Air Marshals and The Secret Service Factor

By An Anonymous Federal Air Marshal

(Anonymous for fear of retaliation) January 26, 2006
The time has come to shine a little more light into some of the other dark corners of the Federal Air Marshal Service's senior management. John Magaw is the first person that should be looked at if one wants to understand how things got so bad at the Federal Air Marshal Service. John Magaw was the man appointed to lead and build up the newly established Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and its enforcement arm: The Federal Air Marshal Service. Few people understand that the Federal Air Marshal Service started out as a division of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Office of Civil Aviation Security. When the TSA was created, the Air Marshals were removed from the FAA and placed under Magaw. This is where the problems started. In June of 2002 there were several short articles in USA Today about how the TSA and Magaw had watered down the stringent FAA hiring and training standards that had made the US Federal Air Marshals one of the most proficient and effective anti-terrorist organizations in the world. Later, there were more articles about how the firearms standards for the Air Marshals had been lowered in order to meet a requirement for X number of Air Marshals by X date. Why all the problems all of a sudden? The answer is so ironic and simple, its almost hard to believe: The Air Marshal Service had been hijacked by a good old boy network composed of former and retired US Secret Service agents. Before we continue, lets clarify a few things. In 2004, the House Judiciary Committee created the first real legislative definition of Federal Air Marshal when they began their investigation into the troubled service. They defined a Federal Air Marshal as a Federal law enforcement officer who is 1) Specially and specifically trained for the mission of preventing and stopping aircraft piracy; and 2) Performs those duties, and only those duties, on board an aircraft full time. This means that other cross-trained Federal law enforcement officers in travel status, including regular Secret Service Agents flying in travel status, cannot and will not be considered to be Federal Air Marshals while they are flying on an aircraft. This is important because Quinn, Byers & Company have been padding and hiding the actual numbers of Federal Air Marshals from US Congressional lawmakers by including some or all of the other categories of flying federal law enforcement officers, into the total number of actual Federal Air Marshals, including the actual numbers of daily flights that they protect. Another important fact is that the members of the executive management of the Federal Air Marshal Service belong to a Federal employment category known as the Senior Executive Service (SES). They are Federal appointee managers. These managers have never attended the specific and special air marshal training academies, nor do their duties involve flying on board aircraft full time. They consider themselves to be better than the rank and file air marshals, and they have referred to the rank and file air marshals as bottom feeders and amateurs . They have also removed themselves from any entitlement to the anonymity and protections provided to Federal Air Marshals by the 2004 Intelligence Reform Bill, because Director Quinn issued internal memorandums stating that the 2004 Intelligence Reform Bill did not apply to Federal Air Marshals (even though the parts of the legislation were specifically created for the Federal Air Marshal Service). 1

Now where were we? John Magaw was a former US Secret Service (USSS) agent. Magaw hired another former Secret Service agent by the name of Kevin Hoolihan to be TSA Undersecretary. Magaw then replaced the FAA's senior Federal Air Marshal with another former Secret Service agent by the name of Thomas Dewey Quinn, thereby making Quinn the Director of the Federal Air Marshal Service. Quinn in turn hired Robert Byers (a former Secret Service agent) and made him the Deputy Director of the Federal Air Marshal Service, and together Quinn, Byers & Company began to rebuild the executive management of the newly established Federal Air Marshal Service by placing all of his cronies from the Secret Service into six-figured senior executive positions within the Federal Air Marshal Service ranks. Over the course of a few months, Quinn, Byers & Company demoted or passed over every single one of the original 33 pre-911 Federal Air Marshals, and appointed former Secret Service agents to fill in almost every executive position in the Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS). Just who from the US Secret Service actually hijacked the Federal Air Marshal Service after 9/11? Well see for yourself the Cronies of the Quinn, Byers & Company read like a whos who of the retired ranks of the US Secret Service: *** Following is only a partial list (public information) of the more than 80 former Secret Service cronies (non-flying "FAMs") that were surreptitiously appointed by Director Quinn, into high-level supervisory positions. But even more egregious, Quinn refused to appoint any of the original 33 Air Marshals into a headquarters high-level management position.

HEADQUARTERS FAMS Director Thomas Dewey Quinn - (Former US Secret Service Agent) FAMS Deputy Director Robert F. Byers - (Former US Secret Service Agent) FAMS Agency Spokesperson David M. Adams - (Former US Secret Service Spokesperson) FAMS Director's Chief of Staff Dana A. Brown - (Former US Secret Service Agent) FAMS Assistant Director John A. Novak - (Former US Secret Service Agent) FAMS Assistant Director Timothy J. Cahill - (Former US Secret Service Agent) FAMS Assistant Director Michael H. Weikert - (Former US Secret Service Agent) FAMS Assistant Director Raymond M. Dineen - (Former US Secret Service Agent) FAMS Assistant Director Colleen B. Callahan - (Former US Secret Service Agent) FAMS Deputy Assistant Director George Papantoniou - (Former US Secret Service Agent) FAMS Deputy Assistant Director Patrick F. Sullivan - (Former US Secret Service Agent) FAMS Deputy Assistant Director Arnold A. Cole - (Former US Secret Service Agent) FAMS "Consultant Contractor" Kevin R. Houlihan - (Former US Secret Service Agent) 2

