[JYO] TSA Chief At Dulles Is Charged With DWI

TSA Chief At Dulles Is Charged With DWI  
Agency Says Official Had Code Orange Duty  
By Steven Ginsberg
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday,  January 2, 2004; Page B01  
< 
The chief of the Transportation Security Administration at Dulles  
International Airport was placed on administrative leave yesterday after being  
charged 
with drunken driving while he was on duty for a New Year's Eve Code  Orange 
alert, officials said. 
Acting federal security director Charles Brady was pulled over about 1 a.m.  
by a Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority police officer who saw him  
driving erratically on Route 28 near Dulles, airport spokeswoman Tara Hamilton  
said.  
Brady, 49, was taken to the Fairfax County jail, where he was booked at 3  
a.m. He was released at 1 p.m. yesterday after being charged with driving while 
 
intoxicated, said spokesman Lt. Tyler Corey, who described Brady as 
"extremely  cooperative" during his stay.  
On a night considered at particular risk of terrorism, with extraordinary  
security actions in place across the country, Brady was supposed to be at his  
airport post until 2 a.m. TSA spokeswoman Jennifer Marty said that Brady should 
 have been partcipating in a security exercise to ensure the safety of air  
travelers at that hour.  
"Obviously it was New Year's, and obviously it was not only a chance to  
practice but to be on site during the holiday to make sure everything goes  
smoothly," Marty said. Asked who at the airport had indeed made sure everything 
 
went smoothly at that hour, Marty replied, "I couldn't tell you." 
Reached at his home in Oak Hill last night, Brady maintained that he was  
stopped at 2:30 a.m., 30 minutes after his shift had ended. He said he had 
spent  
his final work hours monitoring flights and declined to discuss his 
whereabouts  after that.  
"I'm just waiting for the results of [the TSA] investigation," he said.  
Brady was arrested not long after the final passengers from a British Airways 
 plane detained for hours because of security concerns were released from  
interviews at Dulles by TSA officials and FBI agents.  
Flight 223, en route from London Heathrow Airport with 247 passengers, had  
been escorted to Dulles y U.S. fighter jets. It landed just after 7 p.m.  
Wednesday and was directed to a remote area, several hundred feet from a  
terminal 
gate, where baggage was searched and the plane inspected. 
The nation was put under a Code Orange alert -- the second-highest level --  
on Dec. 21 because of heightened fears of terrorism over the holiday season.  
That immediately triggered stepped-up security procedures across the country 
to  protect government buildings, critical infrastructure such as nuclear 
plants and  railroads, harbors, shopping malls and other locations where people 
congregate.  
Security officials cited a particular risk from terrorists commandeering a  
plane heading to the United States from a foreign country and using it as a  
weapon as they did in Washington and New York City in 2001. Six Air France  
flights heading to Los Angeles were canceled before Christmas, and two  
London-to-Dulles flights were canceled yesterday because of security concerns.  
U.S. officials said yesterday that an Aeromexio flight from Mexico City to  
Los Angeles also was canceled Wednesday evening for the same reasons.  
Marty said the agency had named Adm. James Shear as acting federal security  
director at Dulles pending its internal investigation into Brady's arrest. 
Brady said he came to Dulles in April 2002 as deputy federal security  
director. He became acting director in July when Scott McHugh resigned shortly  
after raising concerns internally about being shorthanded and unable to screen  
all luggage for explosives.

Other related posts: