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Revision as of 05:26, 30 August 2006 by AuburnPilot (talk | contribs) (Quote Correction (Misquoted from article))(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) is a United States federal government law enforcement agency. The Federal Air Marshal Service promotes confidence in the nation’s civil aviation system through the effective deployment of Federal Air Marshals (FAMs) to detect, deter, and defeat hostile acts targeting U.S. air carriers, airports, passengers, and crews. FAMs are federal law enforcement officers.
Federal Air Marshals must operate independently without backup, and rank among those Federal law enforcement agencies that hold the highest standard for handgun accuracy. They blend in with passengers and rely on their training, including investigative techniques, criminal terrorist behavior recognition, firearms proficiency, aircraft specific tactics, and close quarters self-defense measures to protect the flying public.
History
The Federal Air Marshal Service began in 1968 as the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Sky Marshal Program. In 1985, President Ronald Reagan requested the expansion of the program and Congress enacted the International Security and Development Cooperation Act, which provided the statutes that support the Federal Air Marshal Service.
Air Marshals were originally designated as US Customs Security Officers assigned by order of President John F. Kennedy on an as-needed basis, and later were specially trained FAA personnel.
On September 11, 2001, the Federal Air Marshal Service consisted of only 33 FAMs. As a result of the 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush ordered the rapid expansion of the Federal Air Marshal Service. Many new hires were agents from other federal agencies, such as the U.S. Customs Service, Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Postal Inspection Service. A classified number of applicants were hired, trained, and deployed on flights around the world. As of August, 2006, this number is estimated to be in the thousands. Currently, these FAMs serve as the primary law enforcement entity within the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
On October 16, 2005 Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff officially approved the transfer of the Federal Air Marshal Service to TSA as part of a broader departmental reorganization to align functions consistent with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) "Second Stage Review" findings for:
- consolidating and strengthening aviation law enforcement and security at the Federal level;
- creating a common approach to stakeholder outreach; and
- improving the coordination and efficiency of aviation security operations.
As part of this realignment, the Director of the Federal Air Marshal Service also became the Assistant Administrator for the TSA Office of Law Enforcement (OLE), which houses nearly all TSA law enforcement services. This integration of TSA law enforcement functions focuses resources on homeland security priorities and strengthens the synergies of core TSA missions.
TSA is proposing to expand the use of Federal Air Marshals within the entire public transit sector. In a pilot program announced in December 2005 the TSA stated they will implement a program to have air marshals cover buses, light rail, passenger rail systems and ferries across the country.
Organization
- Assistant Administrator/Director of FAMS: Dana A. Brown
- Deputy Director of FAMS
- Assistant Director, Office of Field Operations
- Deputy Assistant Director, Eastern Region (11 Field Offices)
- Deputy Assistant Director, Western Region (10 Field Offices)
- Assistant Director, Office of Flight Operations
- Transportation Security Operations Center
- Systems Operations Control Division/FAMS Mission Operations Center
- Investigations Division
- Liaison Division
- Flight Programs Division
- Emergency Preparedness Division
- Assistant Director, Office of Training & Development
- Training Management Division
- Federal Air Marshal Training Center (New Jersey & New Mexico)
- Infrastructure Support & Development Division
- Explosives Division
- Assistant Director, Office of Security Services & Assessments
- Office of Security
- Office of the National Explosives Detection Canine Team Program
- Security Assessments Division
- Assistant Director, Office of Mission Support
- Human Resources Division
- Management & Organization Division
- Management Operations Division
- Operational Procedures Division
Training
Federal Air Marshals go through an intense, two-phase training program. The first phase of the program is a seven-week basic law enforcement course. This training is completed at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Artesia, New Mexico; Air Marshals also receive follow-on training at the William J. Hughes Technical Center in New Jersey. Their training is tailored to the role that the Federal Air Marshals will be performing while on the job. Some of the specific areas covered in this training include constitutional law, marksmanship, physical fitness, behavioral observation, defensive tactics, emergency medical assistance, and other law enforcement techniques.
