Recently in air security Category

They were in the witness protection program -- which is news in itself -- but the Justice Department didn't give their names to those who actually keep dangerous people from flying. Funny how all of Obama's mistakes go in the same direction. He never makes one in favor of conservatives, or civil liberties, or free speech, or against Islamic supremacism.

"Justice Dept. faulted over terrorist identities," by Pete Yost for the Associated Press, May 16 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department failed to provide the names of some terrorists in the witness protection program to the center that maintains the government's watch list used to keep dangerous people off airline flights, the department's inspector general said in a report Thursday.

As a result of the department's failure to properly share information, some in the witness protection program who were on the "no-fly" list were allowed to travel on commercial flights, the federal watchdog said.

"It was possible for known or suspected terrorists to fly on commercial airplanes in or over the United States and evade one of the government's primary means of identifying and tracking terrorists' movements and actions," the report said.

To help protect witnesses from the people and organizations against whom they testify, the U.S. Marshals Service provides cooperating witnesses with new names and identities.

"We found that the department was not authorizing the disclosure to the Terrorist Screening Center of the new identities provided to known or suspects terrorists" in the federal Witness Security Program, known officially as WitSec.

In response, the Justice Department said it has developed a highly restrictive travel policy that prohibits program participants with no-fly status from traveling on commercial flights.

The department said the number of former known or suspected terrorists ever admitted into the witness protection program was a fraction of 1 percent of those in the program.

The department said that to date, the FBI has not identified a national security threat tied to the participation of terrorism-linked witnesses in the program.

Pressure cooker bombs were used in the Boston Marathon jihad bombing. "Saudi traveler with pressure cooker arrested at Detroit Metro Airport," by Tresa Baldas for the Detroit Free Press, May 13 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Federal agents arrested a suspicious traveler with an altered Saudi Arabian passport at Detroit Metro Airport over the weekend after discovering a pressure cooker in his luggage.

According to a criminal complaint filed today in U.S. District Court, the passenger, Hussain Al Khawahir arrived at Detroit Metro on Friday from Saudi Arabia via Amersterdam [sic]. He had a visa and a Saudi Arabian passport, and told officers in the baggage control area that he would be visiting his nephew at the University of Toledo, the complaint said.

In the baggage area, two customs officers interviewed the passenger and noticed a page had been removed form the man’s passport, the complaint said. The man said that he did not know how the page was removed form the passport, and stated that the passport was locked in a box that only he, his wife and three minor children have access to in his home, the complaint said. His hometown was not listed in court documents.

While at the airport, customs and border officials also examined his luggage and found a pressure cooker inside. When questioned about it, the man initially said that he brought the pressure cooker for his nephew because pressure cookers are not sold in Saudi Arabia, the complaint said. The man then changed his story and admitted his nephew had purchased a pressure cooker in America before, but it “was cheap” and broke after the first use.

Then came the Miranda rights.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) enforcement officer read the passenger his rights. The man acknowledged that he understood those rights, both verbally and in writing at 4:25 p.m. A minute later, he invoked his right to remain silent, the complaint said.

Kawahir is in federal court in Detroit this afternoon, making his initial appearance on charges that he knowingly used an altered Saudi Arabian passport with missing pages, and made a materially false statement to a CBP officer about his pressure cooker in his possession, all to gain entry into the United States....

15 of the 19 were Saudis

What could possibly go wrong? "DHS questioned over decision to let Saudi passengers skip normal passport controls," from FoxNews.com, March 20 (thanks to Lookmann):

A Department of Homeland Security program intended to give "trusted traveler" status to low-risk airline passengers soon will be extended to Saudi travelers, opening the program to criticism for accommodating the country that produced 15 of the 19 hijackers behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Sources voiced concern about the decision to the Investigative Project on Terrorism, which issued a report Wednesday on the under-the-radar announcement -- which was first made by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano after meeting in January with her Saudi counterpart. According to the IPT, this would be the first time the Saudi government has been given such a direct role in fast-tracking people for entry into the United States.

"I think you have radical Wahhabism in certain elements in Saudi Arabia, and I think to be more lenient there than in other places would be a mistake," Rep. Frank Wolf told the Investigative Project on Terrorism. "There were 15 [hijackers] from that country, and there is a lot taking place in that region."

Only an exclusive handful of countries enjoy inclusion in the Global Entry program -- Canada, Mexico, South Korea and the Netherlands. According to the IPT, some officials are questioning why Saudi Arabia gets to reap the benefits of the program, when key U.S. allies like Germany and France are not enrolled; Israel has reached a deal with the U.S., but that partnership has not yet been implemented.

Any Saudi travelers cleared through the program will be able to bypass the normal customs line after providing passports and fingerprints. The status lasts for five years.

The decision is a turnaround, the IPT notes, from when Saudi Arabia was briefly placed on a list of countries whose U.S.-bound travelers would face higher scrutiny, in the wake of the failed Christmas Day bombing attempt in 2009.

But Napolitano spoke highly of "the bond between the United States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia" when she announced the change in January.

"By enhancing collaboration with the government of Saudi Arabia, we reaffirm our commitment to more effectively secure our two countries against evolving threats while facilitating legitimate trade and travel," Napolitano said.

The Global Entry program was launched in 2008 to expedite pre-approved passengers through the airport customs and security process when they arrive in the U.S. The program is designed to weed out low-risk passengers and enable authorities to zero in on those who may be more likely to pose a threat.

