President Barack Obama's budget ax is falling hard on a program that allows pilots to carry handguns in the cockpit as a last line of defense against terrorists.
A long-awaited report on alleged misconduct within the Federal Air Marshal Service concludes that while supervisors do not engage in "widespread" discrimination and retaliation against rank-and-file air marshals, the agency is far from trouble-free.
A long-awaited federal investigation looking into allegations of a hostile work environment within the Federal Air Marshal Service concludes there is no "widespread discrimination and retaliation" within the agency, according to a report by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of the Inspector General obtained by CNN.
A 21-month investigation into allegations that the Federal Air Marshal Service has a hostile work environment -- rife with discrimination and retaliation -- has concluded that no "widespread" problem exists, according to an internal government e-mail obtained by CNN.
Last week, millions of Americans stood up against the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Senate's related anti-piracy bill. Given the public outcry, it is not surprising that all four Republican presidential candidates have come out against them.
The game of identifying federal air marshals on airplanes may just have gotten a little easier. Look for the smiling person with a fatter wallet or purse.
President Barack Obama signed legislation Thursday evening extending several key provisions of the Patriot Act shortly before they were set to expire at midnight.
Rand Paul says it's the leadership of his own party that's holding up the Patriot Act.
The U.S. House followed the Senate on Thursday in voting to extend three key provisions of the Patriot Act scheduled to expire at midnight, sending the measure to President Barack Obama to be signed into law.
Thousands of federal air marshals are being surveyed to see whether some employees' allegations of discrimination, retaliation and misconduct are isolated or widespread.
President Barack Obama's budget cutters left the Department of Homeland Security relatively unscathed Monday, less than a week after the department chief said the country's terror threat is at its "most heightened state" since the September 11 attacks.
Critics take on Obama's 2012 budget. CNN's Jim Acosta reports.
A bill to extend three provisions of the Patriot Act and Intelligence Reform bill that are due to expire next month failed to win approval Tuesday from the U.S. House of Representatives.
Two U.S. air marshals who arrested the wife of a Brazilian judge on a flight to Rio de Janeiro -- and were themselves arrested and had their passports confiscated by Brazilian authorities -- fled the country using alternate travel documents rather than face what they believed to be trumped-up charges, sources said.
The head of the Federal Air Marshal Service's Orlando, Florida, office -- where supervisors allegedly used a "Jeopardy"-style game board to ridicule and retaliate against rank-and-file air marshals -- says he will retire in the coming months, officials said Tuesday.
A U.S. federal air marshal may have violated Indian law after failing to properly secure his law enforcement equipment when inside the country, U.S. officials said Friday.
FBI Deputy Director John Pistole appears before the Senate Commerce Committee on Thursday for the first of two confirmation hearings to become the head of the Transportation Security Administration.
The war on terror is being fought without some key generals.
Federal air marshals are supposed to blend in with passengers on planes, but an alleged run-in with a Twitter-happy celebrity is highlighting how technology could blow their cover in an instant.
Despite calls from President Obama to beef up the program designed to provide security aboard U.S. flights, the Federal Air Marshal Service is in disarray, a CNN investigation has found.
Federal air marshals are being criticized for shoddy service and questionable results. CNN's Drew Griffin reports.
India boosts air security after an apparent terror plot by al Qaeda-linked militants. CNN's Paula Newton reports.
In an exclusive interview, CNN's John King talks with Sen. John McCain and Joe Lieberman about the fight against al Qaeda.
Despite the "palpable level of angst" that a source described over an al Qaeda threat against the United States, the national terror threat level remains at "Elevated" or "Yellow" -- where it has been stuck since 2005.
Homeland Security Sec. Janet Napolitano talks with CNN's Jeanne Meserve to discuss sharing terror watch lists with airlines.
The federal government is scrambling to find ways to comply with President Obama's order to put more air marshals on flights after a botched Christmas Day airline terrorist attack, government sources have told CNN.
Almost as soon as the botched Christmas airplane bombing hit the airwaves, the politics of national security reared its head.
