The head of the Transportation Security Administration defended his agency's security procedures Wednesday, telling lawmakers it is "using technology and protocols to stay ahead of the [terrorist] threat and keep you safe."
Additional details surfaced Thursday pointing to similarities between the bombs found in packages mailed from Yemen last week and a failed attempt to blow up a plane as it landed in Detroit, Michigan, last year.
An "all-clear" was given at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport Wednesday night after a DHL cargo facility there was evacuated following the discovery of a suspicious package, authorities said.
Investigators believe two explosive packages found at airports in Dubai and the United Kingdom on Friday were assembled by the same bomb-maker responsible for the device used in last year's failed Christmas Day "underwear bomb" plot.
Investigators are leaning in the direction that the same person or persons who crafted the Christmas Day underwear bomb were behind the PETN-based devices hidden in packages sent from Yemen, a U.S. government official told CNN.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano responds to the recent international security alert.
Two packages found abroad that were bound for Jewish organizations in the United States contained a massive amount of explosive material that would have triggered a powerful blast, a source close to the investigation has told CNN.
The electronic component visible in a law enforcement image of an intercepted suspicious shipment from Yemen appears to be a printed circuit board from a disassembled cell phone, an engineer told CNN Friday.
Yemeni security forces have swept into a region of the country thought to be a haven for al Qaeda, the governing party says.
The federal judge in the Christmas Day bombing attempt case has granted the defendant's backup attorney access to case documents.
Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, who is accused of trying to detonate an explosive on an international flight into Michigan on Christmas Day last year, was not radicalized while he was a college student, according to a report released Friday.
A Yemeni soldier was killed and nine others were wounded in a restive province when the governor's convoy was attacked, government authorities said.
Seven people were killed and 32 suspected militants were arrested in Yemen during a military offensive touted by the government as part of an intensified hunt for terrorists, the state-run news agency reported Sunday, citing security sources.
The Obama administration has invoked the state secret privilege in seeking to dismiss a lawsuit filed on behalf of the father of Yemeni-American cleric and militant Anwar al-Awlaki, which sought to prevent the U.S. government from trying to target him for assassination.
Civil liberties groups accuse the U.S. government of issuing kill orders on American-born Anwar al-Alwaki without trial.
A terror suspect of Somali origin was arrested early Sunday at Schiphol International Airport in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, officials said.
Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, the man accused of trying to blow up a plane last Christmas, said in court Monday that he no longer wants to be represented by federal defenders and would act as his own attorney.
Attorneys for a man accused of trying to blow up a plane last Christmas have met with the prosecutors to discuss a possible deal in the case, federal court documents state.
Many thought Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab had promise, until he boarded a flight allegedly armed with explosives.
An al Qaeda leader in Yemen accused of aiding operatives in the 2002 bombing of the French-flagged oil tanker Limburg has surrendered to authorities, Yemen's embassy in the United States said Thursday.
Despite some setbacks, al Qaeda's core leadership in Pakistan remains the biggest threat to the United States, and the group continues to expand and strengthen worldwide, according to a new State Department report.
While lawmakers debated how the Obama administration should prosecute accused terrorists, a pair of failed terrorist plots in the United States fueled political fires on the issue.
In an exclusive interview, CNN's Fred Pleitgen speaks to a captured aI Qaeda leader on the Iraqi insurgency.
Almost six years after issuing a landmark report on terrorism, the heads of the 9/11 Commission on Wednesday expressed frustration that more progress hasn't been made on several of the commission's key recommendations.
A man believed to be the head of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula spoke in support of an American-born Muslim cleric and al Qaeda recruiter in an audio message posted on radical Islamist websites Sunday.
At a security conference recently, the moderator asked the panel of distinguished cybersecurity leaders what their nightmare scenario was. The answers were the predictable array of large-scale attacks: against our communications infrastructure, against the power grid, against the financial system, in combination with a physical attack.
A U.S.-born Muslim cleric has appeared in a video released by al Qaeda. CNN's Paula Newton reports.
An American-born Muslim cleric has appeared in a video released by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
An intercepted message indicates some members of al Qaeda are looking to the group's founder for more visible leadership, a U.S. intelligence official told CNN Wednesday after CIA director Leon Panetta talked about the message in a newspaper interview.
Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday did not rule out the possibility that accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four accused accomplices would be tried in New York.
To the list of instructions you hear at airport checkpoints, add this: "Put your palms forward, please."
The TSA will begin randomly swabbing passengers' hands to test for traces of explosives.
The weeks have passed and, in most cases, their nerves have calmed. What began as shock, that they were almost victims of an in-flight terrorist attack, has morphed for many into contemplation. There are those who are still talking about what happened to them on Christmas Day, and there are others who are determined to put the incident behind them.
Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday that terrorists continue to try to harm the United States, but another "massive" terrorist strike like the September 11, 2001, attacks is unlikely.
Vice President Joe Biden says he thinks another 9/11 is unlikely. Watch the full interview tonight.
The Christmas Day attempted attack by would-be "underwear bomber" Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab provoked the U.S. government to plan to spend $1 billion for full body scanners and other bomb-detecting devices at airports.
U.S. authorities had another Nigerian-born man with an engineering background on their radar when Northwest Airlines Flight 253 prepared to land in Detroit, Michigan, on Christmas Day.
A Nigerian-American engineer was interrogated after an attempt to blow up a plane on Christmas. Abbie Boudreau reports.
Feeling nickel-and-dimed, frisked and scanned, crowded and hustled just to get from point A to point B, air travelers seem to be reaching new levels of frustration and unhappiness.
