Free Republic

In this True Crime post, theft of money from the U.S. treasury to pay off campaign debts is a crime although Obama likely won't get charged. Same for appointing a pervert for "Safe School Czar". We close the door on Amanda Knox with some final thoughts, A couple of intriguing incidents involving airplane behavior by Muslims and TSA Internet posts that could be way more sinister than we know. Of course, there's some Tiger Woods commentary. Much more...all with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

Like Climategate, there is another story the national mainstream media has either missed or largely ignored, and that is the story of what really happened November 17th on Airtran's Flight 297 from Atlanta to Houston. Much confusion remains about exactly what transpired that afternoon on a plane preparing for takeoff at Hartsfield International Airport. By every account the undisputed facts are a large group of men disturbed procedures and upset the flight crew to the point it caused the flight to be delayed. At least one passenger allegedly refused to comply with repeated requests from flight attendants to discontinue his...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 11, 2009 – It’s a scene that’s played out in airports across the country numerous times in the past eight years: Families and servicemembers clinging to each other, either sad to leave or happy and vowing to never let go again. The emotion always is appropriate, but the location of the scene – just beyond the airline ticket counters and before the security checkpoint - robs the actors of precious minutes with loved ones. Those lost minutes are unnecessary, at least as far as the Transportation Security Administration is concerned, a TSA spokesman said. “TSA permits the airlines...

It happened again on Wednesday, December 9, 2009, less than a month after the incident aboard AirTran Flight 297. United Airlines Flight 227, scheduled to depart Denver International Airport at 1:50 pm Wednesday for Los Angeles was disrupted when several passengers who were described as Middle Eastern in appearance, confirmed by this investigator to be a group of Muslims traveling together, were removed from that aircraft due to suspicious behavior that originated in the terminal and continued to the airplane.

Cover-up hinted as case recalls 'flying imams' Evidence that an incident on an Air Tran flight from Atlanta to Houston could have been a "dry run" for a possible hijacking is mounting, with analysts hinting at a cover-up because of an airline gag order on employees and more witnesses coming forward to say they were afraid. The airline, meanwhile, is sticking to its prepared statements that there was an issue with a passenger and a cell phone but the matter is considered closed. ... Charges of suppressed information now are being leveled. "Two and a half weeks later, the incident...

I just got back from a trip during which federal security officials at the Orlando airport confiscated some peanut butter snacks from the family ahead of me. Two weeks ago, after flying back from Albany, I was distraught to open a suitcase -- that I had checked! -- only to discover that the Christmas presents my mother carefully wrapped had been torn open in a search by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers. Normally, I would not even think to complain about these events.... My equanimity, though, evaporated upon reading today how the TSA posted online a 93-page manual detailing some...

TV interview of Brent Brown, head of Chesley-Brown of Atlanta, and a passenger on AirTran Flight 297. He is very well spoken and answers questions that have been brought up on the Flight 297 threads "If there is a secur He addresses the email in beginning @ 3:00 and again later. As he points out at 8:15, there is no need to embellish an already incredible story. @4:55 -- The passengers were walking around refusing to cooperate; not staying in their seats, against FAA rules, pilot turned plane around to secure the cabin. It was extremely tense, never experienced anything...

Thanks again, Marietta Daily Journal, for doing what news organizations are supposed to do: investigate and inform.

The Department of Homeland Security has initiated unspecified personnel actions against individuals involved in the bungled online posting this spring of a government document that revealed airport screening secrets, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told senators Wednesday morning. A contract employee was responsible for failing to properly redact a 93-page Transportation Security Administration operating manual onto a government procurement Web site, allowing computer users to recover blacked-out information by copying and pasting them into other documents, Napolitano said. TSA supervisors were also involved, Napolitano said. "The security of the traveling public has never been put at risk," Napolitano assured the...

