The Centers for Disease Control is asking the domestic airline carriers to invest billions of dollars to develop a system to track all passengers in case of the bird flu or other epidemic breaks out. The costs of such a system would run into the billions of dollars, a cost the airline industry is not prepared to absorb at this time, and they are balking at implementing it.

The CDC wants to be able to easily find, notify and recommend treatment to airline passengers who have been exposed to bird flu as well as such diseases as plague, dengue fever or SARS - even if the travelers’ symptoms don’t appear while they’re traveling.

Health officials are especially concerned about a flu pandemic. Though bird flu hasn’t yet spread from human to human, they fear it could mutate into a strain that does.

The CDC plan calls for airlines to ask passengers their full name and address, emergency contact numbers and detailed flight information.

Airlines would have to keep the data for 60 days and, if asked, transmit it to the CDC within 12 hours.

Civil Liberty advocates also are against such a plan as it would violate an agreement with the European Union.

Barry Steinhardt, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney, said the U.S. government blithely ignored its agreement with the European Union that it wouldn’t share passenger records.

He also doesn’t think the CDC plan will work.

“This is probably physically impossible,” Steinhardt said. via The Seattle Post Intelligencer

An AP report on the 1 billion dollar contract to update the security systems at US Airports has shown itself to be an utter fiasco. There was not enough money to fulfill the requirements or allow the federal government to monitor  the contract properly. So what do we have when we decide to federalize a private function? An unmitigated mess, but is that surprising?

The TSA does not  even have  the basic telecommunication structure necessary to do its job, with some airports  having  20 dollar radio shack phones to communicate with while  Unisys would insist on making the company to provide the most basic services that TSA employees could do, such as installing software.

The TSA, which was created shortly after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, needed information technology and telecommunications for what it anticipated would be 65,000 employees at headquarters, 429 airports, 21 field offices and a command center, the report said.

Unisys was to have provided dial-up connections, laptops, pagers and cell phones by November 19, 2002. Six weeks later, the company was to have delivered high-speed connections, phones, encrypted radios and an electronic surveillance system. Eventually, Unisys was to provide command centers at airports, advanced wireless communications and inter operable radios.

The inspector general said that the company had only supplied the first phase by September 30, 2004. via CNN.com .

This is not a heartening story, federal investigators were able to bring bomb making components through security at all  21 airports they tested. This is very disheartening after all that has been spent and done on airline and airport security.

Imagine an explosion strong enough to blow a car’s trunk apart, caused by a bomb inside a passenger plane. Government sources tell NBC News that federal investigators recently were able to carry materials needed to make a similar homemade bomb through security screening at 21 airports.

In all 21 airports tested, no machine, no swab, no screener anywhere stopped the bomb materials from getting through. Even when investigators deliberately triggered extra screening of bags, no one discovered the materials.

read the rest at MSNBC.com.

Following are the claims made for theft by TSA agents between November, 2002 and August, 2004. The Transportation Security Administration revealed these number when a Denver radio station filed a freedom of information act request. I will look and see if there are any more current numbers available.

via MSNBC

Two TSA agents, Benny Arcano and Christopher Cadorna, working at the Honolulu International Airport were charged with theft after stealing money out of the suitcases of Japanese tourists heading back to Japan. In a study released in 2004, Honolulu ranked 30th in the nation with over 100,000 dollars in reported claims of theft by TSA agents.

The two men, Benny Arcano and Christopher Cadorna, were charged by information complaint Friday with felony theft for allegedly stealing yen valued at more than $1,000 in U.S. currency from Japanese tourists during 2004 and 2005.
“We will always take government corruption in any form very seriously, and whoever decides to line their pocket because of greed should always expect us to aggressively investigate and prosecute them,” said U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo.
The men were two of four TSA employees suspended in March 2005 after several federal agencies opened investigations into allegations of theft at Honolulu International Airport.
“TSA holds its officers to the highest standards,” said Jessica Altschul, a TSA spokeswoman in Washington, D.C. “The actions of a minuscule percentage in no way reflects the organization as a whole.”

2 airport workers charged in thefts - The Honolulu Advertiser.

This is a flying nation. We fly. And everyone knows airport security is an increasingly sad joke, that TSA itself often appears to have forgotten its mission, if it ever knew it, and taken on a new one–the ritual abuse of passengers. Peggy Noonan, Opinion Journal, February 23, 2006.

Peggy Noonan is a writer you may love or hate, but she is very talented and turns her talents to (on?) the TSA in an editorial on her experience this past week flying from New York to Florida. It is worth the read.

Imagine you are heading to the airport with your family, and your name shows up on the terror watch list. The federal government says you can fly if you show 3 forms of identification and fill out a form. Inconvenient, yes, if you are 4 years old, impossible. That is what Edward Allen and his family ran into this week.

Edward Allen’s parents say there is no way their son’s a terrorist. He doesn’t own a gun and has no allegiance to a foreign government. On top of that, he’s only four years old.

And by all accounts, Edward is a typical four-year-old child.

“He loves to play. He loves to watch cartoons, ride his bike,” said his father, Cedric.

But one thing he’s not, says Cedric, is a terrorist.

It all started on a recent flight out of Bush Intercontinental. That’s when mom, Sijollie Allen, was stopped at the ticket counter and told she couldn’t board the plane.

“They just said, ‘You’re on the list’ and that’s why I had to get clarity,” she said. “I asked if we’re both on the list. They said, ‘No, you’re not on the list. He (Edward) is.’” via abc13.com.

Looks like Frontier Airlines had a suspicious passenger on their flight today.

San Jose police and federal agents responding to reports of a “suspicious person” on an inbound Frontier Airlines flight from Denver isolated the plane upon landing for approximately 30 minutes Wednesday morning.

Frontier Airlines Flight 319 landed at Mineta San Jose International Airport at approximately 10:10 a.m. and officers and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents took the passenger off of the plane without incident, according to airport spokesman Rich Dresslar.

No flight delays were reported as a result of the incident. via CBS 5:

The TSA List of Banned Travel Items, and Approved Travel Items.

Prohibited:

• Ammunition, Baseball bats, Boxcutters, Cattle prods, Firearms, Golf clubs, Hammers, Ice axe/picks, Knives, excluding round-bladed, butter and plastic, Lighters, Meat cleavers, Pellet or BB guns, Pool cues, Razors, Scissors, metal with pointed tips and blades longer than 4 inches, Ski poles, Spray paint

Permitted:

• Cigar cutters, Corkscrews, Cuticle cutters, Eyelash curlers, Knitting and crochet needles,, Nail clippers or files, Disposable razors, Scissors, with a cutting edge of less than 4 inches, Tweezers, Tools, 7 inches long or less, including screwdrivers, wrenches and pliers, Walking canes

via USATODAY.com.