FAA to Make Air Marshals Dress up in Clown Costumes
This is how Michelle Malkin began her December 15th syndicated column:
"Can you imagine if an al Qaeda bureaucrat had ordered the nineteen September 11th terrorists to wear 'I heart Osama' T-shirts when they embarked on their murderous flights?
"No idiot would send his men on a covert mission wearing clothes that would so blatantly give them away, right?
"Wrong. Meet Federal Air Marshal Service Director Thomas Quinn. The man in charge of our in-flight cops, who are supposed to be spying secretly on would-be terrorist hijackers, refuses to allow his employees to dress undercover. Quinn insists that air marshals abide by military-style grooming standards and a rigid business dress policy regardless of weather, time of year or seating arrangement. He wants them to look PROFESSIONAL. That means collared shirts and sports coats - even if a pair of marshals is traveling in coach from Los Angeles to Orlando."
Ponder this for a few moments. Take an additional few minutes if you need to. Does this make any sense with additional rumination? Sure doesn't to me, unless Mr. Quinn wants his air marshals to be taken out by terrorist hijackers carrying out the next round of 9/11-style attacks.
Passengers certainly aren't missing this exercise in conspicuity. "The Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, which represents over 22,000 federal agents including air marshals, notes that civilian passengers have publicly outed marshals on countless flights since the Sept. 11 attacks. Air marshals have recounted receiving thumbs-ups and thanks from travelers nationwide....Indeed, on an infamous American Airlines Flight 1438 from Chicago to Miami, two air marshals, dressed conspicuously in their professionally mandated suits, received the following greeting from a passenger walking down the aisle: 'Oh, I see we have air marshals on board!'"
One air marshal, who spoke only on condition of anonymity out of fear for his job (give that one some skullsweat when you get the chance), said, "Under the current policies of Director Quinn, airline passengers are actually safer flying on aircraft that do not have air marshals on them." [my emphasis] Another sarcastically referred to Quinn's dress requirements as the "kill-me-first dress-code policy."
What can possibly explain this idiocy? Mr. Quinn spent over two decades in the Secret Service, to which Ms. Malkin speculatively attributes his "fashion taste." Doesn't satisfy me, however. The hallmark of the Secret Service is supposed to be professionalism and competence, not "dressing for success," and certainly not bureaucratic numbnuttery. Besides, does it really take a security background to grasp that both air marshals and the passengers they're charged with protecting will be far safer and better off if the former are maximally indistinguishable from the latter? Or does Mr. Quinn really believe that jihadists will be intimidated by spit & polish?
On her blog, Ms. Malkin posted a series of grateful emails from air marshals endorsing her column and the stand it takes on their behalf, as well as a copy of the Quinn memo mandating the dress code he and his surrogates insist doesn't exist.
It sure is a buzzkiller that such a moron is in charge of airline safety in the ostensibly anti-terror warrior-controlled Bush Administration. One could have pictured somebody like Mr. Quinn having no difficulty at all staying on in his current post had John Kerry been victorious last month. Given that, what then is GDub's excuse for keeping him on the job? And what will his White House say if al Qaeda effortlessly box-cuts the sticking-out-like-nudists-in-Amish-country FAMs out of the way and plunges one or more airliners into the Sears Tower, a nuclear power plant, and, well, the White House?
One thing's for certain: Tom Quinn is extending them an engraved invitation.
[Hat tip: Captain's Quarters]
"Can you imagine if an al Qaeda bureaucrat had ordered the nineteen September 11th terrorists to wear 'I heart Osama' T-shirts when they embarked on their murderous flights?
"No idiot would send his men on a covert mission wearing clothes that would so blatantly give them away, right?
"Wrong. Meet Federal Air Marshal Service Director Thomas Quinn. The man in charge of our in-flight cops, who are supposed to be spying secretly on would-be terrorist hijackers, refuses to allow his employees to dress undercover. Quinn insists that air marshals abide by military-style grooming standards and a rigid business dress policy regardless of weather, time of year or seating arrangement. He wants them to look PROFESSIONAL. That means collared shirts and sports coats - even if a pair of marshals is traveling in coach from Los Angeles to Orlando."
Ponder this for a few moments. Take an additional few minutes if you need to. Does this make any sense with additional rumination? Sure doesn't to me, unless Mr. Quinn wants his air marshals to be taken out by terrorist hijackers carrying out the next round of 9/11-style attacks.
Passengers certainly aren't missing this exercise in conspicuity. "The Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, which represents over 22,000 federal agents including air marshals, notes that civilian passengers have publicly outed marshals on countless flights since the Sept. 11 attacks. Air marshals have recounted receiving thumbs-ups and thanks from travelers nationwide....Indeed, on an infamous American Airlines Flight 1438 from Chicago to Miami, two air marshals, dressed conspicuously in their professionally mandated suits, received the following greeting from a passenger walking down the aisle: 'Oh, I see we have air marshals on board!'"
One air marshal, who spoke only on condition of anonymity out of fear for his job (give that one some skullsweat when you get the chance), said, "Under the current policies of Director Quinn, airline passengers are actually safer flying on aircraft that do not have air marshals on them." [my emphasis] Another sarcastically referred to Quinn's dress requirements as the "kill-me-first dress-code policy."
What can possibly explain this idiocy? Mr. Quinn spent over two decades in the Secret Service, to which Ms. Malkin speculatively attributes his "fashion taste." Doesn't satisfy me, however. The hallmark of the Secret Service is supposed to be professionalism and competence, not "dressing for success," and certainly not bureaucratic numbnuttery. Besides, does it really take a security background to grasp that both air marshals and the passengers they're charged with protecting will be far safer and better off if the former are maximally indistinguishable from the latter? Or does Mr. Quinn really believe that jihadists will be intimidated by spit & polish?
On her blog, Ms. Malkin posted a series of grateful emails from air marshals endorsing her column and the stand it takes on their behalf, as well as a copy of the Quinn memo mandating the dress code he and his surrogates insist doesn't exist.
It sure is a buzzkiller that such a moron is in charge of airline safety in the ostensibly anti-terror warrior-controlled Bush Administration. One could have pictured somebody like Mr. Quinn having no difficulty at all staying on in his current post had John Kerry been victorious last month. Given that, what then is GDub's excuse for keeping him on the job? And what will his White House say if al Qaeda effortlessly box-cuts the sticking-out-like-nudists-in-Amish-country FAMs out of the way and plunges one or more airliners into the Sears Tower, a nuclear power plant, and, well, the White House?
One thing's for certain: Tom Quinn is extending them an engraved invitation.
[Hat tip: Captain's Quarters]
posted by JASmius at 3:33 PM
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