What exactly does the TSA do?

Attention, please...

Thank goodness for the Transportation Safety Administration.

I mean, who else will pat-down suspicious-looking, terminally ill grandmothers wearing adult diapers? Who else will pat-down kids and infants? Who else can make you feel good about a nice pre-flight grope?

And, of course, doing all that takes time. And human resource allocation. And money.

Maybe that's why they're too busy to really go after people like the "interesting" guy from Nigeria (story below, via the Los Angeles Times):

A Nigerian man flew from New York to Los Angeles using an expired boarding pass that belonged to someone else, media outlets reported Thursday morning. Olajide Oluwaseun Noibi reportedly boarded Virgin American Flight 415 at New York's JFK International Airport bound for Los Angeles on Friday.

At this time, investigators are suggesting that Noibi is a tourist rather than a terrorist. Noibi apparently went through and cleared the physical screening process, but no one caught the invalid travel documents.

It wasn't until after the flight took off that attendants realized an extra passenger was on board, officials said. During the flight, crew members asked Noibi for his boarding pass and, after hesitating, he handed over a boarding pass from the day before, KTLA quotes FBI officials as confirming. That boarding pass had another person's name on it.

Noibi allegedly told the crew that the pass was outdated because he had missed that flight a day earlier.

The man whose name was on the boarding pass later told FBI officials that the document had disappeared from his back pocket when he arrived at JFK International Airport on June 23.

On arrival in Los Angeles, Noibi left the airport without being detained.

He was arrested after he returned to LAX on Wednesday and attempted to board a Delta flight bound for Atlanta, again using an expired boarding pass, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller told KTLA.

Noibi allegedly told authorities he was traveling to Los Angeles to recruit people for his software business.

A search of Noibi's bags at LAX turned up more than 10 boarding passes with various individuals' names, none of which were his own, FBI officials said.

Noibi is being held at the Los Angeles County Men's Detention Center, according to reports.

So let's get this straight: This guy travels from NY to LA, gets called out for using an expired boarding pass -- that wasn't his own -- and yet he's able to move freely about the country until he returns to LAX?

Funny (not funny)...it seems like the people in question -- whether it's the heroes of United 93 on 9/11, or passengers dealing with the infamous "underwear bomber," or the flight crew identifying our Nigerian friend here -- are being dealt with by "civilians" -- not TSA pros. Perhaps the TSA is nabbing suspects and bad guys left and right. If they are, kudos (and let us know). If they aren't, we should know that, too.

After all, TSA, us civilians can't be everywhere...

Tonight's radio show: the bombing attempt's aftermath

The attempted bombing of the Delta/Northwest airliner in Detroit on Christmas day will be the subject of tonight’s roundtable on The John Batchelor Show. I’ll be joining John and fellow guests Larry Johnson (No Quarter) and Craig Unger (Vanity Fair) at 7 p.m. PST for the discussion. You can listen to the show at KSFO-AM 560 San Francisco/Northern California, WABC-AM 77 NY, WMAL-AM 630 Washington, D.C., and on XM/Sirius Satellite Radio. If you’re not in one of the listening areas, you can tune-in via any of those stations’ websites.

See you on the radio!

Detroit Terror - BREAKING NEWS (Update 2:30 pm PST)

From the Associated Press - BREAKING:

WASHINGTON — The Associated Press has learned that a second Nigerian man has been taken into custody aboard a jetliner in Detroit after locking himself in the airliner's bathroom.
A law enforcement official tells the AP that the incident took place aboard the same Northwest flight that was attacked on Christmas Day. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the incident was ongoing. A Delta spokeswoman says all 256 passengers have been safely taken off the plane. Delta operates the Northwest flight.

UPDATE - According to the New York Times: DETROIT — A Nigerian man who became ill on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit — the same flight involved in Friday’s terrorism attempt — triggered a security alert at Detroit Metropolitcan Airport after the pilots requested emergency assistance upon landing, the Department of Homeland Security announced on Sunday. The department said that the response to Sunday’s incident, which included informing President Obama, was “an abundance of caution.”

The Detroit Terror Plot - Day 2

Disaster averted in Detroit...

It's been a whole day since 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian national bragging of ties with al Qaeda, attempted to bring down a Delta/Northwest Airlines flight landing in Detroit.

Thanks to the clear-headed, quick thinking of Jasper Schuringa, a filmmaker from Amsterdam who subdued the alleged terrorist, the explosives Abdulmutallab tried to detonate on board Northwest Airlines flight 253 failed to properly detonate.

The would-be terrorist was held by passengers and crew and held until he could be taken into custody (photo/report below). Today, a federal judge told Abdulmutallabtold he was charged with trying to blow up the Northwest Airlines plane on Christmas Day. U.S. District Judge Paul Borman read the charges in a conference room on Saturday at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor, where Abdulmutallab is being treated for burns.



Byron York at The Washington Examiner writes, "The Obama White House has been aggressive in its press outreach regarding the Northwest Airlines terrorist incident. Some of the earliest stories on accused terrorist Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab's attempt to set off an explosive device on board Northwest Flight 253 were sourced to the White House, and White House officials were quick to label the incident an 'attempted act of terrorism.' The White House wants the public to know that President Obama, on vacation at a luxurious oceanfront home in Hawaii, has received conference call updates and is keeping close tabs on the situation."

According to the Los Angeles Times, "Federal authorities have called on airlines and airports around the world to tighten security measures, including frisking all passengers headed to the U.S., performing additional searches and limiting passenger movements during the latter part of a flight."

A report at Politico.com sites "Growing evidence that the Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up a commercial airliner as it landed in Detroit Friday spent time in Yemen and may have been fitted with customized, explosive-laden clothing there." Politico.com also notes that the attempt "could complicate the U.S. government’s efforts to send home more than 80 Yemeni prisoners currently at Guantanamo Bay."

Add Yemen: Howard Altman over at The Daily Beast writes that “An al-Qaeda magazine published a how-to article in Yemen outlining the same terror techniques that marked the attempted Christmas Day bombing."

Since the flubbed bombing, little has changed at most U.S. airports but security measures have greatly increased at foreign airports with flights inbound to American locations. "Travelers taking international flights to the United States on Saturday faced pat-down searches, new limits on carry-on luggage and more thorough screening at airport checkpoints.Federal authorities have called on airlines and airports around the world to tighten security measures, including frisking all passengers headed to the U.S., performing additional searches and limiting passenger movements during the latter part of a flight." (h/t: Los Angeles Times)

On John Batchelor's nightly broadcast tonight, "Douglas Laird, retired Northwest Airlines security director, and Larry Johnson of No Quarter, explained that no airport security extant is correct to apprehend what is presumed to be the mode used by the suspect at Amsterdam's airport, where the suspect passed through three first-rate screenings. What would defeat the mode is a body scan machine, which are not in use. Possibly a full body pat down, but not necessarily. The body scan is not practical because of cost per machine (more than $250k each); and the full pat down is not practical because of time, unless you also permit profiling. In sum, the suspect defeated all the screens between Lagos, Nigeria and wheels down at Detroit airport."

While U.S. airports have yet to make significant, "visible" changes, some immediate differences may soon be in effect on flights. According to the New York Times, "Federal officials on Saturday imposed new restrictions on travelers that could...limit the ability of international passengers to move about an airplane."

What's next? "The Obama team [is] now faced with walking backward the man's route...what airports and when, who passed him through, how he was connected to an inbound USA flight?"

These questions and more - along with their answers - are sure to come in the days, weeks and months ahead.