airport security

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Nigerians Join Dutch in Using Full-Body Scans

Officials vow that nation won't be transit point for terrorists

(Newser) - Nigeria has joined the Netherlands in announcing plans to introduce full-body scans for air travelers. Officials plan to install the high-tech machines at the country's four major airports beginning next month. Detroit suspect Umar Faroul Abdulmutallab began his journey in Lagos, and experts say full-body scanning would have detected his...

Feds Threaten Bloggers Over Leaked Air Security Memo

Agents squawk about memo sent to airlines, airports

(Newser) - Two bloggers who posted details of new airport security directives online were visited at home by agents from the Transportation Security Administration demanding to know their sources. Armed agents vowed to obtain a criminal search warrant if travel writer Mike Frischling didn't identify his source and threatened to get him...

US OKs Dutch Use of Full Body Scanners

US flights will be scanned with new, modest version within 3 weeks

(Newser) - The Netherlands will immediately begin using full body scanners for flights heading to the US, according to an announcement that comes with a report today on the failed Christmas airline bombing. The US opposed their use previously because of privacy concerns, but the Dutch interior minister says that the Obama...

Debate Rages Over 'Strip Search' Airport Scans

Detroit bomb plot pits security against privacy

(Newser) - Next-generation body scanning devices are coming to more American airports, triggering another heated debate over privacy versus security in the wake of the terror attack on a Detroit flight. Experts say the devices, which can detect objects under clothes, could have stopped the attempted Detroit attack. Critics warn that the...

This Isn't '2001 All Over Again'
 This Isn't '2001 All Over Again' 
OPINION
Dec 29, 2009 12:29 PM CST

This Isn't '2001 All Over Again'

Ignore the alarmists and recall how safe the last 8 years have been

(Newser) - No matter how fear-mongers spin it, Friday’s terror attempt on Northwest Flight 253 “was not 2001 all over again,” Walter Shapiro writes. GOP Rep. Pete King and others can wax "apocalyptic" about what “would have been remembered forevermore as the Christmas Day massacre,” but...

Tightening Air Security Will Take a Toll

Most options come with costs Congress, or fliers, find unpalatable

(Newser) - The White House is talking tough about airline security after Friday's failed bombing, but many options for tightening up the system are either politically untenable, repugnant to travelers, or both. Josh Gerstein takes a look at a few possibilities, and their likelihood of becoming reality, in Politico .
  • Expand the no-fly
...

Faster Full-Body Scans Coming to Airports

New machines could replace metal detectors

(Newser) - In the wake of last week's attempted attack on a Detroit-bound flight, security companies say they're working on new body-scanning machines that search out threats like plastic explosives in an instant and could replace airport metal detectors. Similar scanners are used today at 19 US airports, but they take a...

No TSA Chief in Detroit Crisis, Thanks to GOP Senator

Agency leaderless as DeMint blocks nom

(Newser) - Democratic leaders and airline industry officials are blaming GOP Sen. Jim DeMint for the fact that the Transportation Security Administration has no chief as it struggles to recover from the terrorist near-miss on Christmas Day. DeMint, chair of an aviation subcommittee, has been blocking the appointment of counterterrorism expert Erroll...

TSA Backs Off Some New In-Flight Restrictions

Go ahead—throw a blanket over your lap and watch some TV

(Newser) - Two days after implementing stiff restrictions on carry-on items and in-flight entertainment, the TSA relaxed the new rules today, airline sources tell MSNBC . Passengers will be allowed to have blankets on their laps and leave their seats during the final hour of a flight, use electronic devices, and watch TV...

Tighter Security Means No More JetBlue TV

'This is patently ridiculous, and also, sucks,' says Gawker

(Newser) - The latest casualty of the TSA’s updated airline security regulations: JetBlue LiveTV programming, at least on flights that originate outside the US. The TV service—a “distinguishing feature” of the airline, as Vimeo founder Jakob Lodwick points out—has been disabled in the wake of Northwest Flight 253,...