But the program has sparked controversy in the past. Critics objected in late 2010 when Mexican citizens were included in the program, raising concerns that drug cartels would quickly learn how to exploit loopholes in the plan. DHS officials, however, insisted at the time that people who attain trusted traveler status don't get a free pass and are still subject to random searches.

The program allows travelers who have undergone a thorough vetting process -- fingerprinting, background checks, interviews with customs agents, etc.-- to attain a low-risk status that allows them to skip the line at customs and complete their entry process at an automatic kiosk.

The TSA is not only incompetent, as this story shows. It is also always playing catch-up, always prohibiting the last thing jihadis used to try to blow up an airplane (which is why you still have to take off your shoes in the security line), but meanwhile, the jihadis have moved on to something else that the TSA cannot guess. And because of PC sensibilities, they devote just as much time to searching wheelchair-bound septuagenarian Iowa grandmothers as they do members of the demographic groups that actually engage in terror activity. The whole enterprise should be radically recast or shut down altogether. More TSA follies here and here and here. Close down the TSA!

"TSA screeners allow fed agent with fake bomb to pass through security at Newark Airport," by Philip Messing and Chuck Bennett for the New York Post, March 8:

An undercover TSA inspector with an improvised explosive device stuffed in his pants got past two security screenings at Newark Airport — including a pat-down — and was cleared to get on board a commercial flight, sources told The Post yesterday.

The breach took place Feb. 25, when the Transportation Security Administration’s special operations team — the agency’s version of internal affairs — staged a mock intrusion at the airport.

“This episode once again demonstrates how Newark Airport is the Ground Zero of TSA failures,” a source said.

The “bomber” was part of the four-person “Red Team” that posed as ticketed passengers and filed through the B1 checkpoint of Terminal B — home of American Airlines, JetBlue and Delta, sources said.

With the inert “bomb” stashed somewhere in his pants, he got through the magnetometer undetected at around 11 a.m. He was then pulled aside for a physical screening, and a TSA agent failed to discover the IED and allowed the “bomber” to go to his gate.

“He did have a simulated IED in his pants,” the source said. “They did not find it.”

The exact makeup of the mock IED was not available, but even devices small enough to be stashed in a passenger’s pants could blow a hole through a plane’s fuselage.

TSA inspectors have previously used mock bombs modeled after devices used by 2009 “underwear bomber” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and 2001 “shoe bomber” Richard Reid.

Only one member of the TSA’s terror team was stopped at the checkpoint — a female agent “carrying a simulated IED inside her carry-on that was inside a child’s doll,” the source said.

It had “wires sticking out” and was obviously suspicious and she was pulled aside, sources say.

The Red Team also targeted Terminal C the same day, although results from that test were unclear.

The TSA said in a statement that it would not provide details of any of its undercover operations.

“TSA regularly conducts covert testing of security layers. Regardless of the tests’ outcome, TSA officers are provided with immediate on-the-spot feedback so they receive the maximum training value that the drills offer,” the statement said.

“Due to the security-sensitive nature of the tests, TSA does not publicly share details about how they are conducted, what specifically is tested or the outcomes.”

Newark Airport, which has 1,400 screeners and supervisors, has long struggled with security.

Last year, 52 baggage and traveler screeners were fired and another 19 disciplined for major security lapses and thefts.

Newark Airport was where a screener left a note saying, “Get your freak on, girl,” after finding a vibrator in the bag of a Manhattan attorney in 2011.

And it was where, in 2010, an airport “Romeo” was able to walk unticketed and unscreened into a secure area so he could kiss his girlfriend goodbye.

Despite the security woes, the TSA this week declared it would soon allow travelers to carry non-locking knives up to 2.36 inches in length and a half-inch width onto airplanes.

Don't be concerned. The jihadis will have to shout "Fore!" before braining someone with a club.

Ultimately, these endless restrictions and relaxations and new restrictions and new relaxations in airline security are meaningless. A determined jihadi will find some way to thwart air security measures. The TSA is always one step behind the jihadis, restricting the new ways they have found to bring a plane down only after the fact.

"Flight attendants protest new policy on knives," from AP, March 7:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The vice president of a flight attendants union says a new policy that would allow airline passengers to carry small knives is "outrageous."

Sara Nelson, vice president of the Association of Flight Attendants, says they have to deal with "unruly passengers every day." She says flight attendants are an aircraft's "last line of defense," and says the new rule puts them "in a much more dangerous position."

On Tuesday the Transportation Security Administration announced a policy change that would allow airline passengers to carry small knives, souvenir baseball bats, golf clubs and other sports equipment onto planes, beginning next month.

Appearing Thursday on NBC's "Today," Nelson said the policy change "cannot stand." She says even small knives can be deadly weapons.

The Council on American-Dentistry Relations has issued an outraged press release calling for an investigation of toothbrushophobia at high levels of the TSA.

More TSA follies here and here and here. Close down the TSA!

"Battery-powered toothbrush prompts airport scare: A bomb squad responded," from the Associated Press, January 4 (thanks to Maxwell):

ATLANTA (AP) — The tick-tick-ticking sound of a bag alarmed employees at the world's busiest airport, but it has turned out to be nothing more than a passenger's toothbrush.

The battery-powered toothbrush was responsible for the sound that gave rise to fears of a bomb at Atlanta's airport Friday morning. It led police to cordon off a section of the north terminal while a bomb squad responded....

