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Homeland Security: A suspect Islamist group is gloating that a cash settlement in the so-called Flying Imams case is a "victory for civil rights." If it's a victory, it's one for future hijackers. Three years ago, six Islamic clerics sued US Airways and Minneapolis airport police for discrimination and false arrest after they were bounced from a Phoenix-bound flight for behaving much like the 9/11 hijackers. Some yelled "Allah, Allah, Allah," and changed their seats while asking for seat belt extensions they never used. Though situated throughout the cabin, the six men appeared to be acting in concert. Witnesses also...

TSA Secure Flight Information The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is introducing Secure Flight, a program to help enhance the security of domestic and international commercial air travel through the use of improved watch list matching. In accordance with this new policy, you will notice changes to our reservation process which have been made to obtain the necessary Secure Flight Passenger Data for reservations purchased beginning September 15, 2009. Please note that SFPD is not being collected from AA passengers whose tickets were issued prior to September 15, 2009, regardless of their travel date. How will this affect you? When you...

HOUSTON - A missile may have just barely miss hitting a Continental Airlines flight on Friday. Liberty County sheriff deputies are meeting with the FBI and FAA to discuss this incident. Sheriff deputies say on Friday a missile may have been launched near Interstate 10 and mount Belview. A continental flight which had just taken off from Bush Intercontinental Airport may have been the target.

As any airline passenger can attest, security at the nation's airports has gotten infinitely more stringent in the eight years since the Sept. 11 attacks. While the technology to screen passengers has become more advanced and the check-in lines a little shorter, the question of whether flying is terrorism-proof remains. By now the routine has become mind-numbingly familiar: Travelers take off their shoes and put them in gray plastic containers along with their toiletries. They carry no more than three 3-ounce bottles in a 1-quart plastic bag, remove laptops from cases and so on. It's a scene played out millions...

We've talked about Rep. Carolyn McCarthy's "No Fly" bill before. I've also made it the subject of my October Guns Magazine "Rights Watch" column: Having been thwarted in 2005, she recently reintroduced H.R. 2401, the “No Fly, No Buy Act of 2009,” with the stated objective “To increase public safety and reduce the threat to domestic security by including persons who may be prevented from boarding an aircraft in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, and for other purposes.” There's a danger that could catch citizens unawares with terrible consequences: Author and attorney Dave Kopel noted, “Under the New...

(This is a self-serving press release put out by TSA today) TSA Updates Summer Travelers On New “Secure Flight” Procedures Taking Effect This Summer New TSA Program Makes Travel Safer & Easier for Passengers by Streamlining the Aviation Watch List Matching Process As the summer vacation travel season continues TSA is educating travelers about new security procedures being introduced and remind them of the reasons behind existing requirements at security checkpoints. The communications effort is an extension of TSA’s national public awareness and education campaign, launched in November 2008, and is designed to build awareness about security procedures so that...

The United States may have narrowly missed a repeat of the 9/11 attacks in June — and, apparently, even the FBI doesn’t realize it. On June 4, a 24-year-old Muslim man named Raed Abdhul-Rahman Alsaif was arrested for trying to bring a seven-inch knife on board a U.S. Airways flight at Tampa International Airport, destined for Phoenix. The blade was seen by a screener and Alsaif was caught before he could get onto the airliner. Of course, he says he is innocent, as some forgetful friend gave him the luggage bag and failed to mention that a knife was embedded...

DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del., June 29, 2009 – It was enough to make even the calmest airline passengers nervous: an irate man pacing the aisles of a commercial flight shouting, “I want to slit the captain’s throat!” Col. Thomas Kauth, Logistics Assessment Branch chief, presents Senior Airman Nicholas Barker, 436th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron crew chief, a certificate of appreciation for his excellence during Dover Air Force Base’s Logistics Standardization and Evaluation Program inspection. Two months later, Barker showed his excellence again by subduing an irate man on an international commercial flight. U.S. Air Force photo by Tom Randle  (Click photo...

A British-born suicide bomber plotted to bring down a packed passenger aircraft over the Atlanttic at the same time that the shoe bomber Richard Reid targeted an American Airlines flight, the Old Bailey heard today. But Saajid Badat changed his mind and dismantled his own shoe bomb, which was designed to evade airport security. Badat, 25, from Gloucester, admitted conspiring to blow up an aircraft between January 1 1999 and November 28, 2003 in a surprise change of plea today. He had been due to stand trial for the offence. Intelligence services believe Badat had been conspiring with Reid, a...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) -- Al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui testified Monday that he and would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid were supposed to hijack a fifth airplane on Sept. 11, 2001, and fly it into the White House. Moussaoui's testimony on his own behalf stunned the courtroom as he disclosed details he had never revealed before. It was in stark contrast to Moussaoui's previous statements in which he said the White House attack was to come later if the United States refused to release a radical Egyptian sheik imprisoned on earlier terrorist convictions. Moussaoui testified Monday he lied to investigators when arrested...

