Daniel Rubin: Another case of TSA overkill

“Just when I thought I was out of the Transportation Security Administration business for a few columns, they pull me back in.

Did you hear about the Camden cop whose disabled son wasn’t allowed to pass through airport security unless he took off his leg braces?

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(Daniel Rubin: Another case of TSA overkill | Philadelphia Inquirer | 02/15/2010)

Risk Unclear, Some Fliers Grow Skittish Over Travel

As fears about swine flu spread, the airline industry is bracing for the worst, worried that travelers will cancel their plans to fly to or from not only Mexico, but also almost anywhere else in the world. (NY Times)

80,000 on TSA’s ‘cleared’ fliers list

A government list of “cleared” fliers, developed to cut airport hassles for people whose names are confused with suspects on the terrorist watch list, has grown to 80,000 names, records show.

The additions to the Transportation Security Administration’s “cleared list” reflect an influx of requests from people asking to be removed from the watch list. The watch list database has expanded 32% since 2007, to more than 1 million entries. The cleared list has grown because about 99% of the fliers seeking to be removed from the watch list were never on it, according to the Department of Homeland Security, which runs the TSA. (USA Today)

New airport security rules to require more personal information

You may have been patted down at airports or suffered the indignity of having your dirty laundry from a vacation searched at screening checkpoints. Now prepare yourself for security to get a little more personal.

Passengers making airline reservations soon will be required to provide their birth date and their sex in addition to their names as part of aviation security enhancements the 9/11 Commission recommended. The information provided at the time seats are booked must exactly match the data on each traveler’s ID.

The new program, called Secure Flight, shifts responsibility for checking passenger names against “watch lists” from the airlines to the Transportation Security Administration. Only passengers who are cleared to fly by the TSA will be given boarding passes. (Chicago Tribune)

No worker reductions for TSA despite fewer fliers

Fewer domestic passengers left the nation’s airports through the first seven months of 2008, with fewer flights filling the friendly skies.

But while a bleak economic outlook may not perk up those numbers in the short term, the federal guardian of the gates says it has no intentions of trimming its workforce in this region of the country any time soon.

“There are no plans for reducing our staff,” said Sari Koshetz, a spokeswoman in the Miami office of the Transportation Security Administration, a division of the Department of Homeland Security.

Koshetz said TSA employs about 50,000 — including about 45,000 officers — with responsibilities that range from patrol and control over transportation access to training programs and grant supervision. (USA Today)

ID plan meant to clear fliers of suspicion

Air travelers who can prove they don’t belong on terrorist watch lists could be spared extra scrutiny under a new program that addresses the public’s biggest complaint about aviation safety, the nation’s Homeland Security chief said. (USA Today)

Airport screeners to get more security training

“Airport screeners are about to get new security training designed to help them think creatively about possible threats _ including those they have never thought of.

“We have to prepare for attacks that don’t fit our procedures,” such as the traveler who stuffed a block of cheese wrapped in wire into a checked bag, Transportation Security Administration Kip Hawley told reporters Friday.” (Washington Post)

TSA may begin air passenger background checks in 2009

“The Homeland Security Department plans to begin a controversial airline passenger screening program as early as January — as long as it can win over skeptical lawmakers.

The department’s Transportation Security Administration plans to take over the responsibility for screening passengers against government terrorist watch lists beginning in 2009, TSA Administrator Kip Hawley told the House Homeland Security Transportation Subcommittee Tuesday.” (GovExec)

Equipment spots nuclear materials in security test

“Equipment in two trailers sniffed out nuclear materials today on cars and trucks boarding the Bolivar Ferry in the first field test of the device in a maritime setting, a Homeland Security official said.

The transportable radiation monitoring system, or TRMS, began screening cars entering the ferry from Galveston Island for the first full-day of an eight-day trial, said Cpt. Jim Bamberger, Transportation Safety Agency branch chief.” (Houston Chronicle)

Flight School Fiasco: No Lessons Learned After 9/11

“Last week, in one of the most damaging reports on the TSA to date, ABC News revealed that in the program’s first year under TSA control, there were “some 8,000 foreign students in the FAA database who got their pilot licenses without ever being approved by the TSA.”

“Thousands of aliens, some of whom may very well pose a threat to this country, are taking flight lessons, being granted FAA certifications and are flying planes,” wrote TSA official Richard A. Horn in 2005, according to ABC. He was complaining that the students did not have the proper visas.” (Pajamas Media)

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