Marshals To Patrol Land, Sea Transport

washington post ^ | December 14, 2005 | Sara Kehaulani Goo

[Flavius]

Teams of undercover air marshals and uniformed law enforcement officers will fan out to bus and train stations, ferries, and mass transit facilities across the country this week in a new test program to conduct surveillance and "counter potential criminal terrorist activity in all modes of transportation," according to internal federal documents.

[El Gato]

In one word, this is absurd," to put air marshals in bus and train stations, said Doug Laird, a security consultant and former head of security for Northwest Airlines. "This is clearly a responsibility of the local jurisdictions. They don't have enough air marshals to carry out the mission they are supposed to do. To spread them even thinner dilutes the reason they are there in the first place."

It might also be illegal. If Congress authorized *Air* Marshals, and appropriated money to be spent on making airline travel safer, then this might be an illegal diversion of funds.

It's also a clear attempt to expand their jurisdiction, and to justify next year's larger budget request.

I knew they moved too many folks over from the Treasury and BATF. (One would have been too many IMHO)