As a federal air marshal, Robert MacLean typically spent five days a week crisscrossing the country on commercial flights, reading a lot of newspapers and John Grisham novels while keeping an eye out and trying to appear inconspicuous.
CNN's Brian Todd reports on whether behavioral screening at airports could have prevented the Northwest bombing attempt.
Is the 'anatomically congruent' bomb that the suspect allegedly carried foolproof to detection? CNN's Brian todd reports.
The most recent independent tests of airport checkpoints showed screener performance "falling off the charts," according to the top Republican on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says the botched airline attack is not likely part of a wider terror plot.
The Washington Post recently reported that Gen. Jim Jones, President Obama's national security adviser, is reviewing plans to reorganize the White House National Security and Homeland Security councils.
In her first full week as the nation's homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano got a full dose of the job's diverse responsibilities -- responding to ice storms in the Midwest, dealing with Congress on budget matters and scrutinizing security plans for the Super Bowl.
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.
Gov. Bill Richardson talks with Kiran Chetry about Sen. Barack Obama's vote on a controversial surveillance bill.
Sen. Barack Obama's vote for a federal surveillance law that he had previously opposed has sparked a backlash from his online advocates, who had energized his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.
The Senate Wednesday passed legislation meant to update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
President Bush praises Congress for passing a bill updating rules for government eavesdropping on suspected terrorists.
The Federal Air Marshal Service is accused of lowering standards to fill vacancies. CNN's Drew Griffin reports.
Their mission is to protect airline passengers from acts of terror on U.S. flights. But in a special investigation, former and current air marshals told CNN that the number of marshals assigned to police flights is so low that the federal agency overseeing them has drastically lowered its firearms and psychological testing standards just so it can qualify new hires.
Air marshals MIA
updated: Wed Mar 26 2008 03:58:00
A CNN investigation reveals just 1 percent of U.S. commercial flights have air marshals on board. Drew Griffin reports.
Of the 28,000 commercial airline flights that take to the skies on an average day in the United States, fewer than 1 percent are protected by on-board, armed federal air marshals, a nationwide CNN investigation has found.
Analysis: Since 9/11, the U.S. has increasingly traded privacy for the promise of security, leaving civil liberties advocates flailing
In his weekly radio address, President Bush says Congress needs to pass a new intelligence bill.
President Bush on Monday urged the House of Representatives to vote on an update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, saying, "If the enemy is calling to America, we really need to know what they're saying."
A bill that would grant immunity to telecommunications companies helping out in a no-warrant eavesdropping program authorized by President Bush and reinstate some court oversight to surveillance was OK'd by a Senate panel Thursday.
A federal court on Wednesday struck down two provisions of the Patriot Act dealing with searches and intelligence gathering, saying they violate the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures with regard to criminal prosecutions.
Just days before the sixth anniversary of September 11, congressional auditors are giving mixed grades to the Department of Homeland Security on its efforts to unify 22 agencies into one department and other goals.
48 hour warningupdated: Wed Aug 08 2007 06:08:00
New legislation will require visitors to the United States to register their travel plans 48 hours before departing for the U.S. The agreement -- signed by the United States and the European Union -- will allow the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to continue using Passenger Name Record (PNR) data as a screening tool at U.S. borders.
The discovery of an unexploded bomb in a parked London car poses no specific threat to the United States, the FBI said Friday, although it's urging police and the public to remain vigilant.
Since March 2003, the collection of duties -- the taxes or "customs" levied against imported goods -- has fallen to the newly minted Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a Department of Homeland Security agency that encompasses four previously independent offices and enforces the border-sensitive laws and regulations of more than 40 other government divisions, from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to the Department of Agriculture.
Travelers now have more time to gather the secure travel documents they will need at U.S. land and sea entry points when a new identification requirement plan is fully implemented, the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department said in a joint statement issued Wednesday.
