Air marshals say discount may cost them their cover
Must disclose position upon hotel check-in
WASHINGTON -- Travelers checking into budget hotels near major airports might be surprised to find themselves standing next to undercover federal air marshals. They'll be the guests asking for "the air marshal's discount."
So much for working undercover.
Under a new policy, when air marshals travel away from their home bases -- as they do continually -- they will have to stay at a short list of selected hotels. They also will be required to identify themselves as air marshals to receive a special rate their agency has negotiated with the innkeepers -- below the regular government discount they now get.
That, as many air marshals see it, is the latest bureaucratic blow to their effort to maintain security and keep potential terrorists from identifying them.
The hotel policy "has caused great anxiety . . . as [marshals] worry about the various security risks involved in having a set, observable, and discernible pattern of activity regarding their hotel accommodations," a lawyer for the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association wrote to the Homeland Security Department earlier this month.
The dispute is the latest turn in an increasingly rancorous relationship between the marshals and their federal bosses. The marshals already were upset by rigid dress codes and grooming rules they say make them conspicuous among today's "dress down" air travelers that passengers sometimes point them out publicly.
The labor-management feud is surprising because, in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the air marshals received an enhanced role as front-line warriors in the battle against terrorism. But more recently, officials at the Department of Homeland Security seem to see them as ordinary federal employees -- subjected to rules and procedures handed down from above, sometimes with little apparent regard for the potential effect on their mission.
The issue of identifying themselves to hotel clerks, and being required to stay together in a small number of hotels may not seem like a big deal, but in the present climate of heightened concern about terrorist attacks -- along with recent revelations about the extent of Al Qaeda's surveillance operations in the United States -- marshals say the problem is significant and unnecessary.
"If terrorists . . . were to ascertain that a predetermined list of hotels was being used . . . these sites would be high-value targets in and of themselves," attorney Mark L. Cohen wrote in the Aug. 5 letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Los Angeles Times. The association is a professional group representing investigators and officers from about 50 federal agencies, including about 1,300 air marshals.
A spokesman for the Federal Air Marshal Service defended the new policy, saying its chief aim is rapid access to marshals in an emergency. 