Erroll Southers’ TSA Qualifications: Light on Experience and Truth, but Union-Friendly!

These are challenging times for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). The December 8, 2009 revelation that TSA had somehow inadvertently posted its airport screen procedures manual online demonstrates how the organization is rudderless while it flies without leadership. The manual contained some of the TSA’s most guarded secrets, and had photos of law enforcement and CIA credentials to train TSA screeners what to look for when armed passenger identified themselves to seek exemption from security screening. The TSA’s incredible response to this most egregious security violation was that it wasn’t really a problem because the manual was “outdated.” Despite the TSA’s important mission in light of the Christmas Day attempt to explode a Detroit-bound U.S. airliner, Erroll Southers, the assistant police chief of the Los Angeles World Airport police, was given the nod to be TSA Administrator. He’s a former FBI agent and Santa Monica police detective, and was the number two homeland security advisor for the State of California. He has several academic titles in the field at the University of California. Sounds impressive. Unfortunately, Mr. Southers has one major character flaw: He has trouble telling the truth. When quizzed by senators at his confirmation hearings, he conveniently “forgot” to mention that as an FBI agent, he downloaded sensitive law enforcement database information about his estranged wife’s new boyfriend. He testified that a San Diego police officer had gathered the information for him at his request. However, when further quizzed, he fessed up that he, himself, retrieved the information on at least two occasions. I’m always suspicious of someone who is a “former” FBI agent. Mr. Southers worked for the bureau for a whopping four years. During that time, he investigated mostly domestic narcotic cases and was a member of a SWAT team, hardly qualifying him to be an “expert” in counterterrorism, as the administration maintains he is. Mr. Southers unlawfully accessing information is probably why he is a “former” FBI agent. Did the bureau let him resign in lieu of prosecution? His leaving the FBI after only four short years means that Mr. Southers didn’t even make it to the journeyman-level pay grade. The administration did damage assessment, and then had Mr. Southers write a letter to the Senate Homeland Security Committee to “clarify” the circumstances surrounding the receipt of the sensitive law enforcement information without authority. Mr. Southers simply forgot! After all, 22 years have passed since the incident, as the administration and friendly senators have reminded us time and time again. The unauthorized downloading of the information may have occurred 22 years ago, but Mr. Southers was caught in a lie last November. Mr. Southers unlawfully accessed the information. It is a federal misdemeanor to do so. Lying to Congress is a felony. When asked about the former during his confirmation hearings, he blamed a fictitious San Diego police officer. Then he changed the story in a letter to the Homeland Security Committee when it became obvious he had been less than truthful. He writes, “I am distressed by the inconsistencies between my recollection and the contemporaneous documents, but I assure you that the mistake was inadvertent, and that I have at all times taken full responsibility for what I know to have been a grave error in judgment.” I’m certain that Mr. Southers is “distressed” he was caught in a lie that may jeopardize his appointment. His nomination demonstrates another “error in judgment” by the administration when it comes to political appointments and national security matters. The White House believes Mr. Southers’s best qualification for the job is that he will support unionization of TSA screeners. Will unionizing these frontline defenders enhance airport and national security? Hell no! It will place more cumbersome burdens on TSA managers that will prevent them from using their subordinates effectively and efficiently. It will result in more rigid work rules and make it almost impossible to fire an employee for incompetence, laziness, or dare I say, lying. Isn’t there anyone else in the country who can effectively lead this outfit? Sure there is, but qualifications be damned. Politics trumps national security because that’s what matters most to this administration.