"Sheriff: Silence imperils Albany airport"

Friday, October 20, 2006

Sheriff: Silence imperils airport 
Campbell says his agency kept out of loop in letter threat earlier this
month  
By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON
The Albany (NY) Times-Union


COLONIE -- Federal Transportation Security Administration managers at the
Albany International Airport failed to take quick action on a written threat
of violence received shortly before First Lady Laura Bush was to fly in from
Buffalo earlier this month, local law enforcement officers said.

TSA Deputy Director Richard Ahlborn, who received a letter postmarked in
Utica on Sept. 18, never informed the sheriff's department, which patrols
the airport and shares jurisdiction with the FBI for security there, Sheriff
James Campbell said.
   
Instead, in an e-mail on Sept. 28, two days after Ahlborn said he got the
threat, he asked an FBI agent to pick up the letter at the airport, which
the agent did, a day later, when he checked his e-mail.

Campbell contrasted the response to that incident in September with a bomb
threat e-mailed to Albany police on Tuesday night when the sheriff was
alerted and deputies combed the airport with bomb-sniffing dogs within an
hour.

"I'm concerned about open lines of communication," the sheriff said
Wednesday. "This was a threat against the airport. If it took place it would
be very serious. We had no idea, and no information at all."

Campbell would not elaborate on the threat while an FBI investigation is
under way, but when he was asked if it involved potential loss of life, he
replied, "Yes."

Chief Deputy Craig Apple added: "We were removed from the protocol. I firmly
believe this incident was a shot against us. They are letting personal
issues get ahead of security."

Tension is not new between local TSA officials and the sheriff's department,
as well as between the agency and the employees who screen passengers and
their luggage.

Last week, in a federal lawsuit against Homeland Security Director Michael
Chertoff, a former TSA manager at the airport claimed he was fired in 2003
because he refused to go along with harassment of fellow employees,
especially women.

The lawsuit filed by David Erickson of Altamont, a former Army major, names
Ahlborn, TSA Director Paul Varville, and Varville's former assistant,
Michael Klusacek. Erickson accuses the TSA managers of loading his personnel
file with trumped-up bad work reviews and seeks $300,000 in damages along
with lost wages.

This week, current and former TSA employees, locally and at airports around
the country, painted a similar picture of alleged heavy-handedness and lack
of basic job understanding at the federal agency, which was formed shortly
after 9/11.

Critics said screening machines are frequently operated without proper
calibration, and security breaches go unreported or unnoticed.

A 2004 Homeland Security investigation into reports of cronyism and coercion
at the Albany airport cleared TSA managers of wrongdoing. But on Monday,
U.S. Rep. John Sweeney of Clifton Park, a Republican member of the House
Select Committee on Homeland Security, called for resumption of the probe,
saying he remains "extremely displeased ... after receiving false promises
from the TSA" that the friction between management and screeners would end.

Ann Davis, TSA spokeswoman for the Northeast Region, said she spoke with
Varville on Wednesday and was told that Ahlborn received the threatening
letter "on or about" Sept. 26 and gave it to the FBI because the federal
agency was best equipped to determine its origin.

Regarding alleged mistreatment of employees, she said, "I can assure you,
all of the allegations have been thoroughly investigated, and in each and
every case, Mr. Varville and his staff have been exonerated with flying
colors."
Before he came to Colonie in 2001, when he was hired out of retirement from
the Internal Revenue Service, Varville had been sued in 1992 by a female IRS
employee in the Providence, R.I., office, whose claims echo some of those in
the ongoing dispute.

The woman said Varville and other managers denied her promotions because of
her size, made inappropriate personal comments -- including describing her
as "a big Harley mama with tattoos all over her body" -- and gave her a
written warning about using sick leave, while her colleagues were warned
verbally.

A federal court tossed out some of the woman's claims but upheld others. The
judge noted that Varville and another manager had written her letters of
apology.

"Many disgruntled employees" file claims, Davis said Varville told her.

sheriff's department learned of the threat mailed from Utica only after a
captain at the airport encountered an FBI agent investigating the matter.
Apple said Ahlborn has called off two meetings that were scheduled to get to
the bottom of the breakdown in protocol.

Another is now set for Oct. 24.

Doug Myers, a spokesman for the airport, said: "We've been assured by both
the sheriff and the TSA that the safety of our airport, our passengers and
employees was not and is not at risk."

He would not comment on last month's incident or concerns raised about TSA
management.

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