Agencies Criticize Major Airport Security Firm
W A S H I N G T O N, Oct. 16, 2001 -- A preliminary study by two U.S. government agencies concludes one of America's largest airport security companies, Argenbright Security, has been employing people with criminal records, illegal aliens, and persons who fail basic tests for employment.
MORE INVESTIGATIVE NEWS:
• More Sept. 11 Plotters Suspected
• Not Guilty Plea in Hazmat License Case
• Two Released From Cancelled Delta Flight
Argenbright employs passenger screeners — the people who ensure passengers are checked for potential weapons before entering an airport terminal — in about 40 percent of all U.S. airports including SeaTac in Seattle, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Washington's Dulles International Airport.
Since Friday, the Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration scrutinized the company's operations in 13 airports. Preliminary results show some of the screeners Argenbright employed had criminal records.
Seven employees at Dallas-Fort Worth were were detained after the Immigration and Nationalization Service determined they were illegal aliens. And, in a spot test, seven of 20 employees at Dulles failed to exhibit skills required for a position of employment. The employees were removed from their screening positions.
In one incident, a passenger was arrested this weekend at Dulles after successfully slipping a pocketknife through Argenbright security.
Argenbright has a history of problems. On Oct. 20, 2000, the company was sentenced to probation and to pay fines for making false statements to FAA concerning the training, testing and background verification of employees.
The current study was prompted after federal prosecutors filed a petition Oct. 11 to order Argenbright to answer charges that they continue to violate a probation agreement regarding the hiring of screeners at Philadelphia International Airport without appropriate background checks or training. A court hearing is set for Oct. 23 in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia.
In a separate action on Oct. 12, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta announced that separate FAA teams will begin auditing background checks of all U.S. airport security screeners, starting with those employed at the nation's 20 largest airports.
Since the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States, the government has ordered tightened security at airports, including armed guards, closer scrutiny of passengers and bags, air marshals and cockpit door reenforcements.
Sources told ABCNEWS that the FBI has no specific, credible information about plans for another attack on U.S. soil. But one FBI agent pointed out they didn't have any intelligence information about the attacks that were carried out on Sept. 11.
• Not Guilty Plea in Hazmat License Case
Two Iraqi men arrested last month in a crackdown on drivers who transport hazardous material pleaded not guilty in U.S. federal court in Pittsburgh on Monday to charges of obtaining illegal drivers licenses.
Kamel Albred, 33, and Haider Alshomary, 29, have been held without bail since being arrested in Texas on Sept. 26 on charges of illegally obtaining licenses through a middleman who allegedly bribed a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation worker. They were among 21 men of Middle Eastern descent arrested when U.S. authorities tightened scrutiny of hazardous material shipments after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Federal officials say they have not found any evidence linking the arrests of Albred and Alshomary to the attacks.
According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Alshomary and Albred are Iraqi refugees who came to the United States after the Gulf war. Robert Ferrari, the Pennsylvania state worker accused of being their middleman, has been indicted on federal charges of illegally providing commercial driver's licenses to 20 men, all of whom have been indicted.
All but three of the suspects are free on bond in their home states of Washington, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas, Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Teitelbaum told Reuters.
• Two Men Detained From Delta Flight Are Released
Two of the men detained last Friday after authorities learned they had purchased or attempted to purchase one-way tickets for a flight to Amsterdam have been released, authorities said.
Last Friday, a Delta Air Lines flights from New York to Amsterdam was canceled after authorities learned four men had purchased or attempted to purchase one-way tickets. Two of the men, the FBI said, were detained before the flight's scheduled departure from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and were held by immigration authorities after questions arose about their travel documents.
Suspicions were raised after two men bought one-way tickets from a New York City travel agency, paying with cash and leaving an apparently bogus phone number, ABCNEWS learned. A short time after the purchase, two more men, described as Middle Eastern, arrived at the same travel agency, also seeking one-way tickets for that night's flight. The travel agent became suspicious and started to make a phone call, prompting the second pair of men quickly left the building.
ABCNEWS' John Miller, Salim Jiwa and Beth Tribolet contributed to this report
ABCNEWS' John Miller, Salim Jiwa and Beth Tribolet contributed to this report