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Air marshals could be on all US planes to UK By David Millward and Bruno Waterfield in Brussels Last Updated: 2:36am GMT 12/02/2008 Armed air marshals could be deployed on all transatlantic flights operated by US airlines, it has emerged. Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, said the Government is willing to consider a request from Washington to step up security. The undercover armed guards, who are put on aircraft to stop hijackers and terrorists, are thought to have been operating on some US planes that fly to Britain for a number of years. Although this has never been confirmed, the...

<p>It's now official: Everyone boarding an American jetliner joins the front lines in the war on terrorism. It comes down to a personal test of courage between you and the hijacker.</p> <p>Those were the new rules of engagement delivered personally to me last week by the country's Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge. Put bluntly: We're all "air marshals" now.</p>

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- If one hardened cockpit door is good, would two barriers be even better? Many airline pilots believe the answer is "yes," and are hoping to reinvigorate efforts to require so-called "secondary barriers" on every commercial plane in the country. Pilots praise the hardened cockpit doors mandated after 9/11, saying they have done as much as anything to protect aircraft from terrorist assaults. But planes remain vulnerable for short periods of time during some flights when pilots go to the lavatory, get meals or, on long flights, change out crews. Currently, flight attendants sometimes block the aisle with...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. is adding air marshals to overseas flights because of concerns about potential terrorism threats originating in Britain and Europe, the homeland security chief said Sunday. The Bush administration said it was satisfied with its current terrorism alert level following an attack at a Scottish airport and two foiled car bombs in London. "I think given what we know now, we're comfortable that we're at the right posture," Michael Chertoff said during a round of talk show appearances. U.S. airports and mass transit systems are tightening security ahead of the Fourth of July holiday and more...

Two air marshals kneel on homely blue patterned airplane seats and fire their handguns at their targets 30 feet away. Wearing jeans and packing semi-automatic pistols, they aim at metal targets, not terrorists looking to kill passengers or bring down a jet airliner. Nearly every air marshal based in New England will spend about 10 days a year at the Sigarms Academy, taking America's battle against terrorism to New Hampshire's back yard. Tucked away on 128 acres just down the street from New England Dragway, a different race is taking shape. Trying to keep ahead of plotting terrorists, dozens of...

Air Marshal Dress Code Changed Friday August 25, 2006 12:16 AM By LESLIE MILLER Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Air marshals were told Thursday they will be allowed to dress the way they want and choose their own hotels in order to protect their anonymity while on missions. Federal Air Marshal Service chief Dana Brown, who has been in the job for five months, said he was changing the rules, starting Sept. 1, after listening to air marshals' concerns. In a memo to the air marshals, Brown said the dress code was changed to ``allow you to blend in...

Passengers aboard a Northwest Airlines plane bound for Mumbai and forced to turn back to Amsterdam said air marshals swooped after 12 people began fidgeting with mobile phones and plastic bags, Dutch media said on Thursday. The 12 were arrested on Wednesday after the plane landed at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. Prosecution authorities said they were still holding the 12 but would not give their identities or nationalities. "I saw the air marshals run and I knew something was amiss," a 31-year-old businessman aboard the plane told Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad. "Some had beards, others were unshaven, one was wearing a...

Polish Air Marshals Return Home 8 August 2006 U.S. Embassy Chargé d'Affaires Kenneth Hillas, Secretary of State at the Polish Ministry of Interior and Administration, W³adys³aw Stasiak, and LtCol. Jacek Bajger, Deputy Commander in Chief of the Polish Border Guard, presided over a press conference on August 7th announcing the return of Polish Air Marshals from U.S. Government funded training at the Federal Air Marshal Training Center (FAMTC) in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Poland is the first European country to receive training at the FAMTC. Chargé Hillas noted in his remarks that "Aviation security is one of the priorities of...

Dana Brown, the new director of the Federal Air Marshal Service, never really thought there was a morale problem when he was promoted to the top position in March, but then again, he never asked. But now he is asking, and the Transportation Security Administration's 2006 Organizational Satisfaction Survey confirms what he is hearing from his men and women who are protecting America's skies from another terrorist attack. "The results are not good," Mr. Brown said in a five-page memo last week to all agents within the Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS).

Federal air marshals say their guns are loaded with bullets capable of running through more than one person, metal doors and thick glass -- too much firepower for an airplane. "Not only is the person getting shot in danger, but everyone on the plane is because of the distance it travels," said one air marshal who testified in a recently completed House Judiciary Committee investigation of policies marshals deemed dangerous.

