Free Republic

I made it to my hotel room in Baton Rouge at three am this morning so please excuse any typos. I'm still getting my bearings this morning. Right about the time you'll be reading this, I'll be walking into a press conference to announce not just our latest video, but action we're taking that hones in on the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department. Before I get to that, I wanted to share a quick personal story. I typically don't arrange my travel to arrive at 3am. But thanks to the fun folks at the TSA at JFK International,...

Holiday travelers faced a literal nightmare on Sunday morning when the line for security checks at Midway Airport in Chicago was reportedly over a mile long. KOMO reporter Denise Whitaker said that the line was 1.2 miles long. An airport spokespersonsaid that she wasn't surprised by the crowds. “This happens sometimes,” Chicago Aviation Department rep. Karen Pride told the Chicago Sun-Times. “There was a period of time earlier this morning, between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m., that lines were long because that is when most people are traveling for the holiday period.” Twitter users posted pictures of the hellish scene....

Jalil Dewan, 57, was stopped around 10:20 a.m. after TSA agents spotted what they believed to be a rifle, authorities said. Agents found items including two stun guns, pellet guns, starter pistols and four boxes of pellets, the agency said. Dewan, who was headed to Dubai...

U.S. airlines are saving tens of millions of dollars every week because of lower prices for jet fuel, their largest expense. So why don't they share some of the savings with passengers? Simply put: Airlines have no compelling reason to offer any breaks. Planes are full. Investors want a payout. And new planes are on order. In fact, fares are going higher. And those bag fees that airlines instituted in 2008 when fuel prices spiked aren’t going away either. …

Seven agents of the Transportation Security Administration were briefly hospitalized Friday after reported exposure to fumes at an airport checkpoint, but officials said no cause was discovered. All seven were examined at Hennepin County Medical Center and released by 2 p.m.

... The TSA has an annual budget of $7.9 billion and employs 62,000 people. Its principal function is to operate the passenger screening function at more than 450 commercial airports. Keeping dangerous people off airplanes is unquestionably important, but is it wise to entrust this to a federal bureaucracy? There is solid evidence that the TSA is not very good at this job, but spends a lot of money uselessly. Exhibit A is the Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT, naturally) program. The idea behind SPOT is that government observers in airports can detect individuals who are intent on...

AFGE is proud to represent the more than 45,000 Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) who risk their own safety daily to ensure the safety of travelers in our airports. Because of their bravery, countless families travel daily by air without incident. Our union is committed to protecting the pay, benefits, and workplace rights you deserve.

Tired of long lines at TSA airport checkpoints? Today, the Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB) began a transition to private security screeners rather than Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screeners in a change that promises more efficient security measures. SFB just joined the TSA’s Screening Partnership Program (SPP) that allows airports to replace TSA screeners with more flexible and cost-effective screening services provided by private companies and overseen by the TSA. While this may seem strange to many Americans who have grown accustomed to TSA-manned checkpoints, it really isn’t abnormal for airports to manage their own security with government regulation and...

Our country must secure our borders The epidemic that has devastated Western Africa has now arrived in the United States. In recent weeks, several infected healthcare workers have been flown back to the United States for successful treatment. However, a greater threat looms from ordinary citizens knowingly or unknowingly bringing the disease to our country. This week it was uncovered that Thomas Duncan of Liberia flew to Dallas, Texas on United Airlines. He started his travels in Africa, stopped in Brussels, Belgium before arriving in the United States. While he did not show symptoms of the disease on the flight,...

An investigative reporter whose private files were illegally seized during a raid on her home will receive $50,000 as part of a settlement with the Department of Homeland Security. Audrey Hudson, an award-winning journalist most recently at the Washington Times, told The Daily Signal she was awoken by her barking dog around 4:30 a.m. on Aug. 6, 2013, to discover armed government agents had descended on her property under the cover of darkness. The agents had a search warrant for her husband’s firearms. As they scoured the home, Hudson was read her Miranda rights. While inside Hudson’s house, a U.S....

An exodus of top-level officials from the Department of Homeland Security is undercutting the agency’s ability to stay ahead of a range of emerging threats, including potential terrorist strikes and cyberattacks, according to interviews with current and former officials. Over the past four years, employees have left DHS at a rate nearly twice as fast as in the federal government overall, and the trend is accelerating, according to a review of a federal database. The departures are a result of what employees widely describe as a dysfunctional work environment, abysmal morale, and the lure of private security companies paying top...

