Posted on 10/22/2004 7:19:58 PM PDT by Dubya
WASHINGTON - The federal government has begun conducting background checks on all foreigners seeking to attend U.S. flight schools, the Transportation Security Administration said Friday.
The expanded security measures, aimed in part at preventing potential terrorists from taking pilot lessons here as some of the Sept. 11 hijackers did, now apply to any foreigner seeking flight training in the United States, not just those learning to fly larger aircraft.
Those who want to attend flight school for a second time - for certification to fly a different classification of aircraft, for example - will need to have their backgrounds checked again.
Previously, only those training on aircraft weighing 12,500 pounds or more had their backgrounds checked.
"Fortifying security by knowing who trains at these schools is an integral part of our mission to secure the homeland," said TSA chief David Stone, whose agency expanded the pool to include smaller aircraft on Wednesday.
The new rules follow the TSA's takeover of the program from the Justice Department on Oct. 5. All foreign applicants, including certified pilots, will have to undergo TSA checks starting Dec. 19.
The Justice Department has said 30,000 foreigners applied to U.S. flight schools last year.
Under the Justice Department program, they were required to provide fingerprints, passport and visa information and the type of training sought. Since the TSA took over, applicants have had to submit another set of fingerprints.
Terrorism suspect Zacarias Moussaoui, the only U.S. defendant accused of participating in the al-Qaida Sept. 11 plot, was arrested a month prior to the attacks when he aroused suspicions at a flight school. One of the Sept. 11 hijackers rented small aircraft several times in the summer before the attacks for practice flights.
TSA's security checks do not apply to foreign students already in training or enrolled in flight schools, though they are required for pilots training for another level or type of aircraft.
That has raised financial concerns among U.S. schools training pilots for foreign airlines, said Steven Daun, director of career training at Aeroservice Aviation Center in Virginia Gardens, Fla.
"We understand the need for national security, but you can't penalize the people who have already been cleared as not being a threat," he said.
This month, Daun noticed that foreign airlines have begun moving their flight training offshore to avoid a costly wait in the United States for another background check.
Though he agreed with additional scrutiny of individuals seeking pilot lessons, Daun argued that more security checks for many foreign airline pilots are needless since they have often already been fingerprinted and checked by their airline, for U.S. visas and by the Justice Department when it ran the program.
At a national pilots convention in Long Beach, Calif., flight instructors said the federal rule was unfairly asking them to do the government's job.
"TSA is turning flight instructors into unpaid border guards," said Phil Boyer, head of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.
Instructors said they weren't trained to recognize possible forged documents and argued that the TSA's bureaucracy will needlessly bog down their schools, forcing some to stop taking students.
"It's going to put us out of business," said Michael Vivion, an instructor from Fairbanks, Alaska. "My little Cessna 170 is not a huge threat to national security."
Stone, who addressed a sometimes hostile crowd of pilots at the convention Friday, said the rule was needed "in order to prevent individuals from exploiting the state-of-the-art training that we have and using that against us."
However, he promised to meet with pilots groups in coming weeks to address their concerns, and TSA spokesman Nico Melendez later said portions of the rule could be changed.
"If we need to make modifications, certainly we are open to that, so long as we are able to keep a level of security," Melendez said.
Other components of the new security assessments include a $130 application fee, and requirements for flight schools to give TSA photographs of students and provide their own staff with annual security awareness training.
__
Associated Press writer Ryan Pearson in Long Beach, Calif., contributed to this report.
__
On the Net:
Transportation Security Administration: http://www.tsa.gov
Hoo, boy. Let the whining begin.
What's the hurry? It's only been three years since airliners were hijacked by student pilots from overseas.
I've WORKED on that program at TSA. And no, I'm not telling. . .
This program was expedited so that the hijackers’ grandchildren couldn’t follow their example.
The federal government has begun conducting background checks on all foreigners seeking to attend U.S. flight schools, the Transportation Security Administration said Friday.
So soon?
Gee
Probably not a bad idea. Too bad the feds didn't knock off a few Krispy Kreme donut runs to check these people out BEFORE 9/11. Doing so now is like locking the barn door after the horse has died of old age.
Personally, I'd much prefer they beef up our borders and here's why.
The largely Democrat dominated "watchdog" group Public Citizen recently issued a report ripping Bush on homeland security. What it DID NOT contain should concern and alarm every citizen.
There was NO mention of the grave danger posed by our seriously open borders – especially our southern border.