The second phase trains the candidates for tasks that they will be expected to carry out in the field. This training places an emphasis on perfecting the marksmanship skills of the candidates; a necessity of the job due to the tight confines of an aircraft, as well as the number of bystanders. Candidates that successfully complete this training will be assigned to one of 21 field offices, where they will begin their missions.
Equipment and Practices
The Air Marshals may be deployed on as little as an hour's notice and at high risk locations. Undercover Air Marshals were deployed on flights in and out of New Orleans during Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002; flights coming near Salt Lake City during the 2002 Winter Olympics; and cities visited by President George W. Bush while he is in town.
Air Marshals also board the aircraft before other passengers to scan the aircraft for weapons and explosives. Federal Air Marshals carry the SIG-Sauer P229 service pistol in a .357 SIG chambering. Each magazine of the pistol carries 12 rounds. As noted above, Air Marshals must be recertified on their firearm quarterly. According to an anonymous Air Marshal, they are trained to "shoot to stop", typically firing at the largest part of the body (the chest) and then the head to "incapacitate the nervous system".
Under the service's original dress code policy, Air Marshals are required to conform to a strict dress code, well-shaved and with a conservative haircut. Federal Air Marshal Frank Terreri of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association successfully sued senior executives of the Department of Homeland Security complaining that policies prevented Air Marshals from speaking out that current policies such as their strict dress code, "Federal Air Marshal discount" mandatory grouping hotel policy, airport policies that force Air Marshals to walk up security checkpoint exit lanes, and priority aircraft pre-boarding before handicapped passengers and passengers flying with small children make Marshals easy targets for any possible hijackers, making them stand out as the government agents concealing firearms, and thus eliminating their effectiveness. A policy change in August, 2006 allows Air Marshals to whatever clothing they want and stay at any hotel to protect their anonymity.
FAMS under Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Budgeting issues within the TSA created tension between funding for airport screeners versus the FAMS, and in time the FAMS was realigned to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The reasoning was that the FAMS could be redesignated as Criminal Investigator/Special Agents and would have a career path. ICE also had an investigative division with Special Agents specializing in investigating immigration and customs violations. Those immigration and customs agents would be cross trained to serve as supplemental FAMS in the event of a national emergency or in response to intelligence requiring additional marshals on flights.
Ultimately, one of Asa Hutchinson's final decisions before resigning as head of DHS's Border and Transportation Security Directorate was the issuance of a memorandum determining that Air Marshals would not also be ICE Special Agents. In 2005, Homland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff conducted a second-stage review of DHS' organization and ordered the FAMS to be moved from ICE and back to the TSA. The move to TSA was effective October 1, 2005.
Incidents
On December 7 2005 Federal Air Marshals shot and killed a passenger of American Airlines Flight 924 named Rigoberto Alpizar, a 44-year-old U.S. citizen, on a boarding bridge at Miami International Airport.
According to initial media reports of the incident, a witness, Mary Gardner, said that a fight broke out between Alpizar and his wife. Gardner said that after everyone on the plane was seated, Alpizar suddenly ran up the aisle from the back of the plane. Gardner said she did not hear him say anything as he ran by, although she was seated in the third row of the Economy section. John McAlhany, who was seated in the middle of the plane, said: "I heard an argument with his wife. He was saying 'I have to get off the plane.' She said, 'Calm down.' ... I never heard the word 'bomb' until the FBI asked me did you hear the word bomb?" The Orlando Sentinel reported that seven passengers, seated at both the rear and front of the economy section, said that Alpizar did not say anything as he ran past them. Another passenger, Mike Beshears, also said he did not hear the man say anything: "He just was in a hurry and exited the plane." Beshears said Alpizar's wife pursued him only part of the way, then turned back and said her husband was sick and she needed to get his bags. While Alpizar's wife was going back toward her seat, passenger Jorge Borrelli says he very clearly heard "Stop!", and shots were heard.
