HSD Official’s Memo Targets Armed Pilot Bill
by Joseph P. Tartaro
Executive Editor
The Airline Pilots Security Alliance (APSA) on May 13 expressed “serious concern” about a high-ranking Homeland Security Department (HSD) official’s attempts to defeat legislation aimed at strengthening the program to arm airline pilots for cockpit defense in both passenger and cargo planes.
An article published the same day in The Hill, a congressional newspaper, reported that Thomas D. Quinn, director of the Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS), wrote a memo in early April to Michael Garcia, assistant secretary, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Michael Dougherty, ICE operations director, calling for a “strong, coordinated effort” to defeat the Cockpit Technical Corrections and Improvements Act (S-2268/HR-4126). The bill was introduced in the Senate Apr. 1, by Sens. Jim Bunning (R-KY), Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Conrad Burns (R-MT), and in the House by Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC).
“It is extremely disconcerting that the Director of the Federal Air Marshal Service is attempting to garner support within individual agencies of the Homeland Security Department to defeat a bipartisan airline security bill,” said Capt. David Mackett, president of APSA.
“What possible motive could he have? The Cockpit Technical Corrections Act simply returns the Federal Flight Deck Officer (FFDO) program to the robust aviation security program Congress originally sought to create.
“The thought of individual federal officials and agencies actively working against the legislative process has serious ethical implications. The Department of Homeland Security is supposed to act at the direction of Congress, not the other way around.
“Mr. Quinn’s memo confirms biases against the FFDO program within the Homeland Security Department that have existed since before the program’s inception,” Mackett continued.
Quinn’s memo asserts the bill is flawed because it does not provide for training pilots in arrest procedures, interview techniques, search and seizure and courtroom preparation.
Which drew a strong response from one of the lead sponsors, who termed Quinn’s concerns “ridiculous.”
The Washington Times noted that one of Quinn’s concerns was that the “pilot receives no training in interview techniques.”
Wilson’s response, according to The Times: “We are not proposing they interview the terrorists as they storm the cockpit, let’s get serious.”
About Quinn’s concerns that “pilot receives no training in the laws of search and seizure,” Wilson said: “There won’t be a search and seizure until after the shooting has occurred. Then law enforcement can come in and search the hijacker who has been stopped from hijacking the plane.”
APSA noted that the bill gives pilots no authority outside of an airliner, except to transport firearms safely, and that pilots are not trained in the areas that concern Quinn because they do not perform them.
“When was the last time you heard of an airline pilot executing a search warrant?” Mackett asked.
The Hill reported that Quinn is a career employee, and his memo has raised questions about lobbying Congress. Although political appointees in the Administration routinely lobby for and against bills, it is unusual for career employees to mount lobbying efforts.
“It’s one thing to give advice to your superiors about a bill,” said Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, according to The Hill story. “It’s another to call for a lobbying effort.”
The FAMS memo is the first public evidence that the air marshals service is opposed to efforts to expand the armed pilots program, said sources following the issue, according to The Hill. It is also a rare look inside the lobbying efforts of the Administration, providing fodder to the claims of pilot groups that elements within DHS have been reluctant to expand the program.
According to APSA, since Congress first authorized the FFDO program more than two years ago, the TSA has armed only 2% of the 115,000 eligible pilots.
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