Just Before September 11, 2001: US Has Only 32 Air Marshals and None on Domestic Flights

The number of US air marshals (specially trained, plainclothes armed federal agents deployed on airliners) has shrunk from about 2,000 during the Cold War to 32 by 9/11. None are deployed on domestic flights. The number is later increased to about 2,000, but it would take about 120,000 marshals at a cost of $10 billion a year to protect all daily flights to, from, or within the US. [Los Angeles Times, 1/14/2002; 9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 85]