Ex-TSA agent: We steal from travelers all the time

A TSA agent convicted of stealing more than $800,000 worth of goods from travelers said this type of theft is “commonplace” among airport security. Almost 400 TSA officers have been fired for stealing from passengers since 2003.

­Pythias Brown, a former Transportation Security Administration officer at Newark Liberty International Airport, spent four years stealing everything he could from luggage and security checkpoints, including clothing, laptops, cameras, Nintendo Wiis, video games and cash.

Speaking publicly for the first time after being released after three years in prison, Brown told ABC News that he used the X-ray scanners to locate the most valuable items to snatch.

“I could tell whether it was cameras or laptops or portable cameras or whatever kind of electronic was in the bag,” he said.

Brown often worked alone, screening luggage behind the ticket counters. He was frequently told the overhead surveillance cameras, installed to prevent theft, were not working.

“It was so easy,” he said. “I walked right out of the checkpoint with a Nintendo Wii in my hand. Nobody said a word.”

With more electronics than any one individual could need, Brown began to sell the stolen items on eBay. At the time of his arrest, he was selling 80 cameras, video games and computers online. Brown said the theft was comparable to an addiction.

“It was like being on drugs,” he said. “I was like, ‘What am I doing?’ but the next day I was right back at it.”

Brown was finally caught after selling a camera he stole from the luggage of a CNN producer. When he sold the camera on eBay, he forgot to remove the news networks’ logo stickers.

“I got complacent,” he said.

TSA’s culture of theft

But while Brown believes he might have been one of the worst thieves at the TSA, he imagines the agency’s culture makes it easy for others to do the same. Many officers don’t care about their work and complain about low pay and being treated badly, he claims, which prompts them to steal. To make it even easier to get away with, TSA managers also never search their employees’ bags.

The agency says it has a zero-tolerance policy for theft and terminates the contracts of all thieves within the TSA. In the past ten years, almost 400 TSA officers have been fired for stealing, 11 of which were fired this year.

ABC’s interview with Brown highlights the extent of the dilemma passengers face when traveling with valuables. Brown is just one of many officers caught in the act of stealing goods worth thousands.

In February, 2011, two TSA officers were arrested for stealing $40,000 in cash from a checked bag in New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport. Using an X-ray machine, the men found that the bag contained $170,000 and removed some of the money.

In the first two months of this year, a TSA baggage screener in Orlando was arrested for stealing valuables by hiding them in a laptop-sized hidden pocket in his jacket and selling the goods on Craigslist. And, a New Jersey-based agent stole $5,000 in cash from a passenger’s jacket as he was going through security

While in April, a Texas-based TSA officer stole eight iPads from checked bags, while another officer stole a $15,000 watch from a passenger at the Los Angeles International Airport in May.

“It was very commonplace, very,” Brown said, describing the frequency of theft within the TSA.

“TSA is probably the worst personnel manager that we have in the entire federal government,” said Rep. John Mica, chairman of the House Transportation Committee. “It is an outrage to the public and, actually, to our aviation security system.”

Hormuz Strait closure bill backed by more than half of Iranian MPs

Just over half of Iran's parliament has backed a draft law to block the Strait of Hormuz, threatening to close the Gulf to oil tankers in retaliation against European sanctions.

­Lawmaker Javad Karimi Qodoosi, who drafted the document, said 150 of parliament's 290 members had signed the bill, describing the strait as "the world's lock" to which Iran holds the key, the lawmaker said.

And even though the final decision lies with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, and the parliament does not really get to influence foreign policy, the move would lend significant political support to a possible decision to close the Strait.

A heavy Western naval presence in the Gulf and surrounding area is a big obstacle for any attempt to block the vital shipping route through which 40 percent of the world's seaborne oil exports passes. Qodoosi dismissed this obstacle.

"From a military standpoint, the power to close the Strait of Hormuz is 100 percent there … if we close the Strait of Hormuz, no country will be able to open it", the lawmaker said.

Burgas suicide bomber a Guantanamo jihadist?