Doubtless he was just elated over Obama's reelection and getting a bit over-exuberant. The passengers were greasy Islamophobes for not taking his "Islamic slogans" as declarations of peace. "Mid-air scare: Man turns violent on Mumbai-Delhi flight, raises Islamic slogans," from TNN, November 8:

NEW DELHI: In what was described by a frequent flyer as the "scariest flight of his life", a passenger on board a Mumbai-Delhi IndiGo flight suddenly turned violent mid-air on Wednesday and started raising Islamic slogans while threatening to harm the aircraft. The situation turned so alarming that the cabin crew and passengers pinned down the flyer, Mursalim Shaikh, 41, and blocked the aisle with a food trolley to prevent him from making a dash for the cockpit.

The IndiGo flight 6E 196 made a quick descent in Delhi after seeking priority landing, where Shaikh, a used car dealer from Babu Tansen Chawl in Virar, was handed over to security agencies.

The drama began about an hour after the plane had taken off from Mumbai at 3.45pm and was flying over Jaipur. Shaikh, bearded and dressed in a pathani suit, was seated on seat 28 A. "He suddenly turned around on the seat to face an aged woman on 29A and started muttering menacingly to her," a flyer said. An airhostess reportedly asked Shaikh to sit properly, but he kept gazing at her before suddenly slapping her, turning very aggressive.

Recalling the hijack scare on a Delhi-Mumbai flight, a co-passenger said, "Shaikh was waving a cellphone and threatening 'sabko dekh loonga' (I will teach everyone a lesson)." Male passengers and the crew together pinned Shaikh down. Then women and children seated in the rear were sent to the front and a food trolley was placed in the aisle to prevent Shaikh from going towards the cockpit.

Confirming the incident, IndiGo said, "This unruly passenger started screaming and also physically assaulted a crew member. The passenger also got violent with co-passengers, and tried to access the forward of the aircraft. IndiGo crew made appropriate announcements and deployed security measures to block access to the front of the aircraft and the front galley."

Said a passenger, "We landed soon after the man had been overpowered." The flight commander had requested for security personnel on arrival. The passenger was taken out at 6.13pm and handed over to the CISF. IndiGo said it was in the process of lodging an FIR. "An untoward conduct of this nature is of serious concern to us. We will take all necessary action to address this violation," IndiGo said.

While passengers said the landing in Delhi came as a huge relief, the drama did not end there. For, the airline and airport personnel did not handle the situation as professionally as the crew had done in the air. "Once the aircraft door opened, we expected security personnel to rush in and arrest the flyer. But the airline's own security team came into the aircraft. We were first asked to alight and then a second announcement was made asking us to stay seated. We were wondering why security agencies did not just whisk the guy away?" said a passenger.

Why indeed?

The IGI domestic airport police have arrested Shaikh and registered a case for criminal intimidation, assault and threatening the crew. The Intelligence Bureau is quizzing him.

Clearly they were Islamophobes cravenly interfering with the man's prayers. "Terror scare: Arik passengers wrestle man mid-air," by Everest Amaefule for Punch, October 24 (thanks to Chimmy):

Passengers and crew of an Abuja-bound aircraft belonging to Arik Air were thrown into panic on Tuesday when a passenger behaving in a strange manner stood up and screamed Allahu Akbar(God is great) midair.

The scared passengers, who took off from Maiduguri, Borno State, rushed to the strange passenger identified as Aminu Galadima, grabbed him and searched him to ascertain if he had a bomb strapped to his body.

Our correspondent learnt that the situation made the pilot of the aircraft with registration number 5N MJE to immediately radio the Air Traffic Control and airport security operatives.

The Special Assistant to the Minister of Aviation on Media, Mr. Joe Obi, confirmed the development in a statement made available to our correspondent in Abuja.

Obi said the passenger in question went through the necessary security checks at the airport and did not raise any suspicion until he started shouting midair.

He said, “A passenger, Aminu Galadima, a native of Minna, Niger State, boarded a Maiduguri-Abuja- bound Arik Air aircraft with registration number 5N MJE after going through mandatory security screening.

“Nothing incriminating; no explosives or weapons whatsoever were found on him. However, midair, the passenger began to act strangely, loudly screaming, ‘God is great.’ Fellow passengers, alarmed by his behaviour rushed to apprehend him.

“A thorough search by fellow passengers and crew members revealed nothing dangerous on him. The pilot immediately radioed Air Traffic Control and airport security operatives.

“The plane landed safely at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja at exactly 12.53hrs and the suspect was handed over to the SSS at about 14.45hrs. He is currently being interrogated.”...

Suburban man

He's just a "suburban man," says the Chicago Sun-Times, but in 2005, a Daily Southtown story said this:

Prosecutors told a federal appeals court Tuesday that Enaam Arnaout, the imprisoned leader of a now-defunct Palos Hills-based Muslim charity, should have been dealt with as a terrorist and sentenced to much more time behind bars.

Arnaout, 42, is serving an 11-year prison sentence for defrauding donors of Benevolence International Foundation. The Syrian-born Justice resident pleaded guilty two years ago to charges he used some charitable donations to help armed rebels in Bosnia and Chechnya....

But in their own appeal of the sentence, prosecutors claim the judge who handled the case should have ruled that Arnaout promoted terrorism — a finding that would have mandated he spend at least 20 years behind bars. During brief oral arguments before the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, Assistant U.S. Attorney John C. Kocoras said Arnaout's sentence was "unreasonably low."