Allow me to explain:
9/11 was a crime. Every crime has key elements: Motive, means and opportunity.
The MOTIVE of the 9/11 criminals (nearly ALL of whom were here ILLEGALLY!) was a burning hatred of America. Once here, they implemented their plan to seize the MEANS (commercial aircraft) and used our then pathetic airport security as their OPPORTUNITY to do so.
The TSA – when it’s not strip-searching wheelchair bound octogenarian women or blowing half a million dollars on "Lifetime Achievement Award" dinners for 3 year employees -- has now (allegedly) strengthened airport security (to the point where airlines are going broke) so the terrorists’ OPPORTUNITY to do us harm is much less viable.
Any future MEANS is probably gone as well. Terrorists attempting to hijack a flight today would be beaten to death by the passengers before they could reach the cockpit door as the passengers KNOW they’re dead anyway, either at the hands of the hijacker or the hapless USAF pilot ordered to shoot them down.
MOTIVE is the element over which we have absolutely no control. Unless we get control over WHO gets in here, highly MOTIVATED would-be terrorists can simply wade the Rio Grande among the more than 3 MILLION illegals who pour over the "border" each year. And with between15 to 20 MILLION illegal aliens here now, they would be nearly impossible to find.
And, once here, they wouldn’t have to be rocket scientists to find and seize OTHER MEANS to kill thousands – or millions – more of us.
And that’s not the BAD news. The bad news is that many knowledgeable security experts believe that thousands of them are ALREADY HERE. And since these are very cunning and patient people, all they must do is simply not blow their cover and wait for the appropriate OPPORTUNITY to strike.
WHY didn’t the report on homeland security mention our busted borders? Despite the deepening concern among the general citizenry that this flood of illegals is costing us our national treasure, identity and any semblance of an "institutional memory" of our hard-won heritage, BOTH political parties are pandering to this growing illegal population, many of whom -- thanks to mainly Democrat gaming of the system -- slip onto the voter rolls.
But it is the the LEGAL immigrants from these foreign nations -- who CAN and DO vote -- that they especially covet!
Why limit it to just foreigners though...
They are JUST STARTING? Boy I feel safer.
Five years after the L.A. nuclear bomb, the feds will start checking graduate physics students from other countries.
When you absolutely, positively, have to ***k something up, the USGOV is always there.
This action took over 3 years to commence? WHY??????
The closest we came to catching any of the 9/11 attackers was when a civilian flight instructor in Arizona alerted the FBI about Hani Hanjour and another flight student. The FBI screwed it up from there. And yet people think that "the feds taking charge" will make them safe. LOL.
There was no federal program back then. There was no previous 9/11 style attack to be lery about. Yet still civilians came the closest of actually busting the perps.
Only a few months ago, NBC producers attempting to stage a simulated hijacking of a helicopter were busted. Not by the feds, but by the flight office they attempted to rent the helicopter from. There was no federal requirement to check out people who rent helicopters. These American civilians just knew what to do.
Like the cops will never be in your house when the crooks break down the door, this federal program is a joke. I'm sure at least some of the posters here now deriding that "it took so long" wouldn't like it much if the feds started a program to closely monitor where they drove, and who they talked with. In other words, Big Brother personified.
The fact is that it isn't likley there will ever be another hijacking in this country again because the pilots will not allow it to occur. The aircraft will be destroyed by the pilots or the USAF before another hijacker takes an airplane anywhere again. This intrusive government program is closing the gate after the horses escaped.
It's worthless, except to make people who don't know any better feel safe, while another liberty is chiped away by an ever growing government.
This may not be a big liberty, and doesn't effect many people. But it establishes the precident for ever more burdensome control.
Hey guys, don't feel too bad about how long this took.
Just last week the State Dept. decided to add Al Zarqawi to the terrorist list and freeze any assets associated with him....
What or who is obstructing the obvious in Washington?
(I smell a fat Teddy)
Too little. too late. The bureaucracy overload in DC is killing this country and there's no one on the horizon with the guts to fix it.
This is one of the reasons I get so angry when I hear folks saying they've done everything they could do to make this nation safer from terrorist attack. This flight school problem was integral to the carrying out of a multi-pronged attack on 09/11, but is just now deemed worthy of corrective measures.
This and a number of issues related to the borders, has led to my very luke warm support for our president. Like his own father, he is his own worst enemy when it comes to re-election.
I'll be voting for him on 11/02, but the bruses on my nose will be there long afterward, from holding it so tight.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.