Their mission is to protect airline passengers from acts of terror on U.S. flights. But in a special investigation, former and current air marshals told CNN that the number of marshals assigned to police flights is so low that the federal agency overseeing them has drastically lowered its firearms and psychological testing standards just so it can qualify new hires.
Of the 28,000 commercial airline flights that take to the skies on an average day in the United States, fewer than 1 percent are protected by on-board, armed federal air marshals, a nationwide CNN investigation has found.
Analysis: Since 9/11, the U.S. has increasingly traded privacy for the promise of security, leaving civil liberties advocates flailing
President Bush on Monday urged the House of Representatives to vote on an update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, saying, "If the enemy is calling to America, we really need to know what they're saying."
A bill that would grant immunity to telecommunications companies helping out in a no-warrant eavesdropping program authorized by President Bush and reinstate some court oversight to surveillance was OK'd by a Senate panel Thursday.
A federal court on Wednesday struck down two provisions of the Patriot Act dealing with searches and intelligence gathering, saying they violate the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures with regard to criminal prosecutions.
Just days before the sixth anniversary of September 11, congressional auditors are giving mixed grades to the Department of Homeland Security on its efforts to unify 22 agencies into one department and other goals.
The discovery of an unexploded bomb in a parked London car poses no specific threat to the United States, the FBI said Friday, although it's urging police and the public to remain vigilant.
Since March 2003, the collection of duties -- the taxes or "customs" levied against imported goods -- has fallen to the newly minted Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a Department of Homeland Security agency that encompasses four previously independent offices and enforces the border-sensitive laws and regulations of more than 40 other government divisions, from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to the Department of Agriculture.
Travelers now have more time to gather the secure travel documents they will need at U.S. land and sea entry points when a new identification requirement plan is fully implemented, the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department said in a joint statement issued Wednesday.
Their mission is to protect airline passengers from acts of terror on U.S. flights. But in a special investigation, former and current air marshals told CNN that the number of marshals assigned to police flights is so low that the federal agency overseeing them has drastically lowered its firearms and psychological testing standards just so it can qualify new hires.
Of the 28,000 commercial airline flights that take to the skies on an average day in the United States, fewer than 1 percent are protected by on-board, armed federal air marshals, a nationwide CNN investigation has found.
Analysis: Since 9/11, the U.S. has increasingly traded privacy for the promise of security, leaving civil liberties advocates flailing
President Bush on Monday urged the House of Representatives to vote on an update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, saying, "If the enemy is calling to America, we really need to know what they're saying."
A bill that would grant immunity to telecommunications companies helping out in a no-warrant eavesdropping program authorized by President Bush and reinstate some court oversight to surveillance was OK'd by a Senate panel Thursday.
A federal court on Wednesday struck down two provisions of the Patriot Act dealing with searches and intelligence gathering, saying they violate the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures with regard to criminal prosecutions.
Just days before the sixth anniversary of September 11, congressional auditors are giving mixed grades to the Department of Homeland Security on its efforts to unify 22 agencies into one department and other goals.
The discovery of an unexploded bomb in a parked London car poses no specific threat to the United States, the FBI said Friday, although it's urging police and the public to remain vigilant.
Since March 2003, the collection of duties -- the taxes or "customs" levied against imported goods -- has fallen to the newly minted Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a Department of Homeland Security agency that encompasses four previously independent offices and enforces the border-sensitive laws and regulations of more than 40 other government divisions, from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to the Department of Agriculture.
Travelers now have more time to gather the secure travel documents they will need at U.S. land and sea entry points when a new identification requirement plan is fully implemented, the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department said in a joint statement issued Wednesday.
(WASHINGTON)--U.S. border officials told Congress on Wednesday that a lone officer undid their efforts to stop a man with a dangerous form of tuberculosis from entering the country -- but that explanation was met with skepticism from lawmakers who said the case exposed plenty of holes in the nation's security."We dodged a bullet," House Homeland Security Committee chairman Bennie Thompson said as he opened a hearing into the case of Andrew Speaker, a 31-year-old Atlanta lawyer whose wedding and honeymoon travel caused an international health scare.Speaker was testifying to another congressional committee by audio hookup from the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, where he is hospitalized in isolation.Thompson, D-Miss., said the explanations by Homeland Security and public health officials don't explain why they always seemed to be steps behind Speaker as he traveled to Europe last month to get married, have a honeymoon, and return to the U.S."We should have connected more dots," said T
The tuberculosis patient who set off an international health scare by flying to Europe then Canada before driving back to the U.S. told lawmakers Wednesday that doctors told him he was not contagious.