The U.S. attorney's office has long insisted Arnaout was linked to al-Qaida and at one point was a close associate of Osama bin Laden. The legal case tying Arnaout to al-Qaida fizzled after a series of adverse court rulings, and a judge ultimately concluded the government had "failed to connect the dots" between Arnaout and terrorism.

And even though prosecutors eventually agreed to drop the terrorism charges against Arnaout in exchange for his guilty plea to fraud, they still maintain the case is much more serious than a simple money-swiping scheme....

But now he would have us believe that he is on the terrorist watch list by "mistake" -- it's odd that he hasn't yet played the "Islamophobia" card.

"Suburban man says he’s stuck in Egypt thanks to terrorist watch list mistake," by Frank Main in the Chicago Sun Times, October 8 (thanks to Kenneth):

A southwest suburban man — a convicted felon required to return to Chicago under the conditions of his federal probation — says he’s stranded in legal limbo outside the United States because he’s apparently on a U.S. terrorist watch list.

Enaam Arnaout pleaded guilty in 2003 to funneling money to Islamic fighters in Bosnia and Chechnya.

The former director of the Benevolence International Foundation in Palos Hills was sentenced to 10 years in prison for defrauding contributors to the charity.

He admitted he siphoned a portion of the charity’s $20 million in donations to buy equipment for soldiers, even though the money was intended for widows and orphans.

Arnaout, 50, a Bridgeview resident, denied he was ever associated with al-Qaida, and prosecutors dropped terrorism charges against him in exchange for his guilty plea.

Arnaout, who was placed on supervised release last year, received permission this summer from U.S. District Judge Suzanne Conlon to travel to Saudi Arabia and Jordan to visit family members. He was allowed to stay for 41 days before returning to the Chicago area.

In a letter to the judge, Arnaout’s brother in Saudi Arabia had begged for her to approve the trip so Arnaout could see his ailing mother.

In court papers filed Monday in Chicago, Arnaout said he’s been stuck in Egypt because he is apparently on a U.S. no-fly list maintained by the Terrorist Screening Center and administered by the FBI.

On July 23, he had traveled from O’Hare Airport to Saudi Arabia with a planned layover in Jordan.

But in Jordan, he was told he wasn’t welcome to enter that country and that he could only receive a transit visa allowing him to board a connecting flight to Saudi Arabia, Arnaout said.

In Saudi Arabia, he contacted his probation officer here, who said he could meet his family in Egypt rather than Jordan, according to court papers.

On Aug. 23, he left Saudi Arabia and arrived in Cairo. But when his trip was over, and he tried to leave for the United States on Sept. 2, he was told he couldn’t board the flight and was instructed to contact the U.S. embassy in Cairo, Arnaout said....

Arnaout is now asking the judge to grant his repatriation request or terminate his supervised release.

His preference is to return to the United States “where he is a citizen and now has his roots,” he said in his filing.

“However, due to the health problems he is experiencing in Egypt and his lack of any lawful ability to work in Egypt, he must be permitted some way to lawfully return to Saudi Arabia where his family remains if he is not to be permitted a return to the United States,” his filing said.

Send him to the Saudis!

Close down the TSA! In the atmosphere of politically correct authoritarianism in which we live, the TSA cannot focus on the actual source of the threat to air security, and so has opted for intrusive questioning and the unwarranted detaining of free citizens. This is madness.

"Steve Gunn: Just say no when the TSA asks you to 'chat,'" by Steve Gunn for The Muskegon Chronicle, August 22 (thanks to Benedict):

I came face-to-face with Big Brother the other day, and it was a frightening experience.

He actually presented himself in the deceptive form of a young, attractive female officer, working for the Transportation Security Administration at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

At first she simply seemed chatty and friendly. She looked at my airline boarding pass and noted that I was coming from Denver. Then she mentioned that I was headed from Detroit to Grand Rapids.

"That's a pretty short flight," she said.

"Talk to my travel agent," I grumbled.

At that point she asked me what my business would be in Grand Rapids.

"I'm headed home," I replied.

Then she wanted to know where home was. That's when the mental alarms went off and I realized I was being interrogated by Big Brother in drag.

I asked her why the federal government needed to know where I was going and what I would be doing. She explained that the questions were part of a new security "pilot program."

I then told her I am an American citizen, traveling within my own country, and I wasn't breaking any laws. That's all the federal government needed to know, and I wasn't going to share any more.

Not because I had anything to hide. It was because we live in a free country where innocent people are supposedly protected from unwarranted government intrusion and harassment.

At that point the agent yelled out, "We have another refusal." One of my bags was seized and I was momentarily detained and given a hand-swab, which I believe was to test for residue from bomb-making materials.

I passed the bomb test and was told I could move on, but I hung around a moment and told everyone within listening range what I thought about this terrifying experience.

So, this is what we've come to. The federal government now has a need to know where citizens are going and what they are doing before they are allowed to peacefully pass. I'm starting to wonder what separates us from Russia or Cuba.

Of course, I went home, got on the computer and learned more about this "pilot program." I discovered that it's been going on for a few years now at selected airports around the nation.

TSA officers, being the brilliant people they are, are given the responsibility of picking out airline passengers "whose facial expressions, body language or other behavior indicate a security risk." They are then subjected to a "chat down," where officers interrogate you and decide if you are indeed a terrorist.

