Free Republic

Federal authorities are boosting security in the United States after intelligence agencies detected a credible threat to Western interests overseas and the government began closing diplomatic posts in some Muslim countries, according to homeland security officials. The Department of Homeland Security is increasing security measures at airports, train stations and other transportation hubs, and expanding scrutiny of visitors coming into the United States, two officials told ABC News. The FBI, meanwhile, is "working sources" and taking other "logical steps" to monitor any potential threat, an FBI official said.

Jake Tapper's "The Lead" reports that Al-Qaeda Arabian Peninsula “may have something big going down” and may be in "final stages” of an attack on the U.S. and other Western targets...

The government is expanding the ways airline passengers can enroll in an expedited screening program that allows travelers to leave on their shoes, light outerwear and belts and keep laptop computers in cases at security checkpoints. … On Friday, TSA Administrator John Pistole said beginning later this year, U.S. citizens will be able to enroll online or visit an enrollment site to provide identification, fingerprints and an $85 enrollment fee. …

A congressional hearing Thursday on aviation security will be missing its chief witness, who declined to testify. Transportation Security Administration chief John Pistole had been asked to appear before the Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee on aviation on the impact of his agency's policies on passengers and the airline industry. But Pistole said he had no plans to attend, arguing the panel has no jurisdiction over TSA matters. ... TSA regularly chooses to not even respond to simple requests for information

Rogue agency reaches out and touches people outside airportsThe Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has always intended to expand beyond the confines of airport terminals. Its agents have been conducting more and more surprise groping sessions for women, children and the elderly in locations that have nothing to do with aviation. It’s all part of TSA’s Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) program, which drew additional scrutiny following an Oct. 18 blitz in Tennessee. As part of a “statewide safety operation,” TSA employees fondled travelers at bus terminals in Nashville and Knoxville, hunting for “security threats.” Truckers were harassed at four...

The entire airport experience has been getting worse and worse. That is, until today's important announcement. Sure, the food in the terminals is still awful; honestly, how hard is it to make a fresh pretzel? And yes, the lines of people taking off their shoes at security makes for a fragrant occasion. Sure, you always get stuck behind the elderly, infirm or a family traveling with twenty toddlers. However, things are about to dramatically improve because the Transportation Security Administration is allowing their workers to unionize! Don't let the fact that the TSA's John "Johnny Boy" Pistole released this information...

Ever since new airport security procedures went into effect in late October, the Transportation Security Administration has been at the center of controversy. The combination of enhanced image screening with invasive patdowns for those who opt out has rankled civil liberties advocates and some of the flying public. John Pistole, the head of the TSA, is a 26-year veteran of the FBI -- an expert in counterterrorism and for six years the bureau's deputy director. As TSA administrator since July, he finds himself having to defend the new measures. James Fallows and Jeffrey Goldberg spoke with Pistole on Monday. An...

If the Times Square bomber had successful, would you be okay with TSA officers pulling people out of their cars at roadblocks and doing the same thing they are doing now? And fining them $11,000 for non-compliance?

Safety: When U.S soldiers with nail clippers and flight attendants who've survived breast cancer are treated as potential terrorists, you know the TSA is "acting stupidly." Yet the administration thinks everything is fine. Imagine the department of motor vehicles with cattle prods, and you're close to the mentality exhibited by Transportation Safety Administration chief John Pistole on CNN's "State of the Union" show Sunday. He told host Candy Crowley that what the Israelis have "is top-notch security," but the U.S. won't use these techniques because America does not profile. Excuse us? The U.S. won't use what the world's No. 1...

A retired special education teacher who said he was left humiliated, crying and covered with his own urine after an enhanced pat-down at airport security said he received an apology Monday in a phone call from Transportation Security Administration chief John Pistole. “First he apologized,” said Thomas D. “Tom” Sawyer, 61, of Lansing, Mich. “And I thanked him. Then I told him off a bit. And he said, ‘Tell me more. What do you think needs to be done?’ ”

TSA chief: Passenger screening should be minimally invasiveby Jim Abrams Published: November 22, 2010 WASHINGTON - The head of the agency responsible for airport security, facing protests from travelers and pressure from the White House, appeared to give ground Sunday on his position that there would be no change in policies regarding invasive passenger screening procedures. Transportation Security Administration head John Pistole said in a statement that the agency would work to make screening methods "as minimally invasive as possible," although he gave no indication that screening changes were imminent. The statement came just hours after Pistole, in a TV...

When TSA chief John "Grab, Grip, & Grope" Pistole was asked how he was able to calculate that massaging people's pertinents made air travel immune from terrorist attack, how, that is, he was able to muster the insight necessary to discern that at least three, and not less than three, fingers must trace the contours of each man's two balls and a strike and each woman's home run before he or she was safe to fly, he replied that he relied on "Experts." This answer was accepted. But nobody thought to ask who these experts were or how they gained...

Shep grills TSA Chief: "If someone else were to do this [pat-downs] it would be a felony"..."Body cavities have been known to carry items illegally, is the next step body cavities?" Shep really hits this guy with some good questions.

WASHINGTON – Despite a government crackdown, Al Qaeda continues to recruit members in U.S. prisons. U.S. officials said Al Qaeda’s recruitment has been facilitated by Muslim clergy with access to federal and state prisons. They said the organization has succeeded in winning new members despite tighter rules instituted by authorities since the Al Qaeda suicide attacks in September 2001. “These terrorists seek to exploit our freedom to exercise religion to their advantage by using radical forms of Islam to recruit operatives,” FBI counter-terrorism chief John Pistole said. “Unfortunately, U.S. correctional institutions are a viable venue for such radicalization and recruitment.”...