Burgas suicide bomber identified by media as Guantanamo jihadist

Bulgarian media have reportedly named the suicide bomber who blew up the bus with Israeli tourists on Wednesday, killing seven. The terrorist is alleged to be Mehdi Ghezali, an Algerian-Swedish Islamist who spent two years in Guantanamo Bay.

The story was broken by Times of Israel newspaper, who cited local Bulgarian media sources.

But later the story grew murkier, with ABC reporting that Bulgarian officials denied that Ghezali was behind the attack. Swedish agency TT says it has received similar refutals from security services in Stockholm.

Neither country has issued an independently verified statement.

Previously, local police matched up airport CCTV footage with the remnants near the bus carrying Israeli tourists that was destroyed in the explosion. The likely suicide bomber was carrying a US driving license bearing the name Jacque Felipe Martin that authorities believe to be a forgery.

Mehdi Ghezali is a 33 year-old Islamist, who was arrested in Pakistan in 2001 and subsequently spent two years in detention in Guantanamo. When he was sent back to Sweden, the local government refused to press charges against him. He was arrested again by Pakistani authorities on the Afghanistan border in 2009, but once again set free upon extradition back to his homeland.

 The suspect – a long-haired man in shorts wearing two rucksacks – looked no different than the thousands of other holidaymakers at the popular Black Sea resort. He roamed the airport for an hour, apparently waiting for the tourists arriving from Tel Aviv to go through customs before approaching their transfer bus and detonating his bomb.

Five Israelis, the Bulgarian driver and the bomber were instantly killed. Two more tourists remain in serious condition in the capital Sofia, while an Israeli military plane has flown around thirty others who were wounded back to Israel.

Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said the bomber had spent between four days and a week in the country.

”We cannot exclude the possibility that he had logistical support on Bulgarian territory,'' said Tsvetanov.

Police have taken a DNA sample from the skin of the terrorist to see if it is listed in any international criminal databases.

The shadow war

Israel did not hesitate in naming the perpetrators of the attack.

"All signs point to Iran. This is an Iranian terror offensive that is spreading throughout the world," said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The past year has seen attacks on Israeli embassies in Georgia, India and Kenya. Israel says that each time the investigation led back to Iran, Israel’s principal enemy.

``The direct executors are Hezbollah,'' claimed Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. The Lebanese Islamist organization enjoys ideological and financial ties with Tehran.

``Israel will do all it can to find those responsible and punish them, both those who carried it out directly and those who dispatched them,” promised Barak.

In response, Iranian TV branded the accusations “sensationalist” and “ridiculous.”

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov said further investigations will be necessary before a definitive perpetrator of the attack is found.

“It is wrong and a mistake to point fingers at this stage of the investigation at any country or organization," stated Mladenov.

Israeli tourist attack: A pretext for war with Iran?

Israel has accused Iran of masterminding a terror attack in Bulgaria just hours after the tragedy claimed the lives of several Israeli tourists. The incident could be used as a pretext for a legitimate strike against Iran, analyst Jamal Abdi told Russian Media.

RM: It took Benjamin Netanyahu just two hours to blame Tehran for the bombing, saying that all signs point to Iran. What are the grounds for such hasty conclusions?

Jamal Abdi: I don’t think he has grounds to make such an accusation. I think it is an extremely dangerous accusation. And it really feeds some of the concerns that I know privately officials in Washington have expressed, that these attacks that have been carried out between the parties, between Israel and Iran, could somehow provide casus belli for a war.

In the case of Israel not having a pretext to go into Iran and overtly attack its nuclear facilities, if you have a situation like this, in which Iran is implicated, whether rightly or wrongly, for a terrorist attack, that could create a basis where an Israeli "counter" attack may be perceived as more legitimate than a preventative strike against Iran, against a nuclear program that – all indications say – has not developed into a nuclear weapons program.

RM: Given the pressure Iran is under concerning its nuclear program, and the international sanctions that come with it, would it be in Tehran's interests to mastermind an attack like this?

