Former TSA Agent John R. Arndt Has Seen Something and is Saying Something About the TSA

The Department of Homeland Security will soon be installing monitors in Walmart and other stores promoting their rhetoric of "if you see something, say something." However, when DHS and the TSA are called out, like in the instance of the anonymous pilot from California who posted YouTube videos about the ineffectiveness of the TSA, well Janet Napolitano and DHS would rather you keep your mouth shut. Of course, they have made life hell for the pilot who saw something and said something--going as far as confiscating his conceal and carry permit.

Now a former TSA agent is claiming to have seen something and is saying something as well. No doubt, he will be the next target of Janet Napolitano's American police state.

John R. Arndt was fired from the TSA in 2005. He has come forward with a long list of things that I believe further proves my point that the TSA is not about safety, but it is about getting Americans to comply with the new American police state being set up across our once-free Republic.

From Bufalo News:

He claims he was fired because he complained about sexual harassment from a female boss and that because of his allegations some training records were falsified for TSA employees. He made other allegations of improper conduct by TSA management.

The federal government tells a different story. In court papers, the U. S. Attorney’s Office portrays Arndt as a troublesome employee who was let go because he engaged in “harassing,” “irresponsible” and “confrontational” workplace behavior.

“We’re not going to address each one of Mr. Arndt’s accusations individually,” said Ann Davis, a spokeswoman for the agency. “TSA will not comment on the baseless accusations of a disgruntled former employee with a personal ax to grind.”

Arndt, a 49-year-old Navy veteran, filed a federal lawsuit against the TSA after his firing, but U. S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara dismissed the suit last month. Arcara said the dismissal was not related to the merits of the lawsuit but was based on procedural errors. Arndt’s attorney, Richard H. Wyssling, for more than two years failed to serve legal papers on the correct parties, the judge said.

Arndt is appealing, hoping to get the case reinstated.

“I just want my day in court. I want to put my case before a judge and a jury,” he said in an interview. “I’m willing to take a polygraph exam on everything I have to say, and I’d like all the other TSA people involved to take one also.”

He claims Buffalo TSA managers drummed him out of the agency be-

cause he had an affair with a high-ranking Buffalo TSA official and then broke off the affair. He said some managers were also upset because he kept raising questions about procedures and the actions of some TSA officials.

“From the time I became a whistle-blower and started raising questions, every time I raised an issue, the TSA treated me like I was some kind of a nut rather than looking into what I was asking about,” Arndt said in his North Tonawanda home, where he has boxes of documents relating to his legal fight.

“I think highly of the people who work in the trenches for the TSA, but I have to say that some of the management people are not trustworthy,” he said.

Among Arndt’s allegations:

• He says that in late 2003, he had an affair with a woman who also was a supervisor at the TSA. He said he broke off the affair in May 2004 because he was about to get married. According to Arndt, the female supervisor repeatedly called him, seeking to resume the affair. He refused, and the supervisor was promoted to a position above him. He says she harassed him on the job and bad-mouthed him to other managers.

“I filed a complaint of sexual harassment, and the TSA investigator who interviewed me told me, ‘Men don’t get sexually harassed, be a real man,’ ” Arndt said.

• He says that although gambling while on the job is strictly prohibited by the TSA, two top management officials were openly involved in running a football pool at the airport. He said he reported the gambling to a TSA ombudsman in Washington, but nothing was done about it.

• He says a manager “assaulted” him by bumping against him in the workplace in July 2006 during an argument. A TSA investigation found that both Arndt and the manager were at fault.

• He says he tried to file a “hostile work environment” claim against the TSA but says the woman who had the affair with him stopped the complaint from going anywhere.

• He says that, after he became a TSA whistle-blower in 2005, all the letters of commendation he had received earlier in his career were removed from his personnel file. He showed a reporter several letters of commendation he received between 2003 and 2005.

• He says that in late 2003, a TSA manager allowed some pilots to go through an airport screening checkpoint without being checked for signs of possible alcohol abuse.

“At that time, we were checking pilots closely to see if they had alcohol on their breath or other signs that they had been drinking,” Arndt said. “And we were finding about one [pilot] a month with alcohol on their breath, and we would refer them to the [Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority] police for further questioning.”

When he complained to a manager about some pilots being allowed to circumvent the screening checkpoint, Arndt said, he was told to mind his own business. That was “pretty much the attitude” that TSA managers took toward any suggestions he made or questions he raised, Arndt said.

In Arndt’s view, one of the most disturbing things he observed at the TSA was the falsifications of training records for more than 100 Buffalo TSA employees in May 2005.

According to documents Arndt showed The Buffalo News, each of the employees received credit for receiving 32 hours of training on a new high-technology X-ray device used to examine baggage.

“Everyone got credit for 32 hours of training, but I know that I got 16 hours of training, and so did the others who worked with me,” Arndt said. “The people who did the training left Buffalo two days early so they could have a couple of days off before moving on to their next [training] session in another city.”

The document Arndt showed The News indicated that he received 16 hours of training, while every other worker got 32 hours.

“They originally put me down for 32, but I insisted that they change it to the actual hours I got,” Arndt said.