WMATA issued a strongly worded response today to an Examiner editorial that the agency said falsely accuses Metro employees of being involved in the farecard scam that resulted in the arrests of six individuals on Friday. Here’s what the Examiner editorial board wrote:

Metro personnel in the police, technology and financial offices — who are supposed to be monitoring such transactions — may have been involved, since counterfeiting magnetized farecards is a bit more complicated than just printing up a batch on a color copier at Kinko’s. Catoe hinted that the counterfeiters may have had access to the same kind of software used to read legitimate farecards, since they knew how to trick the machines into accepting the fakes. Metro employees and vendors would be the most likely to have access to such privileged information.

WMATA’s response, which denies that any Metro employees are implicated in the farecard scam, includes statements like “Shame on The Examiner!” and “In the future, the newspaper should stick to the facts.” The full letter is below the jump.