(WASHINGTON)--U.S. border officials told Congress on Wednesday that a lone officer undid their efforts to stop a man with a dangerous form of tuberculosis from entering the country -- but that explanation was met with skepticism from lawmakers who said the case exposed plenty of holes in the nation's security."We dodged a bullet," House Homeland Security Committee chairman Bennie Thompson said as he opened a hearing into the case of Andrew Speaker, a 31-year-old Atlanta lawyer whose wedding and honeymoon travel caused an international health scare.Speaker was testifying to another congressional committee by audio hookup from the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, where he is hospitalized in isolation.Thompson, D-Miss., said the explanations by Homeland Security and public health officials don't explain why they always seemed to be steps behind Speaker as he traveled to Europe last month to get married, have a honeymoon, and return to the U.S."We should have connected more dots," said T
The tuberculosis patient who set off an international health scare by flying to Europe then Canada before driving back to the U.S. told lawmakers Wednesday that doctors told him he was not contagious.
Border officers will no longer have the discretion to ignore directives barring someone from entering the country after a man crossed the border with a rare form of tuberculosis last month, a Department of Homeland Security official said Tuesday.
A senior House member wants to know how a dangerously infected man managed to get through U.S. Customs and Border Protection even though his passport had been flagged in their computer system.
Claims of terrorism represented less than 0.01 percent of charges filed in recent years in immigration courts by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, according to a report issued Sunday by an independent research group.
The FBI is guilty of "serious misuse" of the power to secretly obtain private information under the Patriot Act, a government audit said Friday.
Travelers whose names mistakenly appear on the U.S. no-fly list can now apply to their good name repaired. The U.S. Department for Homeland Security (DHS) has unveiled a new system that allows travelers to complain if they have been wrongly refused transit, been detained or subject to additional security checks.
A Department of Homeland Security advisory cautioning that al Qaeda may be planning cyber attacks on banking and financial institution Web sites was issued out of an abundance of caution, although there is no corroboration, a DHS spokesman told CNN Thursday.
The Department of Homeland Security has sent an advisory to the National Football League and local officials advising of a possible, uncorroborated bomb threat against some NFL stadiums.
Suspects in an alleged plot to blow up trans-Atlantic flights received a message within the last three days in which they were advised, "Do your attacks now," according to U.S. sources.
The long lines and bulging trash cans at U.S. airports due to increased security after a suspected terror plot was uncovered Thursday had some aviation experts questioning the focus of America's air passenger screening system.
British police say they have arrested 21 people in connection with a terrorist plot to blow up aircraft flying from the United Kingdom to the United States.
They carried fake IDs and used phony names. But the ne'er-do-wells -- actually plain-clothed government investigators -- were able to get into the United States anyway.
Gee, the Republicans seem to have lost their moral compass since Tom DeLay quit. Who knew it could get worse without that pillar of rectitude from Texas? What a snakes' nest of corruption and nastiness.
A man using a fake identification card was able to enter the Homeland Security Department headquarters in Washington, he said, even though the United States government considers the type of Mexican-issued card he used invalid.
The Homeland Security Department said Wednesday that the cities of New York and Washington will get less money in this year's allocation of grants, drawing harsh criticism from politicians in both areas.
The Federal Air Marshal Service is jeopardizing the safety of rank-and-file officers with policies that could reveal the identities of the plainclothes marshals, congressional investigators said in a draft report obtained Friday by CNN.
A lawsuit is asking a federal court to order President Bush, the National Security Agency and Verizon to end a secret snooping program, and Verizon's stock took a hit on the news Monday.
A Senate panel chastised the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Thursday, saying the disaster response organization needs to be scrapped.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which floundered in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, should be abolished and replaced with a new organization, a Senate committee recommended Thursday.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesman charged with soliciting a minor over the Internet was disciplined in a previous job after an incident in which pornographic images were seen on an office computer, his friends and former co-workers said.
A Department of Homeland Security official was arrested Tuesday night on charges of using his computer to seduce a child after he allegedly struck up sexually explicit conversations with a detective posing as a 14-year-old girl, authorities said.
The Transportation Security Administration lawyer who improperly contacted witnesses in the Zacarias Moussaoui trial has been placed on paid administrative leave, Department of Homeland Security officials said.