JA: I don’t know about the interests of Tehran, but I would not necessarily rule out some of the accusations that Iran was behind this. I think that we have entered a very dangerous cycle of escalation between the US, Iran and Israel. And given the attacks that we’ve seen inside of Iran against nuclear scientists, some of the sabotage efforts that have apparently been carried out by Israel, honestly I haven’t seen the evidence but I would not be shocked if Iran was behind this. And I think it is absolutely deplorable when innocent civilians are targeted by terrorist attack like this, regardless of where it happens or who conducts the attacks.

RM: Do you think blaming Iran for this attack could be diverting attention from Israel's ongoing domestic problems?

JA: I don’t know what Netanyahu's intentions are. I do know that he has used some extremely dangerous rhetoric and that there does seem to be a push by him to ratchet up the pressure for military action conducted either by Israel or the United States. And so when we have this confrontation between Israel and Iran, this is a strong suit that Netanyahu has politically, the very hard line that he has taken against Tehran.

I don’t know that it necessarily undermines anything that he is trying to do by immediately blaming Iran for this before even his own intelligence people have declared that Iran is behind this disgusting attack.

RM: The US recently reiterated its support for the Jewish state. How far do you think they would go to back Israel should it decide to take action?

JA: I don’t think the Unites States is going to have much of a choice, unfortunately, if it comes to a third party like Israel attacking Iran or if Iran does something provocative in the Persian Gulf. I think we are on the precipice right here, and this is a hair-trigger situation. If something happens, the United States is very likely going to be sucked into it.

There was a leak, in the Pentagon couple months ago, a simulation in which they found that in the case of Israeli strike on Iran immediately you have the United Stated getting sucked into it, immediately you have US soldiers getting killed in a counter-attack by Iran.

So the ability to control a situation like this once it actually does spiral into a war scenario, I think, is going be outside of US hands.

'Toothless UK Government' - TSA security agents to be deployed in UK airports for Olympics

The US Transport Security Administration has reportedly prepared its personnel to be deployed in UK airports for the Olympic Games. The US agents will apply their skills to help their UK colleagues bolster security during the event.

­TSA personnel are to arrive at UK air hubs a week before and stay a week after the London Olympics, according to a newly reached agreement between UK’s Department of Transport and the US Transportation Security Administration, Sky News reports.

"This is an added security layer that has been done to help boost and aid the American airlines in particular that fly in and out of the likes of Heathrow and other airports,” says Sky's correspondent.

The agents are not permitted beyond boarding gates or onto UK aircraft. The action is aimed at aiding the US carriers’ security and also that of UK airlines flying in and out of America.

UK’s Olympic security has been questioned on a number of occasions.

The latest on July 15th, the Observer newspaper reported that since the start of the month, Heathrow immigration staff have missed a number of people on a security watch list whose arrival must be reported to counter-terrorism police or Britain's domestic intelligence service.

Authorities in London are under extreme pressure to provide the necessary security staff after the failure of the private security contractor G4S to deliver personnel to protect Olympic venues. The security personnel provided have had insufficient training and failed to adequately conduct body searches or operate scanners, according to reports.

"I can see so many security loopholes for this event. Security staff are given a very short time for their training and there is a very slack approach," said a whistleblower, an expert in weapons and explosives detection.

Now the UK government has called in an extra 3,500 troops to guard the events in addition to the 7,500 troops already scheduled to provide security at some 100 sensitive sites.

U.S. man charged with attempt to blow up U.S. Capitol pleads guilty

A scale model of a U.S. Navy F-86 Sabre fighter plane is seen in a handout photo released by the U.S. Justice Department after the photo was submitted to U.S. District Court in Massachusetts as part of a criminal complaint and affidavit filed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Boston, September 28, 2011

A Muslim -American has pleaded guilty to plotting to use three remote-controlled airplanes, each packed with five pounds of explosives, to blow up the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol in 2011.

­Rezwan Ferdaus along with his defense team and prosecutors agreed a 17 year sentence on the charges of attempting to destroy government buildings and provide material support to terrorists.  In a plea bargain he admitted two of the six charges against him.

