• Congress to decide risk-based vs. 100% screening debate on air cargo security

    One of the many aviation security-related issues Congress will have to grapple with is cargo security; TSA argues that risk-based strategies are adequate; Congress, though, is pressing for 100 percent screening of air cargo; the problem with a 100 percent security screening mandate is cost: the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates a $250 million cost in the first year and $650 million per year for the following five years to implement the mandate for 100 percent baggage screening on passenger aircraft; the Congressional Research Service (CRS) estimates that the mandate could cost more than $700 million just in the first year and perhaps as high as several billion dollars annually

  • Yemen buys cargo screeners

    Yemen is deploying Z Backscatter Vans from Billerica, Massachusetts-based American Science and Engineering Inc. to screen cargo and vehicles for explosives and contraband

  • White House held up regulation to stop gun flow to Mexico

    Tens of thousands of semi-automatic rifles are smuggled from the United States to Mexico every year, increasing the level of violence of the war among the drug cartels and creating a situation in which the cartels often out-gun the Mexican police and military; on Friday, the ATF published an emergency proposal in the Federal Register; the proposal requires dealers to report to the ATF anytime they make two or more sales over a 5-day period of semiautomatic rifles that have a caliber greater than .22 and a detachable magazine; it would be valid for six months; Justice wanted the proposal to be placed in the Register in the summer, but the White House held it up — some say because of election considerations

  • U.S. anxious over terror attacks during holidays

    Counterterrorism officials are tracking threats to the United States and Europe from al Qaeda and affiliated groups during the holiday season; the FBI and DHS have alerted state and local law enforcers to be wary of suspicious behavior and to change security measures regularly to interfere with any terrorist plans; the warning was sent in a bulletin Wednesday; there is specific intelligence of other attacks being planned against Europe during the holiday season, according to U.S. officials say

  • IATA unveils plan for airport security tunnels

    The International Air Transport Association unveiled a plan to replace lengthy and sometimes intrusive passenger security checks at airports with a new system aimed at finding “bad people, not bad objects”; under the project, an early version of which could be in place within 2-3 years if governments cooperate, travelers would be directed down one of three security tunnels depending on profiles based on biometric data and flight booking data; the IATA plan would eliminate the need for nearly all intrusive screening as well as routine scanning and searches of carry-on luggage; IATA says the system would not be based on racial or ethnic profiling

  • FAA lost track of one-third of the 357,000 private aircraft in U.S.

    The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is missing key information on who owns one-third — or 119,000 — of the 357,000 private and commercial aircraft in the United States — a gap the agency fears could be exploited by terrorists and drug traffickers; next year, the FAA will begin canceling the registration certificates of all 357,000 aircraft and require owners to register anew

  • TSA approves for-pay faster security lines at airports

    TSA has given the green light to a “trusted traveler” lane at another one of the U.S. busiest airports; the lane at Denver International Airport is operated by New York-based Alclear LLC, a company that pre-screens fliers, giving them quicker access to security checkpoints

  • Smuggled snakes expose flaws in Indonesian airport security

    Customs officials in Abu Dhabi arrest a traveler from Indonesia who arrived at Abu Dhabi with four snakes, two parrots, and a squirrel hidden in his luggage; Indonesian airport security officials say the only way the passenger could have smuggled the animals on board was for airport officials to be complicit in the illegal wildlife trade; this raises even more serious concerns about Indonesian airport security; in February, Indonesian customs officials seized 700 snakes and 3,400 pig-nosed turtles hidden inside a cargo consignment marked as fresh fruit

  • New underwear line reminds TSA of the 4th Amendment

    If you are not happy with the new, intrusive security measures TSA has mandated at airports across the United States, you may wish to buy “4th Amendment Wear”; metallic ink printed on shirts spells out the privacy rights stated in the amendment and is designed to appear in TSA scanners; the 4th Amendment Wear line also includes non-metallic options, including underpants for both adults and children; should a passenger be stripped down, instead of the full amendment, they will receive a more direct message: “Read the 4th Amendment Perverts”

  • A woman wearing only black underwear gets hour-long airport security search

    An Oklahoma woman tried to avoid being subjected to an enhanced pat-down at the Oklahoma City airport by showing up for the flight wearing only her underwear; the fact that she was wearing black knickers and a black bra did not make a difference, though: after traces of nitrate were found on her body, she was given an enhanced search, which made her miss her flight to Phoenix

  • Al Qaeda seeks to surgically implant bombs into "martyrs'" bodies

    Al Qaeda operatives are looking for ways to defeat the growing number of full-body scanners at airports around the world; they recently tried to deploy a pair of kamikaze canines on a U.S.-bound airplane from Baghdad airport; the bombs were placed inside the dogs’ bodies, but the plot failed because the bombs were so poorly stitched inside the dogs, that the dogs died; Web sites affiliated with al Qaeda are now calling of doctors and scientists sympathetic to the organization to help it devise ways for surgically stitching bombs inside human beings, to usher in what one of the organization’s operatives calls a “new kind of terrorism”

  • Harvard law students sue TSA over pat-downs, full-body scanning

    Two Harvard law students sue TSA, seeking to rein in use of full-body scans and pat-downs at airports; this is at least the sixth suit filed against the TSA since the agency put the enhanced screening procedures into widespread use following the so-called underwear bomber’s unsuccessful attempt to blow up a plane last Christmas with explosives hidden beneath his clothes; the pat-downs, which include “prodding and lifting of genitals and buttocks,” is so intrusive that, “if done non-consensually, would amount to sexual assault in most jurisdictions,” the Harvard students’ complaint says

  • Virginia politician: TSA's "enhanced pat-downs" part of "homosexual agenda"

    Eugene Delgaudio, a Loudon County, Virginia, supervisor e-mail constituents to say that “The next TSA official that gives you an ‘enhanced pat down’ could be a practicing homosexual secretly getting pleasure from your submission”

  • Manchester Airport biometric gate unilaterally imprisons traveler

    Manchester Airport has been testing biometric gates in one of its terminals; the gates work by scanning the passenger’s face using a camera and matching this to the image stored on the passport; if there is a match, the gates open and the passenger is allowed through, removing the need to speak to an immigration officer; the watchdog for the U.K. Border Agency says, however, that the facial recognition checks at Manchester Airport are being undermined by unreliable IT

  • Third lawsuit filed over TSA airport screening

    A Colorado attorney has asked a federal judge to order the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to abandon its airport screening procedures for U.S. citizens; the suit claims that the patdowns the plaintiff, his two daughters, ages 9 and 15, and a family friend were subjected to in San Diego were “disgusting, unconscionable, sexual in nature” and in violation of the Constitution’s protections against unreasonable searches; nationally, at least two other lawsuits have been filed over the TSA’s new procedures; public opinion appears to be shifting against TSA’s “enhanced patdowns,” even as support for full-body scanning appears to remains high