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More Armed Pilots Needed, Aviation Experts Say Box cutters, ice picks, knives, meat cleavers, brass knuckles and explosive devices are among the lethal weapons undercover government agents manage to smuggle past airport security, according to aviation security experts. They say the serious security gaps underline the need to arm more airline pilots - and quickly. Despite extensive security measures put in place since 9/11, the experts note, the agents succeed in getting the dangerous items past airport security staff nine times out of ten. Determined individuals would even been able to sneak firearms onboard, taking them apart and putting them together again once on the plane, according to Larry Johnson, a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent. For this reason, he told Cybercast News Service, a multi-layered approach to security that includes arming pilots, offers the best defense against a repetition of 9/11-style attacks. His conviction is shared by a number of pilots who spoke with Cybercast News Service. They say armed crew members must be called upon as "first line of deterrence and a last line of defense."....
Caught on tape: Border patrol agent steals 20 pounds of pot A border patrol agent was supposed to be guarding a truckload of marijuana. Instead watch as he looks around and helps himself to a 20-pound bundle. "You can't deny the embarrassment that comes along with looking at that video tape," Border Patrol spokesman Rob Daniels said. Michael Carlos Gonzalez didn't realize the dash cam was on, back in December of 2005, as he violated the oath of office he swore to uphold. Gonzalez called in sick the following day. Investigators say he flew to California and the bundle was never seen again. When the video tape came to light he resigned....
Video of US-Mexico border shooting appears to back immigrants' story A grainy surveillance video taken as a Border Patrol agent fatally shot an illegal immigrant from Mexico appears to lend credence to the surviving immigrants' accounts of what happened. The Cochise County attorney released the video clips and documents this week after public records requests by The Associated Press and two newspapers. The shooting has drawn condemnation from the Mexican government and spurred an FBI civil rights investigation. Border Patrol agent Nicholas Corbett encountered a group of four immigrants among a larger group of border crossers whom he and other agents were rounding up on Jan. 12 near Naco. The group included three brothers and one man's wife. Corbett has declined to be interviewed by investigators but told other agents that he came around the front of his SUV, saw a man with a rock in his hand close to the rear of the vehicle and fired when the man moved to throw it. The witnesses said the agent came from behind the victim, and the video appears to support that version....
Border Fence Bosses Sentenced for Hiring Illegal Immigrants The president of an engineering company that helped to build a border fence to prevent Mexicans crossing illegally into the US was hoist with his own petard yesterday when he was sentenced to six months house arrest for hiring illegal immigrants. Mel Kay, the founder and head of Golden State Fence company, was also ordered to carry out 1,040 hours of community service and was put on probation for three years. A second company chief, Ted Moskowitz, was given the same sentence after both men pleaded guilty last December to knowingly employing illegal workers. The sentences neatly illustrated the paradox surrounding the US crackdown on illegal immigration, primarily from Mexico and other Latin American countries. While many Republicans are committed to reducing the flow, many employers, particularly in the southern states, are dependant on the incomers for seasonal harvesting and low-paid manual work. When Golden State Fence was first investigated for its employment practices it was estimated that a third of its 750 workers may have been living in the country below the radar. The firm builds fencing around homes, offices and military bases and also took part in the late 1990s construction of 6,100ft (1,859m) of the 14-mile (22.5km) fence near the Otay Mesa border crossing in San Diego....
The Rising TIDE: Should We Fear the Anti-Terror Database? A recent article in the Washington Post lifted the veil a bit on the U.S. government's massive, and still growing, anti-terror database. Over 400,000 names are now considered worthy of government suspicion, but citizens that end up on this list are not entitled to know why their names arrived there or what the government does with their files. Yet there has not been a significant terror attack on U.S. soil since 2001. Is the government's database the reason for this apparent success? How long will the government's list of suspicious names become? Is the government's ever-expanding scope of surveillance worth the security it seems to be creating? If not, are there any better alternatives? The civil liberties concerns created by TIDE are both obvious and frightening. When linked to bank account, credit card, airline, rental car, visa, and other databases, it would be simple for a government intelligence analyst to monitor the movements, actions, and purchases of a given person at a near-real time rate. Intelligence analysts could also employ computer analysis of patterns and trends to predict future threatening behavior. Yet it is this very monitoring and forecasting that has most likely prevented another spectacular terrorist attack from occurring inside the United States....