Hmmm. So what did I do to make them label me a security risk?

Well, it was 9:30 in the morning, and I was just coming from a three-day music festival in the Colorado mountains, so I probably looked pretty groggy as I stood in the half-hour line to reach the TSA security checkpoint.

Perhaps it was my odd facial expressions. For the past few weeks I've been suffering from a condition called "Bell's palsy," which includes temporary paralysis of all the muscles on one side of my face. I can't smile, and the condition makes me look even grumpier than usual.

I suppose the government figures that grumpy looking people with droopy faces are potential terrorists. God help any stroke victims who try to travel. If they suffer from paralysis beyond their face they may be detained and questioned for weeks.

This program is a bizarre and outlandish violation of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which is supposed to protect us from "unreasonable search and seizure" by agents of the government, unless they have probable cause. I doubt any judge would have considered my droopy face as sufficient cause for harassment.

I lived through 9/11 and I understand the need for tight security at airports. I put up with the ritual of taking off my shoes and belt and standing in a machine that shows TSA agents physical details that are really none of their business.

The idea is to keep dangerous materials that could be used in a terrorist attack off commercial airliners. Fair enough. But stopping people because they look sort of funny to security agents, and probing into their personal business, is going too far.

What's next? Check lanes on city streets, where jackbooted thugs from Washington, D.C., will stop everyone every morning to ask them where they're going and what they're up to? And if our answers are not what the government wants to hear, perhaps we'll be sent home and put under surveillance, to make sure we're not involved in anything that Big Brother doesn't approve of....

And worst of all, Big Brother doesn't approve of those who are interested in defending our Constitutional freedoms against Islamization.

Close down the TSA! In the atmosphere of politically correct authoritarianism in which we live, the TSA cannot focus on the actual source of the threat to air security, and so has apparently opted to zero in not only on "Middle Easterners," but also on "Hispanics traveling to Miami, for instance, or blacks wearing baseball caps backward." Yet when in recent memory did Hispanics traveling to Miami, or blacks wearing baseball caps backward ever commit a large-scale air hijacking and terror attack?

By doing this, TSA officials open themselves up to the charges of racism that are the preoccupation of this New York Times article. And so aside from the idiocy of the TSA, the goal of the article is nothing short of sinister: as Jihad Watch reader Bill put it, "the obvious tactic" of the Times article and the groups that are protesting against the TSA practices "is to assail and indict the process by inviting Blacks and Hispanics along for the ride, then getting the baby (security) thrown out with the bathwater (claims of discrimination)."

"Racial Profiling Rife at Airport, U.S. Officers Say," by Michael S. Schmidt and Eric Lichtblau for the New York Times, August 11 (thanks to all who sent this in):

BOSTON — More than 30 federal officers in an airport program intended to spot telltale mannerisms of potential terrorists say the operation has become a magnet for racial profiling, targeting not only Middle Easterners but also blacks, Hispanics and other minorities.

Reagan National Airport in Washington is one of more than 150 airports that are already using behavior detection officers.

In interviews and internal complaints, officers from the Transportation Security Administration’s “behavior detection” program at Logan International Airport in Boston asserted that passengers who fit certain profiles — Hispanics traveling to Miami, for instance, or blacks wearing baseball caps backward — are much more likely to be stopped, searched and questioned for “suspicious” behavior.

“They just pull aside anyone who they don’t like the way they look — if they are black and have expensive clothes or jewelry, or if they are Hispanic,” said one white officer, who along with four others spoke with The New York Times on the condition of anonymity.

The T.S.A. said on Friday that it had opened an investigation into the claims....

Close down the TSA! "Security breaches at Newark Airport," by Lisa Evers for Fox 5 News, August 6 (thanks to David):

Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials say United Airlines checkpoint operations at Terminal C at Newark Liberty International Airport were shut down Sunday after TSA and local authorities tried to find a passenger that wasn't fully screened.

The Terminal C shutdown threw vacation plans and flight connections into chaos. Law enforcement sources told Fox 5 News there wasn't just one close call here – there were two and both had to do with potential bomb making materials.

The lines were long and frustration was high at Newark Airport after the incidents. The TSA says a woman who set off an alarm managed to get past a screening point and onto a flight to Cleveland without being checked for what caused the alarm.

The TSA says it notified the Port Authority Police after the incident. The Port Authority says every single passenger had to be re-screened.

Law enforcement sources told Fox 5 News what officials left out of their public statements – that the woman had tested positive for residue of possible explosive material on her hands, and slipped away from the TSA before she could be thoroughly screened.

About two hours earlier there was another incident that was detailed in a report obtained exclusively by Fox 5 News. Sources say a positive explosives alert it was generated by an oversized checked bag that set off an alarm for possible explosives material.

The bag went missing for about 45 minutes. The TSA says the bag was eventually found and the Essex County Bomb Squad determined it was not a threat....

Actually, oddly enough, it is Islamic jihadists who misunderstand Islam so spectacularly as to deploy these bombs. And U.S. officials will always be one step behind those who spend all their days plotting how to please their god through blood and murder.

"US on lookout for terrorists using upgraded underwear bombs," from the Associated Press, July 27 (thanks to Kenneth):

US security officials are on the lookout for upgraded underwear bombs containing a new type of explosive, it has been disclosed.

The revelation follows analysis of a bomb intercepted by a CIA operation in Yemen.