Ferdaus was arrested on September 2011 after undercover FBI agents delivered supplies he had requested. The parcel included grenades, six machine guns and over 10 kilograms of C-4 explosive.

The governments officials emphasized that the general public was never in any danger since the materials were always under their control, writes the Associated Press.

Airplane models about the size of a picnic table were found at a time of his arrest, which Ferdaus had hidden in a storage unit rented under a false name.

According to the prosecution, the physics graduate from Northeastern University, intended to use three remote control planes packed with explosives to blow up bridges and buildings near the Pentagon.

The planes were to be guided by GPS at speeds faster than 160 killometers per hour and were intended to blow the Capitol dome to "smithereens," according to Ferdaus' affidavit, reports the AP.

The man then planned to follow up with an automatic weapons attack with six people divided into two teams.

The government argues that during the course of the investigation Ferdaus told undercover agents of his plans to commit terror acts against the U.S. by decapitating its "military center" and “non-believers”, according to Reuters.

While under surveillance in 2010, he allegedly supplied 12 mobile phones assembled as electrical detonators to undercover federal agents whom he believed to be al Qaeda recruiters.

Earlier, Ferdaus had pleaded innocent of the charges, and his defense team argued that their client had mental health issues and that his plot was a "fantasy."

A change-of-plea hearing has been scheduled for July 20.

Logistical nightmare: Russia leads NATO out of Afghan trap

The vulnerability of the recently reopened Pakistani transit route supplying NATO troops in Afghanistan has been a headache for over a decade. But the real problem will emerge once troops start to withdraw – with Russia ready to shoulder the burden.

Moscow has opened the combined transport transit route to supply 130,000 allied troops in Afghanistan. In the face of the coalition forces’ withdrawal from Afghanistan, NATO would be severely dependent on the “northern route” to evacuate servicemen and countless war materials accumulated in the country since 2001.

Despite reopening the transit via Pakistan on Thursday, the supply route through former Soviet Central Asian republics and Russia would continue to play an increasingly mercurial role for NATO operations in Afghanistan.The reality on the ground has become increasingly clear over the last seven months as the US and Pakistan remained locked in a political standoff over a deadly American air strike incident that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers last November.

From that point on, the Pakistani borders were sealed off to coalition transit.

To avoid shipment disruptions, US military logisticians had to shift up to 60 per cent of the supplies to northern routes via Russia, with the rest of the cargo having been delivered by air.

Reportedly, the “Russian route” is about three times more expensive than the shorter Pakistani one, but the air freight from Afghanistan is ten times more expensive. Reportedly, the shift to the “Russian route” has been costing the US an additional $100 million a month against previous payments to Pakistan.

Opening the gates to Ulyanovsk

­The interruption of transit via Pakistan has dramatically exposed the vulnerabilities in shipping military supplies to international forces operating in Afghanistan.

So there is little wonder the opening of the military transit logistics hub in Russia’s Ulyanovsk must seem heaven-sent for Washington. NATO has been using Russian airspace for delivering troops and non-lethal supplies to Afghanistan since 2009. Now that Moscow has agreed to allow a combined transit – by land as well as by air – the transit via Russia is going to grow invariably.

Russian Vice Premier Dmitry Rogozin has repeatedly stressed that the transit hub in Ulyanovk in no way means a “NATO military base” has been established on Russian soil.

“We open the gate and make money,” Rogozin said to Echo Moskvy radio station. He stressed that there will be no NATO personnel anywhere on the route – just containers from the alliance being transported by Russian railway and Russian trucks.

“NATO personnel in Russia is out of question,” Rogozin stressed.

In April Russia’s Public Chamber discussed establishing an Ulyanovsk logistics hub for NATO needs. In the end, the body agreed the undertaking would be profitable in several different respects. The preliminary expenses of evacuating ISAF depots from Afghanistan are estimated at $1.5-3 billion. Also, new jobs are expected to be created in Ulyanovsk. Members of the Chamber have pointed out that the transportation of NATO supplies would also allow Russia to monitor what’s coming in and going out.

