A foiled plot to sneak a bomb through airport checkpoints and onto a plane bound for the United States calls attention to gaps in screening measures that are supposed to detect threats airport metal detectors miss.
Former TSA chief Kip Hawley tells CNN's Erin Burnett why airport security should no longer focus on weapons.
Studies by the U.S. government and professional organizations conclude the level of radiation emitted by full-body airport scanners is safe for passengers, according to a Department of Homeland Security Inspector General report, but the findings likely will not end the dispute over backscatter X-ray machines.
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.
Pre-screening for some travelers means a speedier trip through airport security.
A cupcake isn't always just a cupcake. Sometimes it's so noteworthy, it creates Cupcakegate. Just ask the nation's airport security officials.
Traveling on planes is stressful enough for passengers over the holiday, but even more so if someone has a disability or medical need. Now the Transportation Security Administration, which has endured widespread criticism for intrusive pat-downs, is launching a toll-free help line to get travelers through security checkpoints.
Ten years after its formation, the Transportation Security Administration on Wednesday got the type of birthday card no one wants to receive -- a blistering report from Republican lawmakers who said the agency is "bloated" and "inefficient" and has done little, if anything, to improve aviation security.
The Transportation Security Administration on Tuesday unveiled a "trusted traveler" program -- one meant to expedite screening at U.S. airport checkpoints, agency chief John Pistole said.
Remember when you could arrive at the airport 30 minutes before your flight, get complimentary peanuts and a Coke and be greeted upon arrival by a loved one right at the gate?
The TSA is phasing out its graphic body scan in favor of software that shows a body outline instead. Brian Todd reports.
U.S. authorities have kept about 350 people with "suspected ties to terrorism" off U.S.-bound planes since January 2010, officials said Monday.
Calling for an airport screening process that maximizes security but cuts down on passenger hassles, the U.S. Travel Association on Wednesday recommended key changes to the current system.
The Transportation Security Administration on Friday ordered re-testing of all radiation-emitting full-body scanners after an internal review showed calculation errors, missing data and other discrepancies on paperwork by contractors who routinely check the machines' radiation levels.
The nation's air security has improved exponentially since the September 11 terror attacks. But events sometimes remind us there's still work to do.
After referring to himself online only as "The Patriot Pilot," a California-based aviator revealed his identity Monday and explained his crusade to expose what he described as the nation's faulty airport security.
A California-based commercial pilot says the Transportation Security Administration retaliated against him after he posted videos online showing what he described as shortcomings in airport security.
In November, CNN's Kate Bolduan sifted through both the facts and myths that surround the TSA's security measures.
The Transportation Security Administration signalled Thursday its intention to closely check insulated beverage containers, noting growing concerns that terrorists might conceal explosives inside such items.
It was days after her pat down that Marcia reacted.
India's ambassador to the U.S. was subjected to a security pat-down at a Mississippi airport. WAPT reports.
Word that all passengers on flights within and to the United States are now being checked against government watch lists may have travelers wondering how they were being screened up until this point.
All passengers flying within or to the United States are now being screened against government watch lists before they get their boarding passes, the Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday.
CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports on new data that shows that airport body scanners may not be very effective.
One of the busiest travel weeks of the year is upon us.
CNN's Susan Candiotti looks at a movement to opt out of TSA body scanners on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
As you are standing in an airport security line this Thanksgiving week, waiting to be funneled into one of the invasive new body-imaging machines, or, if you decline that, to be pulled aside and subjected to a way-too-personal pat-down, ask yourself how you would feel if you lived in a country like this:
TSA administrator John Pistole says that airport screening procedures will not change because they keep us safe.
President Barack Obama stood by new controversial screening measures Saturday, calling methods such as pat-downs and body scans necessary to assure airline safety.
Are the new airport security screening methods safe? CNN's Anderson Cooper asks tough questions.
Vice President Joe Biden discusses the recent outrage over airport security measures.
The TSA is not as bad you think they are.
A growing pilot and passenger revolt over full-body scans and what many consider intrusive pat-downs couldn't have come at a worse time for the nation's air travel system.
Marc Rotenberg, Electronic Privacy Information Center, is suing TSA and wants body scanners removed from airports.
Pilots' unions for US Airways and American Airlines are urging their members to avoid full-body scanning at airport security checkpoints, citing health risks and concerns about intrusiveness and security officer behavior.
Increased scanning and prodding at airport checkpoints have many in the sock-footed parade of American air travelers up in arms about security screening.
Patrick Smith, a commercial pilot who has refused full body scanners, explains their health risks for pilots.
A senior administrator with the Federal Air Marshal Service has been removed from his leadership position while the agency investigates a "culturally insensitive" remark he made on a recent conference call, CNN confirmed Tuesday.