John Pistole, the US transportation security administrator, told an audience at a security forum in Aspen, Colorado that the device smuggled out by a double agent earlier this year was an upgrade from the underwear bomb carried by Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on to a Detroit-bound airliner at Christmas 2009.

"We found in the underwear plot, part 2 … that a different type of explosive had been used than the previous one," Pistole said.

"So we have gone back and recalibrated all the equipment and we have been working with our canine to detect this different type of explosive."...

Oh, well, then, we should never ever vet them! "Napolitano: ‘Historically’ DHS Hasn’t Vetted U.S. Citizens Against No-Fly List Before They Take Flight Lessons," by Edwin Mora for CNS News, July 25 (thanks to Ron):

(CNSNews.com) -- Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told lawmakers today that, historically, her department has chosen not to vet U.S. citizens against the no-fly list before they take flight lessons at American flight-training schools because the law that deals with screening such people is unclear.

However, when asked to comment on a Tranportation Security Administration (TSA) official who said that U.S. citizens on the no-fly list are not vetted prior to taking flight lessons, Napolitano said, back on July 19, that the official may not be aware of all the security precautions in place to stop a no-fly list person from getting a pilot’s license.

Maintained by the U.S. government’s Terrorist Screening Center (TSC), the no-fly list is comprised of individuals who are not allowed to board a commercial aircraft for travel in and out of the United States. The list, created in response to the 9/11 attacks, contains about 10,000 names, including that of U.S. citizens.

At a hearing today of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the ranking-member of the committee, asked Napolitano, “Last week, we were told that American citizens can be trained to fly planes and not be vetted against the no-fly list. We were told that foreigners are vetted through a robust process -- that would only start once they are cleared. The question was whether or not a process can be put where anyone, before they’re admitted into a flight school, would be vetted and the testimony from the department at that time was it couldn’t be done. Have you looked at that since that testimony was presented to this committee?”

“I have,” said Napolitano.

Rep. Thompson then asked, “What is your position on it?”

Napolitano said, “Well, the answer is yes, there’s a distinction between U.S. citizens and foreign persons who are seeking to get flight training. With respect to U.S. citizens who may be on one of our watch-lists, they’re a variety of ways that we can and do keep abreast of their activities.”

“I don’t want to go into those in open setting, but the law is somewhat unclear as to whether we can vet a U.S. citizen prior to their application for certification from the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration],” said Napolitano.

“So the department historically has taken the position that we cannot formally vet them, any U.S. citizen before that application,” she said.

Later, a ranking committee member said, “Right now, you also admit that that’s a problem,” in reference to the non-formal vetting of U.S. citizens on the no-fly list who want to attend flight school.

Napolitano said, “It can be a gap, but, again, let me just say it can be a gap that would be easily filled a number of ways and those for whom we actually have watch-list information, there’s a variety of ways we receive information about possible flight school training, but it would be nice to tidy up the law a little bit.”...

Yes, it would be so very nice!

Flight schools must not provide "flight training to a foreign student unless the Secretary of Homeland Security first determines that the student does not pose a threat to aviation or national security." But actually to do this checking would be "Islamophobic." And anyway, what could go wrong?

"9/11 Flashback: US Flight Schools Still Unknowingly Training Terrorists?," by Lee Ferran and Jason Ryan for ABC News, July 18 (thanks to Kenneth):

More than a decade after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 Americans, some foreign flight students are still not subject to terror database screening until after they've completed pilot training, according to a new report from the government's watchdog.

"Thus, foreign nationals obtaining flight training with the intent to do harm, such as three of the pilots and leaders of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, could have already obtained the training needed to operate an aircraft before they received any type of vetting," says report, published today by the Government Accountability Office....

After the attacks, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) established the Alien Flight Student Program (AFSP), which is designed to prevent flight schools regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration from "providing flight training to a foreign student unless the Secretary of Homeland Security first determines that the student does not pose a threat to aviation or national security."

But the new GAO report says that the AFSP database is woefully behind and some of the more than 25,000 foreign nationals who were in the FAA airmen registry were not found in the AFSP database, "indicating that these individuals had not applied to the AFSP or been vetted by the TSA before taking flight training and receiving an FAA airman certificate."...

An idea whose time has come. "Close Down the TSA!," by Pamela Geller in the American Thinker, July 10:

It got hardly any notice in the mainstream media, but the New York Post did report on June 24 that "a JFK Airport terminal had to be evacuated and hundreds of passengers marched back through security screening all because one dimwitted agent failed to realize his metal detector had been unplugged." The Post called this an example of "the TSA's bungling," but actually it was a telling indication of what is wrong with our airport security procedures, and it shows why the TSA should be shut down altogether.

"The chaos at Terminal 7," the Post reported, "was caused by screener Alija Abdul Majed, who had manned Lane No. 1 during the morning shift with no idea his metal detector had no juice, sources said."

A Muslim TSA screener, Alija Abdul Majed, left his screener unplugged for hours. This was no accident. This was a dry run. Majed, said the Post, failed "to realize that alert lights never flashed once as streams of passengers filed through the dead detector." Yeah, right.

We have devout Muslim screeners screening for devout Muslims? This defines insanity. Nor is it the first such incident. The Post reported in June 2011 that "chilling Islamic graffiti found in the bathroom of a jet due to take off from Newark Airport was inexplicably erased by a cleaner after the Transportation Safety Administration waited 47 critical minutes to contact cops."

