FLE

DHS report admits air marshals 'overreacted' in airport shooting

Although the department claims otherwise publicly, a confidential internal report within the Department of Homeland Security admits air marshals “overreacted” when they gunned down a Florida man at Miami International Airport last week. The report, which may never be released publicly, confirms that preliminary interviews with witnesses conflict the statements of air marshals who claim Rigoberto Alpizar shouted he had a bomb as he stormed off a plane and up a jetway at the airport. “Although witness statements contain conflicting information, none of those interrogated following the incident collaborate any utterance by the suspect that he either possessed, or intended to detonate, an explosive device,” the report says. Publicly, DHS and the Air Marshal Service claim the two agents who brought down Alpizar in a hail of bullets from their 357 Sig Sauer handguns acted “within guidelines” for handling potential terrorist activities. But Alpizar, a 44-year-old naturalized American citizen from Costa Rica, suffered from bipolar disorder and had not taken his prescription medication to control the condition. The Home Depot employee who lived in Maitland, Florida, did not have a bomb and witnesses on the scene dispute the marshals’ claim that he shouted he did. “I can tell you, he never said a thing in that airplane; he never called out he had a bomb,” says fellow passenger Jorge Borelli, an Orlando architect. “He just wanted to get off the plane,” says passenger John McAlhany, He adds that Alpizar was “clearly agitated” but said nothing about a bomb. “I never heard the word 'bomb' until the FBI asked me: 'Did you hear the word bomb?'” McAlhany says other federal officers stormed onto plane, pointing guns at passangers and demanding they put their hands in front of them....

Air Marshal Service Under Scrutiny After Shooting

The Federal Air Marshal Service sends thousands of armed undercover agents into the skies each day. But now the service is facing more scrutiny than ever after marshals shot a Maitland, Fla., man to death Wednesday at Miami International Airport. Miami-Dade police are investigating the shooting, the first by marshals since before the terror attacks of 2001. But it's not the first time the program has come under scrutiny. Federal reports released since the program's rapid expansion after the Sept. 11 attacks found that background checks of agents were often too lenient, discipline problems existed among marshals and firearms testing was often inconsistent. A report by the Government Accountability Office released in November found that there were few opportunities for career expansion for marshals and that the program was failing to track and follow up on incidents that compromised marshals' anonymity. The latter problem was addressed, but it is unclear how TSA will keep qualified marshals on the job. An August 2004 report by the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general found the program experienced several problems. In 2002, flight marshals were cited for instances of improper flight conduct, lost or stolen equipment including weapons, failed training and sleeping on duty, according to the report....

Are Air Marshals Prepared to Handle Mentally Ill Passengers?

The death of a bipolar airline passenger at the hands of federal air marshals has raised questions about whether the people charged with preventing violence in the skies are adequately trained to handle mentally ill passengers. Several experts on mental illness and police training said they did not fault air marshals for fatally shooting Rigoberto Alpizar at Miami International Airport. But they suggested the Federal Air Marshal Service should re-examine how it trains marshals to deal with people who act erratically or irrationally due to mental illness or other brain disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease. "This guy was mentally disturbed; he wasn't a terrorist, and he didn't have a bomb and the air marshals took him down, which is what they are trained to do," said Andrew Thomas, an aviation analyst at the University of Akron in Ohio....

Marshals To Patrol Land, Sea Transport

Teams of undercover air marshals and uniformed law enforcement officers will fan out to bus and train stations, ferries, and mass transit facilities across the country this week in a new test program to conduct surveillance and "counter potential criminal terrorist activity in all modes of transportation," according to internal federal documents. According to internal Transportation Security Administration documents, the program calls for newly created "Visible Intermodal Protection and Response" teams -- called "Viper" teams -- to take positions in public areas along Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and Los Angeles rail lines; ferries in Washington state; and mass transit systems in Atlanta, Philadelphia and Baltimore. Viper teams will also patrol the Washington Metro system. A Viper team will consist of two air marshals, one TSA bomb-sniffing-canine team, one or two transportation security inspectors, one local law enforcement officer, and one other TSA employee. Some members of the team will be obvious to the traveling public and wear jackets bearing the TSA name on the back. Others will be plainclothes air marshals scanning the crowds for suspicious people. It is unclear how many Viper teams will be on patrol through the New Year holiday, but air marshal officials confirm that they will be at seven locations across the country....

