Investigation Into Abuse of The USA Patriot Act
Immediately after FAM MacLean made this disclosure, TSA managers began an unauthorized investigation to ferret-out him and anyone else involved. TSA managers were informing Federal Air Marshal employees that the USA Patriot Act was being enacted to find who made the disclosure. Senator Barbara Boxer praised the air marshals who disclosed the plan to remove Federal Air Marshals from nonstop, long distance flights:
| “ |
I want to thank the air marshals who came forward and told the truth about what was going on within their agency and bringing this issue into the spotlight... because I believe that cutting air marshals was clearly in the mix of budgetary cuts being considered. |
” |
U.S. Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney of New York also expressed her support for the air marshals who came forward, and called for an investigation into the retaliatory witch-hunt:
| “ |
We saw reports that the Transportation Security Administration planned to remove air marshals from a number of high-threat flights to save on hotel costs. I immediately criticized the move and the decision was reversed in the midst of a firestorm of criticism. |
” |
More than a year after the disclosure, the Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General, Clark Kent Ervin confirmed that TSA and FAMS managers did in fact threaten air marshals:
| “ |
Five air marshals, from two field offices, said they were threatened with prosecution for disclosing information to the press or public. They said their supervisors’ threats included being led away in handcuffs, being fired and prosecuted, or being subjected to polygraph exams if the leaks continued. |
” |
Right after Mr. Ervin issued his report on Robert MacLean's disclosure, he was forced out of his position by the White House.
Weeks after MacLean made the disclosure, he stopped being anonymous and exposed himself to retaliation from TSA and FAMS management by founding the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association's Federal Air Marshal Service agency chapter and then accepting the position of Executive Vice President.
Read more about this topic: Robert Mac Lean
Famous quotes containing the words abuse, usa, patriot and/or act:
“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.”
—Aldo Leopold (1886–1948)
“It is hereby earnestly proposed that the USA would be much better off if that big, sprawling, incoherent, shapeless, slobbering civic idiot in the family of American communities, the City of Los Angeles, could be declared incompetent and placed in charge of a guardian like any individual mental defective.”
—Westbrook Pegler (1894–1969)
“Populism is folkish, patriotism is not. One can be a patriot and a cosmopolitan. But a populist is inevitably a nationalist of sorts. Patriotism, too, is less racist than is populism. A patriot will not exclude a person of another nationality from the community where they have lived side by side and whom he has known for many years, but a populist will always remain suspicious of someone who does not seem to belong to his tribe.”
—John Lukacs (b. 1924)
“The last act is bloody, however pleasant all the rest of the play is: a little earth is thrown at last upon our head, and that is the end forever.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)