CNN 2010-02-16

Big funding, little results. Bosses playing games. Workers filing complaints, and the Air Marshals, well, the service was established to look after you, but apparently¹, it can't even take care of itself. CNN's Drew Griffin investigates.

 

Kyra, the widespread allegations of discriminations are so bad that members of Congress are demanding to have a DHS, the Department of Homeland Security Investigation² of this for fear that this is affecting the very security mission these Air Marshals are assigned.

The Federal Air Marshal's mission, protect America's commercial aircraft from future terrorist attacks.

 

Sit down.

 

With a nearly $1 billion budget, how many attempted terrorist attacks have the federal air marshals foiled -- none that we've been told about. They did shoot and kill one man, a person at Miami's airport with mental health issues who claimed to have a bomb in a backpack, as far as arresting terrorists or anyone else?

 

I have the statistics for last year, that they've made four arrests for an appropriation³ of over $800 million. It came out to more than $200 million per arrest. It's just ridiculous.

 

So what's going wrong? Air marshals, CNN talked to, for this story describe a federal agency in chaos⁴ where bored and frustrated⁵ air marshals focus more on internal squabbles than watching for bad guys. The marshals asked we not show their faces.

 

We don't have managers that provide training or provide leadership or do anything other than produce conflict.

 

How can you say you're protecting the public when you're playing games?

 

Look at this dry erase⁶ board in an air marshal's office in Orlando, Florida. CNN was told managers use the board to keep track of how many minority air marshals had been disciplined. Employees told CNN managers were awarding each other scores for their harassment⁷ activities.

 

The Transportation Security Administration says it's investigating and that all employees are entitled to be treated in a fair and lawful⁸ manner. But Orlando is not the only example. All over the country from Las Vegas to Seattle to Cincinnati, air marshals have filed official complaints, claiming age, gender⁹ and racial discrimination.

 

In Cincinnati alone, 20 percent of the office filed complaints, according to their lawyer. Six marshals say they were then retaliated¹⁰ against in the workplace with undesirable¹¹ assignments. Managers allegedly spent nine months at an unknown cost to taxpayers¹² investigating whether one female air marshal had her car registered in the proper state.

 

1 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

2 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

3 appropriation   

n.拨款，批准支出

参考例句：

• Our government made an appropriation for the project.我们的政府为那个工程拨出一笔款项。
• The council could note an annual appropriation for this service.议会可以为这项服务表决给他一笔常年经费。

4 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

5 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 erase   

v.擦掉；消除某事物的痕迹

参考例句：

• He tried to erase the idea from his mind.他试图从头脑中抹掉这个想法。
• Please erase my name from the list.请把我的名字从名单上擦去。

7 harassment   

n.骚扰，扰乱，烦恼，烦乱

参考例句：

• She often got telephone harassment at night these days.这些天她经常在夜晚受到电话骚扰。
• The company prohibits any form of harassment.公司禁止任何形式的骚扰行为。

8 lawful   

adj.法律许可的，守法的，合法的

参考例句：

• It is not lawful to park in front of a hydrant.在消火栓前停车是不合法的。
• We don't recognised him to be the lawful heir.我们不承认他为合法继承人。

9 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

10 retaliated   

v.报复，反击( retaliate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• When he once teased her for her inexperience, she retaliated. 有一次，他讥讽她没有经验，她便反唇相讥。 来自辞典例句
• The terrorists retaliated by killing three policemen. 恐怖分子以杀死三名警察相报复。 来自辞典例句

11 undesirable   

adj.不受欢迎的，不良的，不合意的，讨厌的；n.不受欢迎的人，不良分子

参考例句：

• They are the undesirable elements among the employees.他们是雇员中的不良分子。
• Certain chemicals can induce undesirable changes in the nervous system.有些化学物质能在神经系统中引起不良变化。

12 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。