Thread: 9/11 Redux: 'Thousands of Aliens' in U.S. Flight Schools Ill

9/11 Redux: 'Thousands of Aliens' in U.S. Flight Schools Illegally

Former FAA Inspector: TSA's Enforcement of Post-9/11 Laws 'Basically Nonexistent'

By BRIAN ROSS, VIC WALTER and ERIC LONGABARDI
Feb. 27, 2008
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Thousands of foreign student pilots have been able to enroll and obtain pilot licenses from U.S. flight schools, despite tough laws passed in the wake of the 9/ll attacks, according to internal government documents obtained by ABC News.

"Some of the very same conditions that allowed the 9-11 tragedy to happen in the first place are still very much in existence today," wrote one regional security official to his boss at the TSA, the Transportation Security Administration.

"Thousands of aliens, some of whom may very well pose a threat to this country, are taking flight lessons, being granted FAA certifications and are flying planes," wrote the TSA official, Richard A. Horn, in 2005, complaining that the students did not have the proper visas.

Under the new laws, American flight schools are only supposed to provide pilot training to foreign students who have been given a background check by the TSA and have a specific type of visa.

But in thousands of cases that has not happened, according to the documents and current and former government officials involved in the program.

"TSA's enforcement is basically nonexistent," said former FAA inspector Bill McNease, in an interview for ABC News' "World News With Charles Gibson."

Watch the full report tonight on "World News With Charles Gibson" at 6:30 p.m. ET.

McNease, who retired last year, says in one year alone, 2005, he found some 8,000 foreign students in the FAA database who got their pilot licenses without ever being approved by the TSA.

"And a flight school wants the money to teach 'em. And they are gonna teach 'em how to fly and get their ratings, and then they just slip through the cracks," McNease said.

In another internal e-mail obtained by ABC News, Monty Thompson, an official in the TSA Flight School Inspections section, complained in 2005 to his bosses in Washington, "I fear we are 'danger close' to losing sight of the mission and the intent of the 'Flight School Security' provisions."

The new laws were passed after it was learned that all of the 9/ll hijackers, including ringleader Mohammed Atta, who were involved in flight operations had trained at U.S. flight schools with improper visas.

The FAA and Homeland Security are now starting to crack down on a number of flight schools suspected of training students illegally.

Just last month, agents raided a flight school outside San Diego, Anglo-American Aviation International, as part of an investigation of alleged fraud and misuse of visas.


A lawyer for the school said the raid only involved a technical, paper-work issue and that the school was "cooperating" in the investigation.

But federal officials say the so-called paper-work is extremely important.

"What happened in 9/ll we don't want to happen again or anything like that so something has to be done," said McNease.

No one from the TSA or Homeland Security would agree to be interviewed for this story, but officials said they were preparing an official statement in response.

The Department of Homeland Security would not provide an official from the flight school program to be interviewed for this story.

In a statement, the DHS said, "We have a high degree of confidence that our layered security measures, both seen and unseen, have raised the level of security in our aviation sector."

The statement did not address the issue of the thousands of students who have received pilot training and licenses with improper visas, other than to say they "are only one of the multiple layers of security" that the government relies on to "ensure that foreign nationals approved for flight training do not pose a threat to U.S. aviation security." The DHS said it conducts security threat assessments "on all non-U.S. citizens seeking flight training."

Read a letter from Aviation Safety Inspector Edward H. Blount on foreign students in U.S. flight schools.

Eric Longabardi is a freelance journalist based in Los Angeles who is a frequent contributor to the Blotter on ABCNews.com.

Click Here for the Investigative Homepage.


http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4353991&page=1

We have to take our shoes off and old ladies in wheel chairs get frisked.

TSA is not doing the job.

I was listening about this on Michael Savage earlier.

This country is begging for a 9 - 11... actually, I think that is what Bush and the NEO-Cons want to keep the Globalist movement alive.

Nothing like promoting Democracy with Bullets and bombs right Mr. Bush

Fascism is alive in well when we can tell other countries after we bomb them to SH_T to be a Democracy

America isn't a Democracy ourselves ..... Hell, we are basically a Plutocracy, so stop using that term when it is used to confuse the poor and illiterate

The term "plutocracy" is formally defined as government by the wealthy, and is also sometimes used to refer to a wealthy class that controls a government, often from behind the scenes. More generally, a plutocracy is any form of government in which the wealthy exercise the preponderance of political power, whether directly or indirectly.

Plutocracy may also have social and cultural aspects.

Thus, in Democracy for the Few political scientist Michael Parenti is led to comment "American capitalism represents more than just an economic system; it is an entire cultural and social order, a plutocracy, a system of rule that is mostly by and for the rich.

http://www.progressiveliving.org/plutocracy_defined.htm

My GOD it never ends...this has been the worst 7 years in the history of this country, these are the most imcompetent people I have ever seen, mine as well turn our country over to a bunch of 5 year olds.

Thousands of foreign flight school students unscreened by TSA
From this:

Thousands of foreign student pilots have been able to enroll and obtain pilot licenses from U.S. flight schools, despite tough laws passed in the wake of the 9/ll attacks, according to internal government documents obtained by ABC News.

"Some of the very same conditions that allowed the 9-11 tragedy to happen in the first place are still very much in existence today," wrote one regional security official to his boss at the TSA, the Transportation Security Administration.

"Thousands of aliens, some of whom may very well pose a threat to this country, are taking flight lessons, being granted FAA certifications and are flying planes," wrote the TSA official, Richard A. Horn, in 2005, complaining that the students did not have the proper visas.

Under the new laws, American flight schools are only supposed to provide pilot training to foreign students who have been given a background check by the TSA and have a specific type of visa...
Presumably, almost all would appear to have at least arrived legally, although if they had then violated the terms of their visas they would have presumably become illegal aliens, the same situation as some of the 9/11 hijackers were involved in.

The DHS appears to be scrambling to get out some sort of official response. That should be interesting.
http://lonewacko.com/blog/archives/007509.html