Dave Adams, a spokesman for the Federal Air Marshal Service, said that the passenger had run up and down the aisle yelling, "I have a bomb in my bag." Adams said that when Alpizar reached the boarding bridge of the aircraft, two Air Marshals confronted him at gunpoint, identified themselves as police, and ordered him to get down on the ground. Adams said that Alpizar "continued approaching the Air Marshals claiming he had a bomb in his bag." Brian Doyle, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, said Alpizar reached into his bag before at least one of the Air Marshals fired at the passenger, who later died from his injuries . James Bauer, the special agent in charge of Federal Air Marshals in Miami, said that Alpizar had "uttered threatening words that included a sentence to the effect that he had a bomb."
Security footage shows Alpizar, while waiting at the boarding area with passengers at the airport in Quito, Ecuador, wearing a backpack over his chest with a front-facing fanny pack, although other footage also shows him removing this backpack and it being checked through security. It is not clear what Alpizar was wearing at the time of the shooting, although none of the published witness accounts have described Alpizar as wearing the backpack over his chest when he left the plane. Reportedly, four to six shots were fired. It is also not clear if the Air Marshals had confronted Alpizar at his seat, or if they had followed Alpizar after he began leaving the plane, although the sum of witness reports suggests it being the latter.
Lonny Glover, national safety coordinator for the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, said: "As the man came forward it was obvious that he was upset ... That's when one of our attendants at the front of plane told him, 'Sir, you can't leave the plane.' His response, she said, was 'I have a bomb.' It was at that point that the air marshals gave up their cover and pursued him out the door and up the jetbridge.
It was reported on November 26, 2002, that a TSA spokesman said that no Federal Air Marshal has ever fired a weapon on a plane . On December 7, 2005, Doyle said of the shooting, "This is the first time that air marshals have used a firearm during a mission since 9/11."
Alpizar's wife and mother-in-law have said that Alpizar had bipolar disorder. Gardner said she overheard the wife say he had recently failed to take his medication. On the inbound flight to Miami, Ellen Sutliff, a passenger who said she sat near the Alpizar couple, described Alpizar as agitated, with his wife saying to him: "We just have to get through customs. Please, please help me get through this ... We're going to be home soon, and everything will be all right". Prior to boarding in Miami, passenger Alan Tirpak also described Alpizar as agitated, and singing "Go Down Moses" as his wife tried to assure him. Tirpak said, "The wife was telling him, 'Calm down. Let other people get on the plane. It will be all right.'" After the shooting, Beshears said, "She felt it was her fault, that she had convinced him to get on board, that he wasn’t ready." Chief Willie Marshall of the Miami-Dade criminal investigations unit said that Alpizar's wife told him that Alpizar had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder about a decade earlier. Sister-in-law Kelley Buechner said she had only known that Alpizar had a "chemical imbalance" for which he took "vitamins". She said that this was characteristic of Alpizar's wife's not telling her, as "She's the type who doesn't want to burden people with her problems." She said she had never known Alpizar to stop taking his medication.
The sister-in-law said Alpizar's wife had been robbed while the couple were in Peru, losing a passport, wallet, notebook computer, and cell phone: "That really upset Rigo ... Anne was robbed in Peru, and it was very unsettling to them both."
After the incident, all passenger luggage was checked by bomb-sniffing dogs, and at least two other bags were "disrupted" with a remotely-operated water spray under controlled conditions. No bomb was found. Federal officials have said that there is no evidence so far that suggests that Alpizar had any connection to terrorism.
The Miami-Dade Police Department is in charge of the homicide investigation. Lt. Veronica Ferguson issued a statement saying early indications point to Alpizar running frantically from the airplane "with a backpack strapped to his chest, yelling that he had a bomb." Det. Juan Del Castillo said individuals on the plane (other than the Air Marshals) also heard the bomb threats, although police would not say at what location(s) the bomb threats were made. Police said Alpizar turned around in the jetway and walked in a threatening manner toward the Air Marshals, who stepped back before firing. Del Castillo said Alpizar's threats and the Air Marshal's commands were in English.
