Hi-tech body scanners at airports may have split opinion with consumers and privacy campaigners, but that hasn’t stopped one airline from using them in a new ad campaign.
Consumers finally can talk to US Transportation Security Administration — sort of
July 16, 2010 By 3 Comments
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration has given consumers a new way to communicate with the agency about airport and airline problems — in vintage Web 1.0 fashion.
TSA expands naked scanners, swabbing at checkpoints, boarding areas
March 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment
The U.S. airport experience is being transformed as many travelers will be scanned and swabbed on their way to their dream vacation or business trip.
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TSA funds explosive detection devices through jobs stimulus program
February 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment
The TSA is upgrading its explosive trace-detection equipment at airport checkpoints by tapping into funding from last year’s federal jobs’ stimulus law.
Doubts emerging over airport body scanner reliability
January 8, 2010 By 4 Comments
Airport security technology firms, perhaps seeing the bounty ahead if – as expected – governments around the world impose stricter checks on passengers, are questioning the performance of the controversial full body scanners.
One such company is Guardian Technologies International which backs claims in UK media this week that the widely talked about scanners do not accurately detect low-density explosives such as liquid and powder explosives.
The company has a product of its own to peddle, the PinPoint threat detection and identification system, but equally it raises an interesting point if the much lauded body scanners are unable to pick up the very materials that the recent alleged Northwest 253 bomber had on his possession.
Open letter to all airports in 2010
January 6, 2010 By 6 Comments
Dear Airport Authority, TSA, and/or Agencies responsible for security,
As a member of the traveling public who, over the years, has adjusted my habits in order to streamline the airport security experience not only for myself but for fellow passengers, I want it to be known that I will be adjusting my habits again to take in account the use of full body scanners.
Not only will I be wearing pants that don’t require a belt and slip on shoes, and sorting all my personals into plastic baggies for easy screening, now I will be checking in my carry-on luggage which, for so many years, has been the only luggage I have had to bring on any trip up to a week in length.
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Ex counter-terrorism official labels TSA rules ‘criminal negligence’ and calls for tech solutions
January 4, 2010 By 8 Comments
Former U.S. counter-terrorism official and frequent CNN guest Larry Johnson labels the new TSA security measures and the agency’s failure to impose a uniform security system as “criminal negligence.”
In a blog post, TSA Punts on Security, Johnson, co-founder of BERG Associates and former deputy director in the U.S. State Dept.’s Office of Counter Terrorism, says the TSA’s procedures, which went into effect Jan. 4, “likely increase the chance that terrorists will succeed in putting a bomb onboard an in-bound commercial airliner.”
In a phone interview, Johnson told Tnooz that the new TSA procedures for flights in-bound into the U.S. revert to the “absurd notion” of “threat-based security,” which was in place prior to 9/11 when the FAA had responsibility for airline security and tried to “play Kreskin to figure out where the threat came from.”
New TSA security measures mean long-term changes for air travel
January 3, 2010 By 10 Comments
The TSA’s Christmas Day security directive, following the Northwest flight 253 terrorism incident, with its prohibitions against passengers roaming aircraft aisles or placing blankets in their laps during a flight’s approach, was a short-term response to an emergency situation and some of its elements were widely criticized.
But, starting Jan. 4, the TSA has dug in with “long-term, sustainable security measures,” which alter the flavor of the air-traveler experience for flights inbound to the U.S. for the forseeable future.
Some of the Christmas Day mandates about in-flight prohibitions, which drew such scorn, are dropped, but remain optional prohibitions at the discretion of the airlines and pilots.
TSA issues new security directives for all flights inbound to the U.S.
January 3, 2010 By 9 Comments
The TSA issued new security directives, effective Jan. 4, for all U.S. and international carriers with inbound flights to the U.S.
Here are the publicly available highlights from a statement the TSA sent to me:
* Every individual — i.e. 100% — flying into the U.S. and traveling from or through countries designated as state sponsors of terrorism “or other countries of interest” must go through “enhanced screening,” the TSA says in a statement.
However, despite today’s TSA statement about the new security directives, there was nothing as of 4:40 p.m. EST Jan. 3 about the new rules on the TSA website.
Did TSA ghost-write @FlyingWithFish tweet? Twitter coercion?
January 2, 2010 By 21 Comments
UPDATE: Less than an hour after posting this story below, a source familiar with aspects of the TSA investigation confirms Tnooz speculation that TSA agents were in Frischling’s home on the evening of Dec. 29 when he tweeted a request to the source of the leaked security directive to contact him.
Steven Frischling, one of the two travel bloggers subpoenaed by the Dept. of Homeland Security and visited by TSA agents after publishing a security directive, tweeted Jan. 2 that he can’t comment on the “author” of a controversial tweet, issued from his account, at 10:05 p.m. on Dec. 29.
While two TSA agents likely were in his home at the time and allegedly were threatening to terminate Frischling’s ability to work with the airline industry unless he divulged the source of the security-directive leak, the Dec. 29 tweet from the FlyingWithFish Twitter account said the following:
“To the gentleman who sent Flying With Fish the TSA Security Directive … Thank You! Can you drop me an email?I have a question. Thanks-Fish.”