Border officers will no longer have the discretion to ignore directives barring someone from entering the country after a man crossed the border with a rare form of tuberculosis last month, a Department of Homeland Security official said Tuesday.
A senior House member wants to know how a dangerously infected man managed to get through U.S. Customs and Border Protection even though his passport had been flagged in their computer system.
Claims of terrorism represented less than 0.01 percent of charges filed in recent years in immigration courts by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, according to a report issued Sunday by an independent research group.
The FBI is guilty of "serious misuse" of the power to secretly obtain private information under the Patriot Act, a government audit said Friday.
Travelers whose names mistakenly appear on the U.S. no-fly list can now apply to their good name repaired. The U.S. Department for Homeland Security (DHS) has unveiled a new system that allows travelers to complain if they have been wrongly refused transit, been detained or subject to additional security checks.
A Department of Homeland Security advisory cautioning that al Qaeda may be planning cyber attacks on banking and financial institution Web sites was issued out of an abundance of caution, although there is no corroboration, a DHS spokesman told CNN Thursday.
The Department of Homeland Security has sent an advisory to the National Football League and local officials advising of a possible, uncorroborated bomb threat against some NFL stadiums.
Suspects in an alleged plot to blow up trans-Atlantic flights received a message within the last three days in which they were advised, "Do your attacks now," according to U.S. sources.
The long lines and bulging trash cans at U.S. airports due to increased security after a suspected terror plot was uncovered Thursday had some aviation experts questioning the focus of America's air passenger screening system.
British police say they have arrested 21 people in connection with a terrorist plot to blow up aircraft flying from the United Kingdom to the United States.
They carried fake IDs and used phony names. But the ne'er-do-wells -- actually plain-clothed government investigators -- were able to get into the United States anyway.
Gee, the Republicans seem to have lost their moral compass since Tom DeLay quit. Who knew it could get worse without that pillar of rectitude from Texas? What a snakes' nest of corruption and nastiness.
A man using a fake identification card was able to enter the Homeland Security Department headquarters in Washington, he said, even though the United States government considers the type of Mexican-issued card he used invalid.
The Homeland Security Department said Wednesday that the cities of New York and Washington will get less money in this year's allocation of grants, drawing harsh criticism from politicians in both areas.
The Federal Air Marshal Service is jeopardizing the safety of rank-and-file officers with policies that could reveal the identities of the plainclothes marshals, congressional investigators said in a draft report obtained Friday by CNN.
A lawsuit is asking a federal court to order President Bush, the National Security Agency and Verizon to end a secret snooping program, and Verizon's stock took a hit on the news Monday.
A Senate panel chastised the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Thursday, saying the disaster response organization needs to be scrapped.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which floundered in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, should be abolished and replaced with a new organization, a Senate committee recommended Thursday.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesman charged with soliciting a minor over the Internet was disciplined in a previous job after an incident in which pornographic images were seen on an office computer, his friends and former co-workers said.
A Department of Homeland Security official was arrested Tuesday night on charges of using his computer to seduce a child after he allegedly struck up sexually explicit conversations with a detective posing as a 14-year-old girl, authorities said.
The Transportation Security Administration lawyer who improperly contacted witnesses in the Zacarias Moussaoui trial has been placed on paid administrative leave, Department of Homeland Security officials said.
Federal prosecutors Wednesday asked a judge to reconsider what they called a "terribly excessive" ruling in an effort to salvage their crippled death-penalty case against al Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui.
Two Republican lawmakers have submitted compromises to the White House aimed at ending a dispute over a deal that would give a United Arab Emirates-owned company control of several U.S. port terminals.
The DP World deal to obtain the right to operate in U.S. ports has engulfed Washington in controversy since the deal was announced in February. Below are some answers to key questions about the deal and the resulting controversy:
The former federal emergency director who resigned after the heavily criticized response to Hurricane Katrina admitted Friday that he should have been more forthcoming about problems with the government's response to the storm but faulted the performance of his former boss, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, and called for his resignation.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff should be fired for his handling of Hurricane Katrina, former federal emergency management chief Michael Brown said Thursday, accusing Chertoff of lacking disaster management knowledge.
A newly released transcript from a video conference the day Hurricane Katrina struck seems to reinforce arguments that governments at all levels identified the potential dangers from the storm but were under-prepared for the devastation.
