Midnight Mike
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 10, 2002
- Posts
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http://online.wsj.com/article_email/0,,SB1045176533313881023,00.html
I posted this on another site, & thought I should post it here as well, I hope that this never happens to an American Pilot, kind of funny, some of the pilots flying for Saudi are American Citizens.
U.S. Bars 2 Saudi Pilots, Says
They Posed a Security Threat
Transportation Safety Agency Has Revoked
Several Licenses Using Contested New Rules
By STEPHEN POWER
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
WASHINGTON -- The federal government has quietly barred two Saudi Arabian Airlines pilots from flying in the U.S. on the grounds that they "pose a security threat," sparking the first test of a controversial new rule that allows authorities to take away flying licenses without disclosing any evidence.
The Transportation Security Administration's cases against Maan Hassan Zarie and Tarek Hassan Jifry stem from the agency's new responsibility to conduct so-called threat assessments of all pilots, mechanics and flight instructors authorized to work or fly in the U.S. The men deny being threats and are appealing the ruling.
The 2001 Aviation and Transportation Security Act, which created the TSA in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, authorizes the agency to bar anyone found to be a threat from flying or working in the industry. Procedures for revoking or suspending such individuals' Federal Aviation Administration "airmen's certificates" were issued last month without public notice. They allow the process to be conducted under extraordinary secrecy, infuriating pilot groups.
The TSA has been conducting such assessments for months. In August the agency had 11 individuals' certificates revoked without publicly announcing the actions. Several of those revocations have been reversed, a TSA spokesman said, while others are under review. A record of the actions against the two Saudi Airlines pilots only emerged because they challenged the government before the National Transportation Safety Board; The Wall Street Journal has reviewed copies of the appeals.
The cases have surfaced at a delicate time for U.S.-Saudi relations. Saudi leaders only recently have begun hinting that they will provide limited use of their airspace and bases for a potential U.S. invasion of Iraq. Saudi Arabia has been criticized for being too lax in regulating charities alleged to finance terrorists. Of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers, 15 were Saudis.
The U.S. government first moved against the two pilots in August, when it declared the matter an "emergency" and revoked their certificates. The pilots challenged the actions over the following five months. "The sole basis for that revocation was a conclusory letter" from the TSA stating that each was a "security threat," attorneys Thomas Whalen and Evelyn Sahr told the NTSB. But over the next five months "neither the FAA nor the TSA provided any evidence," the attorneys said.
Then, on Jan. 24, the TSA and the FAA jointly issued an unusual set of rules codifying how the government would revoke or suspend airmen's certificates. The rules were issued without advance notice, giving the public no chance to comment beforehand. The agencies said the rules needed to be put in place immediately to "prevent imminent hazard to aircraft, persons and property within the United States." In issuing the rules, the agencies for the first time disclosed their actions against 11 holders of airmen's certificates, but without revealing their names, nationalities or professions.
The same day, the FAA withdrew its emergency revocation orders against Messrs. Zarie and Jifry and instead filed emergency suspensions against them. Suspensions usually allow for the return of certificates within several months, while revocations typically last a year, experts say. But in these two cases, the FAA said it was suspending their certificates "for an indefinite period."
The FAA told the men in letters that the suspensions were in the interest of "safety in air commerce or air transportation and the public interest" because the TSA "has determined that you pose a security threat." The TSA hasn't disclosed why it considers them security threats, and under the Jan. 24 rules, it doesn't have to.
In publishing the new rules, the government said disclosing such information "could jeopardize sources and methods of the intelligence community ... possibly giving a terrorist organization or other group a roadmap of the course and progress of an investigation."
"These decisions are made based on intelligence and threat information that we receive from a variety of sources," said TSA spokesman Robert Johnson.
Little is known about the backgrounds of the two pilots, including their citizenship status. A spokesman for the Justice Department, which oversees the FBI, said the department has "no information to indicate" that either man is wanted by the department. A spokesman for the Washington office of Saudi Arabian Airlines declined to comment. An official with the Saudi embassy in Washington, which was closed Thursday for the Muslim holiday of hajj, didn't return phone calls. The men's lawyers, Mr. Whalen and Ms. Sahr -- who both work in the Washington office of Condon & Forsyth LLP -- declined to comment through an assistant.