Last Saturday, Kahler Nygard took a Spirit Airlines flight to Denver to visit with friends. When he departed from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, Transportation Security Administration agents patted him down and allowed him to board his flight. When the plane landed, he was singled out and ordered to exit before the other passengers. After he exited the aircraft, TSA agents approached Nygard and demanded that he go through an additional pat-down and a screening of his luggage for explosive materials. He had already arrived safely at his destination in Denver and simply wanted to leave the airport. After an argument,...

Yesterday at the DFW airport. It was strikingly difficult to talk to the Pakistani women selling food, with their head coverings, OBVIOUSLY pious Muslims. And turning around were Muslim Women with head coverings removing trash. I just WISH someone had the testicular power to tell these women if they want to work at an AIRPORT where travelers are sensitive about Muslim people that blow up things, they need to REMOVE their coverings, or go work at the local dry cleaning shop, or sell used tires. But to put them in the AIRPORTS knowing that all of the things that get...

A new letter from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) admits that illegal aliens were being allowed to board planes using Notice to Appear forms they received after entering the U.S. illegally. The revelation directly contradicts a TSA statement last month denying such allegations to various media outlets, including Breitbart News. In July Breitbart Texas... broke the news that the TSA was letting illegal aliens board planes using Notice to Appear forms; subsequently, a TSA spokesperson publicly attacked Darby on Twitter, insisting that his report was "completely wrong." The newly-surfaced TSA letter was penned on August 7, according to the Gateway...

Transportation Security Administration workers will be getting training on how to recognize District of Columbia driver’s licenses and identification cards. […] The Washington Post reported earlier this year that a District teacher was questioned about the validity of her license while boarding a plane in Phoenix. Many similar stories later surfaced. …

he NSA made me slather my face in make-up. Or, it didn’t make me, exactly. But last spring, I found myself wandering around D.C., wearing dazzle camouflage for the first time. It was a sunny Saturday, the capital swamp neither frigid nor muggy-oppressive—perfect for walking. It took me 45 minutes to get all the makeup on, to get the pencil right and the hair dangled just so. I spent the day hanging out with some friends around Adams Morgan, a neighborhood seemingly developed by former hippies who had gone into non-profit C-suites or opened boutique restaurant-bars. I told my friends...

This is the evil of a dying republic - waving through gangbangers at the southern border, but at the northern border detaining boy scouts for four hours. No novelist or movie director would attempt that contrast - it's too pat, too neat. But it's somehow become American reality in the 21st century.Just to be clear: that boy scout did nothing wrong. When the CBP officer demanded he hand over the camera, Mr Fox should have refused and asked to see the agent's supervisor.But it gets better: Another of the Scouts was taking luggage from the top of a van to...

The Obama administration has quietly approved a substantial expansion of the terrorist watchlist system, authorizing a secret process that requires neither “concrete facts” nor “irrefutable evidence” to designate an American or foreigner as a terrorist, according to a key government document obtained by The Intercept. The “March 2013 Watchlisting Guidance,” a 166-page document issued last year by the National Counterterrorism Center, spells out the government’s secret rules for putting individuals on its main terrorist database, as well as the no fly list and the selectee list, which triggers enhanced screening at airports and border crossings. The new guidelines allow individuals...

The Transportation Security Administration is strongly denying accusations that it has been allowing illegal immigrants to board American jetliners without proper identification. The National Border Patrol Council, a union representing thousands of Border Patrol agents, accused the TSA of letting illegals board airplanes with a “Notice to Appear” document instead of a passport or official government identification card. Union leaders said illegals were allowed to board jetliners without proper identification at airports in El Paso and Laredo, Texas. The story was first reported by Breitbart News. “This is the dream of every terrorist in the world,” Shawn Moran, vice president...

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — A San Francisco man suspected of having one too many drinks is accused of posing as a Transportation Security Administration agent and groped two unsuspecting women, both foreigners, in a private booth for security pat downs. Authorities said the man was a ticketed passenger who went through the security checkpoint and was seen drinking at an airport lounge for a few hours Tuesday.