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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...

A New York woman has filed a $10 million lawsuit stemming from her arrest at Washington's Reagan International Airport last year, an arrest she says was unwarranted and abusive. Police say 31-year-old Robin Kassner was obstructing justice. Security cameras captured the incident and the video has now been made public. Surveillance video from inside Reagan National Airport shows Robin Kassner standing with a TSA agent who sorts through her bag. Moments later, a Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority police officer steps in and pulls Kassner to the ground. Robin Kassner says "I was thrown across the room, into a metal chair...

LOS ANGELES (CBS) ― The FBI says a man has been detained after allegedly making a bomb threat to police at Los Angeles International Airport. Authorities shut down traffic near the airport's terminal 3 while the threat was investigated. Airport police told CBS station KCBS-TV in Los Angeles airport roads have since been reopened but they're gridlocked. FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller says the man was detained Wednesday morning and his backpack was seized for inspection. She says police bomb squads were investigating.

For years at airport security checkpoints, passengers have heard the refrain, almost a dirge: “Laptops must be removed from their cases and placed on the belt.” Get ready for a change. The Transportation Security Administration has given the go-ahead for passengers to use newly designed carry-on bags that will let them pass through security without having to take their laptops out for the X-ray inspection. Kip Hawley, the agency’s director, told me Monday that the T.S.A. would accept the new laptop cases as soon as they come on the market. Two of the biggest luggage manufacturers — Pathfinder Luggage and...

Lawmaker won't bring weapon today; will rely on court case to challenge banA state representative decided not to carry a gun into the Atlanta airport in defiance of the firearms ban there, saying he'll let a gun-rights group fight the ban in court. State Rep. Tim Bearden (R-Villa Rica), who sponsored a new law that that took effect Tuesday and allows licensed gun owners to carry in public places, had vowed to take a gun to Hartsfield-Jackson when picking up his father. But Tuesday morning, Bearden said he reconsidered his strategy.... "That showdown will still happen, but it will take...

You could call it the Atlanta version of "High Noon." Top city officials will announce Tuesday that despite a new state gun law that went into effect at midnight, they will have anyone carrying a weapon at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport arrested. The state lawmaker who sponsored the new gun law says if they do, the city will immediately be sued. And state Rep. Tim Bearden (R-Villa Rica) said the plaintiff in the lawsuit could be himself. "I have a permit, and I have family I have to pick up at the airport tomorrow [Tuesday]," Bearden told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on...

Oppression At the Airport Still Think You Are Free? The first thing you lose when you walk into an airport is freedom of speech, according to Walter Williams article "Airport tyranny". You do not even have to say any particular thing to find yourself arrested. Even if you say something totally innocent (in a country with free speech everything is innocent), if some TSA thug claims it distracted him or her. Quoting James Bovard, Williams wrote: "According to the February 2002 Federal Register, people can be arrested if they act in a way that 'might distract or inhibit a screener...

You could call it the Atlanta version of "High Noon." Top city officials will announce Tuesday that despite a new state gun law that went into effect at midnight, they will have anyone carrying a weapon at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport arrested. The state lawmaker who sponsored the new gun law says if they do, the city will immediately be sued. And state Rep. Tim Bearden (R-Villa Rica) said the plaintiff in the lawsuit could be himself. "I have a permit, and I have family I have to pick up at the airport tomorrow [Tuesday]," Bearden told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on...

Beginning Saturday, June 21, 2008 passengers that willfully refuse to provide identification at security checkpoint will be denied access to the secure area of airports. This change will apply exclusively to individuals that simply refuse to provide any identification or assist transportation security officers in ascertaining their identity. This new procedure will not affect passengers that may have misplaced, lost or otherwise do not have ID but are cooperative with officers. Cooperative passengers without ID may be subjected to additional screening protocols, including enhanced physical screening, enhanced carry-on and/or checked baggage screening, interviews with behavior detection or law enforcement officers...