Organizing expert Monica Ricci offers tips on how to pack lightly to save on baggage fees.
CNN's Erica Hill talks with some of the passengers of Northwest Flight 253 which was the target of an attempted terror attack.
Kurt Haskell's eyes were locked on the seatback monitor in front of him when the words of a passing flight attendant caught his attention.
An early-morning hazardous material spill has been contained, but officials in Morehead City, North Carolina have closed its port and recommended evacuation of its downtown area after nine containers of high-explosive materials were punctured.
In the wake of the failed Christmas Day bombing of Northwest Flight 253, authorities are ramping up air passenger screening, particularly for those flying from 14 nations that the U.S. describes as "state sponsors of terrorism or other countries of interest."
CNN's Paula Hancocks assesses Israel's airline security and asks whether the world can learn something from it.
CNN's Paul Steinhauser talks to Polling Director Keating Holland about new polls on Obama, terror and full body scans.
In the wake of the Christmas Day attempt to blow up a U.S. airliner, most Americans remain confident the Obama administration can protect the country from terrorism, according to a new national poll.
Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, the man charged with trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane on December 25, pleaded not guilty Friday to six federal charges.
President Obama outlined Thursday the intelligence and other government failures leading up to the botched December 25 terror bombing of a U.S.-bound jetliner.
U.S. intelligence employees have received a letter from their boss mandating procedural changes intended to prevent future terrorist plots from succeeding.
U.S. anti-terrorism officials are pushing to get more air marshals on American jetliners and beef up efforts to screen visa applicants overseas after some stinging criticism from President Obama.
The suspect in the failed Christmas Day bombing of a U.S. airliner faces a six-count federal indictment issued Wednesday, including an attempt to murder the other 289 people aboard.
On the second page of the executive summary of the 9/11 commission report is a line we should all remember: "[T]he 9/11 attacks were a shock but they should not have been a surprise. Islamist extremists had given plenty of warning that they meant to kill Americans indiscriminately and in large numbers."
Sen. Chris Dodd The five-term Connecticut Democrat announced today that he will not seek re-election. Dodd, 65, has been winning congressional elections in his state since 1974, but he's recently been considered one of the most vulnerable Democrats seeking re-election in 2010. He has been criticized for ties to the financial industry, and several formidable challengers have been vying to challenge him in the November election.
In light of the botched Christmas Day airliner bombing aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 en route from Amsterdam to Detroit, the Transportation Security Administration has announced new enhanced "guidelines" requiring airline passengers traveling from (and through) 14 different countries to undergo especially rigorous security screening before being able to fly into the United States.
Following the attempt to bomb a passenger jet on Christmas Day, President Obama said that "once the suspect attempted to take down Flight 253, it's clear Homeland Security and Aviation Security took all appropriate actions."
The Department of Homeland Security on Thursday extended permission for hundreds of pilots to carry firearms -- just hours before their certification to carry the weapons was to expire, according to an organization which represents the pilots.
As a federal air marshal, Robert MacLean typically spent five days a week crisscrossing the country on commercial flights, reading a lot of newspapers and John Grisham novels while keeping an eye out and trying to appear inconspicuous.
CNN's Brian Todd reports on whether behavioral screening at airports could have prevented the Northwest bombing attempt.
Inside the X-ray
updated: Thu Dec 31 2009 05:40:00
A new wave of full body security scanners is under production. Affilliate WLOX takes us inside the plant.
The failed attempt to blow up a U.S.-bound passenger airplane on December 25 has raised questions about the need for the introduction of full-body scanners at all major airports.
We are now five days away from the attempted terrorist attack to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 to Detroit, Michigan. We are learning more each day about the multiple failures in our security and intelligence system that preceded that attack.
How could a man who allegedly had explosives hidden in his underwear have been allowed to board a plane headed for the United States?
CNN's Kara Finnstrom looks at how dogs are trained to sniff out explosives at airports and other terrorist targets.
Dutch officials say they will start using full body scanners for passengers boarding flights to the United States.
The seven-hour flight from the Netherlands to Michigan had been uneventful. Passengers bided time watching movies or trying to catch shut eye.
CNN's Candy Crowley talks with Jasper Schuringa who helped subdue the terror suspect on the Northwest flight that was attacked.
In a marked shift from previous positions, senior Obama administration officials now say they are starting to see an al Qaeda connection to the attempted terror attack on a U.S.-bound airliner.
President Obama speaks out against the attempted terror attack on a U.S. plane. CNN's Ed Henry reports.
Erroll Southers In the aftermath of the attempted bombing of Northwest Flight 253, it is likely the Senate will move to confirm the embattled nomination of Southers as head of the Transportation Security Administration when it returns from its winter recess. Objections to Southers' confirmation were first made by Republican Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina over the potential unionization of TSA employees. Southers is the Los Angeles International Airport's assistant chief for homeland security and intelligence. The airport's police department, which Southers has helped manage since early 2007, is the largest such operation in the country, with approximately 1,200 employees. Southers is also associate director at the Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events at the University of Southern California. The former FBI special agent served as a deputy director of homeland security for California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Is the 'anatomically congruent' bomb that the suspect allegedly carried foolproof to detection? CNN's Brian todd reports.
The most recent independent tests of airport checkpoints showed screener performance "falling off the charts," according to the top Republican on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
Authorities in Yemen questioned people at a mosque and a school in the capital of Sanaa because the facilities were attended by attempted bombing suspect Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, the spokesman for Yemen's Embassy to the United States said Tuesday.
Yemeni spokesman Mohammed Albasha gives his first on-camera interview to CNN.
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