Risking Anonymity Of Federal Air Marshals

How do you keep an armed person's identity a secret when boarding an airplane? That's one of the problems that needs answers.

A report to be taken up by Congress next week is harshly critical of the Federal Air Marshal Service, concluding that more steps need to be taken to preserve the anonymity of the marshals.

The draft report by the House Judiciary Committee, a copy of which was provided to The Associated Press on Friday night, identified several policies by the service that the report concluded undercut the goal of preserving the marshals' anonymity.

The report, entitled "Plane Clothes: Lack of Anonymity at the Federal Air Marshal Service Compromises Aviation and National Security," cites the service's dress code, which is supposed to prevent marshals from drawing attention to themselvec [sic].

"In practice, however, many federal air marshals indicate that the dress code actually draws more attention to the identity of the federal air marshals because of its rigid requirements that prevent federal air marshals from actually blending in with their surroundings," the report says.

But this is probably the best (read worst) example in the report. You won't believe it. Remember, the whole idea is too prevent terrorists from recognising marshals or preventing them from doing their jobs.

The report also faults the service for requiring marshals to stay at designated hotels and show their credentials upon checking in. It said that in one instance, the Sheraton Fort Lauderdale Airport Hodel [sic] in Florida [shown above] designated the service "company of the month" because of the number of rooms it had reserved at the hotel.

"This public designation essentially advertises for any terrorist wishing to attack a location populated by a concentration of federal air marshals that such a target is the Sheraton Fort Lauderdale Airport," the report says, referring to the hotel. [emphasis mine]

That hotel manager, if she/he doesn't get demoted, just threw away a lot of business. And there's a good chance no other Sheraton will be used in Fort Lauderdale either.

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