Archive » Airline Security

You’ve seen some of the news coverage by now of Bassam Khalaf, the self-proclaimed “crazy, suicidal Arabic” rapper fired from his job as a TSA baggage screener.
But did you know that he’s not the only Islamist who has been poking through your luggage?
Debbie Schlussel has the lowdown on both.
Repeat: Political correctness is the handmaiden of [...]

How do you know when an air marshals’ spokesman is spinning? When his lips are moving. Here’s Federal Air Marshals Service spokesman Dave Adams on the reinstatement this week of air marshal whistleblower Frank Terreri, who filed a civil liberties lawsuit against the agency after being suspended for criticizing FAMS director Tom Quinn last October [...]

Two Seaworld penguins walked into an airport…

Click here for the whole slideshow.
My question: Why is it that TSA is allowed to use its metal detectors for a little photo-op fun, but the rest of us are subject to criminal penalties for making inappropriate jokes in an airport?
(Hat tip: Bruce Schneier)

You all remember Annie Jacobsen, whose article about Northwest flight 327 set the blogosphere abuzz last summer. Don’t miss her latest installment, in which she recounts a visit she got from four federal Homeland Security Department officials. Here’s the most interesting part:
For the record, I explained, I had never heard of the James Woods incident [...]

According to a yet another report, airline security is no better today than it was on Sept. 10, 2001:
The report said there was a “lack of improvement” since similar tests were conducted at 15 airports in 2003. Homeland Security Inspector General Richard Skinner told a Senate committee this year that TSA screeners “fared no better [...]

Walter Williams takes on the TSA in “Stupid airport security.” An excerpt:
I’ve solved my problem with the TSA. They have their procedures, and I have mine. Mine include minimizing my exposure to stupidity. Therefore, where I used to board a commercial flight three or four times a month, over the last three years, I’ve reduced [...]

This just in from the London Times:
A BRITON who trained as a pilot at the same American flight school as two of the September 11 hijackers has been arrested after an international terror alert issued by the FBI.
Senior security sources yesterday said Zayead Christopher Hajaig, 35, a white Briton born in Nigeria, had been arrested [...]

So, 19 foreign hijackers infiltrate America, take flying lessons, and murder 3,000 people. And nearly four years later, illegal aliens are still able to enroll in U.S. flight schools and leave the country without getting caught:
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) — An anti-terrorism task force headed by the FBI has issued a special alert bulletin concerning a [...]

Yesterday morning, TSA workers at the Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport thought they saw an x-ray of a gun in someone’s carry-on bag. So, naturally, they let the passenger proceed to the gate with his bag.
Then it dawned on someone that maybe that wasn’t such a good idea. So TSA evacuated the entire airport and [...]

A few months back, I blogged about a rash of laser beam incidents. Today, one of the suspects in a New Jersey case who was accused of pointing a green laser beam at a small passenger jet, temporarily blinding the pilot and co-pilot, was indicted under the federal anti-terror Patriot Act:
David W. Banach, who claimed [...]

Airline security gets a bad report card from the Coalition of Airline Pilots Association. More here.
Related:
- The “Kill Me First Dress Code”
- Air Rage
- Air Rage, Pt. II
- Dressed for Failure
- Another Air Marshal Outrage
- Update on the Air Marshals
- Another Fine Air Marshals’ Mess

One of the most important national security stories covered in my column and on this blog has been the ongoing turmoil at the Federal Air Marshal Service under Director Thomas “Queeg” Quinn.
When last we visited the beleaguered bureaucracy, Quinn was shepherding his celebrity friend Lyle Lovett around the FAMS top-secret training facility and blabbing to [...]

My good friend and fellow Philadelphia Daily News columnist Michael Smerconish has an important and incredible column today about the airline worker in Maine who encountered Mohammed Atta on 9/11:
MICHAEL Tuohey “stared the devil in the eyes and didn’t recognize him.”
Now he kicks himself for not having acted, although if he had, our government probably [...]

Exclusive photo. Credit: michellemalkin.com. Country singer Lyle Lovett (left) jokes around on a private tour of the air marshals training facility in Washington, D.C.
The embattled head of the Federal Air Marshals Service, Tom Quinn, is up to no good again. When he’s not bullying rank-and-file marshals for blowing the whistle on idiotic dress code and [...]

Lots of increased chatter over the last week about an imminent resignation from Tom Quinn, the top fashion cop at the Federal Air Marshals Service. Last Wednesday, marshals got word of a new special FAMS “advisory board” being formed to investigate marshals’ concerns over the infamous dress code, hiring practices, and other issues. Here’s the [...]