British airlines should stop "kowtowing" to American security demands like making passengers take off their shoes and remove laptops from carry-on bags, the chairman of British Airways argued at an industry conference.
A pilot who refused to submit to a full-body scan or the alternative pat down going through airport security said the procedures violate his rights.
Kiran Chetry talks to pilot Michael Roberts on his refusal to submit to a body scan at Memphis International airport.
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.
An airport security supervisor at Newark Liberty International is caught on video allegedly stealing from passengers.
An airport security supervisor accused of stealing from passengers and accepting stolen money was granted $100,000 bail Wednesday by a U.S. magistrate judge in federal court in Newark, New Jersey.
An airport security supervisor at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of stealing from the baggage of travelers during security searches, the U.S. attorney's office in New Jersey announced.
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.
The no-fly list is supposed to help keep terrorists off planes, so when the Times Square car bombing suspect was able to board a flight anyway, it put the process under immense scrutiny. The government has already made changes to the system.
Homeland Security Secy. Janet Napolitano confirms the addition of "real-time" threat-based intelligence at U.S. airports.
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.
The Transportation Security Administration is upgrading security clearances for 10,000 of its airport personnel, giving them access to "secret" intelligence to help them better detect threats and stop terrorists, the agency said Friday.
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.
India has stepped up anti-hijacking measures and ordered the deployment of air marshals as part of a security alert, officials said Friday.
A suspect remains at large after his laptop bag tested positive for explosives at Munich's airport. Fred Pleitgen reports.
A bomb scare that affected about 100 flights at Munich Airport in Germany on Wednesday may have been a false alarm, German police told CNN.
A Senate committee began its assessment of intelligence reforms put in place after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks by focusing Wednesday on the alleged Christmas Day attack aboard a plane landing in Detroit, Michigan.
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.
The Underwear Bomber failed. And our reaction to the failed plot is failing as well, by focusing on the specifics of this made-for-a-movie plot rather than the broad threat. While our reaction is predictable, it's not going to make us safer.
The U.S. government has lowered the threshold for information deemed important enough to put suspicious individuals on a watch list or no-fly list, or have their visa revoked, senior State Department officials tell CNN.
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.
New measures result in longer airport lines and flight delays. CNN's Allan Chernoff reports from Detroit.
The Transportation Security Administration on Thursday extended through at least the weekend heightened security measures in the aftermath of a failed attempt to blow up a U.S. jetliner, the agency said.
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.
Air travel security is being increased as authorities continue to question how a man got explosives on a U.S.-bound passenger jet, according to federal officials, including the president and his homeland security chief.
The Transportation Security Administration likes to keep terrorists guessing. Apparently, it likes to keep travelers guessing, too.
Five Transportation Security Administration employees have been placed on administrative leave after a sensitive airport security manual was posted on the Internet, the agency announced Wednesday.
Beginning Saturday, many air travelers will be asked their birth dates and genders when making airline reservations.
Four small airlines have become the first to participate in the "Secure Flight" program, which transfers responsibility for checking passengers' names against terror watch lists from the airlines to the federal government, the Transportation Security Administration announced Tuesday.
Airport security lines have always been difficult for Leslie Heller and her family.
Homeland Security says "no-fly" list numbers are smaller than previously reported. Jeanne Meserve reports.
The federal government's terrorist watch lists are far shorter than have been reported, the secretary of homeland security said Wednesday.
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 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.
An arrest in Orlando's airport demonstrates the new science of reading micro-expressions
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.
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.
The Transportation Security Administration carried out surprise inspections on workers at five airports in Florida and Puerto Rico on Monday, one week after a baggage handler in Orlando allegedly used his airport credentials to smuggle more than a dozen firearms into a commercial jetliner.
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.
Steps could have been taken to stop suicide hijackers if Zacarias Moussaoui had leveled with investigators about his al Qaeda ties, a government witness told jurors Wednesday in the penalty phase of Moussaoui's trial.
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 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.
The deadly bombings in London have raised concerns about the threat of terrorism against the world's transportation centers. In the United States, the focus was on aviation security after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
An airline pilots group is giving dismal grades to aviation security, saying "gaping holes" remain almost four years after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.
U.S. airlines continue to check passengers against incomplete, truncated lists of suspected terrorists, almost three years after the September 11, 2001 attacks, the heads of the 9/11 commission testified Monday.
A federal plan to collect personal data about airline passengers to block potential terrorists from boarding aircraft has been abandoned, a government source familiar with its development said Thursday.
Bags checked by long-distance Amtrak travelers leaving from Washington's Union Station are now being screened for explosives before departing, the Department of Homeland Security announced.
For the then-fledgling Department of Homeland Security, the news could not have broken at a worse time.
The number of federal air marshals declined modestly during the current fiscal year, and will decline further next year under the president's proposed budget, administration officials acknowledged Thursday.
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