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Homeland Security Focus
Areas DHS Realigns TWIC Compliance DateRelease Date: May 2, 2008 For Immediate Release The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today announced that the final compliance date for the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program will be April 15, 2009, which reflects a realignment of the Sept. 25, 2008 compliance date set in the final rule. The seven month extension is a direct result of collaboration with port officials and industry, and realigns the enrollment period with the original intent of the TWIC final rule. TWIC was established in the Maritime Transportation Security Act and the SAFE Port Act to serve as an identification program for all Coast Guard credentialed mariners and personnel requiring unescorted access to secure areas within a port. The program is on track to complete enrollment for a substantial number of jurisdictions by the end of 2008, and several ports will be required to comply with TWIC regulations this year. Owners and operators of facilities located within Captain of the Port Zones Boston, Northern New England, and Southeastern New England will need to comply by October 15, 2008. These three ports were selected based on favorable conditions that facilitate near-term implementation. These ports are ideal for initial compliance based upon geographic proximity, the size of their TWIC enrollment population, and respective enrollment efforts to date. Additional ports will be announced in the coming weeks, and the Coast Guard will provide at least 90 days notice prior to enforcement. The TWIC program is progressing steadily and has opened more than 100 fixed enrollment centers and dozens of mobile sites nationwide. More than 250,000 workers have enrolled to date and thousands more are processed each week. Enrollment began at the Port of Wilmington, Del. in October 2007. Workers can pre-enroll online at www.tsa.gov/twic. Pre-enrollment can accelerate credentialing by allowing workers to provide biographic information and schedule a time to complete the application process in person. This eliminates delays at enrollment centers and reduces total enrollment time for each worker. Although the compliance date has been extended seven months, workers are encouraged to enroll as soon as possible. Additional information can be found on the U.S. Coast Guard’s Homeport site, http://homeport.uscg.mil, and on the Transportation Security Administration’s web site at www.tsa.gov/twic.
The Washington Times Article published May 2, 2008
May 2, 2008 By Audrey Hudson - Sen. Russ Feingold wants the Bush administration to explain why federal air marshals were prevented from boarding some flights because their names matched those on the terrorist no-fly list, and whether the problem has been solved.
February 8, 2008 World Briefing | Asia New Zealand: Pilot Stabbed in Hijack AttemptBy REUTERS A woman traveling on a commuter flight stabbed one of the two pilots, tried to take control of the 19-seat Jetstream and threatened to blow it up, the New Zealand Press Association reported. She was restrained and the plane landed safely at Christchurch International Airport, where she was arrested. The pilot’s injuries were described as minor.
D.C. Airport Pass Speeds Travelers Clear to the Gate By Del Quentin Wilber Washington area travelers will soon be able to speed more quickly through airport security if they are willing to pay a fee, provide personal information to the government and allow their fingerprints and eyes to be scanned at checkpoints. The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which operates Reagan National and Dulles International airports, awarded a contract yesterday to a company that operates the federal government's security program, which is known as Registered Traveler. The initiative should start in the spring, said representatives of the company, Verified Identity Pass of New York. The company operates registered traveler programs at 11 airports nationwide, chief executive Steve Brill said. Registered traveler is operated by two other companies at two other airports. The Transportation Security Administration said about 65,000 people participate in the registered traveler program. Brill said the company was excited to enter the market, adding that 2,000 people in the Washington area have already signed up to join the company's program called Clear. Participation costs $128 a year, including a fee for a government background check. "We wanted this for a long time for a variety of reasons," Brill said. "What we really offer people is a predictable, less of a hassle, experience through airport security." The airports' board of directors weighed bids from Verified and another company, FLO Corp., said Tara Hamilton, a spokeswoman for the airports. The airport authority will receive a $500,000 minimum total annual payment from Verified to operate at the airports, Hamilton said. The Registered Traveler program has struggled to get off the ground. The TSA resisted its implementation. Airlines have opposed the effort because they worry it siphons security from other checkpoint lanes. They also say it diminishes the value of shorter security lines they provide for premium passengers. "There is no discernable security benefit," said David Castelveter, spokesman for the Air Transport Association, a trade group that represents major U.S. airlines. "It takes resources from TSA that otherwise could be used to deal with threats to aviation safety. Much of what Registered Traveler provides, our carriers already provide to their frequent fliers and first class travelers." To join Registered Traveler, a passenger must sign up at Clear's Web site ( http://www.flyclear.com) and fill out personal information. Within a few days, travelers then visit a Clear center so the company can check identification and take an image of their fingerprints and eyes, the company said. The information is then sent to the TSA for a background check. Once enrolled in the program, passengers show up at the Clear lanes at the airport and have their fingerprints or eyes scanned to verify identities. They can generally expect much shorter security lines than other passengers, but like everyone else going through a checkpoint, they must put their bags through X-ray machines, take off their shoes and remove their laptop computers from their luggage. Brill said he hopes he can persuade technology companies to develop devices that will eventually allow passengers to keep their shoes on and not remove their laptops from luggage. He recently offered a $500,000 prize to companies that develop technologies that substantially speed checkpoint times.