More than 70 Muslim workers at France's main airport have been stripped of the security clearance for allegedly posing a risk to passengers, officials say.The staff at Charles de Gaulle airport, including baggage handlers, are said to have visited terrorist training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan. One man is thought to have been a friend of Richard Reid, the so-called British shoe bomber. Richard Reid tried to blow up a flight from Paris to the US in 2001. Discrimination lawsuitsEarlier this year officials at Charles de Gaulle airport, north of Paris, conducted a security review of staff and questioned dozens...

British Muslim Sajid Badat has been remanded in custody after appearing at Bow Street magistrates court in London charged with conspiring with shoe bomber Richard Reid to cause a life-threatening explosion. Badat, 24, of St James Street, Gloucester, was arrested by anti-terrorist police last week in the first of a series of raids nationwide. Badat has been charged with unlawfully and maliciously conspiring with Richard Reid and others to cause an explosion, and two further charges of possessing explosive materials, Scotland Yard said. Reid, 29, who tried to blow up a transatlantic jet with explosives hidden in his footwear, began...

Dutch police have arrested a man carrying a gun in his hand luggage as he checked in for departure at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, a police spokeswoman said. The weapon was found during standard safety checks on Wednesday, the spokeswoman said, adding Schiphol's police had started an investigation and questioned the man. The spokeswoman would not comment on a statement by airline Air Malta, which said the detainee was a Maltese man who was due to board a flight to Malta. "At this moment we won't give further details," she said. Air Malta said that after the discovery of the revolver,...

Federal agents have searched several Western Washington locations in an expanding investigation of two Pakistani men arrested at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Saturday after their names appeared on terrorism watch lists. Agents also have scrutinized passenger lists for possible associates of the men on the American Airlines and JetBlue flights for which they tried to buy tickets. The men, who bought one-way tickets with cash, have not been charged with a crime and have not been publicly identified. One, a 29-year-old with a New York driver's license, had been detained and released at an unnamed airport once before and had...

<p>WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The State Department updated its travel warning for Saudi Arabia Wednesday, saying the U.S. government has received information about threats involving Western targets, including some directed at civil aviation.</p> <p>The suspension was also in response to a document seized in a car during anti-terror searches in Saudi Arabia that detailed the casing of the airport, a U.S. official told CNN.</p>

The next time you book a flight, make sure your name on the ticket is exactly the same as your ID. Otherwise it could take some time to get on the plane. The federal Transportation Security Administration is introducing a requirement that passenger names on tickets be exactly the same as the name on a government issued ID... The move is designed to reduce the amount of travelers incorrectly identified with names similar to those on terrorist watch lists. "We're doing some testing now, but we won't roll out the first phase until August," . About 58,000 travelers have filed...

Brazilian authorities reportedly delayed an Air France flight from Buenos Aires to Paris after the airline received a bomb threat over the phone, just days before the mysterious crash of Flight 447 over the Atlantic Ocean. According to a Brazilian news report, police and airport officials spent 90 minutes inspecting the threatened plane for explosives on the evening of May 27 at Buenos Aires' Ezeiza Airport, but found nothing. During the search, passengers were not evacuated from the jet and later safely arrived at their destination in Paris. On Tuesday, Brazil's defense minister said an airplane seat, a fuel slick...

A US Marine was arrested today at Logan International Airport after federal airport screeners discovered a gun, bomb-making materials, and ammunition in his checked baggage. Corporal Justin Reed, 22, of Jacksonville, N.C., was booked on US Airways Flight 877 to Charlotte, N.C. Reed had arrived on a flight from Las Vegas Sunday morning. TSA screeners called State Police at 7:10 a.m. after a screen discovered the following items in Reed’s checked baggage: a locked handgun box containing a semi-automatic handgun, a fully loaded gun magazine, several boxes of 9 mm and 7.62 mm ammunition, three model rocket engines containing an...