Unintentional adventures in airport security Carry On By Chris Haire I'm a risk-taking man. I like to take chances. I like to put all of my chips on the No. 13, spin the roulette wheel, and pray that my hopes and dreams aren't splattered all over the casino walls like Christopher Walken's brains in The Deer Hunter. Charlie likes to gamble. Which is why I was very much aware of what I was doing when I handed over my driver's license to a security official at the Philadelphia International Airport. I knew that the license was split in half —...

In a major change of policy, the Transportation Security Administration has announced that passengers refusing to show ID will no longer be able to fly. The policy change, announced on Thursday afternoon, will go into force on June 21, and will only affect passengers who refuse to produce ID. Passengers who claim to have lost or forgotten their proof of identity will still be able to fly. As long as TSA has existed, passengers have been able to fly without showing ID to government agents. Doing so would result in a secondary search (a pat down and hand search of...

An unsuspecting passenger who flew through Tokyo's Narita airport left with $10,000 worth of free marijuana thanks to a forgetful customs officer and a sniffer dog with an unreliable nose. The officer stuffed five ounces of the drug into the side pocket of a randomly selected black suitcase coming off an overseas flight into Narita yesterday so that the dog could get some practice at detecting drugs. "The dog couldn’t find it and the officer also forgot which bag he put it in," a customs office spokeswoman said. "If by some chance passengers find it in their suitcase, we’re asking...

An unwitting passenger arriving at Japan's Narita airport has received 142g of cannabis after a customs test went awry, officials say. A customs officer hid a package of the banned substance in a side pocket of a randomly chosen suitcase in order to test airport security. Sniffer dogs failed to detect the cannabis and the officer could not remember which bag he had put it in. Anyone finding the package has been asked to contact customs officials. "This case was extremely regrettable. I would like to deeply apologise," said Narita International Airport's customs head Manpei Tanaka. Strict laws The customs...

An Afghan hijacker who forced an airliner to fly to Britain is now working at Heathrow, it has been disclosed. Nazamuddin Mohammidy, 34, was one of a gang of nine that threatened to blow up an internal flight in Afghanistan, along with 173 passengers and crew, unless they were granted political asylum. The Afghan hijackers forced the Boeing 727 to divert to Britain where they surrendered to police and the SAS after a 70-hour stand-off at Stansted Airport, Essex in Mohammidy, of Hounslow, Middlesex, is now working as an office cleaner for British Airways. The discovery came after he...

A 74-year-old grandmother spent the night in jail after she refused security officers' efforts to check her at Palm Beach International Airport and then shoved a deputy, authorities said Thursday. Elena Reichman, a Holocaust survivor who lives west of Boca Raton, is charged with felony battery on a law enforcement officer. She was released from jail after posting a $3,000 bond at 5 a.m. Thursday. It was her first arrest, state records show.

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - A former Army veteran arrested after trying to check luggage containing pipe bomb-making materials onto a flight home explained that he wanted to show his friends there how to make them, authorities said Wednesday. Investigators were questioning whether Kevin Christopher Brown had ever been to Iraq—where he told them he'd seen similar bombs made, according to court documents—and looking into his mental health history after his arrest Tuesday at Orlando International Airport. Authorities and airline officials repeated their assurances that passengers were never in danger. Transportation Security Administration officials nonetheless touted the 32-year-old's arrest as a...

MIAMI (AP) -- A man with multiple passports was arrested Monday after he bolted from security screeners at Miami International Airport, jumped from a second floor concourse and broke his arm and ribs, authorities said. Transportation and Security Administration officials became suspicious of Faid Beydoun as he stood in a security line, waiting to board a Los Angeles-bound flight. When Beydoun's travel documents also raised concerns, agents asked him to step out of line for a secondary screening. Beydoun, who was carrying multiple passports, then ran from security screeners, jumped 25 feet off the second floor concourse and broke his...

