From The Airport That Brought You 9/11
Fed wannabe/medical supplies salesman flashed his assistant harbormaster badge, told the airline ticket agents and the state trooper at Boston’s Logan International he was an armed Homeland Security agent, and was escorted around TSA security checks onto the plane, where the flight crew helpfully pointed out who the air marshals were, FBI charges. Affidavit says imposter who claimed to have a gun was even let into the cockpit. Al-Qaeda, you listening? Boston Herald:
State police and airline ticket agents whisked a Rockland man who claimed he had a gun around TSA security checkpoints at Logan International Airport, putting him on a plane after he flashed a Chatham assistant harbormaster’s badge and claimed he was a federal agent, an FBI affidavit said.
Federal prosecutors yesterday charged Stephen Grant, 48, of Rockland with impersonating a federal agent. Grant is a medical supply salesman who worked summer weekends in Chatham monitoring boaters.
Grant told the Herald last night he is innocent, claiming a misunderstanding, and said the situation was settled nearly two years ago after he admitted to mistakes and paid a $4,000 fine. He said at no time did he carry a gun.
A state police spokesman declined to comment about the apparent security breach last night, referring calls to the U.S. attorney’s office. Transportation Safety officials declined comment.
The affidavit states that on a January 2007 trip from Boston to San Diego, Grant told American Airlines ticket agents he was armed and worked for the Department of Homeland Security. He filled out a flying-while-armed form in which, the FBI says, he listed his occupation as DHS. In reality, the salesman volunteered on the Cape and Island Homeland Security Subcommittee. On two flights, crews following federal regulations identified for him everyone who was armed on the plane, including two air marshals. On one plane, he was taken into the cockpit.
The affidavit says the error began when the ticket agents at Logan, asking for Grant’s identification, were satisfied with his harbormaster’s badge, and a trooper only looked at Grant’s form and his badge before signing Grant in the TSA log book and letting him board his flight via an exit door. Though required by federal rules, at no point did Grant show them a letter from the Department of Homeland Security, his supposed employer, stating the reason he needed to carry a gun, the affidavit said. A gate agent in San Diego spotted the error, and the FBI met Grant at Logan.
Grant, insisting the matter had been resolved, said last night, “I put everything behind me. This call comes back again today. I have nothing to hide. . . . Somewhere along the line there’s been a mixup. Why now? Why after two years when all this stuff was settled with a fine? It was a stupid thing to have happened.”
You’ll remember Logan International Airport as the launch point for two of the four 9/11 flights, Flight 11 and Flight 175, both of which terminated in the Twin Towers. Logan was also where shoebomber Richard Reid landed, helpfully trussed up by his fellow passengers.
Stephen Grant doesn’t sound like a guy who looks like al-Qaeda. Then again. John Walker Lindh, Jose Padilla, Richard Reid and David Hicks don’t sound like guys who look like al-Qaeda, either. Nor was murder-happy Islamic extremist fellow traveler John Mohammed your standard-issue jihadi.
Federal law allows cops to travel armed, which is fine. Big question: How many cops at key security chokepoints out there are “honoring the badge” without looking that closely at it?
Related, The Daily Beast: “How I got Through Airport Security With No ID.”
In other terrorism facilitation news, Jawa, “Terrorists: Yes, Our Official Website Is Hosted in the U.S., … So What?”
Welcome Instapundit etal, with a special shoutout to Sadly No readers. Stick around, you might learn something. When you go back, remember to tell Sadly about George Bush’s latest fan. In other business, stop a minute, pay your respects to 139 Marines who may finally get to come home from Bloody Tarawa.
Topics: Boston, al qaeda, cops, moronocy, terrorists
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:17 am on Wednesday, November 26, 2008
3 Responses to “From The Airport That Brought You 9/11”
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November 26th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Chilling. Confirms one’s worst suspicions.
I hope you will be following up on this, Jules. Seems like there are quite a few missing links here. What has been happening for the past two years on this case, and how could it have been “settled”? Who settled what with whom? Did they fire people and improve processes? (Dept. of Hope Springs Eternal.)
Two words: Southwest, Manchester.
November 27th, 2008 at 12:39 am
[...] and claiming to be Homeland Security schemed his way past security and on to a plane. View report here. (via [...]
November 27th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
[...] on November 27, 2008 This crap is just plain scary! Not only did they escort the fraud onto the plane with his weapon, but they pointed out every air [...]