A review of a United Arab Emirates-owned company's plan to take over a portion of operations at key U.S. ports never looked into whether the company had ties to al Qaeda or other terrorists, a key Republican lawmaker told CNN on Wednesday.
Both Republican and Democratic senators took aim Tuesday at the president's proposed 2007 homeland security budget in a hearing, saying it fails to live up to Bush's strong warnings about the threat of terrorist attack.
Republicans in Congress are crafting a solution under which the controversial deal allowing a state-owned Arab company to run some terminals at six U.S. ports could move forward.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey filed a lawsuit Friday in a New Jersey civil court to prevent a deal that would transfer control of the Newark container terminal to a company owned by the United Arab Emirates.
It's been one year since Michael Chertoff was appointed head of the Department of Homeland Security, and it's not a happy anniversary. Chertoff spoke before a Senate hearing this week, facing his critics and explaining his agency's lackluster performance during Hurricane Katrina.
While officials debated Sunday what should be done to fix the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff warned against drastic changes with hurricane season just a few months away.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff took responsibility at a Senate hearing Wednesday for his department's inadequate response to Hurricane Katrina, which "unnecessarily prolonged" the suffering of people along the Gulf Coast.
Two federal air marshals are facing drug charges after allegedly agreeing to smuggle cocaine from a man who turned out to be a government witness, the U.S. attorney's office in Houston, Texas, announced Monday.
A congressional report to be released this week slams the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, calling it a "failure of leadership" that left people stranded when they were most in need.
The embattled former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency portrayed himself during testimony Friday as a scapegoat who had fought for emergency aid to New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
Senate Democrats investigating FEMA's response to Hurricane Katrina say they have documented nearly 30 instances in which federal and local government officials gave early reports on Aug. 29 that levees had broken and that New Orleans was flooding, including one report at 8:30 a.m. the day of the storm.
The eldest daughter of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet has been sent back to Argentina, two days after she arrived in the United States after fleeing tax charges in Chile, a U.S. Homeland Security official said.
The White House is dodging questions about Hurricane Katrina response and has instructed other agencies to join it in fending off investigators, Sen. Joseph Lieberman said on Tuesday. The White House denies the allegations.
In a robust defense of the nation's post-9/11 domestic eavesdropping program, Vice President Dick Cheney on Wednesday said the tool is "critical" for U.S. national security.
Senators voted late Wednesday night to extend some expiring and contentious provisions of the Patriot Act for six months after leaders announced minutes earlier that they had reached a bipartisan agreement.
In acknowledging the message was true, President Bush took aim at the messenger Saturday, saying that a newspaper jeopardized national security by revealing that he authorized wiretaps on U.S. citizens after September 11.
Roving wiretaps and the ability to peek into private medical records are among the provisions of the Patriot Act that will remain intact if the Senate follows the House lead on the bill.
One day after federal air marshals shot and killed an unarmed airplane passenger in Miami, Florida, the White House defended the marshals' actions.
A 44-year-old U.S. citizen who claimed to have a bomb was shot and killed when air marshals opened fire on a boarding bridge at the Miami airport, several sources told CNN.
Federal air marshals train to shoot in extremely close quarters and tense situations, but until Wednesday no agent had used his weapon.
The former members of the bipartisan 9/11 commission gave Congress and the president a report card Monday heavy in B's, C's and D's -- with five F's -- saying the nation was ill-prepared for another terrorist attack.
Government response to Hurricane Katrina was sharply criticized at all levels. CNN.com asked readers what suggestions they had to improve federal response to emergencies. Here is a sampling of the responses, some of which have been edited:
Internal Department of Homeland Security e-mails -- requested by a House select committee investigating the government's response to Hurricane Katrina -- show infighting, gaps in communication and general frustration.
The commissioner for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Robert C. Bonner, said Wednesday that he will retire.
In his opening remarks before a congressional committee Tuesday, Former Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown defended his response to Hurricane Katrina last month, as well as his own record.
As Hurricane Katrina bore down on the Gulf Coast three weeks ago, veteran workers at the Federal Emergency Management Agency braced for an epic disaster.
As violence, death and misery gripped New Orleans and the surrounding parishes in the days after Hurricane Katrina, a leadership vacuum, bureaucratic red tape and a defensive culture paralyzed volunteers' attempts to help.
Authorities in Britain have detained seven foreign nationals who are seen as a threat to national security, the UK Home Office said.
For all his failures, Brown has in some ways been a scapegoat for the incompetence of others.