All procedures at the Ulyanovsk hub fall under Russian customs legislation. Likewise, all freight will be forwarded to Afghanistan after due customs clearance, all under the watchful eye of Russian customs officers.

Another reason for expanding the northern supply route concerns safety. While delivering supplies via Pakistan, news regarding dozens of torched petrol tankers and trucks was coming in on a daily basis. The re-opening of the Pakistani route will likely see a direct corresponding rise in Taliban-led convoy attacks.

­

Afghan exit a double-edged sword

­After US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton finally apologized for the attack on the Pakistani military base in November, Islamabad finally agreed to open its borders for NATO transit to Afghanistan. A Taliban response swiftly followed.

“We will attack NATO supplies all over Pakistan. We will not allow anyone to use Pakistani soil to transport supplies that will be used against the Afghan people,” the Pakistani Taliban announced in a statement released right after the deal was struck.

That is why the northern route is by far better; no Taliban fighters have been registered north of the Afghan border in recent years.

It is expected that to complete its troop withdrawal from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, the US Army would need up to 100,000 containers and 50,000 vehicles, most of which apparently will go through Central Asia and Russia.

Still, Washington must be aware the Ulyanovsk deal will make it overly reliant on Moscow.

“If there is no Pakistani transit, the US became altogether dependent on the northern destination, which is Russia, and this poses a serious threat to the US,” Dmitry Trenin, the director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, claimed in an interview with Vzglyad newspaper.

Washington would likely hope to avoid any kind of dependence on Moscow. But a quick look at the map of Afghanistan – bordered by Iran, Pakistan and former Soviet republics from the south – shows that the Obama administration actually has little choice but to co-operate with the Russians.

For Russians it is a dilemma no less complicated than for the Americans. Naturally, Moscow would like to see Washington and NATO get their troops out of Afghanistan, as the Soviet Union did after a ten year military presence in the country. But once the international contingent leaves Afghanistan, there is a serious threat that the vacuum of power will be filled with the Islamist militants that would turn the country into an uncontrollable vortex close to Russia’s borders.

If things go worse for the ISAF troops, Moscow could give Washington a chance not to repeat the nightmare Saigon evacuation operation again, allowing American troops to leave with their heads held high.

It is hoped that unlike Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1989, whoever wins the US presidential race this November, be it Barack Obama or Mitt Romney, will be standing on a bridge over Amu Darya River in Tajikistan, greeting the last American soldier leaving Afghanistan.

US ramps up Gulf forces to scare off Iran

The United States is rapidly escalating its military presence in the Persian Gulf to deter Iran from shutting off the Strait of Hormuz or striking out at regional enemies.

­The US has just doubled the number of minesweepers in the regional waters to eight, and several squadrons of F-22s and F-15s have been relocated to nearby US bases.

An American combat brigade is also on stand-by in Kuwait, ready to intervene in any regional conflict.

Although some of the movements have been long-planned, others have been implemented ahead of schedule.

“The message to Iran is, ‘Don’t even think about it,’ ” a senior Defense Department source told the New York Times.

“Don’t even think about closing the strait. We’ll clear the mines. Don’t even think about sending your fast boats out to harass our vessels or commercial shipping. We’ll put them on the bottom of the gulf.”

On Monday, the Iranian parliament tabled a motion to close the Strait of Hormuz, turning back any oil tanker travelling to countries that have embargoed Iran’s own oil.

The United States and the European Union have restricted the export of Iranian petrochemicals in protest against its burgeoning atomic program, which they claim is aimed at eventually producing nuclear weapons.

Iran’s exports have fallen from 2.5 million barrels a day a year ago, to 1.5 million.

In protest, Iran’s parliamentarians have threatened to close the narrow waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes.

Although, the proposed bill has not been passed, it was intended as a credible threat to the world community.

Iran is also in the middle of Great Prophet 7, a military exercise that involves firing dozens of rockets at specifically-built mock-ups of US military bases in the region.

The official interviewed by the New York Times confirmed that the US is following a “two-track” policy towards Iran – showing it that it is capable of dominating the Islamic Republic, but also leaving wriggle room for a peaceful resolution.

