Records detail missing TSA badges, uniforms
Last Update: 12/22/2006 6:52:13 AM
SAN ANTONIO (AP) - More than 3,700 identification badges and uniform items have been reported lost or stolen from Transportation Security Administration employees since 2003, according to documents obtained by a San Antonio television station.
WOAI-TV received the documents under the Freedom of Information Act.
Los Angeles International Airport reported the most items with 636 missing uniforms. O'Hare International Airport in Chicago reported 189 missing badges.
Bush International Airport in Houston led Texas with 77 missing items. Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport had about 40 items gone.
Security experts have said the badges and uniforms could pose a security threat if they end up in the wrong hands.
Earl Morris, field operations general manager for TSA, said the missing items don't mean the system is flawed.
"We have many different security levels in place to thwart any kind of attempt to breech our security," Morris said.
U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, said he will propose legislation to fine TSA employees who lose their badges or uniforms.
http://www.woai.com/news/state/story.aspx?content_id=6cb449c4-db85-4b16-baa5-51ac4c281334&rss=69
Al-Qaeda offers US safe passage from Iraq
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20967589-1702,00.html
THE leader of an al-Qaeda backed group offered US forces safe withdrawal from Iraq within a month if they left their heavy weapons behind, according to an audiotape posted on the internet today.
"We call on (President George W.) Bush not to waste this historic opportunity," said the speaker, identified as Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, head of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq, which was announced in October by al-Qaeda and groups affiliated to it.
The speaker said Washington would have two weeks to accept the offer.