WASHINGTON – The federal government improperly posted an internal guide to its airport passenger screening procedures on the Internet in a way that could offer insight into how to sidestep security. The document outlines who is exempt from certain additional screening measures, including members of the U.S. armed forces, governors and lieutenant governors, the mayor of Washington, D.C., and their immediate families. It offers examples of identification documents that screeners accept, including congressional, federal air marshal and CIA ID cards; and it explains that diplomatic pouches and certain foreign dignitaries with law enforcement escorts are not subjected to any screening...

In a massive security breach, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) inadvertently posted online its airport screening procedures manual, including some of the most closely guarded secrets regarding special rules for diplomats and CIA and law enforcement officers. In a massive security breach, the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) inadvertently posted online its entire airport screening procedures manual, including some of the most closely guarded secrets regarding special rules for diplomats and CIA and law enforcement officers. The most sensitive parts of the 93-page Standard Operating Procedures were apparently redacted in a way that computer savvy individuals easily overcame. -snip-

In a massive security breach, the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) inadvertently posted online its entire airport screening procedures manual, including some of the most closely guarded secrets regarding special rules for diplomats and CIA and law enforcement officers. Photo: Massive TSA Security Breach As Agency Gives Away Its Secrets: On-line Posting Reveals a ?How To? for Terrorists to Get Through Airport Security In a massive security breach, the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) inadvertently posted online... Expand In a massive security breach, the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) inadvertently posted online its entire airport screening procedures manual, including some of the most...

In the age of balloon boys and party crashers, regular people just don't know what to believe any more. Last week, I spent more than my share of hours trying to track down the truth about an incident on an AirTran flight out of Atlanta on Nov. 17. Flight 297 to Houston, with about 70 passengers onboard, departed gate C-16 at 4:43 p.m. Until something happened that caused the pilot to turn around and come back. Two and a half weeks later, the incident is in high dispute, thanks to some passengers who have spoken out on the Internet about...

Why is AirTran lying about its passengers? And why would you believe the company that refuses to answer important questions or release documents to back up their claims? The airline may face a lawsuit, which will finally uncover the proof that a dry run was conducted by 11 Muslim men, and it tried to force passengers to fly with them, anyway. As readers know, on Thursday, I posted an e-mail written by Tedd J. Petruna, a NASA employee who was on AirTran Flight 297 from Atlanta to Houston on November 17th of this year. He recounted in the e-mail–which he...

slideshow In the age of balloon boys and party crashers, regular people just don't know what to believe any more. Last week, I spent more than my share of hours trying to track down the truth about an incident on an AirTran flight out of Atlanta on Nov. 17. Flight 297 to Houston, with about 70 passengers onboard, departed gate C-16 at 4:43 p.m. Until something happened that caused the pilot to turn around and come back. Two and a half weeks later, the incident is in high dispute, thanks to some passengers who have spoken out on the Internet...

“Planned and choreographed” incident similar to USAir Flight 300 Security incident aboard AirTran Flight 297 suggests terror “Dry Run”On November 17, an incident took place aboard AirTran Flight 297 scheduled to fly from Atlanta Hartsfield Airport to Houston that the media does not want to cover and everyone from the airline to the TSA and other government agencies want to keep very quiet. The reasons, I have been told, is fear of predatory lawsuits, negative publicity from accusations of religious profiling, and the obligatory subjugation to mindless mandatory Muslim sensitivity training that make a mockery of our American system of...

A reader called me, then sent me an email Wednesday morning about an incident that occurred Nov. 17 on an AirTran Airways flight. According to an Atlanta Journal Constitution story, the flight was delayed two and a half hours after a confrontation between some passengers and the flight crew. The AJC story quoted a passenger sitting toward the back of the airplane who recounted what she saw. That passenger thought it was just a problem with miscommunication. But there's an email circulating, apparently going viral, from a Texan on the flight, who describes what appeared to him to be a...

This squib appeared on the KHOU website on November 18 but is seems to be only a fraction of the story. Read the comments below the story please. ATLANTA -- AirTran Airways says a flight from Atlanta to Houston with more than 70 passengers on board was delayed when a passenger refused to end a cell phone call. ... Flight 297, a Boeing 717, was taxiing on the runway in Atlanta Tuesday afternoon when a crew member asked a passenger to turn off his phone. ... after several failed attempts by the crew member to end the conversation, the captain...