The source also claimed that the government similarly needs to manage the expectations of its ally Israel – giving it protection, but not encouraging it to start an armed conflict with Iran.

The other side of the “two-track” approach is being tested this week in Istanbul during a new round of talks between Iran and the U.S., Russia, China, France, the U.K. and Germany over its nuclear program.

All sides have sent low-level officials, and no notable breakthroughs are expected.

Russia broadens transit opportunities for NATO

 

Russia has allowed NATO to use not only ground, but also aerial routes for the transit of weapons and military hardware to and from Afghanistan.

A respective decree, signed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, was published on Friday.

The document amends the 2008 resolution, "On ground transit through the territory of the Russian Federation of weapons, military hardware and military property addressed to the International Security Assistance Force in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and in the opposite direction."

Now, in addition to ground transit, NATO is allowed to use ‘combined transit’ routes – including railway, air and automobile.

Russia has provided its territory for the alliance’s Afghanistan-bound cargoes since 2009. The link is vital as Pakistan blocked NATO supplies from crossing its territory after an airstrike accidentally killed 24 Pakistani soldiers last year.

Moscow has been considering allowing NATO to use Ulyanovsk Air Base for the transit of non-lethal cargos to and from Afghanistan. The planned agreement stirred a wave of criticism and protests in Russia, however, with many being strongly opposed to what they consider a “NATO base” on Russian soil. However, high-ranking Moscow officials insist that no NATO military base or the presence of the alliance’s civil and military personnel is intended, only civilian logistics facilities.

Fly the flag: Russian ship with Syrian bound choppers returns home

The Russian “Alaed” cargo ship transporting MI25 helicopters bound for Syria has entered Russia’s Arctic port of Murmansk. The vessel is to be re-flagged and dispatched to Russia’s Far Eastern port of Vladivostok.

­The Kola Gulf control official confirmed the entrance on Sunday morning.

The Alaed, which has been forced to turn back to home shores as the UK-based insurer withdrew the vessel’s cover, is expected to be re-flagged in Murmansk to sail under the Russian tricolor. 

It is currently sailing under the flag of the Caribbean island of Curacao. The change will help avert the vessel's interception and seizure in neutral waters, which is a potential hazard when sailing under the flag of a third country, explained Col. Gen.  Leonid Ivashov, the president of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems and a former chief of the Defense Ministry's international military cooperation directorate.

Once re-flagged, the vessel will set off again on its voyage to the Russian Far Eastern port of Vladivostok, the ship's managers FEMCO says. 

The company denounced a decision made by the UK marine insurer the Standard Club to withdraw its coverage without “any documentary confirmation of any arms bound for Syria onboard.” “The insurance was revoked upon recommendation of UK intelligence,” reads a statement posted on the company’s website.

“FEMCO incorporated expresses deep regret that its commercial activity and scrupulous implementation of contractual commitments to its clients and partners has become subject to political speculations, manipulations of intelligence services and fraud, aided by a game of factual distortion being carried out by a number of journalists,” the statement further says. 

Earlier some experts suggested the vessel would be sent back to the Syrian port of Tartus with an escort of Russian Naval warships or civilian boats.

 "The ship might run into some kind of unpleasant situation during its solitary voyage, and that might be blamed on some pirates or other force of nature, and so Alaed needs both witnesses and, if necessary, operational help," Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted one military diplomat as saying.

The Russian cargo ship was stopped near Scotland this past Monday after the US told the UK marine insurer the Standard Club Washington suspected the vessel was heading to Syria, carrying MI25 helicopters known as "flying tanks".

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday confirmed the nature of the cargo, saying the ship carried three old helicopters that had been repaired by Russia for Syria under a 2008 agreement. But he said they can only be used to repulse external aggression, not crack down on civilian protesters.

”Allegations that Russians were delivering the helicopters which could be used against peaceful demonstrators are a completely false assumption aimed at fanning fear and putting Russia in a bad light,” said Sergey Lavrov in an interview with Radio Ekho Moskvy on June 21.