Louisiana's largest newspaper printed a blistering editorial in Sunday's edition under the headline "An Open Letter to the President," criticizing the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina.
Nine stockpiles of fire-and-rescue equipment strategically placed around the country to be used in the event of a catastrophe still have not been pressed into service in New Orleans, five days after Hurricane Katrina, CNN has learned.
When is a great idea about securing our nation's porous borders not a great idea? Surprisingly, when it comes from the country's top border official.
When is a great idea about securing our nation's porous borders not a great idea? Surprisingly, when it comes from the country's top border official.
The deadly bombings in London have raised concerns about the threat of terrorism against the world's transportation centers. In the United States, the focus was on aviation security after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The Department of Homeland Security will suspend a regulation requiring passengers on planes approaching and departing Reagan National Airport to remain seated 30 minutes before landing and after takeoff, the department's chief said Wednesday.
CNN Correspondent Elaine Quijano is in Scotland where the G-8 is meeting. She talked with CNN's Soledad O'Brien about President Bush's reaction to four explosions in London's transport system Thursday.
U.S. mass transit systems were put on higher alert after Thursday's bombings in London, with officials in major cities urging Americans to go about their business but be on the lookout for anything suspicious.
Authorities in major U.S. cities are increasing security, specifically around subway systems, after the deadly attack on London's transit system. The following are steps taken by officials around the country on Thursday.
The U.S. Capitol was briefly evacuated, and President George W. Bush temporarily relocated, after a twin-engine plane strayed into restricted airspace around Washington Wednesday evening, authorities said.
President Bush on Wednesday directed the creation of a new National Security Service within the FBI, one of 70 recommendations on improving the intelligence community he endorsed from the White House WMD commission.
Two government programs designed to prevent terrorists from smuggling weapons of mass destruction into the United States are under-performing, leaving the nation's ports vulnerable, congressional investigators said Wednesday.
Federal agents found and destroyed 845 pounds of bologna and 100 pounds of cheese someone smuggled into the United States from Mexico, the Department of Homeland Security said Monday.
On December 31, sixteen portions of the U.S.A. Patriot Act are set to expire -- or, in legal parlance, "sunset." Congress is holding hearings on the act and considering, among other issues, whether to amend it to curb the broad surveillance powers it bestowed on the federal government.
Adm. David Stone, director of the Transportation Security Administration, will be stepping down, but administration officials insist his department is not going anywhere.
President Bush values debate over the Patriot Act but still intends to seek congressional reauthorization of the entire act, President Bush's homeland security adviser said Thursday.
An airline pilots group is giving dismal grades to aviation security, saying "gaping holes" remain almost four years after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.
U.S. intelligence has intercepted a communication from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq that "reiterates the desire by al Qaeda to target the homeland," U.S. officials have said.
The three and a half years since the September 11, 2001, attacks have brought no new terrorist acts on U.S. soil, but questions continue about the state of the nation's security.
The United States will take steps to speed security and immigration checks of international travelers at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Thursday.
President Bush on Tuesday nominated federal appeals court Judge Michael Chertoff to replace Tom Ridge as the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Thursday the amount of terror threat information intercepted by U.S. intelligence has declined in recent months, down from peak levels during late 2003 and spring 2004.
The Department of Homeland Security released a wide-ranging national response plan on Thursday to coordinate U.S. government response to large-scale emergencies, including terrorist attacks.
Non-residents applying for admission to the United States using stolen passports have little reason to fear being caught and are usually admitted, the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General said in a report issued Thursday.
Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman has twice in recent days said "no" when approached about the possibility of a major job in the second Bush administration, CNN has learned.
Lawmakers debated White House culpability Sunday in the doomed nomination of Bernard Kerik as Homeland Security secretary, asking why the administration failed to find critical information in its vetting process before officially selecting him.
Former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik said Saturday that withdrawing his name from consideration for Homeland Security secretary "was the right thing to do."
One week after President Bush nominated him to be secretary of homeland security, former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik withdrew from consideration Friday night after discovering a former household employee had a questionable immigration status.
Here are some of the key provisions of the intelligence reform bill that finally made it through Congress Tuesday:
At the urging of President Bush, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has agreed to remain in his Cabinet post, a senior administration official said Friday.
Some investors in stun gun maker Taser are betting that the nomination of Bernard Kerik to head the Department of Homeland Security could lead to some big government contracts for the company.
President Bush on Friday nominated former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik to take over as secretary of homeland security.
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