What a testament to the spirit and dedication of our workforce that we were able to reach 100 percent completion of ENGAGE! and COACH! training of nearly 55,000 TSA employees in less than a year – while also carrying out our security mission. This required team spirit, determination and the enthusiastic embrace of taking the evolution of security at TSA to the next level. On behalf of the Senior Leadership Team, congratulations to OSO HQ and field leadership, the Evolution team, the phenomenal facilitators, and our committed workforce for completing this phase of our cultural evolution with passion, enthusiasm and...

MANCHESTER – Saying goodbye to a son or daughter deploying overseas can be one of life's most difficult moments, but Richard Jones of Amherst says the staff at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport recently made that moment a little easier for his family. Jones and his wife, Beth, went to the airport about 5 a.m. Wednesday to see off their son, Dustin, who is on his way to Afghanistan. A sniper with the Marine Corps, Dustin Jones was heading back to his base in Hawaii and is slated to officially deploy this weekend.

Transportation Security Administration screeners at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport probably wish that the fellow they chose to grill last March about a box of cash wasn't a Ron Paul devotee who runs a committee devoted to individual rights and constitutional government. But grill Steven Bierfeldt they did, and eight months later the incident has yielded revised rules requiring TSA agents to stick to matters related to flight security rather than policing airports for other crimes. Bierfeldt and the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented him in a lawsuit, announced in a news release this week that the TSA had changed...

The Obama Administration’s nominee to head the Transportation Security Administration, Erroll Southers, was censured by the FBI for asking law enforcement personnel to conduct a background check on his ex-wife’s boyfriend. The incident occurred some time ago (1988), and Southers has acknowledged his miscondcut and claims he has not done anything similar since. According to the story linked above, however, a copy of the letter of censure has not been released by the FBI, nor has it been provided to the Senate committee considering Southers’ nomination. Given the nature of his alleged offense, and the sensitivity of the position ,...

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) are the folks in the airports who check your luggage, etc. Honestly they are much more than that, the TSA consists of 50,000 security officers, inspectors, directors, air marshals and managers who protect the nation's transportation systems so we can travel safely. On first the President's Appointment of Erroll Southers to run the TSA made sense. He's a former FBI agent and the LA Airport Police's Director of Homeland Security and intelligence. But on second glance there are many concerns for example his stance on Unions. If he is confirmed to run the TSA, Southers...

Note: The following text is a quote: Hamilton Man Sentenced to 30 Months' Imprisonment for Threatening to Bomb Cincinnati Airport and Other Cincinnati-Area Landmarks CINCINNATI—Frederick D. Purvis, 43, of Hamilton, was sentenced in United States District Court here today to 30 months' imprisonment for a series of messages he sent in November, 2008 in which he threatened to blow up seven Cincinnati-area landmarks including the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. He was also sentenced to serve six years of supervised release after his prison term. Carter M. Stewart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, James A. Zerhusen, United...

Today’s guest author is Deirdre Walker. She retired recently as the Assistant Chief of the Montgomery County, Maryland, Department of Police. She spent 24 years as a police officer. “Do I have the right to refuse this search?” This is a question I heard many times during my law enforcement career. Often my answer was no. But occasionally it would be “yes,” followed by an admonition to have a good day. For the last half of my career, I would have documented each interaction, whether or not it involved an arrest. I would have written down the nature and length...

Bryce Williams wasn't expecting to walk through a metal detector or have his bags screened for explosives at the Greyhound bus terminal near downtown Orlando. But Williams and 689 other passengers went through tougher-than-normal security procedures Thursday as part of a random check coordinated by the U.S. The idea is to keep off guard terrorists and others who mean harm, thereby improving safety for passengers and workers. There was no specific threat to the bus station on John Young Parkway south of Colonial Drive. Although the TSA is best known for its agents at airports, the agency's Visible Intermodal Prevention...