Four days after the men's certificates were suspended, their lawyers appealed to the NTSB. The attorneys said in letters to the NTSB that their clients are "in no way a threat to national or aviation security." They argued the FAA had no grounds for classifying the government's action as an "emergency" because when their certificates were revoked in August, neither man was "flying to or from the United States." The appeal letters imply that the pilots have effectively been grounded overseas as well, asserting that each "has been denied his livelihood as a pilot for Saudi Arabian Airlines." Many overseas authorities grant pilot licenses based on whether applicants are certified to fly in the United States, aviation experts say.
On Feb. 4, the NTSB's chief administrative-law judge, William E. Fowler Jr., refused to overturn the suspensions, saying that under federal law he "must assume the truth" of the government's assertion that the men are security threats. The cases are now before another NTSB administrative-law judge, whose office said Thursday that a hearing can't be held until the government reveals its evidence against the men, which it so far has declined to do.
Some pilots' groups Thursday declined to comment on the case. But they have argued vociferously since the Jan. 24 rules were announced that the government is going overboard in its attempt to ferret out terrorists within their industry. The pilots are lobbying Congress and the Bush administration to rewrite the rules, arguing that they deprive individuals of due process and don't give the accused a full opportunity to rebut the charges against them.
The new rule "is rooted more in '1984' than in Sept. 11, 2001," said the Air Line Pilots Association, representing 66,000 pilots at 42 airlines in the U.S. and Canada. It "apparently lowers the bar to mere suspicions that are not the result of the kind of due process that most Americans would expect before they are branded as a security threat."
The TSA defends the rule, insisting revocations will be issued sparingly, but also says its procedures could change as TSA officials review comments that are now coming into the agency from the public. In justifying the new rule last month in the Federal Register, it said the 11 revocations resulted from an examination of 1.35 million airmen's certificates issued over the past 10 years. At the time, the agency said that seven of those 11 individuals "are in the process of responding" to a threat assessment notice, presumably including Messrs. Zarie and Jifry. An FAA spokeswoman said Thursday night that three of the seven have had their certificates reinstated.
"The majority of individuals holding airmen's certificates have nothing to worry about," said Mr. Johnson.
I posted this on another site, & thought I should post it here as well, I hope that this never happens to an American Pilot, kind of funny, some of the pilots flying for Saudi are American Citizens.
U.S. Bars 2 Saudi Pilots, Says
They Posed a Security Threat
Transportation Safety Agency Has Revoked
Several Licenses Using Contested New Rules
By STEPHEN POWER
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
WASHINGTON -- The federal government has quietly barred two Saudi Arabian Airlines pilots from flying in the U.S. on the grounds that they "pose a security threat," sparking the first test of a controversial new rule that allows authorities to take away flying licenses without disclosing any evidence.
The Transportation Security Administration's cases against Maan Hassan Zarie and Tarek Hassan Jifry stem from the agency's new responsibility to conduct so-called threat assessments of all pilots, mechanics and flight instructors authorized to work or fly in the U.S. The men deny being threats and are appealing the ruling.
The 2001 Aviation and Transportation Security Act, which created the TSA in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, authorizes the agency to bar anyone found to be a threat from flying or working in the industry. Procedures for revoking or suspending such individuals' Federal Aviation Administration "airmen's certificates" were issued last month without public notice. They allow the process to be conducted under extraordinary secrecy, infuriating pilot groups.
The TSA has been conducting such assessments for months. In August the agency had 11 individuals' certificates revoked without publicly announcing the actions. Several of those revocations have been reversed, a TSA spokesman said, while others are under review. A record of the actions against the two Saudi Airlines pilots only emerged because they challenged the government before the National Transportation Safety Board; The Wall Street Journal has reviewed copies of the appeals.
The cases have surfaced at a delicate time for U.S.-Saudi relations. Saudi leaders only recently have begun hinting that they will provide limited use of their airspace and bases for a potential U.S. invasion of Iraq. Saudi Arabia has been criticized for being too lax in regulating charities alleged to finance terrorists. Of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers, 15 were Saudis.
The U.S. government first moved against the two pilots in August, when it declared the matter an "emergency" and revoked their certificates. The pilots challenged the actions over the following five months. "The sole basis for that revocation was a conclusory letter" from the TSA stating that each was a "security threat," attorneys Thomas Whalen and Evelyn Sahr told the NTSB. But over the next five months "neither the FAA nor the TSA provided any evidence," the attorneys said.
Then, on Jan. 24, the TSA and the FAA jointly issued an unusual set of rules codifying how the government would revoke or suspend airmen's certificates. The rules were issued without advance notice, giving the public no chance to comment beforehand. The agencies said the rules needed to be put in place immediately to "prevent imminent hazard to aircraft, persons and property within the United States." In issuing the rules, the agencies for the first time disclosed their actions against 11 holders of airmen's certificates, but without revealing their names, nationalities or professions.
The same day, the FAA withdrew its emergency revocation orders against Messrs. Zarie and Jifry and instead filed emergency suspensions against them. Suspensions usually allow for the return of certificates within several months, while revocations typically last a year, experts say. But in these two cases, the FAA said it was suspending their certificates "for an indefinite period."
The FAA told the men in letters that the suspensions were in the interest of "safety in air commerce or air transportation and the public interest" because the TSA "has determined that you pose a security threat." The TSA hasn't disclosed why it considers them security threats, and under the Jan. 24 rules, it doesn't have to.
In publishing the new rules, the government said disclosing such information "could jeopardize sources and methods of the intelligence community ... possibly giving a terrorist organization or other group a roadmap of the course and progress of an investigation."
"These decisions are made based on intelligence and threat information that we receive from a variety of sources," said TSA spokesman Robert Johnson.
Little is known about the backgrounds of the two pilots, including their citizenship status. A spokesman for the Justice Department, which oversees the FBI, said the department has "no information to indicate" that either man is wanted by the department. A spokesman for the Washington office of Saudi Arabian Airlines declined to comment. An official with the Saudi embassy in Washington, which was closed Thursday for the Muslim holiday of hajj, didn't return phone calls. The men's lawyers, Mr. Whalen and Ms. Sahr -- who both work in the Washington office of Condon & Forsyth LLP -- declined to comment through an assistant.
Four days after the men's certificates were suspended, their lawyers appealed to the NTSB. The attorneys said in letters to the NTSB that their clients are "in no way a threat to national or aviation security." They argued the FAA had no grounds for classifying the government's action as an "emergency" because when their certificates were revoked in August, neither man was "flying to or from the United States." The appeal letters imply that the pilots have effectively been grounded overseas as well, asserting that each "has been denied his livelihood as a pilot for Saudi Arabian Airlines." Many overseas authorities grant pilot licenses based on whether applicants are certified to fly in the United States, aviation experts say.
On Feb. 4, the NTSB's chief administrative-law judge, William E. Fowler Jr., refused to overturn the suspensions, saying that under federal law he "must assume the truth" of the government's assertion that the men are security threats. The cases are now before another NTSB administrative-law judge, whose office said Thursday that a hearing can't be held until the government reveals its evidence against the men, which it so far has declined to do.
Some pilots' groups Thursday declined to comment on the case. But they have argued vociferously since the Jan. 24 rules were announced that the government is going overboard in its attempt to ferret out terrorists within their industry. The pilots are lobbying Congress and the Bush administration to rewrite the rules, arguing that they deprive individuals of due process and don't give the accused a full opportunity to rebut the charges against them.
The new rule "is rooted more in '1984' than in Sept. 11, 2001," said the Air Line Pilots Association, representing 66,000 pilots at 42 airlines in the U.S. and Canada. It "apparently lowers the bar to mere suspicions that are not the result of the kind of due process that most Americans would expect before they are branded as a security threat."
The TSA defends the rule, insisting revocations will be issued sparingly, but also says its procedures could change as TSA officials review comments that are now coming into the agency from the public. In justifying the new rule last month in the Federal Register, it said the 11 revocations resulted from an examination of 1.35 million airmen's certificates issued over the past 10 years. At the time, the agency said that seven of those 11 individuals "are in the process of responding" to a threat assessment notice, presumably including Messrs. Zarie and Jifry. An FAA spokeswoman said Thursday night that three of the seven have had their certificates reinstated.
"The majority of individuals holding airmen's certificates have nothing to worry about," said Mr. Johnson.