We have an entire government agency, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), dedicated to protecting us from terrorists who are largely Muslim. We have torturous security procedures at every stage of air travel. We bear unfathomable costs in taxpayer dollars, and even worse, we have to put up with the surrender of privacy and individual rights because of Islamic jihad -- because of the 9/11 Muslim terrorists, and because of the British Muslims who planned to blow up seven planes and kill 4,000 Americans and/or Britons in the name of Islam in 2006, and because of Richard Reid, the Muslim with the exploding shoes, and because of the Christmas Day bomber, the Muslim with the exploding crotch.

How invasive is the TSA? They are doing vaginal pat-downs on six-year-olds. How debased is a society that still has not tried the Fort Hood jihadi, but treats six-year-old little girls like common criminals? Remember: for the TSA, it is more acceptable to traumatize a little girl than risk offending a jihadist. That child is scarred by this. Enough. Yet there is always more: in one notorious incident, because she was wearing a panty liner that obscured the screener's view of her genitals, a TSA official subjected a menstruating woman to a fondling "so invasive that I was left crying and dealing with memories that I thought had been dealt with years ago of prior sexual assaults."

The TSA is a government agency of attrition and harassment. Yet it is operating at a time when Obama is enforcing a sharia ban on government agencies: we cannot address jihad or the teachings that mandate Islamic imperialism and violence for the glory of Allah. Obama has banned words relating to Islam and jihad from the anti-terror lexicon. When in India, he was asked for his opinion, his "take" on jihad, and he said, "Islam is one of the world's great religions."

If there's no Islamic terrorism, why do we need the TSA? Get rid of it.

Read it all.

This happened a couple of weeks ago and no flights went down, but it could have been a test of how to get people through security with material that would otherwise be detected, which they could then stash somewhere and retrieve later if they had to be re-screened. Or it could just be an incompetent TSA employee (there are certainly more than enough of those to go around) who just happened to be a Muslim. There is no way to be sure at this point, although it would be refreshing, albeit unlikely, if law enforcement did a bit of digging into the activities of Alija Abdul Majed. In any case, this incident underscores how useless the TSA really is. They are always one step behind the jihadis, who are always thinking of new ways to murder for their god, and they steadfastly refuse to adopt screening measures that would focus on the groups that actually pose a terror threat -- to do so would be "Islamophobic," of course. And so instead, everyone has to put up with their intrusiveness and incompetence.

"Unplugged metal detector triggers JFK chaos: sources," by Philip Messing and Candice M. Giove in the New York Post, June 24 (thanks to the Investigative Project):

These fools are keeping us safe?!?

The TSA’s bungling reached a new low yesterday when a JFK Airport terminal had to be evacuated and hundreds of passengers marched back through security screening all because one dimwitted agent failed to realize his metal detector had been unplugged, sources told The Post.

The stunning error led to hours of delays, two planes called back from the runway and infinite frustration for furious passengers.

“The truth is, this is the failure of the most basic level of diligence,” a law-enforcement source said.

“How can you expect the public to feel confident of the mission of the TSA if they don’t even know if the lights are turned on?”

The chaos at Terminal 7 was caused by screener Alija Abdul Majed, who had manned Lane No. 1 during the morning shift with no idea his metal detector had no juice, sources said.

Amazingly, he failed to realize that alert lights never flashed once as streams of passengers filed through the dead detector, the sources said.

Majed was so clueless that he couldn’t even tell police how long the machine had been shut off or how it happened, the sources said.

“It was simply an unplugged machine — the TSA doing its best,” another source said.

Higher-ups at the Transportation Security Administration finally discovered the security boondoggle at 9:44 a.m. — leaving the Port Authority with no choice but to call for a complete evacuation of the international terminal that is home to British Airways, Cathay Pacific, United Airlines and others.

The extraordinary measure meant that two jumbo jets — including a San Francisco-bound United flight — had to return to the gate so passengers could be rescreened at a metal detector that was actually turned on.

The TSA would not confirm or deny that its detector had been unplugged, releasing a statement saying only that a metal detector suffered a “malfunction.”

Eight to 10 flights were delayed as a result of the power-cord bungle, sources said....

PA officials reopened the terminal at 11:45 a.m., two hours after they were called in to clean up the TSA mess, sources said.

“Obviously, the horse was out of the barn by the time we were notified,” a PA source said.

In scary twist, the source couldn’t be certain that every passenger who went through the powerless detector had been accounted for and hadn’t gotten on a flight....

Look on the bright side: at least this would render the TSA useless. "Report: Al-Qaida doctors trained to implant bombs in humans," from MSNBC, May 13 (thanks to Kenneth):

Western intelligence agencies believe that al-Qaida doctors have been trained to implant bombs inside the bodies of suicide bombers, Britain's Sunday Times reported.

The doctors, thought to have been trained by a man who worked with the top bomb-maker for al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), have the ability to put explosive compounds in breasts and abdomens of suicide bombers, the newspaper reported without citing its sources.

The lead doctor was thought to have been killed in a drone attack earlier this year and likely worked with the master bomber-maker, Ibrahim al-Asiri, according to the newspaper.

The CIA want to track down the group of doctors, the newspaper reported.

Former CIA officer Jack Rice joins MSNBC to discuss the recent discovery of an al-Qaida underwear bomb plot.

"There is a transferable skill and there is still some concern," said a Western security official who spoke to The Sunday Times on condition of anonymity.

