Are U.S. Air Marshals Needed?

GOP Congressman Wants To Disband Air Marshals — Program Costs Taxpayers $200 Million Per Arrest -- Mark Hemingway, Washington Examiner

Via Boing Boing, after last night’s misunderstanding here’s some food for thought from about the Air Marshal program. It’s from a floor speech Rep. John J. Duncan Jr., (R-Tenn.) gave last year. Duncan has a point about more Air Marshals being arrested for crimes they themselves have committed than arrests they have made in the line of duty:

And listen to this paragraph from a front-page story in the USA Today last November: “Since 9/11, more than three dozen Federal air marshals have been charged with crimes, and hundreds more have been accused of misconduct. Cases range from drunken driving and domestic violence to aiding a human-trafficking ring and trying to smuggle explosives from Afghanistan.”

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More News On Yesterday's Midair Scare

Qatari diplomat sparks US jet bomb scare -- BBC
Qatari Diplomat's Midair Scare Cost Taxpayers Thousands -- FOX News
Qatari Diplomat Was Going to See Qaeda Inmate -- ABC News
No Laughing Matter: Poor Sense of Humor Costs More Than Time -- ABC News
Qatari diplomat to leave after US flight scare -- Reuters
Qatar Diplomat Leaving U.S. After Terrorism Scare -- Business Week/Bloomberg
Diplomatic Impunity? Qatari Official Not the First to Stir Trouble on Assignment -- FOX News

Crimes By Air Marshals Raise Questions About Hiring

From USA Today:

Shawn Nguyen bragged that he could sneak anything past airport security using his top-secret clearance as a federal air marshal. And for months, he smuggled cocaine and drug money onto flights across the country, boasting to an FBI informant that he was "the man with the golden badge."

Michael McGowan used his position as an air marshal to lure a young boy to his hotel room, where he showed him child porn, took pictures of him naked and sexually abused him.

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My Comment: I do not feel safe at all.