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UPDATE: Hundreds of Security Badges Missing From Atlanta Airport

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Hundreds of ID badges that let airport workers roam the nation’s busiest hub have been stolen or lost in the last two years, an NBC News investigation has found.

While experts say the missing tags are a source of concern because they could fall into the wrong hands, officials at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport insist they don’t pose “a significant security threat.”

The wayward badges came to light when NBC-DFW asked airports across the country to reveal how many of them were unaccounted for. Only one, Atlanta, provided numbers before the Transportation Security Administration blocked the release of more data.

But at that single airport, where almost 60,000 people work, some 1,400 badges that allow employees to access secure areas like runways and boarding gates have gone missing over roughly two years.

“It’s very, very serious. Without question,” said Larry Wansley, who headed corporate security for American Airlines until 2004 and still consults for airports. (Read more from “Hundreds of Security Badges Missing From Atlanta Airport” HERE)

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More Airport Security Badges Missing as Washington Demands Answers [+video]

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Photo Credit: NBC News Washington lawmakers are demanding an accounting of how many airport security badges have been lost or stolen around the country as an NBC News investigation reveals the problem may be bigger than originally thought.

“Clearly there are an awful lot of things falling through the cracks and there’s just no room for error when it comes to this issue. We need answers. They’re not providing them,” said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), who chairs the Transportation Committee . . .

As NBCDFW reported in March, more than 1,400 of the badges — which allow employees to access secure areas like runways and boarding gates — went missing at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport over approximately two years.

Now, the station, in partnership with NBC San Diego, has learned that more than 270 badges went missing at the San Diego International Airport in the last two years. (Read more from “More Airport Security Badges Missing as Washington Demands Answers” HERE)

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Investigation Finds Hundreds of Airport Security Badges Missing

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An exclusive NBC 5 investigation found hundreds and perhaps even thousands of airport security badges, known as Secure Identification Display Area (SIDA) badges, are unaccounted for across the country.

NBC 5 Investigates requested records from some of the nation’s largest airports asking how many SIDA badges are unaccounted for.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport sent a response saying more than 1,400 badges were lost or stolen over approximately two years.

Larry Wansley, who once led security for American Airlines, believes the missing badges present serious concerns for security officials and are something terrorists would like to have possession of in order to compromise security.

Before NBC 5 Investigates could get missing ID badge information from other airports, like Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, the Transportation Security Administration stepped in and said we couldn’t have those numbers. (Read more about the missing airport security badges HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Explosives-Sniffing Dog Bites Woman at Airport (+video)

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Photo Credit: The National GuardA Rome woman said Friday an explosives-detection dog working the baggage claim area at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport bit her, unprovoked.

Susan Dubitsky said she and her husband were waiting for her sister to arrive around 4:15 p.m. May 2. As an Atlanta police officer and the dog walked past, the dog bit her on the stomach. A little later, when the officer came back to check on her, Dubitsky said, “the dog tried to come at me another time.

“The dog just didn’t like me,” she said. “It was scary. There was no reason to go after me.”

Dubitsky said EMT’s at the airport treated her hand-size bite wound.

While the dog was working with APD, it is owned by the Transportation Security Administration.

Read more from this story HERE.

Proven: TSA Hires Murderers, Rapists, Thieves

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Photo Credit: Bucky TurcoSome might consider it one of the most important jobs in America after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks: Protecting the nation’s airports, airplanes and citizens from would-be terrorists hell-bent on mass murder.

But the TSA screeners patting you down and combing through your belongings don’t have federal law-enforcement training, may earn about as much as a McDonald’s shift manager and are not required to possess a high-school diploma or GED.

In fact, they might even be criminals. If recent news reports are any indication, many Americans can’t even trust that TSA’s screeners won’t steal their laptops, money or jewelry. What does it take to work for the TSA?

In May 2012, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., released a report titled, “‘Not on My Watch’: 50 Failures of TSA’s Transportation Security Officers.”

“While in the last decade TSA has employed many dedicated public servants who truly have a deep desire to serve our country, they have also hired an alarming number of individuals who in many cases would never have passed a simple background check,” Blackburn’s report stated.

Read more from this story HERE.

It’s On: Rand Paul Plans Round 2 Against TSA

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Sen. Rand Paul is not giving up his fight to get the government off the front lines of airport security.

The Kentucky Republican said in an interview that he plans to refile legislation that would drastically scale back the Transportation Security Administration’s reach by privatizing security screening operations at airports and creating a series of passenger protections.

“I think we are going to,” Paul said when asked if he would take another crack at the oft-criticized agency. “We have two different bills, one to privatize the TSA and then we have another one which is a passenger bill of rights.”

As a policy, the TSA does not comment on proposed legislation. It declined to comment on Paul’s plans.

For Paul, TSA reform is personal. He drew viral media attention for resisting a TSA pat-down in 2012, which caused him to miss a speech at the March for Life rally. Following that incident, Paul introduced TSA privatization and flier bill of rights legislation last summer.

Read more on this story HERE.

Say good bye to privacy forever: new DHS laser will instantly know everything about you – from 164 feet away!

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Within the next year or two, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will instantly know everything about your body, clothes, and luggage with a new laser-based molecular scanner fired from 164 feet (50 meters) away. From traces of drugs or gun powder on your clothes to what you had for breakfast to the adrenaline level in your body—agents will be able to get any information they want without even touching you.

And without you knowing it.

The technology is so incredibly effective that, in November 2011, its inventors were subcontracted by In-Q-Tel to work with the US Department of Homeland Security. In-Q-Tel is a company founded “in February 1999 by a group of private citizens at the request of the Director of the CIA and with the support of the U.S. Congress.” According to In-Q-Tel, they are the bridge between the Agency and new technology companies.

Their plan is to install this molecular-level scanning in airports and border crossings all across the United States. The official, stated goal of this arrangement is to be able to quickly identify explosives, dangerous chemicals, or bioweapons at a distance.

The machine is ten million times faster—and one million times more sensitive—than any currently available system. That means that it can be used systematically on everyone passing through airport security, not just suspect or randomly sampled people.

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: andrea.pacelli