TIA Passenger Had Box Cutter In Hollowed-Out Book Photo provided by the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority. A security officer at Tampa International Airport found a box cutter hidden in a hollowed-out book on Sunday. By Thomas W. Krause of The Tampa Tribune Published: February 20, 2008 TAMPA - A 21-year-old Clearwater man was arrested at Tampa International Airport this weekend after security personnel found a box cutter in a hollowed-out book, authorities said. Benjamin Baines Jr. If convicted, Baines faces up to 10 years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine for a federal charge of attempting to board...

There was an arrest this afternoon of a man flying Southwest Airlines from El Paso to Los Angeles. He is in custody of the FBI. Does anyone know more? I bragged to my husband that I could find out details on FR.

IMAGE: Star Simpson, right,19, of Lahaina, Hawaii, talks to her attorney, Thomas Dwyer, outside East Boston District Court, Friday, Feb. 1, 2008. Simpson was arrested by state troopers after she set off an airport bomb scare wearing a computer circuit board and wiring on her sweatshirt when she went to the airport to pick up her boyfriend last September. Simpson's attorney asked a judge to throw out the charges, saying the device was a legitimate form of free speech. (AP Photo/Bizuayehu Tesfaye)BOSTON (AP) — A computer science student who unwittingly created an airport bomb scare by wearing a blinking...

For the four months that [a TSA Web site supposed to help travelers whose names were erroneously listed on airline watch lists] was up, thousands of people visited it, and 247 travelers submitted highly personal information (including their Social Security number and place of birth) through an insecure, non-SSL encrypted form. TSA's lax security practices resulted in thousands of Americans being put at a direct risk of identity theft. The site was only taken down after I discovered it in February 2007 and posted something to my blog. Shortly after, Wired and a number of other sites picked up the...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A passenger who went through an airport security checkpoint -- before remembering that he had a loaded gun -- is facing charges after going back to report his error, authorities said. Travelers go through security at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Gregory Scott Hinkle, 53, of Davis, West Virginia, went through a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport about 7:30 a.m. Sunday, an airport spokeswoman said. After the traveler evidently recalled having the gun, he returned to the checkpoint and disclosed the weapon, authorities said. The TSA contacted airport police, who charged the...

A man alerted Transportation Security Administration officials early Sunday morning that he had gotten through the main security checkpoint with a handgun, Fox 5 has exclusively learned. Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority Police were called to the checkpoint where the man, identified as Gregory Hinkle, turned over his firearm and was given a summons for a misdemeanor for violating Virigina Code 18.2-287.01 which prohibits firearms in an airport terminal with exceptions for law enforcement and checked luggage. -snip-

On first pass, it's funny. It was reported that two newspaper investigators in Romania, dressed up in ramp uniforms emblazoned with "Al Qaeda Airways", had no problem penetrating not only the civil portions of Bucharest Airport but also the military areas as well. They planted phony bombs in various spots, and essentially had their way with the facility. The uniforms were a particularly nice touch. But on reflection, this is another warning call for US security. Inquiring minds wanted to know if this could happen here. The answer: bank on it. Not likely at smaller airports, but at a large...

'I 'd like a one-way air fare to New York on the next available flight. I have no luggage. Could you make sure the ticket is refundable … in case I change my mind?" I was standing at the Delta shuttle counter at Washington's Reagan National Airport, dressed in my Saudi burka. "Sure, no problem," the clerk replied brightly. "Do you have Skymiles?" "Uh, no." "I'll need some form of identification." I handed her my driver's licence, which showed the occupant of the black tent to be a blonde, blue-eyed resident of the District of Columbia. "Thanks." Tap, tap, tap...