Is the Pentagon spying on Americans?

A year ago, at a Quaker Meeting House in Lake Worth, Fla., a small group of activists met to plan a protest of military recruiting at local high schools. What they didn't know was that their meeting had come to the attention of the U.S. military. A secret 400-page Defense Department document obtained by NBC News lists the Lake Worth meeting as a “threat” and one of more than 1,500 “suspicious incidents” across the country over a recent 10-month period. “This peaceful, educationally oriented group being a threat is incredible,” says Evy Grachow, a member of the Florida group called The Truth Project. “This is incredible,” adds group member Rich Hersh. “It's an example of paranoia by our government,” he says. “We're not doing anything illegal.” The Defense Department document is the first inside look at how the U.S. military has stepped up intelligence collection inside this country since 9/11, which now includes the monitoring of peaceful anti-war and counter-military recruitment groups. “I think Americans should be concerned that the military, in fact, has reached too far,” says NBC News military analyst Bill Arkin. The Department of Defense declined repeated requests by NBC News for an interview. The DOD database obtained by NBC News includes nearly four dozen anti-war meetings or protests, including some that have taken place far from any military installation, post or recruitment center....

An 11th-hour drive to amend Patriot Act

An unusual coalition of lawmakers and activists opposed to parts of the USA Patriot Act is mounting a last push to persuade Congress to take more time before voting to extend some of the law's most controversial provisions. At issue is whether Congress has been rigorous enough in assessing how the Patriot Act - which the White House calls vital to its war on terror - has been implemented. Many lawmakers were stunned by recent press reports, denied but not corrected by the Justice Department, that the FBI has issued as many as 30,000 "national security letters" since the law was passed nearly unanimously in 2001. The letters order private and public entities to turn over records and other private data about Americans - and remain silent about it. In the run-up to a vote later this week on extending controversial provisions of the act, civil liberties and privacy groups released their own research, based largely on documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, that they say signals numerous reporting violations and lax oversight. "Congress should not reauthorize the Patriot Act until these questions are resolved," says Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, which released FBI documents it had obtained, at a press briefing Tuesday. On paper, the coalition urging a delay is the strongest to lobby Congress on any issue. Its backers range from conservative and libertarian groups - including the American Conservative Union, Americans for Tax Reform, and gun groups - to the American Civil Liberties Union. Within the Senate, a bipartisan group of lawmakers looking to tighten privacy protections wants to put off the vote for three months. (Parts of the Patriot Act are set to expire this month.) If these concerns aren't met, some, including Sens. Russell Feingold (D) of Wisconsin and Larry Craig (R) of Idaho, threaten to filibuster the bill....

Senate bill seeks time to tighten Patriot Act

A bipartisan coalition of senators yesterday introduced a bill to extend by three months controversial provisions of the USA Patriot Act to allow for efforts in the Senate and House to draft new legislation -- potentially trumping plans to vote this week on a four-year extension. The bill, authored by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, is co-sponsored by Democratic Sens. Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, Carl Levin of Michigan and Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, along with Republican Sens. John E. Sununu of New Hampshire, Larry E. Craig of Idaho and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. The senators told Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Republican and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, that the House waited six months to appoint members to the conference committee that made the Patriot Act recommendations and that "rushed negotiations won't be able to achieve a satisfactory resolution in the few days remaining in the session."....

New law will create domestic intelligence chief

The law renewing the USA PATRIOT Act will create a new official in the Justice Department responsible for domestic intelligence-gathering. Section 506 of the law, which is currently before Congress, establishes a National Security Division within the Department of Justice, to be headed by an Assistant Attorney General for National Security. The section implements a recommendation by the president's commission on intelligence that the Justice Department's "primary national security elements -- the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review, and the Counterterrorism and Counterespionage sections" be rolled into a single office, under the command of a new assistant attorney general. The new assistant attorney general will be nominated by the president after consultation with the director of national intelligence. The post-holder will be subject to confirmation by the judiciary committee and will report to the attorney general....