Update, 2.17.12, bumped again from 1.16.12, and before that 1.14.12 — we may safely say that this story is incredible — for the unanswered questions listed below — the chances that this gentleman was with the TSA are less than slight —
I posted on this topic originally on 1.14.12 at 9 AM, but I have bumped the post up, because parts of the Wired story, although possibly true, are sketchy. Thanks much to a sharp reader for pointing this out — much obliged. Appearing below are my updated questions about the story, and my original post, thereafter.
Updated questions:
1. Is Adam Marshall really a TSA air marshal? He may be, but the only source for that fact is an organizer with Occupy Boston. The police report does not establish Marshall’s occupation. The police report to which Wired‘s Quinn Norton links merely states that someone named Adam Marshall was arrested. He may have stolen a phone; that doesn’t make him a TSA air marshal.
2. By the story’s own account, Marshall has offered conflicting accounts of his actual vocation — variously claiming to be a student or an air marshal. He could be one or both, but his reported, erratic behavior should draw some suspicions. It could be that he is both, but to be both he would have to be an erratic, armed TSA representative; the easier explanation (requiring no screening, employment background and application process, etc.) is that he’s an erratic college student, or simply a liar.
3. Why has no other, major media publication picked up this story? If Marshall were an air marshal, and if he had been arrested in Boston, why has no old-media publication in Boston carried the story?
4. All the information about supposed contacts with the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) comes from the same Occupy Boston organizer, as does all the information about supposed assistance from a local ACLU office.
5. Will the ACLU confirm the meeting? There’s no principle of legal ethics that would prevent an ACLU attorney from acknowledging that he or she attended a meeting with DHS. Mere attendance at a meeting like this — without disclosing details of conversations involved — would not breach an attorney-client relationship (of which mere attendance at a DHS meeting would not, itself, necessarily create.)
6. What happened to Adam Marshall’s LinkedIn profile? It’s gone now, but when I first checked it, it was outrageously thin – it had only a few lines, and looked like it had been prepared in a minute or two. That doesn’t mean that Marshall didn’t prepare it, or that he’s not a TSA air marshal, but it’s odd. If he’s the armed and authorized professional others claim him to be, and he may himself claim to be, why a profile so thin? I’m sorry I didn’t save the profile — it’s gone now, but it should have raised my suspicion.
Finally, I will email this updated post to Quinn Norton, the author of the Wired story, to see if she might have additional information to answer these questions. Marshall may be an air marshal, but the evidence offered is unconvincing.
Original post first published on 1.14.12 @ 9 AM:
How fortunate that the Transportation Security Administration only hires the very best and very brightest:
TSA air marshal Adam Marshall was arrested by the Boston police department at 3:50 a.m. on December 10 after he allegedly argued with members of Occupy, called some of them prostitutes, struck one of Occupy’s organizers and main Tweeters in the face, grabbed her iPhone and then fled.
Marshall was pursued by some 25 Occupiers, ditching the phone as he ran, and then was arrested by Boston police, who were preparing to evict the camp.
It’s unclear why a federal air marshal, the armed undercover Homeland Security agents who accompany select commercial flights, was hanging around near the camp at 3 in the morning. According to witnesses, he entered the camp a little over an hour before the police evicted the 72-day-old camp from Dewey Plaza, after the protestors lost a court battle to get a permanent injunction against police action.
As a it turns out, one of the Occupy protesters made a video of Marshall in their encampment:
So, angry leftwing protesters chase the him from the TSA out of the camp. By the way, although I have doubts about the Occupy movement, the videographer is right about Marshall’s attire: he is wearing “a weird tuxedo-suit hybrid thing.” Always a poor choice, as tuxedos and suits should not be mixed.
Via Wired.com.