Administration picks disgraced judge for anti-terrorism post
By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN and LESLIE MILLER, Associated Press
Last Updated: July 28, 2004, 02:08:00 PM PDT
WASHINGTON (AP) - A key overseer of the Bush administration's unsuccessful efforts to create a more comprehensive screening process for airline passengers resigned in disgrace four years ago from the New Hampshire Supreme Court to avoid prosecution over his conduct on the bench.
W. Stephen Thayer III, who left New Hampshire's high court in 2000 under a deal with prosecutors, is now serving as deputy chief of the Transportation Security Administration's Office of National Risk Assessment.
Thayer resurrected his public career with a stint at a conservative political group in Washington before landing the job last summer where he oversees the administration's Computer-Assisted Passenger Prescreening System. The project encountered such technical difficulty and so much resistance from privacy advocates that it was sent back to the drawing board earlier this month.
The project, which was known as CAPPS II, was to develop software to bar any passenger from getting on an airplane if a computer analysis of unidentified government terrorist watchlists and private commercial electronic records judged him or her to be a security threat. The project has been sharply criticized by congressional auditors.
The administration's selection of Thayer - made with no fanfare last summer - has raised some eyebrows.
http://www.modbee.com/24hour/politics/story/1527054p-9049189c.html
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