It has been reported that the Miami-Dade County medical examiner's office was performing an autopsy on Alpizar . Alpizar was laid to rest in his native Costa Rica by family members on December 13, 2005.
On December 8, 2005, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said that the President was satisfied that air marshals acted appropriately in the Alpizar shooting.
Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office report
A final report was released by the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office on May 23, 2006. The report found that "the shooting officers were legally justified in their use of force and no criminal charges will be filed."
The report notes as a key fact that Alpizar's wife said that her husband "threatened" that he had a bomb in his backpack, although this is not elaborated on further (when Alpizar said this, to whom, how she heard this, and in what language).
Both federal air marshals (ages 30 and 31) claimed that Alpizar repeatedly stated that he had a bomb and would detonate it (one marshal said these threats were made in Spanish, the other marshal did not indicate a language), while advancing towards them and refusing commands to stop. The report indicates that the first air marshal was fluent in Spanish, implying that the second was not. Both said they issued commands in both English and Spanish. The second air marshal said that Alpizar said (presumably in English), "I'm going to blow up this bomb. I'm going to blow up this bomb. I'm going to show you."
The pilot (age 49) of the plane stood directly behind the air marshals, and said that English was spoken. The pilot said that Alpizar indicated he had a bomb, and continued advancing despite a warning that "If you don't take your hands out of the bag, we're going to have to shoot you." The pilot said Alpizar responded with, "Shoot me! Shoot me!" while repeating several times that he had a bomb, despite a further warning of "We're going to have to shoot you if you don't stop."
The captain (age 50) of the plane was in a position to see both Alpizar's wife coming down the aisle and Alpizar in the jetway. The captain said that Alpizar was at the far end of the jetway, and turned around and advanced toward the plane, ignoring commands to stop. The captain said Alpizar defiantly yelled, "Shoot me! Shoot me!", and observed that Alpizar appeared serious and considered him a threat. The captain said that the air marshals repeatedly said they would shoot, but Alpizar advanced anyway. The report did not indicate whether or not the captain said he heard Alpizar say he had a bomb.
The report also notes three other witnesses who said they heard either "I have a bomb" or "There's a bomb on board," but they could not determine which.
The report notes one witness seated in the front of the plane say that Alpizar said "I have a bomb" as he ran by. Another witness seated in the first row said he heard Alpizar yell from the back of the plane, "I got to get off this plane. I have a bomb."
Three flight attendants said that Alpizar said there was a bomb on board. The report does not indicate whether or not these flight attendants heard Alpizar say he had a bomb.
The report also noted many of the other witness comments made to news media, as well as Alpizar's not having taken his full dose of medication, and his unusual behavior in airports prior to the incident.
The weight of the evidence of the claim that Alpizar said he had a bomb (rather than that there was a bomb on board, or confusion as to this fact) rests on: the two shooting federal air marshals, the pilot, the brief statement from Alpizar's wife (although it's not specified where and how she heard this), and two witnesses seated at the front of the plane (one of whom was in the first row and said he heard the claim from the back of the plane, the other saying Alpizar made this claim as he was running by). There is also a discrepancy in the language in which the bomb threat was made, since one air marshal said the threats to detonate a bomb were made in Spanish, while the pilot said English was spoken, and the second air marshal appears only to be able to issue simple commands in Spanish. The second air marshal's claim was so notable (that Alpizar said "I'm going to blow up this bomb. I'm going to blow up this bomb. I'm going to show you," presumably in English), that it is strange that the report did not mention any other individual corroborating this striking phrasing. The report did not indicate the pilot, the captain, or any other individual on the plane say they heard that Alpizar say that he would detonate or blow up a bomb, although the report indicates that this is a factual finding.
Also, the report does not indicate whether individuals were repeatedly questioned on their certainty of important facts, and if they were, which individuals and which facts.
However, it should also be noted that both the pilot and captain said that Alpizar was repeatedly warned that he would be shot if he did not stop, and also that they and the air marshals indicated that Alpizar was wearing a backpack across his chest.
From the air marshals' statements, it appears that the second air marshal fired one shot at first, but as Alpizar continued to approach, both air marshals began firing. The first air marshal fired 3 shots; the second, 6 shots. The autopsy showed that all non-grazing wounds were from front-to-back, with four projectiles found lodged in Alpizar's body. The autopsy also supports the finding that the backpack was being worn or held across Alpizar's chest.
References
- ^ "Air marshals grounded over 'security'". news.bbc.co.uk. 2003-06-23. Retrieved 2006-08-25.
{{cite news}}: External link in|work= - Charles, Deborah (2006-08-25). "Air marshals to go native; dress code relaxed". news.yahoo.com. Retrieved 2006-08-25.
{{cite news}}: External link in|work= - "US Security Teams to Patrol Train, Bus, Subway Stations". VOAnews.com. 2005-12-14. Retrieved 2006-08-25.
{{cite web}}: External link in|work= - ^ "Shooting Puts Air Marshals in Spotlight". Associated Press. 2005-12-08.
{{cite news}}: External link in|work=|accesdate=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ Thomas Frank, Mimi Hall & Alan Levin (2005-12-08). "Air marshals thrust into spotlight". USA Today. Retrieved 2006-08-25.
{{cite news}}: External link in|work= - Federal Air Marshal Association Template:PDF (2004-09-24). "FAMA Press Release" (PDF). FAMS Director Refuses No Cost Changes Enhancing Aviation Security. Retrieved 2006-08-25.
- "DHS Gets Rid of Dress Code, Hotel Regulations for Air Marshals". Associated Press. 2006-08-25.
{{cite web}}: External link in|work=|accesdate=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ Quijano, Elaine; et al. (2005-12-09). "White House backs air marshals' actions". CNN.com. Retrieved 2006-08-25.
{{cite news}}: Explicit use of et al. in:|author=(help); External link in|work= - "Eyewitness: "I Never Heard the Word 'Bomb'"". http://www.time.com Time.com]. 2005-12-08. Retrieved 2006-08-25.
{{cite web}}: External link in|work= - Randall, Kate (2005-12-10). "Eyewitnesses refute official story in fatal shooting of passenger at Miami airport". WSWS.org. Retrieved 2006-08-25.
{{cite web}}: External link in|work= - Akers, Becky (2005-12-12). "Rigoberto, Requiesce in Pace". LewRockwell.com. Retrieved 2006-08-25.
{{cite news}}: External link in|work= - Goodnough, Abby & Wald, Matthew L. (2005-12-08). "Marshals Shoot and Kill Passenger in Bomb Threat". The New York Times. Retrieved 2006-08-25.
{{cite web}}: External link in|work= - Hauser, Christine & Wald, Matthew L. (2005-12-07). "Air Marshals Shoot and Kill Passenger at Miami Airport". http://www.nytimes.com/ The New York Times]. Retrieved 2006-08-25.
{{cite news}}: External link in|work= - Goodnough, Abby (2005-12-09). "Fretful Passenger, Turmoil on Jet and Fatal Shots". http://www.nytimes.com/ The New York Times].
{{cite news}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); External link in|work= - ^ "Office of the State Attorney Eleventh Jucicial Circuit Police Shooting Closeout Memo [[:Template:PDF]]" (PDF). Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office. 2006-05-23. Retrieved 2006-08-25.
{{cite web}}: External link in|work=
See also
External links
- Transportation Security Administration Website
- Federal Air Marshal Association
- Federal Air Marshal News Archives & Links