25 Chicago Airport Workers Arrested

ABC News ^

[areafiftyone]

Twenty-five Chicago airport workers have been charged with criminal violations and the security clearances of 553 others have been canceled in a crackdown on employees using fake IDs, officials announced Tuesday.

Those arrested include ramp agents, truck drivers, members of cleaning crews, a baggage handler, an airline cabin service attendant and a number of food service workers at O'Hare International and Midway airports.

Six of those arrested were charged with making false statements about previous criminal records four for drug offenses, one for burglary and another for robbery, federal officials said. Sixteen were charged with using bogus Social Security numbers and three with re-entering the country after they had been deported.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said the 553 whose clearances were lifted had raised the suspicions of federal officials but were still under investigation.

Such employees need security badges to gain unescorted access to tarmacs, airplanes and other security-sensitive spots where their jobs would normally take them.

The arrests and canceling of security clearances were part of a nationwide sweep dubbed Operation Tarmac designed to shore up airport security in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

[martin_fierro]

Wonder how many illegals they'll find working at "Mineta International (SJC)"?

[Psycho_Bunny]

Holy crap! The number of bogus IDs involved is astonishing.

[YOMO]

Holy crap! The number of bogus IDs involved is astonishing.................................
Yeah, and that doesn't count those at City Hall in downtown Chgo. (Dem Pols.)

[princess leah]

one word: DEPORTATION!

[twigs]

an airline cabin service attendant

Now they need to do the same type of cleansing aboard cruise ships.

Yes, the fake IDs are troubling. They are important: that may be why the TN DMV worker who had connections to some of the 9/11 hijackers was murdered. Getting fake IDs is a very important piece of paperwork needed to get these terrorists in place to do their nefarious work

[traditional1]

Not to worry.............

These are probably Union members, and will all wind up being re-instated with back pay and seniority rights intact......

[honway]

that may be why the TN DMV worker who had connections to some of the 9/11 hijackers was murdered.

Just as an update, all five of Katherine Smith's co-conspirators in the TN driver's license fraud case are free to continue their activities. They plead guilty to the fraud and were released on time served.

However, since Katherine Smith was found in the ringleader Odtlah's car burned alive with gasoline, she did not fair as well as her five Middle Eastern co-conspirators. In case someone missed it, two of her co-conspirators were working on the sprinkler systems in the WTC Towers days before the 9-11 attack, even though neither are licensed plumbers.

It gets worse, 4 months after her death, the Shelby County Medical Examiner had not decided if Katherine's death was a homicide or suicide. In June, the medical examiner was found tied up with barbed wire outside his Memphis office with a real bomb strapped to his chest. He was rescued. I haven't heard if he decided afterwards that Katherine committed suicide by pouring gasoline over herself and setting herself on fire.The media has been quiet on the entire incredible episode.

BTW, the company the Middle Eastern plumbers were supposedly working for in the WTC, Denko Mechanical, doesn't exist and was registered with the State of New York by a man using an alias.

[RnMomof7]

These are probably Union members, and will all wind up being re-instated with back pay and seniority rights intact......

It was not the union that failed to properly check these folks or hired them..get over it

[NautiNurse]

It is nothing short of miraculous that we haven't had additional major terrorsist attacks in the past year.

[zingzang]

How long before the ACLU, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton come to the rescue of these people who were obviously discriminated against in a most overt fashion?? I imagine they'll all be working at your local 7-11 or Starbucks before the end of the week.

[areafiftyone]

You bet it is astonishing. This is just the tip of the iceberg. They need to do a sweep of all the DMV's next. After the sweep they did in New Jersey were hundreds of bogus licenses were given out.

[twigs]

Thank you for the update. I continue to think that this is a very significant case in our internal war on terrorism. I had heard about the medical examiner and noted that he was also from TN. I did NOT know that he was the ME involved with Ms. Smith's case. My goodness, but this gets complicated. Her murder (regardless of what they say) has signaled to me from the get-go that the Middle Eastern conspirators have inside (i.e., WASPish-American type) help. This really scares me. I would like to know the agenda--I can't help but wonder if its a much bigger picture than we have any idea. Dark thoughts for a dark day.

[Mo1]

Well I happy to hear they are cleaning house .. but something tells me the have a huge job ahead of them

[justshutupandtakeit]

Chances are they are not foreign.

[CaptainK]

That's an incredible story made even more incredible by the fact that I heard nothing about the Dr.'s "mugging" in the media. Did the Dr. speakout regarding what happened to him and did he see who the perps were?

[lilylangtree]

Has anyone ever experienced something stolen by the screening agents? I flew in and out of Chicago O'Hare Airport in July 2002. I raced to catch my connection due to a late arrival while flying United Airlines. While in line boarding, I was signaled for manual screening. While this woman demanded I turn to her for the wand waving, two agents at a table emptied my carry on. It just so happened that I looked over my shoulder while they removed my purse with the flap opened. They looked up at me as I was looking at them, and that's when the wand waving lady again demanded I turn to her with my back to these agents. She then demanded to know if that was all I had. Did I not want to declare anything? I told her "no!" Luckily, I earlier stuck my money in my underwear so that my purse had only some change and four $1 dollar bills. The wand waver lady placed me back in line for boarding afterwards. When I arrived at my destination, I looked into my purse and found two $1 bills missing. Further, my brother in December 2001 was traveling. He had 8 rolled quarters ($80) in his carry on briefcase for my parents. He was manually checked at several airports during his travel. Upon arriving at his destination, the $80 worth of wrapped coins were gone. Has anyone else experienced something like this? Do you have any advice since I'll again be traveling to the same destination but different airports?

[honway]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/involved?group=383

**TN License Scandals

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/693489/posts

Medical Examiner Attacked, Tied to Bomb Outside Office [Memphis, again!]

Unless you read the Memphis newspaper or followed the threads on Freerepublic, there was little reporting on this major story elsewhere.

It reminds me of the AP story reporting federal investigators had a videotape of two men in the Ryder truck in front of the Murrah Building prior to the explosion. Unless you read the Baton Rogue Advocate or the Kansas City Star or followed the story on FR, you probably missed it.

[doug from upland]

At SSAF we have been on the story for some time. Here is our JULY 12 SECURITY BULLETIN

[Hanging Chad]

"...stuck my money in my underwear ..."

Is it normally safe in there?