By Mark Strassmann CBS News At more than 180 U.S. airports, the Transportation Security Administration increasingly relies on full-body scanners. Their electromagnetic waves screen passengers for dense objects — both metallic and non-metallic threats — from guns to homemade plastic explosives. Kip Hawley was the TSA administrator in 2007, when the agency rolled out these…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com A TSA officer based at Palm Beach, Fla. International Airport pleaded guilty Monday to taking bribes to let drugs pass through airport security. Christopher Allen, 46, of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., pleaded guilty Monday before U.S. District Judge Mark R. Kravitz in New Have, Conn. to taking payments from a drug…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Who doesn’t like a complimentary cup of coffee? Well, here’s one instance where it wasn’t appreciated. The New York Post reports that a Transportation Security Administration screener was arrested on March 28 at 5 a.m. for throwing a cup of hot coffee on an American Airlines pilot. The Post reported the…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Two Transportation Security Administration officers apparently felt they had to let off a little steam. The Miami Herald reports that TSA officers Jeffrey Piccolella, 27, and Nicholas Anthony Puccio, trashed their South Beach hotel room Tuesday night and shot six rounds out the window with a semi-automatic handgun. The paper reported…
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By Michael Grabell ProPublica A new report from the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security is likely to fan rather than extinguish the debate over the safety of X-ray body scanners deployed at airports across the country. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and other lawmakers have called on the Transportation Security Administration to conduct…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com What part of “don’t bring guns to the airport” don’t people understand? It still fails to amaze. As part of an occasional story on the issue, we report that 31 people from Jan. 23 to Jan. 29 were caught at airport checkpoints in the U.S. with guns, according to the…
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com Two TSA officers based out of John F. Kennedy Airport in New York are trading their jobs for jail sentences, reports the Mail Online. Coumar Pesad, 44, and Davon Webb, 31, admitted to stealing $40,000 in cash from a single checked bag, the paper reports. Persad saw money in the bag…