Experts said explosive compounds such as pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) could be surgically implanted in an aspiring suicide bomber, who would them allow the wounds to heal, according to the newspaper. Body scanners in most airports around the world would not be able to detect the device, which could be detonated by injection, the newspaper added....

Wait a minute. I thought al-Qaeda was "decimated" and the war on terror was over. This is all so confusing! "CIA thwarts new al-Qaeda underwear bomb plot," from AP, May 7 (thanks to Anne Crockett):

WASHINGTON — The CIA thwarted an ambitious plot by al-Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen to destroy a U.S.-bound airliner using a bomb with a sophisticated new design around the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden, The Associated Press has learned.

The plot involved an upgrade of the underwear bomb that failed to detonate aboard a jetliner over Detroit on Christmas 2009. This new bomb was also designed to be used in a passenger's underwear, but this time al-Qaeda developed a more refined detonation system, U.S. officials said.

The FBI is examining the latest bomb to see whether it could have passed through airport security and brought down an airplane, officials said. They said the device did not contain metal, meaning it probably could have passed through an airport metal detector. But it was not clear whether new body scanners used in many airports would have detected it.

The would-be suicide bomber, based in Yemen, had not yet picked a target or bought his plane tickets when the CIA stepped in and seized the bomb, officials said. It's not immediately clear what happened to the alleged bomber.

The operation unfolded even as the White House and Department of Homeland Security assured the American public that they knew of no al-Qaeda plots against the U.S. around the anniversary of bin Laden's death. The AP learned about the thwarted plot last week but agreed to White House and CIA requests not to publish it immediately because the sensitive intelligence operation was still under way. Once those concerns were allayed, the AP decided to disclose the plot Monday despite requests from the Obama administration to wait for an official announcement Tuesday....

It's not clear who built the bomb, but, because of its sophistication and its similarity to the Christmas bomb, authorities suspected it was the work of master bomb maker Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri. Al-Asiri constructed the first underwear bomb and two others that al-Qaeda built into printer cartridges and shipped to the U.S. on cargo planes in 2010....

"Something like George Orwell’s 1984 now seems to have arrived in Gatwick airport." Yes, and much worse: the Muslim prohibition on speech that is deemed critical of Islam in any way.

"Fireman Sam creator detained at airport for veil comment at security gate," by Jason Lewis in the Telegraph, February 26 (thanks to all who sent this in):

A retired fireman, and creator of the popular children's character, Fireman Sam, was detained at an airport for questioning why a veiled woman was not checked by security.

As David Jones arrived at the security gates at Gatwick airport, he was looking forward to getting through swiftly so he could enjoy lunch with his daughters before their flight.

Placing his belongings, including a scarf, into a tray to pass through the X-ray scanner he spotted a Muslim woman in hijab pass through the area without showing her face.

In a light-hearted aside to a security official who had been assisting him, he said: “If I was wearing this scarf over my face, I wonder what would happen.”

The quip proved to be a mistake. After passing through the gates, he was confronted by staff and accused of racism.

What race is Islam again?

As his daughters, who had passed through security, waited in the departure lounge wondering where he was, he was subjected to a one hour stand-off as officials tried to force him to apologise.

Mr Jones, 67, who is the creator of the popular children’s character Fireman Sam, said: “Something like George Orwell’s 1984 now seems to have arrived in Gatwick airport.

"I feel that my rights as an individual have been violated. What I underwent amounts to intimidation and detention. I was humiliated and degraded in full public view.

"I am a 67-year-old pensioner and have lived my life within the law. I do not have even one point on my driving licence.”

He said that when he made his initial remark the security guard had appeared to agree with him, saying: “I know what you mean, but we have our rules, and you aren’t allowed to say that.”

As he went through the metal detecting arch, his artificial hip set off the alarm, prompting a full search from a guard. It was after this, and as he prepared to rejoin his two grown-up daughters, that he was confronted by another guard who said he was being detained because he had made an offensive remark.

“I repeated to her what I had said and told her that I had said nothing racist,” he said. “She took my passport and boarding pass and I was then escorted back through the security zone into the outer area. Here the female security guard proceeded to question me further, inferring many things that I had not said.

“It was impossible to get her to listen to reason. We were then joined by a second female security guard who stated that she was Muslim and was deeply distressed by my comment.

“I again stated that I had not made a racist remark but purely an observation that we were in a maximum security situation being searched thoroughly whilst a woman with her face covered walked through. I made no reference to race or religion. I did not swear or raise my voice.”

According to Mr Jones, who was due to board a British Airways flight to Portugal, where he now lives and runs a restaurant on the Algarve, the British Airways duty manager was then called in and sided with the security staff.

He continued: “I had now been detained for some time and my daughters were worried, calling me on my phone asking what was happening. We were going around in circles. I maintained that I had said nothing offensive and the security guard was continuing to accuse me. This had taken about 15-20 minutes and looked as though it was not going to be resolved.

“I asked the security guard if she was going to charge me to which she said no but I could not leave until I had apologised to the Muslim guard.

“At this point I asked for the attendance of a police officer. After some time he arrived but it was also plainly evident that he was keeping to the politically correct code. I told him that if there was a case then he should arrest me.

“I was told that we now live in a different time and some things are not to be said. They decided again that I would only be allowed to continue on my journey if I were to apologise to the Muslim guard. My reply was that as I had not made a racist remark it would be impossible for me to apologise.”...