201cwholesale\u201d lying is a steppingstone to fame and greater power. The Feds’ Post-9\/11 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[20,659,22,10,662,35],"class_list":{"0":"post-1766","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"tag-ashcroft","7":"tag-attention-deficit-democracy","9":"tag-bush","10":"tag-lying","11":"tag-transportation-security-admin"},"yoast_head":"\nThe Feds' Post-9\/11 Purge of Airport Workers - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/13\/the-feds-post-911-purge-of-airport-workers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Feds' Post-9\/11 Purge of Airport Workers - James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From the Future of Freedom Foundation’s Freedom Daily (February 2010)… American travelers are at far greater risk from weasely cabinet secretaries than from fast-food workers. 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The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","https:\/\/x.com\/jimbovard"],"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1766"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1772,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1766\/revisions\/1772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}