The latest scandal from the Transportation Security Administration centers on the embattled Computer-Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS II) airline-passenger-data-mining unit. Unlike previous CAPPS scandals, which centered on wholesale leaks of sensitive personal information to unsupervised outside firms, or GAOs scathing charge that CAPPS II fell short of seven of eight inportant measures, this one centers on Deputy Chief of the TSA's Office of National Risk Assessment, W. Stephen Thayer III.

In early 2000, Thayer resigned from the New Hampshire Supreme Court in a deal with NH Attorney General Philip T. McLaughlin. McLaughlin had impaneled a grand jury and, as he wrote in his official report, "Stephen Thayer was the named target of the Grand Jury." But Thayer and his lawyers cut a deal with McLaughlin: in return for Thayer's resignation from the Court, McLaughlin pulled the plug on grand jury consideration of felony and misdemeanor charges. This allowed both sides to claim victory: McLaughlin has said he stands by his 2000 report, while at the time, Thayer insisted, "I committed no criminal act."

The charges stemmed from Thayer's costly divorce, and his alleged efforts to influence that case. After his March 31, 2000 resignation, Thayer continued legal maneuuvers, trying to cut down on his $36,000 a year alimony and complaining that the stigma of his forced resignation made it difficult for im to earn a living.

Thayer has no bio on the TSA website. News reports say that he has rarely appeared in public, and his appointment took place without the usual publicity.

The Associated Press reported that when Thayer testified before a Pentagon advisory committee on privacy and computerized data-mining, last year, the other witnesses supplied a biography, but Thayer did not. Asked for his background, Thayer evaded the question.

TSA Spokesman Mark Hatfield reported that hiring managers knew about the New Hampshire misconduct, and concluded it was nothing that would prevent him being hired.

FMI: www.tsa.gov, http://doj.nh.gov/publications/nreleases/pdf/reportonthayer.pdf