FAA to Require More Criminal Background Checks
W A S H I N G T O N, Oct. 17, 2001 -- The Federal Aviation Administration will require criminal background checks of all airline and airport employees who have access to secure areas.
MORE INVESTIGATIVE NEWS:
• Airport Security Firm Under Fire
• More Sept. 11 Plotters Suspected
"I am directing that a criminal history check be done on all airline and airport employees with access to secure areas," FAA Administrator Jane Garvey told an audience at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., today. Garvey said she hoped the background checks, which the FAA says would include up to 1 million people, will be completed in less than nine months.
The checks will include baggage handlers, maintenance workers, aircraft cleaners, caterers and other personnel, and private contractors who have access around and inside aircraft. Current federal regulations call for background checks only on employees at the 20 largest airports hired after December 2000. After the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the FAA ordered the revalidation of identification badges worn by airport employees and said it planned to match them against FBI "watched" lists.
Garvey also said that the government's shutting down of national airspace after three of the four planes hijacked were used to attack New York and Washington, thwarted more planned hijackings.
"I certainly have been persuaded by discussions with the FBI and others that there were others that were thwarted," she said, without commenting on an exact number. Garvey praised air traffic controllers for quickly bringing down the planes that were already in flight during the attacks.
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 ordered to pay fines for making false statements to the 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 it continues 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 reinforcements.
• More Sept. 11 Plotters Suspected
Sources tell ABCNEWS the FBI is investigating information from a foreign intelligence service that the cell of hijackers in the Sept. 11 attacks actually consisted of 30 men. With 19 of the hijackers dead, officials suspect that some cell members did not complete their missions because all air traffic was grounded after the attacks on New York and Washington. A fourth hijacked plane crashed in Pennsylvania, presumably when passengers attacked the hijackers.
Sources close to the FBI investigation tell ABCNEWS that credit cards used to purchase tickets for some of the 19 hijackers were also used to book seats on other flights on Sept. 11. FBI agents are trying to track the names on tickets purchased by the suspects' credit cards and determine if they are real names.
Since the attacks, the FBI has arrested or detained 767 people nationwide, looking for any remote links to the dead hijackers in the attacks that left more than 5,000 people missing and dead. The vast majority remain in custody.
Besides looking for information on terrorist cells in the United States, the FBI has been looking for cells operating in Europe: members of suspected terrorist cells have been arrested in Spain, Germany, Belgium, Italy, France and England.
Officials say they have tracked down a money trail of more than $100,000 from banks in Pakistan to two banks in Florida, to accounts held by the suspected ringleader of the hijackers, Mohamed Atta. According to published reports, some of the money came in just days before the attack and can be traced directly to people connected to Osama bin Laden.
But FBI investigators are tense, especially since they believe that more attacks on the United States may be imminent in the wake of the military campaign in Afghanistan.
"To add to the already high anxiety, there was the direct warning on Monday from bin laden's key spokesman promising more attacks," said Richard Shelby, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
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.
ABCNEWS' Lisa Stark, John Miller, Salim Jiwa and Beth Tribolet contributed to this report
Since the attacks, the FBI has arrested or detained 767 people nationwide, looking for any remote links to the dead hijackers in the attacks that left more than 5,000 people missing and dead. The vast majority remain in custody.
Besides looking for information on terrorist cells in the United States, the FBI has been looking for cells operating in Europe: members of suspected terrorist cells have been arrested in Spain, Germany, Belgium, Italy, France and England.
Officials say they have tracked down a money trail of more than $100,000 from banks in Pakistan to two banks in Florida, to accounts held by the suspected ringleader of the hijackers, Mohamed Atta. According to published reports, some of the money came in just days before the attack and can be traced directly to people connected to Osama bin Laden.
But FBI investigators are tense, especially since they believe that more attacks on the United States may be imminent in the wake of the military campaign in Afghanistan.
"To add to the already high anxiety, there was the direct warning on Monday from bin laden's key spokesman promising more attacks," said Richard Shelby, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
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.
ABCNEWS' Lisa Stark, John Miller, Salim Jiwa and Beth Tribolet contributed to this report