Brits Hunt for Northwest Bomber's Cohorts

Officials fear he plotted with extremists in London

(Newser) - British officials are hunting for possible accomplices of the Nigerian whose attempt to ignite a bomb on a Northwest flight to Detroit was thwarted by passengers. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, attended a London university for three years, and security officials fear he may have been plotting a terror attack with...

Missing From Screening List? Saudi Arabia
Missing From Screening
List? Saudi Arabia
OPINION
Dec 10, 2009 4:34 PM CST

Missing From Screening List? Saudi Arabia

It's the country that was home to 15 of the 9/11 hijackers

(Newser) - There's a lot to criticize in the TSA's recent leak of an improperly redacted security manual. But the most outrageous vulnerability is an omission on the list of countries whose citizens are given extra scrutiny. "What's missing from the list? Saudi Arabia," writes Michael Smerconish. "You know,...

Airport Security Secrets Posted Online

Probe launched after mix-up reveals sensitive information

(Newser) - The federal Transportation Security Administration is investigating a mix-up that revealed agency secrets relating to airport passenger screening in an online posting. A security manual posted on a government website in March with sensitive information—including technical settings for explosive detectors—redacted was removed days ago when the agency realized...

Airport Guard Arrested Over Obama Threats

Fellow NJ worker reportedly overheard him making remarks

(Newser) - A private security guard at Newark Liberty International Airport has been arrested on charges of threatening President Obama before the president was to fly there. A Continental Airlines employee reported overhearing John Brek make threatening comments at an airport coffee cart yesterday afternoon. The 55-year-old security guard was arrested several...

Airport Seize Your Stuff? Look for It on eBay

TSA's confiscated items end up being sold via state agencies

(Newser) - From knives to baseball bats to cake-cutters to corkscrews, and including at least one kitchen sink, the Transportation Security Administration confiscates around a million items from air travelers every month, CNN reports. Guns are turned over to law enforcement and shampoo bottles end up in the trash, but the rest...

Airports Crack Down on Powder
 Airports Crack Down on Powder 
Sep 18, 2009 1:06 PM CDT

Airports Crack Down on Powder

New anti-explosive measures complement limits on liquids

(Newser) - Air travelers have yet another thing to worry about when packing their bags: powder. Federal authorities haven’t banned or even restricted baby powder, makeup, talcum powder, and the like, but the TSA is outfitting airports around the country with new kits to test such seemingly innocuous material for explosives....

8 Years On, Critics Call Airport Security 'Theater'

Critics see cockeyed focus on 'pointy objects,' none on real threats

(Newser) - Billions of dollars in spending since 9/11 has given airport security officers plenty of ways to catch terrorists—but are critics right in calling it "security theater"? Take the “millimeter wave whole body imager,” which pinpoint “anomalies” on your person: Sure, it will spot a...

Suicide Bomb Rocks NATO Base at Kabul Airport

At least two civilians dead; foreign troops may also be victims

(Newser) - A suicide bomber blew up his car outside a NATO military base at Afghanistan's main airport today, killing at least two civilians and wounding six others, Reuters reports. Eyewitnesses saw huge flames rising from the airport, which has endured Taliban rocket attacks and suicide bombs in the past. An Afghan...

Booking a Flight? Get Ready to State Sex and Age

(Newser) - Air passengers booking flights in the US can expect some extra questions starting this weekend, the Washington Post reports. Travelers will be asked for their sex and birth date, which will be forwarded along with other information to federal officials checking watch lists. The move comes as the Transportation Security...

47 Trapped on 9-Hour 'Nightmare' Flight

(Newser) - If 9 hours on a grounded puddle-jumper with screaming babies and the scent of overly busy toilets wafting through cramped aisles sounds like your idea of a good time, then Continental Airlines had your ticket to paradise. When storms forced a Minneapolis-bound flight to divert to Rochester, Minn., on Friday,...

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