In an era of frequent flight delays, inadequate leg room and interminable waiting on the tarmac, the desire of passengers to leave their airplanes as quickly as possible is understandable. But, the authorities say, a 60-year-old British man took that desire too far. The man, Robert McDonald, was charged with recklessly endangering the lives of passengers by opening an emergency exit door while his plane — delayed for hours — idled on a taxiway during a layover at John F. Kennedy International Airport, the Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, announced on Monday. Mr. McDonald was detained pending arraignment in...

The Obama administration is taking steps quietly to shut down the program that qualifies commercial airline pilots to carry firearms in jetliner cockpits in order to ward off another 9/11-type attack. The administration recently diverted $2 million from a program to train and certify pilots to carry firearms safely while on duty. Instead, it is using the money to hire additional field inspectors to help discipline pilots who step out of line, according to a report in Tuesday’s Washington Times.

Federal officials are denying a report that the Obama administration is seeking to end a program that allows trained airline pilots to carry guns. ... Sterling Payne, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration, denied the report and said the program that oversees a reported 12,000 federal flight deck officers (FFDO) is actually expanding. "It's inaccurate, this program continues to grow," Payne told FOXNews.com of the editorial. "TSA continues to recruit and put new FFDOs on planes, and we continue to train them and do recurring training." ...

After the September 11 attacks, commercial airline pilots were allowed to carry guns if they completed a federal-safety program. No longer would unarmed pilots be defenseless as remorseless hijackers seized control of aircraft and rammed them into buildings. Now President Obama is quietly ending the federal firearms program, risking public safety on airlines in the name of an anti-gun ideology. The Obama administration this past week diverted some $2 million from the pilot training program to hire more supervisory staff, who will engage in field inspections of pilots.

<p>As was asked when this issue was debated -- and resolved, we thought -- "If you don't trust a pilot to carry a gun, what the fuck are you doing allowing him at the controls of a plane carrying 300 people?"</p>

WASHINGTON (Jan. 2) - A Muslim family removed from an airliner Thursday after passengers became concerned about their conversation say AirTran officials refused to rebook them, even after FBI investigators cleared them of wrongdoing. Atif Irfan said federal authorities removed eight members of his extended family and a friend after passengers heard them discussing the safest place to sit and misconstrued the nature of the conversation.

WASHINGTON - A Lebanese-American businessman who acted as a conduit for a last-ditch peace offer from Iraq to the United States faces federal charges of attempting to bring weapons on a commercial aircraft. The charges were filed Nov. 6 against Imad Hage, months after he was stopped at Dulles International Airport outside Washington when a .45-caliber handgun, five ammunition magazines and four stun guns were detected in his checked luggage. Hage said by telephone Thursday from Beirut that he intends to return to the United States in a few weeks to fight the charges, which he suggested were only brought...

This crap is just plain scary! Not only did they escort the fraud onto the plane with his weapon, but they pointed out every air marshal to him. This is unacceptable! State police and airline ticket agents whisked a Rockland man who claimed he had a gun around TSA security checkpoints at Logan International Airport, putting him on a plane after he flashed a Chatham assistant harbormaster’s badge and claimed he was a federal agent, an FBI affidavit said. Federal prosecutors yesterday charged Stephen Grant, 48, of Rockland with impersonating a federal agent. Grant is a medical supply salesman who...

Dozens of federal air marshals charged with protecting the public from airplane terrorists have themselves been accused of criminal wrongdoing, including 18 who were charged with felonies. The tally comes from an investigation by the investigative journalism group ProPublica. Its story says marshals have been accused of aiding a human trafficking ring, smuggling drugs and money, trying to hire a hitman and trying to smuggle explosives from Afghanistan. "Since 9/11, air marshals have taken bribes, committed bank fraud, hired an escort while on layover and doctored hotel receipts to pad expenses, records show,” the story reports. They have also “used...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - A driver stopped on an Iowa highway this month was found with flight-training manuals, Arabic documents and night-vision goggles, and he told troopers he knew of terrorist plans to shoot up trains in San Diego, according to court papers. Michael Wagner, 44, of San Diego, said he had knowledge of terrorist activities and people and groups tied to al-Qaida and the Taliban. Wagner also said that he knew about things in the Muslim communities in San Diego that would interest federal authorities.

German commandos storm KLM airliner arresting two suspected 'terrorists' - local media. More soon.

WASHINGTON -- On Wednesday night, President Bush addressed the nation in an effort to persuade Congress to pass a bill to reduce the risk to major financial institutions and to safeguard American families and businesses. On Thursday, he met with Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama and other congressional leaders to build a consensus plan for bailing out our financial system. The potentates on the Potomac now are pondering the price tag for saving Wall Street. Unfortunately, corrupt officials in other nations' capitals are also hard at work -- undermining what's left of the U.S. dollar by printing and distributing...