NYTimes.com October 2, 2007 Airport Security Alert for Toys With RemotesBy ERIC LIPTON WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 — Citing “credible specific information” about terror tactics, Transportation Security Administration officers nationwide on Monday stepped up their scrutiny of passengers carrying remote-control toys aboard airplanes. The move was not motivated by a specific terror plot, said Kip Hawley, the assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security in charge of aviation security. But there is concern both in the United States and internationally that common remote-control toys could be used to detonate a bomb as part of a terror plot. The aviation authorities decided against banning the devices in carry-on bags. But people carrying remote-control toys — including children — could be subject to a more intense search, in which the passenger is patted down and the baggage is checked by hand, officials said. The new policy comes just days after the federal authorities in South Carolina disclosed that a Florida college student arrested in August on explosive-related charges had made a video that he posted on YouTube showing how to use such a remote-control toy as a detonator. Mr. Hawley acknowledged in an interview Monday that this video played a role in the new policy. But it was just one piece of intelligence that led to the change. Remote-control toys might have been used already by terrorists in Sri Lanka and India, one federal official noted. “A lot of that work is sorting through dots,” Mr. Hawley said of the different intelligence leads that produced the heightened scrutiny. “This is a dot that just came up with enough granularity that it seemed we should take direct action on it.” The federal authorities considered simply making the change at airports in the United States without announcing it. But instead they decided to disclose the new policy, while encouraging passengers to put remote-control toys in checked luggage to avoid the additional scrutiny at the checkpoint, Mr. Hawley said. “Everybody knows there is an intelligence and law enforcement community out there, that there are people seeking to do us harm,” he said. “This is just the tangible manifestation of that.” The new scrutiny for remote-control toys will not extend to devices that automatically open car doors or to television remote controls, a T.S.A. spokeswoman said. In the South Carolina case, the authorities found a 12-minute Arabic language video on the computer of Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed, an Egyptian student at University of South Florida. A narrator in the video explains how to convert a toy car into a detonator for a bomb, a search warrant affidavit filed in federal court in Charleston, S.C., on Thursday says. Mr. Mohamed had been arrested in August after he was found near a South Carolina military base driving a car that had what the authorities described as bomb-making parts in the trunk, including plastic pipes, potassium nitrate and a safety fuse cord. Immediately after the arrest, which started as a speeding case, friends and family of Mr. Mohamed said the charges were unwarranted, asserting that the materials in the car would be, if assembled, not much more powerful than firecrackers. But during an interrogation, Mr. Mohamed acknowledged to the authorities that he made the video that was found on his computer, “to assist those persons in Arabic countries to defend themselves against the infidels invading their countries,” the affidavit said. A lawyer for Mr. Mohamed, whose case has been transferred to Tampa, Fla., from Charleston, S.C., could not be reached for comment Monday.
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Focus Area Current News Media and Communication Issues Medical Care Delivery
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