  Taser victim sought to leave troubles behind in Poland Kept out of trouble after brief jail stint   Peter O'Neil, CanWest Europe Correspondent CanWest News Service Friday, November 16, 2007 CREDIT: A screengrab from a video showing police tasering Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport. GLIWICE, Poland -- Robert Dziekanski was remembered in his hometown as a man who sought to leave his troubles behind in a search of paradise, only to wind up alone and dead on the floor of the Vancouver airport at the hands of Canadian authorities. "I was moved by this story, especially because...

WASHINGTON - Government investigators smuggled liquid explosives and detonators past airport security, exposing a dangerous hole in the nation's ability to keep these forbidden items off of airplanes, according to a report made public Wednesday. The investigators learned about the components to make an improvised explosive device and an improvised incendiary device on the Internet and purchased the parts at local stores, said the report by the Government Accountability Office. Investigators were able to purchase the components for the two devices for under $150, and they studied the published guidelines for screening to determine how to conceal the prohibited items...

PHOENIX (AP) - A smoking suitcase was spotted Tuesday in the cargo area at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, airport officials said. The suitcase was in the cargo hold of a US Airways plane headed to San Antonio when it started emitting smoke, said Claire Simeone, an airport spokeswoman. The plane was moved to a less busy area while authorities investigated the suitcase on the tarmac. -snip- The Phoenix Fire Department called in a hazard materials team and the owner of the suitcase is being questioned by police, Rodriguez said.

Lawyers for accused Logan airport bomb prankster Star Simpson have asked that a judge, not a jury of her peers, decide the MIT sophomore’s fate. But they’re also hoping Simpson’s Dec. 3 bench trial date in the East Boston Division of Boston Municipal Court won’t be necessary. Defense attorney Thomas Dwyer Jr. this morning filed a motion to dismiss the single charge of possession of a hoax device Simpson, 19, faces. He argued that no reasonable person could have believed the getup that nearly got his client killed by state police on Sept. 21 “could function as such a machine.”...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASERELEASE No. 20070927-14September 27, 2007Three Baghdad International Airport staff detainedMulti-National Corps – Iraq PAOBAGHDAD – Coalition Forces detained three extremists in an early morning operation at the Baghdad International Airport Sept. 27.The corrupt workers are suspected of having positioned themselves in several high-level jobs at the airport to establish a base and conduct kidnapping operations against Iraqi Security Forces and innocent civilians who stand up against the group’s criminal activities.The men are further suspected of participating in attacks on Iraqi and Coalition Forces with improvised explosive devices and mortars.

(AP) BOSTON An MIT student has been arrested at gunpoint after allegedly walking into Logan International Airport with a fake bomb strapped to her chest this morning. State police say 19-year-old Star Simpson, a sophomore from Hawaii, had a computer circuit board, wiring and a putty that later turned out to be Play-Doh in plain view over a black hooded sweatshirt she was wearing. Stay with wbztv.com and WBZ-TV for the latest on this developing story.

Faisal, a taxicab driver who works at O'Hare Airport, wants to be a good cabbie while staying true to his Muslim faith. But Muslim cabdrivers are finding the latter difficult lately, as they've been hit with a rash of tickets for parking in access lanes leading to the airport terminals near where the city helped set up a prayer trailer for them. "For most of us who need to pray, that's part of our religious duty," said Faisal, a 13-year-cab veteran who declined to give his last name. "It doesn't do us any favors if you write us a ticket...

"Credible Security Risk" Those are the words of the pilot on Delta Flight 1824 out of OIA, after it pulled back from the gate Friday morning to take off for Atlanta. Nine Middle Eastern passengers, six males and three females, had been denied access to the plane when TSA screeners found they were carrying an array of suspicious items ranging from hydrogen peroxide, which can be used to make bombs, to wires and Vaseline bottles taped together. Perhaps most disturbing, what one TSA worker tells me were the first positive tests for SEMTEX ever reported by security at OIA. SEMTEX...

