Transportation Security Administration

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Unions to Pilots: Skip the Scan

'Our members are absolutely outraged'

(Newser) - Two of America’s biggest pilot unions are urging their members to refuse to submit to full-body scans when they go to work. They complain the machines are "intrusive" and could expose pilots to risky amounts of radiation over time. Those who refuse are subjected to pat-downs that were...

Airport Scanners to Dress Up 'Naked' Images

Software replaces everyone with generic guy in baseball hat

(Newser) - Good news, frequent fliers: Pretty soon airport security won’t be looking at sort of naked computer-generated images of you when you step into the full-body scanner anymore. Thanks to an ingenious software upgrade, those scanners will soon instead show a generic image of a man in t-shirt, jeans, and...

New TSA Pat-Downs Invasive, Groping

Believe it or not, you may want to choose the scanner

(Newser) - Would you rather have your naked body stared at or your entire body groped? Those will soon be your choices at airport security checkpoints. If you don’t want to be subjected to the controversial full-body scanners , you can opt for a new, more aggressive pat-down—which seems poised to...

Bored Kids Fly Away, Without Parents —or IDs

Teens, little brother have no trouble boarding Southwest flight

(Newser) - Southwest Airlines has some explaining to do after flying a 15-year-old girl, her 11-year-old brother, and her 13-year-old friend from Jacksonville to Nashville—unbeknownst to the kids' parents. The TSA may be in for some questioning, too, because the footloose trio boarded their flight without showing identification. "Everybody else...

It's Time to Ditch the No-Fly List
 It's Time to Ditch the No-Fly List 
OPINION
Jul 19, 2010 1:52 PM CDT

It's Time to Ditch the No-Fly List

Since when do the feds dispense travel like a privilege?

(Newser) - The no-fly list was a good idea that got lost in the execution, and it's time the TSA owns up to that and just kills the list, writes Steve Chapman for Reason. It's not quite clear what it takes to get on the list, much less off it, Chapman contends....

US Tightens No-Fly Rules
 US Tightens No-Fly Rules 
times square aftermath
May 5, 2010 10:03 AM CDT

US Tightens No-Fly Rules

Faisal Shahzad got on flight despite list

(Newser) - The Obama administration is tightening its no-fly-list rules in response to Times Square bomb scare suspect Faisal Shahzad's near-escape on a Dubai-bound flight. When an urgent new name is added to the watch-list, airlines will now have just two hours to check and make sure they don't have a matching...

Flight Diverted Over Threat Written on Mirror

Continental flight has to land in North Carolina

(Newser) - Another in-flight threat: Officials say a Continental Airlines flight from Houston to the Washington area has been diverted to North Carolina after a threatening message was written on a bathroom mirror. TSA officials say Continental Flight 3006 was headed for Dulles when it was directed to land at Piedmont Triad...

Obama's 2nd TSA Nominee Withdraws
Obama's 2nd TSA Nominee Withdraws
SQUARE ONE
Mar 27, 2010 6:02 AM CDT

Obama's 2nd TSA Nominee Withdraws

Harding quits after issues arise over past as defense contractor

(Newser) - Retired Army Maj. Gen. Robert Harding took himself out of the running last night as head of the Transportation Security Administration, another setback for President Obama in finding a transportation security chief to shore up the nation's defenses against terrorist threats from the air, road and rail after his first...

TSA Body Scan Quick, Modest, Easy
 TSA Body Scan 
 Quick, Modest, Easy 
FIRST PERSON
Mar 15, 2010 1:45 PM CDT

TSA Body Scan Quick, Modest, Easy

Writer would take scan over pat-down, rubber gloves any day

(Newser) - Going through security at Chicago’s O’Hare airport, passengers have the choice of a pat-down or a walk through a full body scanner, and Jon Hilkevitch is going “with the touch-less scan every time.” He took a spin through a checkpoint equipped with the newly installed machines,...