CINCINNATI -- The Transportation Security Administration was checking barges on the Ohio River Tuesday in what it dubbed "Operation Viper." TSA agents were boarding barges and checking in with captains to see if they've seen anything suspicious and to remind them to be vigilant. They are also checking the licenses of the barges and conducting safety inspections. The operation is being run under the Interstate 275 bridge near the borders of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. The U.S. Coast Guard was also part of the operation.

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...

-snip- WSMV-TV in Nashville reported that a passenger had to be subdued by other passengers after he began quoting Bible passages. -snip-

Call it the showdown at the whole-body imaging machine. Depending on who you believe, the Transportation Security Administration at Salt Lake International Airport was either harassing Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, for fighting its use of "strip-search" machines or Chaffetz was being obnoxious. "I'm sure they're not my biggest fans," said Chaffetz, who voted against allowing the TSA to form a union. "They're just harassing me." Chaffetz gives his version of how the incident started. "They told me to go to the far left (metal detector) lane, which is fine. There is one whole-body imaging machine, which is lane No. 2,...

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...

Note: Photo included. SNIPPET: "That's the way Nick George, a senior at Pomona College, in California, sees what happened to him at the Philadelphia airport two Saturdays ago. George, of Wyncote, Montgomery County, was about to catch a Southwest flight back to school when stereo speakers in his backpack caught the eye of screeners at the metal detector. When they looked though his bag, George said, they found his Arabic/English flash cards, and escorted him to a side screening area. He figures it didn't help that his passport had stamps from Jordan, where he'd studied a semester, and Egypt and...

Note: The following text is a quote: TSA Implementing New Enhanced Threat Detection Capability at Checkpoints Nationwide Press Release WASHINGTON - The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced today it is further bolstering existing explosives detection capabilities by deploying additional tools to screen powdered substances at checkpoints. "Every day, TSA officers work at over 450 airports nationwide screening approximately 2 million passengers to keep the traveling public safe," said TSA Acting Administrator Gale Rossides. "These enhancements are part of TSA's efforts to stay ahead of emerging threats while continually strengthening our layered approach to security." Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) are experienced...

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...

Woman took items while bags were being screened. A 30-year-old former Transportation Security Administration worker was sentenced to 90 days in jail and five years' probation Thursday for stealing jewelry, gift cards and other things out of tourists' bags as the items were undergoing security screening at Kahului Airport. Devie Darla Dale Feig... The agency already has reimbursed the victims. "I'm not a bad person. But what I did was wrong. I wanted to say I'm sorry," Feig said ... Deputy Prosecutor Terence Herndon called the case egregious and asked that Feig receive the full 90-day jail term. "I believe...

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...

At least six individuals listed by the FBI as possible terrorists also were listed in the FAA database as pilot certificate holders as of this June, according to The New York Times. After the Times questioned the TSA about the situation, the FAA suspended all six certificates. The Times had received the list of names from a small software company that said it found the six by comparing public records, an effort the TSA apparently never made. "The T.S.A. appears not to have taken notice of the terrorists even when two of them turned up on the Federal Bureau of...

Starting this year, Americans will have to get government approval to travel by air. As Privacy Journal revealed last fall, henceforth "Permission Now Needed to Travel Within U.S." Getting a reservation and checking-in for air travel will soon require Transportation Security Administration authorization. That permission is by no means assured: For example, if your name matches a "no-fly" list, even mistakenly, you can be denied the right to a reserve a seat on a flight. If your name is on a "selectee" list, you and your possessions will be searched more thoroughly before you can board. What is going on...

(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...

NEW YORK (CNN) — Authorities have evacuated a concourse of New York’s LaGuardia Airport, a port authority official said Saturday.