Federal prosecutors Wednesday asked a judge to reconsider what they called a "terribly excessive" ruling in an effort to salvage their crippled death-penalty case against al Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui.
Two Republican lawmakers have submitted compromises to the White House aimed at ending a dispute over a deal that would give a United Arab Emirates-owned company control of several U.S. port terminals.
The DP World deal to obtain the right to operate in U.S. ports has engulfed Washington in controversy since the deal was announced in February. Below are some answers to key questions about the deal and the resulting controversy:
The former federal emergency director who resigned after the heavily criticized response to Hurricane Katrina admitted Friday that he should have been more forthcoming about problems with the government's response to the storm but faulted the performance of his former boss, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, and called for his resignation.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff should be fired for his handling of Hurricane Katrina, former federal emergency management chief Michael Brown said Thursday, accusing Chertoff of lacking disaster management knowledge.
A newly released transcript from a video conference the day Hurricane Katrina struck seems to reinforce arguments that governments at all levels identified the potential dangers from the storm but were under-prepared for the devastation.
A review of a United Arab Emirates-owned company's plan to take over a portion of operations at key U.S. ports never looked into whether the company had ties to al Qaeda or other terrorists, a key Republican lawmaker told CNN on Wednesday.
Both Republican and Democratic senators took aim Tuesday at the president's proposed 2007 homeland security budget in a hearing, saying it fails to live up to Bush's strong warnings about the threat of terrorist attack.
Republicans in Congress are crafting a solution under which the controversial deal allowing a state-owned Arab company to run some terminals at six U.S. ports could move forward.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey filed a lawsuit Friday in a New Jersey civil court to prevent a deal that would transfer control of the Newark container terminal to a company owned by the United Arab Emirates.
It's been one year since Michael Chertoff was appointed head of the Department of Homeland Security, and it's not a happy anniversary. Chertoff spoke before a Senate hearing this week, facing his critics and explaining his agency's lackluster performance during Hurricane Katrina.
While officials debated Sunday what should be done to fix the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff warned against drastic changes with hurricane season just a few months away.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff took responsibility at a Senate hearing Wednesday for his department's inadequate response to Hurricane Katrina, which "unnecessarily prolonged" the suffering of people along the Gulf Coast.
Two federal air marshals are facing drug charges after allegedly agreeing to smuggle cocaine from a man who turned out to be a government witness, the U.S. attorney's office in Houston, Texas, announced Monday.
A congressional report to be released this week slams the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, calling it a "failure of leadership" that left people stranded when they were most in need.
The embattled former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency portrayed himself during testimony Friday as a scapegoat who had fought for emergency aid to New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
Senate Democrats investigating FEMA's response to Hurricane Katrina say they have documented nearly 30 instances in which federal and local government officials gave early reports on Aug. 29 that levees had broken and that New Orleans was flooding, including one report at 8:30 a.m. the day of the storm.
The eldest daughter of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet has been sent back to Argentina, two days after she arrived in the United States after fleeing tax charges in Chile, a U.S. Homeland Security official said.
The White House is dodging questions about Hurricane Katrina response and has instructed other agencies to join it in fending off investigators, Sen. Joseph Lieberman said on Tuesday. The White House denies the allegations.
In a robust defense of the nation's post-9/11 domestic eavesdropping program, Vice President Dick Cheney on Wednesday said the tool is "critical" for U.S. national security.
Senators voted late Wednesday night to extend some expiring and contentious provisions of the Patriot Act for six months after leaders announced minutes earlier that they had reached a bipartisan agreement.
In acknowledging the message was true, President Bush took aim at the messenger Saturday, saying that a newspaper jeopardized national security by revealing that he authorized wiretaps on U.S. citizens after September 11.
Roving wiretaps and the ability to peek into private medical records are among the provisions of the Patriot Act that will remain intact if the Senate follows the House lead on the bill.
One day after federal air marshals shot and killed an unarmed airplane passenger in Miami, Florida, the White House defended the marshals' actions.
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