A plane was forced to land when a passenger had an extreme allergic reaction to a leaking jar of mushroom soup, it was revealed today. The soup fell on the man from an overhead locker on a Ryanair flight to Dublin from Budapest. He reportedly suffered allergic swelling in his neck and struggled to breathe, forcing staff to seek emergency medical treatment. The bizarre incident happened on Monday, the same day as another Ryanair flight had to make an emergency landing in Limoges after suffering a sudden loss of cabin pressure. And in a week of mid-air incidents, a Thomsonfly...

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "The database used by the government to generate lists like the No-Fly List is 'crippled by technical flaws,' according to the chairman of a House technology oversight subcommittee. And the upgrade may be worse than the original. Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC) says that 'if actually deployed, [the upgrade] will leave our country more vulnerable than the existing yet flawed system in operation today.' It seems that the current database doesn't have any easy way to do plain-text matching, forcing users to enter SQL queries. That might not sound so bad until you learn...

Nine American Eagle airplanes were grounded Tuesday after a TSA inspector, conducting an overnight security check, used sensitive instrument probes to climb onto the parked aircraft at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, aviation sources tell ABCNews.com. A TSA official confirmed the incident. At least forty regional commuter flights were delayed throughout the day, according to American Airlines. "We think it's an unfortunate situation," American airlines spokesperson Mary Frances Fagen told ABCNews.com.

SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- James Robinson is a retired Air National Guard brigadier general and a commercial pilot for a major airline who flies passenger planes around the country. He has even been certified by the Transportation Security Administration to carry a weapon into the cockpit as part of the government's defense program should a terrorist try to commandeer a plane. But there's one problem: James Robinson, the pilot, has difficulty even getting to his plane because his name is on the government's terrorist "watch list." That means he can't use an airport kiosk to check in; he can't...

Critics of the government's secret no-fly list scored a potentially important victory Monday when a federal appeals court ruled that would-be passengers can ask a judge and jury to decide whether their inclusion on the list violates their rights. In a 2-1 ruling, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reinstated a suit by a former Stanford University student who was detained and handcuffed in 2005 as she was about to board a plane to her native Malaysia. The ruling is apparently the first to allow a challenge to the no-fly list to proceed in a federal...

LAS VEGAS - Police say they have confiscated a gun belonging to Jerry Lewis that was found in the 82-year-old entertainer's carryon bag as he prepared to fly to Detroit from Las Vegas.

Plane hole 'not due to corrosion' Engineers have begun inspecting the damaged plane in Manila Qantas boss Geoff Dixon has denied corrosion caused a hole in the body of the plane that was forced to make an emergency landing in Manila.Safety engineers have begun examining the plane to establish the cause. More than 360 people were on board the flight when it was forced to land. They have since arrived back in Australia. Possible causes include corrosion or accidental external damage but Mr Dixon said preliminary checks showed corrosion was not the problem. The Qantas chief executive said he...

MANILA (AFP) - A Qantas Boeing 747 flying to Melbourne made an emergency landing in Manila on Friday after a dramatic mid-air rupture that left a "gaping hole" in its fuselage, officials and passengers said. Stunned passengers reported how the jumbo, which had taken off from London and stopped in Hong Kong, plunged 20,000 feet (6,000) metres in what one said was an "absolutely terrifying" ordeal...

A GAPING hole which ripped through the belly of a jumbo jet mid-flight may have been caused by an explosive device or a damaged fuselage, aviation experts say. The packed Quantas Boeing 747 was forced to make an emergency landing in the Philippines today after the hole ripped through the plane’s belly. Some passengers were so terrified they vomited when oxygen masks has to be used as the Melbourne-bound flight touched down. Air expert David Learmount said: “It’s possible there was some kind of explosive device in the suitcases. There’s a hole where there shouldn’t be.” But Mr Learmount, who...

A PASSENGER told tonight how a Qantas flight attendant ignored serious stab wounds to his head to repeatedly tackle a 'would-be hijacker' until he could be subdued. Derek Findlay described today's dramatic hijack bid by a man in a suit and armed with wooden stakes, who attacked two flight attendants and tried to crash a Melbourne to Launceston domestic flight. Mr Findlay, 30, was among passengers who wrestled the attacker to the cabin floor after he ran towards the cockpit, lunging at the male purser and female flight attendant. As well as sticks, the man was also brandishing an aerosol...