(AP Photo/Don Ryan)Karen McNutt of Women & Guns has a warning for travelers. You could be traveling by airline with a declared and checked-in gun in your baggage, all perfectly legal, and think you've done everything required of you. Then say something compels you to claim your luggage at a layover airport: perhaps your flight was rerouted, or perhaps there was a delay and they're going to shuttle you to a hotel or an alternate terminal... Don't assume it's safe to claim your suitcase. That could put you in a world of hurt. I came across McNutt's article--one I missed...

Note: The following text is a quote: Secretary Napolitano Announces $7.7 Million in Recovery Act Funds for Airport Surveillance Release Date: July 28, 2009 For Immediate Release Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano today announced approximately $7.7 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding for the installation of new closed circuit television systems at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International, Ronald Reagan Washington National, Spokane International, Gerald R. Ford International and Boise, Idaho airports. "State-of-the-art surveillance technology provides another critical layer of security at our airports," said Secretary Napolitano. "These projects will inject critical Recovery Act dollars into our...

TSA Reminds Summer Travelers to be Prepared for Security Press Release July 2, 2009 WASHINGTON – TSA Reminds Summer Travelers to be Prepared for Security As the 4th of July approaches and summer travel heats up, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) reminds travelers to be prepared and plan ahead for airport security procedures. To prepare for summer travel, TSA is working with the aviation industry to ensure the highest levels of security for all travelers. TSA also has Family Lanes at every security checkpoint, designed to allow infrequent travelers or those with special needs more time to process through the...

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...

This is good news:A federal judge in June threw out seizure of three fake passports from a traveler, saying that TSA screeners violated his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure. Congress authorizes TSA to search travelers for weapons and explosives; beyond that, the agency is overstepping its bounds, U.S. District Court Judge Algenon L. Marbley said. "The extent of the search went beyond the permissible purpose of detecting weapons and explosives and was instead motivated by a desire to uncover contraband evidencing ordinary criminal wrongdoing," Judge Marbley wrote. In the second case, Steven Bierfeldt, treasurer for the Campaign...

The KEY sentence, of this Story is... "The new equipment requires fewer people to operate, making it more cost-effective in the long run, TSA officials say."

<p>COLUMBUS, Ohio - An Ohio airport summoned a bomb squad to detonate a suspicious item that turned out to be pickled mangoes.</p> <p>X-ray equipment used by federal security screeners in Columbus could not detect what was inside a sealed canister in luggage being inspected around 7 p.m. Tuesday. The container was labeled "baby food," but authorities say security personnel became suspicious when the woman who owned the suitcase claimed the canister held pickles.</p>

"Steve Bierfeldt says the Transportation Security Administration pulled him aside for extra questioning in March. He was carrying a pocket edition of the U.S. Constitution and an iPhone capable of making audio recordings." "TSA screeners at Lambert-St. Louis (Illinois) International Airport saw a metal cash box in his carry-on bag. Inside was more than $4,700 dollars in cash -- proceeds from the sale of political merchandise like T-shirts and books. There are no restrictions on carrying large sums of cash on flights within the United States, but the TSA allegedly took Bierfeldt to a windowless room and, along with other...

In April, Transportation Security Administration agents detained Steve Bierfeldt at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport for no other reason than that he was carrying $4,700 in cash. The move immediately proved to be something of a public relations disaster, since the cash belonged to Rep. Ron Paul's libertarian-oriented Campaign for Liberty, of which Bierfeldt is the director of development, and the political activist used his cell phone to record the incident (mp3), including abusive language directed his way. Now the confrontation has sparked a lawsuit against the TSA, with the American Civil Liberties Union arguing Bierfeldt's case. In the wake of...

Note: The following text is a quote: TSA Testimony on Progress in Improving Transportation Security Speeches & Testimony UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION ORAL STATEMENT OF GALE D. ROSSIDES ACTING ADMINISTRATOR BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION SECURITY AND INFRASTRUCTURE PROTECTION COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JUNE 10, 2009 Click here to read the written testimony on TSA's progress on improving transportation security. Good afternoon Chairwoman Jackson-Lee, Ranking Member Dent, and distinguished members of the Subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify on the President's FY 2010 budget request for the Transportation...