(AP) CHICAGO A U.S. air marshal removed himself from a Southwest Airlines flight Thursday after dropping a clip of bullets on the floor just before the plane was to leave Midway International Airport, an airline spokeswoman said. The marshal arrived at Midway on a flight from Philadelphia and he was boarding the Southwest flight bound for Kansas City when the clip fell to the floor, scattering bullets, Southwest spokeswoman Whitney Eichinger told the Chicago Tribune for a story on its Web site. "Since he was no longer traveling incognito, he decided not to continue on the flight to Kansas City,"...

Check out this Vent VIDEO. Bureaucratic IDIOCY has made the air marshal's stick out like a sore thumb. Yoo-Hoo! You want the air marshals to BLEND IN with the passengers which means wearing slob clothing like the rest of us.

Nguyen, 38, of Houston, began hanging out with a person he knew associated with a drug trafficker and had been involved in credit card fraud, twice giving the person thousands of dollars to invest in drug trafficking, the complaint says.His confidence turned out to be misplaced. The person, identified only as a cooperating witness, or "CW," in the complaint, recorded Nguyen's conversations and helped set up a fake cocaine deal that ended in the arrest of Nguyen and air marshal Burlie L. Sholar III, 32, of Houston, last week."I ain't greedy, I've done this ... before," he said at one...

Two Air Marshals Accused of Drug Smuggling Monday February 13, 2006 10:16 PM HOUSTON (AP) - Two U.S. air marshals face federal drug charges accusing them of using their positions to smuggle narcotics through airport security and onto planes for transport, federal prosecutors said. Shawn Ray Nguyen, 38, and Burlie L. Sholar III, 32, both of Houston, were arrested Thursday after an informant delivered 33 pounds of cocaine and $15,000 in ``up front money'' to Nguyen's Houston home, authorities said.

   Air Marshals Shoot From “Grassy Knoll” December 22, 2005 The way in which the MSM plays the odds leaves me wondering why they haven’t yet reported that “at least one witness” saw Federal Air Marshals shooting at President Kennedy from the Grassy Knoll.   Almost immediately following the December 7 shooting of Rigoberto Alpizar at Miami International Airport by two U. S. Federal Air Marshals, the MSM started reporting the shocking news that some passengers aboard American Airlines Flight 924 never heard the word “bomb”.  More specifically, on December 8, Time magazine reported, “At least one passenger (John McAlhany)...maintains the...

Two air marshals gunned down an American citizen last week in Miami, and most of the establishment media seemingly couldn't care less. Immediately after 44-year-old Rigoberto Alpizar died on December 7 in a hail of bullets from two air marshals, Dave Adams, a spokesman for the Federal Air Marshal Service told CNN that Alpizar had shouted "I have a bomb in my bag" while running up and down the aisle of an American Airlines plane as it sat on the runway. This was the version of events that the vast majority of the media repeated unquestioningly in the first days...

Teams of undercover air marshals and uniformed law enforcement officers will fan out to bus and train stations, ferries, and mass transit facilities across the country this week in a new test program to conduct surveillance and "counter potential criminal terrorist activity in all modes of transportation," according to internal federal documents.

Report: Air Marshals to Guard Trains Wednesday, December 14, 2005 WASHINGTON — Federal air marshals will expand their work beyond airplanes, launching counterterror surveillance at train stations and other mass transit facilities in a test program this week, according to a published report. Teams of undercover air marshals and uniformed law enforcement officers will fan out to bus and train stations, ferries, and mass transit facilities across the country to "counter potential criminal terrorist activity in all modes of transportation," The Washington Post reported on its Web site Tuesday night, quoting documents from the Transportation Security Administration. The Post said...

When Rigoberto Alpizar visited his family in Rio Claro, Costa Rica, in July, he grew alarmed at his father's deteriorating heart condition. He took his father to see a doctor in San Jose; before returning home to the United States, says his brother Carlos, he taped little notes all over the house with a gentle reminder: "Please take your medication. I love you very much." But when it came to Alpizar's own condition—bipolar disorder—he apparently failed to heed that same advice, according to his wife's statements to authorities. Aboard a plane preparing to push away from the gate in Miami...

The shooting of a passenger on an American Airlines flight bound for Orlando is a reminder to passengers harping on frustrating lines at security checkpoints, that aviation security is a deadly serious business. Investigations into the circumstances surrounding the death of Rigoberto Alpizar are appropriate, just as use of deadly force by any law enforcement agency is reviewed. But in an arena where split second decisions are required of air marshals trained to make them, the federal air marshal service deserves the benefit of the doubt that its agents acted reasonably in the face of Alpizar’s threatening behavior. Members of...