Annie Jacobsen writes about aviation security and homeland security for a variety of newspapers, magazines and blogs. She is the author of the book, Terror in The Skies, Why 9/11 Could Happen Again.
The Transportation Security Administration seems to have taken a page from the mob.
America is finally showing interest in adopting Israel's approach to airline safety which looks for bombers, not bombs — and won't confiscate your tiny bottles of shampoo.
What's a passenger to do now that the airline is charging $15 for the first checked bag? For starters, travel light.
Pilots who are licensed firearms instructors have been deemed unfit to carry weapons in the cockpit. Yet the TSA is fast-tracking unqualified screeners to become air marshals.
Setting new women-only gym hours to placate Muslims is an act of segregation disguised as accommodation. So much for fifty years of equality.
Annie Jacobsen uncovers the latest embarrassment at TSA: top officials breaking federal rules by running a private consulting firm while they work for the government.
Thousands of foreign students are in U.S. flight schools illegally. Annie Jacobsen exclusively reveals an internal memo on the Transportation Security Administration's failure to enforce the law.
Over the course of its six-year life, the Transportation Security Administration has hired 110,000 employees, and 67,000 of them have quit or been fired. Frightening odds for the first-line of defense against terrorists, writes Annie Jacobsen.
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf clearly doesn't like being asked about terrorists who "escape" his police force's custody. This does not inspire Annie Jacobsen's confidence.
The UK's Sunday Times recently broke the story of an FBI whistleblower kept from speaking publicly about a State Department official suspected of selling nuclear secrets. Annie Jacobsen digs a bit deeper into this shadowy tale and wonders why American media outlets have greeted the revelations with stunning silence.