Randi Rhodes: "Air Marshals" are ex-prison guards?

Listening to Randi tonight, she's saying that these so-called "air marshals" are nothing more than people whose "qualifications" consists of their once being prison guards. Further, she says that some of these goons decided to become (or were recruited as) air marshals because they were fired from their previous prison-guard jobs.

I know this has been discussed on here, but she also says that all of the eyewitnesses on the plane said that they never heard the word "bomb" during this apparent execution.

She makes a good point, that the US has become a "prison nation." Here we have an example of this. We apparently have become a country where re-branded prison guards watch over us.

i've never known randi to be one to make shit up, wtf are you talking about? she always lists her sources and quotes them (often at length) as integral parts of her arguments.

??? i'm confused

:shrug:

that Wackenhut Security is a bush family friend. Any chance some of these FAMs are from that security firm?

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#24 How you handle your firearm

Least that's what Randi said tonight. Not surprised.

Everybody's got a gun these days and the State is favoring a very liberal interpretation of when it's okay to use them. Especially Jeb's Kingdom of Florida

Does she have this resume in front of her?

To me, as some of you may have already figured out, Randi is just another hysterical lunatic who talks over her guests and callers but she just happens to err on our side.

... from MSNBC last year:

From: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5870501/

Specifically, 104 former prison guards turned air marshals were found to be involved in 155 separate cases of misconduct while on their prison jobs. All those air marshals currently hold top secret clearances and are on active duty.

Those 155 incidents include “offenses such as falling asleep on duty, verbally abusing a female prison official, breach of security, physical abuse of an inmate, inappropriate relationship with an inmate’s wife, and misuse of government property and credit cards,” the report says, citing records from the Internal Affairs division of the Bureau of Prisons.

Background investigations during the air marshal hiring process caught only 32 percent of the above noted violations, the report says; the report notes the Bureau of Prisons said it was contacted only once for further information regarding the incidents of misconduct.

From MSNBC. She quoted her source as she always does. So you owe Rhandi an apology.

Just happened in on the show tonight while driving. Why is it believable and likely? Read on:

Report: Air Marshals Shelved Cross-Training of Other Agents Because Congress Objected to Cost
By LESLIE MILLER Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON Nov 29, 2005 — Efforts to train thousands of federal agents to protect commercial flights during heightened terror alerts were quietly abandoned more than a year ago because Congress objected to the cost, government investigators said Tuesday.

The Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress, reported that the federal air marshal service suspended its efforts to develop such a "surge capacity" by training customs and immigration agents to protect passenger airliners.

The Homeland Security Department "indicated that it would continue to support the surge effort but had not determined whether and when it would resume cross-training to resume this initiative," the report said

<snip>

Ridge announced that the air marshals would be combined with immigration and customs agents in the same agency so agents in both could be cross-trained and used for aviation security. The move would allow more than 5,000 armed federal law enforcement agents to be deployed on commercial aircraft, he said.

<snip>

The air marshals moved back to the Transportation Security Administration in October.

The air marshal program was nearly nonexistent at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks. Only 32 agents were employed then, but the number increased into the thousands after the hijackings. The exact number is classified.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1357502

I think rush is on in the same time slot. In my area, you can listen to bill o'reilly at the same time too.

I heard this too and it shocked me. I knew the Bush administration were all moronic bastards but this is on a whole new level personally. I couldn't believe it!

The last thing you could describe him as is a burned out, out of control prison guard. Very well spoken, smart, hard working. He was an AM for approximately three years (transferred from the Mint right after 9/11 until quitting about a year ago). He isn't anything like Randi is describing and his brief mentioning of his co-workers while an AM sound nothing like what was is being reported. I don't know if there are a lot of prison guards but I understand that quite a few Secret Service personnel transferred to the AMs when the Homeland Security Dept. hired a flood of new AMs after 9/11. All of them went through vigorous training.

If anyone caught the former Air Marshall giving an interview on the Today show or later on MSNBC around 11 am yesterday, that is my son-in-law. My SIL and I disagree on many things (he is a dyed-in-the-wool, gungho, neocon - which is hard for me to take but my daughter and grandkids are just crazy about him, he treats them well, so that gives him a lot of wiggle room in my book) but I have never known him to be a thrill seeking, trigger happy guy just looking for action. He is thoughtful, calm and dedicated to his job - no matter where he works. If I was on a flight where a terrorist was making a move he is the one I would want with the gun. He quit the AM because of the horrible hours away from home, boredom with the job and the insane policies that aren't making our airplanes any safer. I can't speak for any other Air Marshals but don't lump all of them into any one category.

*edit to add the word former to his title as AM

I'll take the word of eyewitnesses over BushCo any day.

Here's some from Time Magazine at http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1138965,00.html

"I don't think they needed to use deadly force with the guy," says John McAlhany, a 44-year-old construction worker from Sebastian, Fla. "He was getting off the plane." McAlhany also maintains that Alpizar never mentioned having a bomb.

"I never heard the word 'bomb' on the plane," McAlhany told TIME in a telephone interview. "I never heard the word bomb until the FBI asked me did you hear the word bomb. That is ridiculous." Even the authorities didn't come out and say bomb, McAlhany says. "They asked, 'Did you hear anything about the b-word?'" he says. "That's what they called it."

-snip-

Alpizar took off running down the aisle, with his wife close behind him. "She was running behind him saying, 'He's sick. He's sick. He's ill. He's got a disorder," McAlhany recalls. "I don't know if she said bipolar disorder . She was trying to explain to the marshals that he was ill. He just wanted to get off the plane."

McAlhany says he tried to see what was happening just in case he needed to take evasive action. "I wanted to make sure if anything was coming toward me and they were killing passengers I would have a chance to break somebody's neck," he says. "I was looking through the seats because I wanted to see what was coming.

-snip-

"I was on the phone with my brother. Somebody came down the aisle and put a shotgun to the back of my head and said put your hands on the seat in front of you. I got my cell phone karate chopped out of my hand. Then I realized it was an official."

In the ensuing events, many of the passengers began crying in fear, he recalls. "They were pointing the guns directly at us instead of pointing them to the ground," he says "One little girl was crying. There was a lady crying all the way to the hotel."

McAlhany said he saw Alpizar before the flight and is absolutely stunned by what unfolded on the airplane. He says he saw Alpizar eating a sandwich in the boarding area before getting on the plane. He looked normal at that time, McAlhany says. He thinks the whole thing was a mistake: "I don't believe he should be dead right now."


This is what our life has become in Bushworld.