US Sikh organisations have expressed anger over changes allowing airport security staff to "pat down" turbans. Until now turbans have been searched or removed only to resolve an unexplained alarm from an airport metal detector. But now security will have greater discretion to inspect turbans so that they can be manually checked for objects such as non-metallic weapons. However Sikh groups have responded to the new measures by describing them as outrageous and discriminatory. Sikh men wear turbans to cover their hair, which they leave uncut in accordance with their religion. Organisations representing Sikhs have only recently completed a publicity...

PORTLAND - Special security teams were dispatched for a crackdown on travelers at Portland International Airport. Newschannel 8 learned Tuesday Homeland Security has deployed federal agents and local police known as “VIPR” teams to PDX. The “Visual Intermodal Protection and Response” teams have been deployed nearly 84 times in the past year. The agency dispatches the teams around the country, especially during peak travel days and special events -- but officials said there was no specific threat. They'll be on patrol at the airport for two days starting Wednesday morning. The Transportation Security Administration met behind closed doors Tuesday and...

Citing concerns about terrorism, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that airline passengers lose their right to object to a search after they go through initial security screenings. The San Francisco-based court, ruling in a case involving a Hawaii man, said airline passengers couldn't refuse searches once they place their belongings on an X-ray tray or walk through a metal detector. It was the appeals court's second decision in the case of Daniel Kuualoha Aukai because it wanted to clarify an earlier decision on the issue of consent. Last year, the court ruled Aukai couldn't back out...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- All outbound flights were grounded at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport this morning because of a security breach, the Transportation Security Administration confirms. At 7:55 a.m. a Hispanic male circumvented the security screening process and proceeded to concourse C, the TSA reports. The concourse was immediately closed as airport officials searched for the man. He was not located inside the concourse and they believe he may have boarded a plane in the C concourse. Six planes were grounded in the C concourse while all other outbound flights were allowed to continue. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police, TSA and airport security...

Transportation minister announces end to different color stickers being used during airport security check to identify Arab, Jewish citizens traveling abroad. But security personnel say that no real change has been made as new identical white stickers bear different numbers to signify what belongs to whom Roee Nahmias Latest Update: 08.07.07, 21:31 / Israel News Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz announced Tuesday that Jewish and Arab citizens traveling abroad will receive the same color stickers for their luggage during security checks at the airport. Prior to the decision, security personnel at Ben Gurion Airport used different color stickers for each population...

Federal officials at Metro Airport tell WXYZ they caught Sylvia James, chief judge of Inkster's 22nd District Court, with a loaded handgun in her luggage. TSA officials tell WXYZ they discovered the gun at 12:50 p.m. Saturday when James attempted to go through a security checkpoint in the McNamara Terminal. James, who was described as very cooperative with TSA agents, was questioned and released. Charges are pending.

Excerpt - BAKERSFIELD - A series of explosions ripped through the Mojave Airport shortly before 3 p.m. First reports indicated there were a large fire, two deaths, and several other serious injuries. The explosion apparently happened on the edge of the grounds of the huge airport, where many experimental airplanes, jets, and even rocket planes are tested. One spokesman said a rocket exploded. Emergency equipment is being rushed to the area from throughout the county. Helicopter ambulances are being sent from Bakersfield. ~ snip ~

MOJAVE, Calif. — Two people were killed and four others injured Thursday by an explosion at a Mojave Desert airport that is home to pioneering civilian rocket programs, authorities said. Wreckage of equipment and vehicles could be seen in an overhead view of the site broadcast by a KCAL-TV news helicopter. A sign on a truck behind a bunker had the name Scaled. Scaled Composites is the Mojave-based builder of SpaceShipOne, the first private manned rocket to reach space. "Reports are two fatalities and at least four critical injuries," said Kern County fire Capt. Doug Johnston, who was not at...

Another abandoned backpack I'm guessing. Feel free to pull this - as I'm sure we're now averaging several of these a day.

