Political Notebook
FAA Facing Multiple Claims of Cover-Up
Posted
April 22, 2002 By
Paul M. Rodriguez
A senior Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA) supervisor of
internal security told government and private
lawyers on March 12, 1991, that he indeed
was familiar with the "live sex shows"
in Bangkok. The euphemized admission, very
serious for an FAA internal-security supervisor,
came during a Merit Systems Protection Board
appeal hearing on an unrelated job action
involving another FAA internal-security investigator.
Moreover, in his sworn deposition, Steven
Graham Keenley also said he was aware of various
"go-go girl" shows in Rio de Janeiro,
where he and other FAA security agents spent
time while on assignment.
"The … the live sex shows I recall are
in Bangkok, and I didn't see sex shows. There
were … there were like go-go girls, dancing
girls in these clubs that were dancing on
the stage, but I don't recall sex acts — live
shows of sex acts," Keenley told lawyers
for the firm of Wood & Johnson in Aurora,
Ill., slightly more than 11 years ago.
"There wasn't a stage where a man and
a woman were up there completely naked?"
he was asked by his skeptical interrogator.
"I … I don't … I don't recall that. I
know that they … at least one place in particular
I remember they had a stage, but I thought
the only people on the stage were women dancing;
go-go types. … In fact, each of those bars
we went in had the girls dancing on the stage,
but I didn't see any other kind of show,"
Keenley swore.
These questions involved allegations that
Keenley or others were aware of potentially
inappropriate behavior by FAA security agents
traveling overseas as part of U.S. teams onboard
airliners to protect and defend against hijackings
and other security-related threats.
This previously unknown sworn deposition,
with its reference to live sex shows in Bangkok
and so-called "girly shows" in Rio
and elsewhere, is consistent with recent allegations
by at least two FAA whistle-blowers. They
have alleged that rogue agents of the Federal
Air Marshal service (and possibly other aviation-security
operators) engaged in inappropriate and, perhaps,
illegal activities while traveling overseas.
The rogue agents reportedly visited bordellos,
engaged prostitutes and had sex with children.
Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary
Norman Mineta launched an immediate Office
of Inspector General (OIG) probe into the
allegations when they were presented to him
by Insight several weeks ago (see "FAA's
Sex Scandal," March 25). Since then,
OIG investigators have conducted what appears
to be a significant review of personnel records
and conducted interviews with both current
and former air marshals and FAA security agents
— even people who applied for such jobs but
did not pass the required tests.
Mineta and others at DOT, though claiming
no knowledge of such alleged behavior by rogue
FAA employees, nevertheless acted immediately
on the whistle-blower reports. Notwithstanding
whether the alleged activities might be legal
overseas, Mineta found the very idea of any
such behavior by FAA security personnel disgusting
and completely inappropriate.
Meanwhile, in addition to the potential sex
scandal, OIG investigators are looking into
the allegations of FAA whistle-blower Bogdan
Dzakovic, who claims security lapses that
may have led to the carnage of Sept. 11 long
have been known within FAA but were ignored.
Numerous current and former FAA security and
airline employees who since have reached out
to Insight about this story not only have
confirmed Dzakovic's allegations but also
that OIG investigators have contacted them.
Again, it is at the request of the scrupulous
Mineta that the parallel probe has been opened.
But the skeptics remain.
Consider new information from sources that
security defects at Boston's Logan Airport,
from which the World Trade Center hijackers
flew to New York City, were well-known and
well-documented at least as far back as May
2001. "FAA not only failed to take action
to address the vulnerabilities we identified,
but actually took steps to stymie corrective
action," says a former FAA honcho.
And, backed up by other sources who have shared
virtually identical horror stories about lax
security, this source claims the DOT inspector
general knew of the problems and failed to
follow up with investigations to 1) bring
it to the attention of higher-ups and 2) allegedly
engaged in a cover-up of the "known"
deficiencies at Logan and other airports around
the country.
The claims of cover-up are consistent with
those of the two whistle-blowers on the sex-related
charges against rogue FAA security personnel.
"They just didn't want to know what was
going on. It was none of their business,"
an Insight source says was the attitude of
the FAA management and OIG investigators.
To a number of aviation experts and transportation
lawyers that Insight contacted, such failures
to take corrective action under such circumstances
could result in the launching of class-action
lawsuits against the DOT and individual officials.
Already, according to news reports, some families
of the victims killed in the planes that crashed
into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon
and in Pennsylvania are planning such lawsuits.
"There'll be plenty for them to mine
if they can get their hands on those internal
files," warns a lawyer who has worked
both at the DOT and the FAA in recent years.
"It's not that people didn't care about
security or behavior," this source says.
"They just tried to sweep it under the
rug hoping nobody would find out."
Paul M. Rodriguez is the managing editor
of Insight magazine.