FIELD OFFICES FAMS Special Agent-in-Charge Anthony Hedges - (Former US Secret Service Agent) FAMS Special Agent-in-Charge Ted S. Hresko - (Former US Secret Service Agent) FAMS Special Agent-in-Charge James A. Fitton - (Former US Secret Service Agent) FAMS Special Agent-in-Charge James E. Bauer - (Former US Secret Service Agent) FAMS Special Agent-in-Charge Kevin Greba - (Former US Secret Service Agent) FAMS Special Agent-in-Charge Frank Donzanti - (Former US Secret Service Agent) FAMS Deputy Special Agent-in-Charge Joseph D'Angelillio - (Former US Secret Service Agent) FAMS Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge Charles E. Ortman - (Former US Secret Service Agent) FAMS Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge Einar O. Knutsen - (Former US Secret Service Agent) FAMS Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge Carl G. Wahl - (Former US Secret Service Agent) FAMS Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge Larry Saez - (Former US Secret Service Agent) These appointments were the first steps in creating an institution of loyal yes men who would support and implement all of Director Quinns policies without question. Anyone who had any kind of real world experience with counter terrorism or civil aviation security immediately opposed the changes that Quinn, Byers & Company were making to simply put bodies on aircraft, and Quinn and Byers systematically drove these people out of the executive ranks of the service. The proof? The problems that began leaking in USA Today in 2002 started almost to the day that Quinn, Byers & Company began their hostile takeover of the Federal Air Marshal Service. The next step that Quinn and Byers took was filling in the middle management positions with still more loyal supporters to enforce Director Quinns policies. Quinn, Byers & Company hired hundreds of US Government retirees whose contracts start at $100,000 a year and go up from there and most of these retirees just happen to be former Secret Service Agents . Quinn claims that the middle management is a fair mix of experience from many agencies. This is partly true. On the one hand many of the middle managers are retired from other agencies like the FBI, the Office of the Inspector General, the Veterans Administration, and the Social Security Administration. But what Quinn isn't confessing is that these retirees had at one time or another been Secret Service Agents and had simply transferred to the other agencies when the Secret Service became too strenuous for them (an internet search of the terms government watchdog organizations will reveal that former USSS agents are taking over nearly every Federal agency, and that most of them are having the same types of problems as the Federal Air Marshal Service). Quinn, Byers & Company had found a way to take advantage of a loophole in the Secret Service pension plan and a Federal employment category known as Excepted Service, and had hired an entire corps of mercenaries who would have absolutely no problem enforcing his insane and incompetent policies in the field. 3

The official explanation provided by Quinn and Byers was that the contract supervisors were hired as a temporary measure until replacements could be trained from the new Air Marshal ranks. So why are they still being paid in excess of $100,000 a year nearly four years later, and why have none of them trained their replacements yet? In late 2002 John Magaw ran afoul of DOT Secretary Norman Mineta (DHS had not been created yet and the TSA was then still part of the DOT). Mineta did not approve of Magaws management practices and Magaw was fired / forced to resign. The allegations were widespread, but it is believed that Magaw was mismanaging and misappropriating government funds. Magaw immediately disappeared from government. Kevin Hoolihan (Magaws second in command) quietly resigned from the TSA shortly after Magaw for reasons that remain unknown. What is known is that Hoolihan (a former Secret Service Agent and personal friend of Thomas Quinn and Robert Byers) was then hired by Quinn as a "private consultant to the Director of the Federal Air Marshal Service". In the time that Hoolihan has spent as a "consultant" he has billed the Air Marshal Service for an amount that is estimated to be close to 1 million dollars, for "consultation" on aviation safety matters that he has no prior experience in, and which any one of the original 33 Federal Air Marshals is easily more knowledgeable about (not one of these original 33 Federal Air Marshals was placed in a position to make or dictate operational or administrative policies). When Admiral James Loy (Magaws replacement) began questioning Quinns practices, Quinn, Byers & Company circumvented Loy and lobbied for the Federal Air Marshal Service to be moved out of Loys purview and into the troubled Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). When Loy left the TSA to become DHS Undersecretary, Quinn, Byers & Company did another evasive zig-zag and moved the Administrative and Personnel portion of the Federal Air Marshal Service back to the TSA, which had now been taken over by other former Secret Service Agents . In fact, the Federal Air Marshal Service (prior to going back to TSA entirely) was the only Federal agency that had its internal operations and functions voluntarily divided between two completely different parts of the Federal Government. Why? It is believed that having things spread out in different parts of DHS meant that Quinn, Byers, & Company were the only persons that had all the details about (and control over) what was really going on in the Federal Air Marshal Service. Many people simply cannot understand or believe how anyone could get away with the things that we have been hearing about at the Federal Air Marshal Service. Its not so hard to understand once you realize that Quinn, Byers & Company have corrupted the entire institution. Anyone who would be in a position to question policies, procedures, budgets, and ethical issues, is actually part of a stacked deck consisting of loyal friends and past coworkers. Everyone (the public, the media, and the rest of the government) knows that what Quinn, Byers & Company are doing is wrong. Some of senior managers will say, Well, I didnt know if that's accurate. Others will say, I was just following orders . Still others (like Byers) will try to save their own hides one day after Quinn "retires" by saying Yep. Things are not right. We see that now, and Im ready to fix them. Too late Bob, youre already tainted. The other members of the executive management have had four years to put a stop to Quinn, Byers & Company, yet they too have done nothing, and that makes them just as guilty. There is a word for someone (like a law enforcement officer) who has an official duty to take action (as in report, or blow the whistle) when confronted with wrongdoing, and through inaction fails to carry out that duty and allows wrongdoing to continue: - Malfeasance - 4