Obama Picks Ex-Army Intel Chief to Head TSA

Robert Harding to replace blocked nominee Erroll Southers

(Newser) - President Obama plans to appoint a former Army officer with a career in intelligence to lead the Transportation Security Administration, and he'll announce his choice, retired Gen. Robert Harding, today, an administration official tells the AP. The TSA administrator is the most important unfilled post in the Obama administration; the...

New Airport Scanners Stacked Up In Storage

Homeland Security took 7 months just to order them

(Newser) - Dozens of full-body airport scanners are gathering dust in storage more than a year after the administration provided Homeland Security with the funds to pay for them. It took the department 7 months just to order the 150 screening machines included in last year's stimulus bill. More than 100 have...

Screeners Will Roam Airports, Test Random Fliers

Portable detectors will take swabs from hands, luggage

(Newser) - TSA screeners will take a more proactive approach to finding explosives in airports under a new security program. Screeners will walk around airport gates and security lines with portable explosives detectors, taking swabs from random passengers' hands and luggage. The security agency first ran a test of the program after...

TSA Forces Disabled Boy to Remove Leg Braces

Police officer complains of TSA overkill

(Newser) - A developmentally delayed child was forced to remove his leg braces at the airport to prove he wasn't a security risk. "Unfortunately, it's no joke," writes Daniel Rubin for Philly.com . The child, Ryan, was en route to Disney Land to celebrate his fourth birthday when TSA officials...

Muslims Issue Fatwa Against Airport Scanners

Machines violate rules on modesty

(Newser) - Body scanners at airports violate Islamic rules on modesty and Muslim-American groups have barred the faithful from using them. “It is a violation of clear Islamic teachings that men or women be seen naked by other men and women," an influential Muslim council said in a fatwa forbidding...

Gizmodo, Drudge Fooled by Fake 'TSA Porn'

That's not an image from a body scanner, just a nude model

(Newser) - Gizmodo gets about “30,000 views in a single day” of a post with hot TSA full body scanner pics of an attractive female, Kashmir Hill writes, but it would be wise “to add a ‘this is a hoax’ update” since the photos are obviously fake....

Obama's TSA Nominee Pulls Out Under Fire

Says he was being used by those with a 'political agenda'

(Newser) - Erroll Southers, Barack Obama's choice to lead the Transportation Security Administration, withdrew his name today, saying his nomination had become a lightning rod for those with a political agenda. Southers' confirmation has been blocked by Republican Sen. Jim DeMint, who says he was worried Southers would allow TSA employees to...

How an 8-Year-Old Got On the No-Fly List

Misidentification has earned Mikey Hicks repeated pat-downs

(Newser) - On its website, the TSA specifically denies that there is an 8-year-old on any of its watch lists. But try telling that to Mikey Hicks, who has had problems getting on airplanes his entire life. As a baby, Hicks was denied a seat on a plane because, officials told his...

Cops Arrest Man Behind Newark Security Snafu

No word on identity of person who shut down terminal for hours

(Newser) - Authorities tonight arrested the man who slipped through security Sunday at Newark airport, identifying him as 28-year-old New Jersey resident Haisong Jiang. His move shut down the terminal for hours as security forces searched for him. Jiang—taken into custody at his Piscataway home, the AP reports—was seen kissing...

Newark TSA Guard Briefly Stopped Intruder

Tape comes from Continental; airport cams were down

(Newser) - The Newark TSA agent who allowed an unidentified man to enter the secure zone through an exit, setting off an hours-long alert, had stopped the interloper just minutes before and was chatting on his phone when the man breached security. The man kissed a departing traveler goodbye and then went...

Biggest Threat to Security? Slackers
 Biggest Threat to 
 Security? Slackers 
OPINION
Jan 6, 2010 12:42 PM CST

Biggest Threat to Security? Slackers

No new rules would be needed if people would stop slacking off

(Newser) - The recent lapses in US security highlight one thing and one thing only: “Certain people just need to stop slacking off,” writes Dan Pashman. Everyone knows there are some jobs where slacking off is okay (NBA player, fast-food worker, secretary of the Interior), but there are others—say,...

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