MANILA, Philippines — A Qantas flight en route to Australia from London made an emergency stop in Manila on Friday after a loud bang punched a hole in the Boeing 747-400's fuselage, officials and passengers said.

Well, we already know that they hate dogs, so, this could drive them into a progressive type rage. The Argus - Muslim anger at sniffer dogs at station Muslims travelling on trains from Brighton have objected to sniffer dogs being used to search them for drugs and bombs.The trial by the British Transport Police (BTP) on all rail passengers travelling through the station prompted complaints from some Muslims who said their religion did not allow direct contact with dogs. Well, perhaps if the so-called moderate Muslims would crack down on those who practice their religion with bombs, guns, and murder,...

In Chicago, people like Robert Perry are subjected to exhaustive security checks. He was patted down, his wheel chair was examined and his hands were swabbed, all in public view in a see-through room at the security checkpoint. Perry, 71, is not alone "It's humiliation," Perry said. Perry was also taken to a see-through room by a TSA agent when his artificial knee set off the metal detector. "He yelled at me to get the belt off. 'I told you to get the belt off.' So I took the belt off. He ran his hands down over and pulled the...

US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) trials of laser missile-dazzler defences on airliners have passed another milestone, with armaments maker BAE Systems announcing that its "JetEye" gear has made its first scheduled passenger flight. The JetEye-equipped plane, a Boeing 767 operated by American Airlines, made a routine trip from New York to Los Angeles. "BAE Systems worked closely with DHS and the airline industry to develop an effective response to potential terrorist threats," said Burt Keirstead, JetEye program director for BAE Systems in New Hampshire. "It took a combination of ingenuity and perseverance to get to this point, and everyone...

Nearly seven years after the 9-11 attacks, the Bush administration is finally reconsidering its opposition to one of the most effective counterterrorism weapons at its disposal. In the months ahead, FBI agents may be able to profile potential terrorists on the basis of suspicious traits and activities, including their ethnic and religious backgrounds. Those most likely to commit acts of Islamic terrorism will no longer be able to hide in plain sight. It is a modest step. The Justice Department insists that the “FBI is not going to open an investigation simply on the basis of race, ethnicity, or religion.”...

You can almost touch the planes as they roar over Point Shirley in Winthrop on their way to Logan Airport. The passengers were checked for explosives before they got on, however, a growing concern is what could happen away from the airport: Terrorist firing a shoulder launched-missile just outside the airport's property. The light weight weapons are becoming and more available on the black market, as many as 150,000 are believed to be in circulation and can easily bring down a plane. But now American Airlines is flying with new defensive technology on some of its New York to Los...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A watch list of suspected and known terrorists, compiled by the US authorities, has ballooned and contains more than one million names, the American Civil Liberties Union said Monday. The ACLU said it derived that figure from a Justice Department report on the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center, which consolidates terrorist watch list information. The Center "had over 700,000 names in its database as of April 2007 and that the list was growing by an average of over 20,000 records per month," according to a report by the Justice Department Inspector General, the rights group said. "By those...

WASHINGTON: The name of the Justice Department's former top criminal prosecutor has turned up on the U.S. government's terror watch list. The former assistant attorney general, Jim Robinson, joined with the American Civil Liberties Union on Monday in calling for elimination of the list, which is designed to identify suspected terrorists. Critics say the list has caused thousands of innocent people to be questioned or searched. The rights organization estimates that one million records will have been added to the list by the end of July. Chad Kolton, a spokesman for the Terrorist Screening Center, which maintains the list, says...

A WATCH list of suspected and known terrorists, compiled by the US authorities, has ballooned and contains more than one million names, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said today. The ACLU said it derived the figure from a Justice Department report on the FBI's Terrorist Screening Centre, which consolidates terrorist watch list information. The centre "had over 700,000 names in its database as of April 2007 and that the list was growing by an average of over 20,000 records per month", according to a report by the Justice Department Inspector-General, the rights group said. "By those numbers, the list...

CNN) -- Federal officers charged with keeping terrorists off planes are now searching their own ranks for staff who told CNN that few flights were protected by air marshals. The Transportation Security Administration rejected as a "myth" CNN's report that less than 1 percent of the nation's daily flights carry armed federal air marshals. Now the agency is conducting an investigation into who talked to CNN and who encouraged other agents to do the same. A spokesman for the TSA confirmed the investigation. Spokesman Christopher White said a TSA investigator is looking into the "possible unauthorized release of sensitive and...