Investigations into the background of airport workers following September 11 terrorist attacks have landed at least 69 of them in trouble with the law in Salt Lake City where checks are particularly tough because it is the site of winter olympics starting on February 8. Federal officials have issued arrest warrant for the 69 workers, most of them accused of lying to get the security badges but have not been connected to any terrorist activity. The workers are mostly from Central and South America and were working in services like screening passengers and cargo, fueling aircraft, food services and cleaning. US Attorney Paul Warner said, “While there was no evidence of any terrorist connection, we are not going to wait around for something to happen.” Called ‘Operation Safe Travel’, it is a combined effort of immigration and naturalization service, the social security administration, the federal aviation administration and several other federal and state agencies. The goal, officials say, is to round up the illegal aliens who are suspected of using false documents to get security badges. Besides the 69 indicted, 200 other Salt Lake airport workers will lose jobs because they used false credentials on work applications. These employees will not be prosecuted because they worked in less secure areas of the airport, officials said.
Bureau Report