WASHINGTON — Airport security officers around the nation have been alerted by federal officials to look out for terrorists practicing to carry explosive components onto aircraft, based on four curious seizures at airports since last September. The unclassified alert was distributed on July 20... The seizures at airports in San Diego, Milwaukee, Houston and Baltimore included "wires, switches, pipes or tubes, cell phone components and dense clay-like substances," including block cheese, the bulletin said. "The unusual nature and increase in number of these improvised items raise concern." Security officers were urged to keep an eye out for "ordinary items that...

WASHINGTON -- Airport security officers around the nation have been alerted by federal officials to look out for terrorists practicing to carry explosive components onto aircraft, based on four curious seizures at airports since last September. The seizures at airports in San Diego, Milwaukee, Houston and Baltimore included "wires, switches, pipes or tubes, cell phone components and dense clay-like substances," including block cheese, the bulletin said. "The unusual nature and increase in number of these improvised items raise concern." Security officers were urged to keep an eye out for "ordinary items that look like improvised explosive device components."

TSA: Terrorists May Be Conducting Preattack Security Probes POSTED: 4:23 pm EDT July 24, 2007 UPDATED: 4:36 pm EDT July 24, 2007 In a new intelligence bulletin obtained by NBC News, the Transportation Security Administration is warning law-enforcement and airport officials that terrorists "may be" conducting "preattack security probes" at U.S. airports. The unclassified bulletin, dated July 20 and marked "For Official Use Only," is titled "Incidents at U.S. Airports May Suggest Possible Pre-Attack Probing." "A surge in recent suspicious incidents at U.S. airports may indicate terrorists are conducting pre-attack security probes and 'dry runs' similar to dress rehearsals," the...

Airport security officers around the nation have been alerted by federal officials to look out for terrorists practicing to carry explosive components onto aircraft, based on four curious seizures at airports since last September. The unclassified alert was distributed on July 20 by the Transportation Security Administration to federal air marshals, its own transportation security officers and other law enforcement agencies. The seizures at airports in San Diego, Milwaukee, Houston and Baltimore included "wires, switches, pipes or tubes, cell phone components and dense clay-like substances," including block cheese, the bulletin said. "The unusual nature and increase in number of these...

It's what you have to do when you fly - use X-ray machines, metal detectors, and deal with liquid restrictions in your carry-on luggage. You know the drill. Security checkpoints are just part of travel these days. They're supposed to keep us safe, so we use them - but not all of us and not all the time. We've discovered a 4.5 hour time frame each night when virtually anything can be brought into the secure side of Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. There's no metal detector, no X-ray machine, and it's apparently not a problem. Afraid to show her face,...

(AP) SACRAMENTO A CD player is being blamed for a bomb scare that led to the evacuation of a terminal at Sacramento International Airport. Authorities say a security screener yesterday afternoon saw an object with protruding wires on his monitor that he thought was a bomb. But the bag was snatched up and lost in the crowd in the terminal before authorities could inspect its contents. Officials sounded an alert that led 400 passengers to be evacuated for nearly two hours -- delaying six flights. Screeners spotted the bag again while passengers were being re-screened and discovered the object was...

U.S. airports will see an increased presence of local police and federal security officials amid heightened vigilance following an explosion in Glasgow and a bomb alert in London, the White House said on Saturday. White House spokesman Tony Snow said there was no indication of any specific U.S. threat, and the federal government's color-coded rating of the threat of a terrorist attack was not being increased. However, Snow said there will be an added presence of security officials for the sake of vigilance and travelers can expect some delays.

Homeland Security officials are being warned not to toss secret documents that could compromise transportation security into the ordinary trash after hundreds of such papers marked "sensitive" reportedly were found in a city trash container near the Orlando International Airport in Florida. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) used its most recent newsletter to tell employees not to throw away outdated materials stamped as "Sensitive Security Information" (SSI). "There have been recent news stories about a young person who went Dumpster diving near a major airport and found an airport binder that contained documents marked as [SSI]", the newsletter said.