Read this gun owner’s account of her dealings with federal homeland security officials in Seattle. A snippet:
Once inside the police station I was taken to a small, windowless room with one chair and a steel bench. The faces of the officers I passed asked: “Is that the Gun Woman?”
Three or four officers came into the [...]

In response to my post about the plane of suspected illegal alien Chinese in San Antonio forced down by homeland security officials last night, this tip just came in:
The co-owner of the plane, Afzal Hameed, is president of Alpha Tango Flying Services in San Antonio, which trains pilots and mechanics.
Guess who trained at Alpha Tango [...]

You’re not going to believe this one. Audrey Hudson, the intrepid reporter for the Washington Times, reports on the latest fiasco at the Federal Air Marshals Service under the leadership of Tom Quinn (” ‘Inch of snow’ shuts down air marshals”):
Hundreds of federal air marshals were grounded and unable to access critical information to pinpoint [...]

Physician blogger Dr. Bob says one of his patients, a federal air marshal, told him about a foiled hijacking involving boxcutters hidden in overhead luggage bins:
He and his partner were assigned to a flight (the airline, airport, and destination were not disclosed) in their customary undercover security role. They boarded the airplane early in order [...]

From the NY Daily News:
A federal air marshal was arrested Tuesday on charges he played a role in a human trafficking ring that officials say worked out of a Flushing nightclub.
Byungki Koo, 33, of Fresh Meadows, surrendered to officials Tuesday after he was indicted on charges that he tried to obstruct the probe of a [...]

The headless chicken brigade rides again. As you all know, the feds announced yesterday that the reckless moron who reportedly pointed a laser beam at an airplane overhead and temporarily blinded the pilot and co-pilot will be charged under the Patriot Act.
Recriminations against the Justice Department have already begun: Jackboots! Fascists! Why charge the man [...]

Still following all the latest on the laser beam mystery for you…
This guy may have just been fooling around, but there is still plenty of concern about what may really be going on here. Phantom at The Daily Brief reminds us:
Since 2002, the FBI has been issuing warnings about shoulder fired missiles being smuggled into [...]

Still interested in the laser beam story? There’s an extensive timeline, with updated info, here. The latest AP report is here. And reader Rick Parnell passes along a relevant story from Navy News:
PATUXENT RIVER, Md. (NNS) — The Vision Laboratory in Naval Air Systems Command’s (NAVAIR) Human Systems Division won an Aviation Week and Space [...]

Following up on those weird laser beam stories, I note that at least one online retailer has now stopped selling high power green lasers. (Thanks to reader Mike G. for the tip.) The proprietor of Laser Shoppe.com explains here and wants your opinion about his decision:
Unfortunately, we have decided to STOP selling these lasers. Too [...]

This story out of Cleveland is disturbing. And it’s not the first report of a laser tracking a commercial plane in American skies. I blogged on Bill Gertz’s report in September about a Delta flight to Salt Lake City, Utah, that was diverted when a laser penetrated the cockpit and reportedly injured the pilot.
And two [...]

The fashion police at the Federal Air Marshals Service still don’t get it. But the Lakeland (Fl.) Ledger does. The paper weighs in with a scathing editorial about the dress code debacle here.
Meanwhile, I received a “supervisor’s Daily Airport Activity Report” dated 12/15/04, which shows how managers are forced to play clothes cops. Here’s an [...]

Audrey Hudson of the Washington Times has another great piece on the Air Marshal dress code story that I wrote about yesterday:
Some federal air marshals are playing a high-tech game of hide-and-seek to dodge supervisors from inspecting their attire and ensuring compliance with a mandatory dress code.
“The ’suit Nazis’ are out there, so the guys [...]

This post will be unusually long. That’s because I’ve decided to use my bandwith today to combat a government agency’s self-serving–and dangerous–spin campaign. The great thing about the blogosphere is that I can give over as much space as necessary to others who don’t have a voice.
And nobody at the Transportation Security Administration, at the [...]

Can you imagine if an al Qaeda bureaucrat had ordered the 19 Sept. 11 terrorists to wear “I heart Osama” T-shirts when they embarked on their murderous flights?
No idiot would send his men on a covert mission wearing clothes that would so blatantly give them away, right?
Wrong. Meet Federal Air Marshal Service Director Thomas Quinn. [...]

Right Wing News delves into the fever swamps of the Democratic Underground and pulls out the 10 Worst Quotes from rabid libs.
John Leo compiles the 2004 awards for over-the-top rhetoric.
Quin Hilyer highlights the invaluable Media Research Center’s top examples of media bias.
And keying off the news that “blog” is the word of the year, here’s [...]