Disturbing new evidence reveals a threat to our homeland security is worse than originally thought. The News Four WOAI Trouble Shooters first uncovered records last May showing 1400 airport security badges and uniforms are missing from airports here and across the country.
Now, new information obtained by Trouble Shooter Brian Collister shows a dramatic increase in the total number.
But that's not all the Trouble Shooters found.
A WOAI viewer contacted the Trouble Shooters because he found a TSA screener's jacket for sale at a local thrift store. Security experts fear TSA uniforms could help terrorists pull off an attack. Mike Martinez, who found the jacket, said he felt compelled to pull it off the rack. He told News 4 his main concern was for the safety and security of fellow Americans after what happened on 9-11.
The thrift store sale is also a violation of the Transportation Security Administration's policy, which requires "for reasons of security" any discarded uniform must have all distinctive markings removed.
Excerpted
http://www.woai.com/mostpopular/story.aspx?content_id=ffeab148-93fc-4e3a-8225-7f573fbfc51d
Passenger held in Bulgaria for suspicious luggage
Friday December 22
SOFIA - Bulgarian police arrested a Russian man on Thursday for carrying suspicious objects in his luggage while checking in for a flight from the Black Sea city of Varna to Vienna, it said.
The luggage contained cables, batteries and a solid material which police said resembled components that might be used for a hand-made explosive device. The follow-up check showed the solid material was a substance similar to soap, not explosives. Experts were still working to fully determine its contents.
The Russian man, a member of a ship crew that had docked at Varna port, told investigators he believed he was the victim of "unfortunate joke" by crew members. "The Russian citizen is detained for 24 hours. Members of his crew will be questioned," police said in a statement. Police said the Austrian Airlines flight was delayed for 15 minutes, but took off to Vienna.
http://in.news.yahoo.com/061222/137/6ai8n.html
French film raises fresh fears over airport safety
Thu Dec 21, 2006
PARIS - A French television reporter managed to smuggle explosive material and knives onto American and French passenger planes apparently revealing serious flaws in security at French airports.
Appearing in a documentary made for state television due to be aired on Friday, the reporter has raised fresh questions about French air safety after accusations last month that it was too easy to gain access to aircraft at Paris' main airport.
Excerpted
THANK YOU Oorang for the heads up on this "Security Alert: Airport Screener Jacket Found at Local Store 12/22/2006"
http://www.woai.com/mostpopular/story.aspx?content_id=ffeab148-93fc-4e3a-8225-7f573fbfc51d
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...and ON THE NET:
http://news.google.com/nwshp?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&tab=wn&q=TSA%20%2B%20UNIFORMS
http://news.google.com/nwshp?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&tab=wn&q=STOLEN%20%2B%20UNIFORMS
http://news.google.com/nwshp?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&tab=wn&q=MISSING%20%2B%20UNIFORMS
PRISTINA, Serbia - Two officials of Kosovo's governing coalition have been arrested after police found a minibus packed with heavy weapons and ammunition. A police source said the haul included a 12.7 mm anti-aircraft gun and more than 100 rocket-propelled grenades.
Local media reports said the find, made late on Wednesday in the Drenica region of central Kosovo, was the largest in Kosovo since the 1998-99 war and the deployment of NATO peacekeepers.
Three men were arrested, including a senior adviser to the Kosovo labor minister and a member of the governing Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), which emerged from the guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army.
Excerpted
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061221/wl_nm/serbia_kosovo_weapons_dc_1
Declaration of war threatens stability of Horn of Africa
December 22, 2006
The leader of Somalia’s Islamist militia said yesterday that his country was now at war with neighbouring Ethiopia, dashing hopes of an early resolution to the conflict that threatens to engulf the volatile Horn of Africa.
As fighting raged for the third day between the militias and forces loyal to an Ethiopian-backed rump government, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys called on all Somalis to defend the country from external threats.
“All Somalis should take part in this struggle against Ethiopia,” he said in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, before embarking on the haj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.
Excerpted
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2514894,00.html
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=FRANCE
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=PAKISTAN
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http://www.france24.com/france24Public/en/news/world/20061222-Bin-Laden.html
HUNT FOR BIN LADEN
"'We had him in our line of fire'"
Posted 23 hours and 11 minutes ago
"French special forces in Afghanistan twice had Osama bin Laden in their sights, but were ordered to let him go, members of the force told FRANCE 24’s correspondent in Pakistan."
By Eric de Lavarene, FRANCE 24 correspondent
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "[Editor’s note: These allegations, made in a documentary filmed by Eric de Lavarène, FRANCE 24’s correspondent in Pakistan, have been denied by the French Defence Ministry. The allegations are “a pure invention”, the ministry’s spokesperson, Jean-François Bureau, told AFP. According to the ministry, the special forces troops had only enough information to hypothesise about bin Laden’s location, and the allegations “do not correspond at all to the reality on the ground.” A spokesperson for the US Defense Department told FRANCE 24 it is “ridiculous” to believe that the US army was not trying to capture Osama Bin Laden.]"