WASHINGTON (AP) — Two federal agencies charged with keeping potential terrorists off airplanes and out of the country have been without their top leaders for nearly a year.
It took the Obama administration more than eight months to nominate anyone to lead the Transportation Security Administration and the Customs and Border Protection agency.
President Barack Obama has ordered a review of U.S. security policies following the failed Christmas Day attack on a Detroit-bound flight from Amsterdam. He vowed Monday to "do everything that we can to keep America safe."
The acting heads of the TSA and CBP — both created in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — will be at the forefront of these efforts.
Bogged down with health care reform, the Senate has yet to set a date to hold hearings for the Customs position. And Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., has placed a hold on the president's choice to head the TSA over the senator's concern that the new leader would let TSA screeners join a labor union. This has some Democrats blaming politics for the vacancy.
Former U.S. attorney Alan Bersin is nominated to run CBP, and former FBI agent and police detective Erroll Southers is the president's pick for TSA.
On Christmas Day, alleged terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian who spent time in Yemen, was able to sneak an explosive device aboard his flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, only to be thwarted by the device's apparent failure to work as designed, and aggressive action by other passengers.
Abdulmutallab was not on the government's terrorist watch list — though he was on a less sensitive and broader database. He was able to maintain a valid U.S. visa despite warnings about him to U.S. embassy officials in Nigeria from his father. Those facts are prompting a broad review of the government's terrorist detection efforts.
Breaking News
Key security agencies lack permanent leaders
- Breaking News
-
-
US slaps terrorism sanctions on Iran intel agency
The Obama administration is slapping sanctions on Iran's ministry of intelligence and security, asserting that it supports global terrorism, commits human rights abuses against Iranians and participates in ongoing repression in Syria.
-
Nigerian underwear bomber to get life sentence
A Detroit federal judge is refusing to set aside a federal law that requires a mandatory life sentence for a Nigerian who pleaded guilty to trying to blow up an international flight bound for Detroit on Christmas 2009.
-
Gov't to carmakers: Harness dashboard technology
Carmakers should design potentially distracting dashboard technology so it's automatically disabled while the vehicle is in motion, federal safety officials said Thursday.
-
Honduras fire inmates not convicted
The prisoners whose scorched bodies were carried out piece by piece Thursday morning from a charred Honduran prison had been locked inside an overcrowded penitentiary where most inmates had never been charged, let alone convicted, according to an internal Honduran government report obtained by The Associated Press.
-
Police discover drugs, paraphernalia in home
Police have arrested two men they say were involved in the manufacturing and selling of methamphetamine.
-
GM records its highest profit ever: $7.6 billion
General Motors earned its highest profit ever last year.
-
Foes allege Sen. Lugar doesn't really live in Indiana
The charge by GOP challenger Richard Mourdock is just the latest in a series of them levied against the Republican senator by an unlikely alliance of Democrats and conservatives who have joined forces to argue Lugar no longer has much to do with Indiana.
-
State police arrest man for trafficking with Pendleton inmate
State police made an arrest Wednesday morning, after prison staff at the Correctional Industrial Facility noticed a man throw a package over the fence.
-
Boy testifies at grandfather's child abuse trial
A 9-year-old boy testified Wednesday that his grandfather hit him in the face, causing his nose to bleed, and kicked him and his two brothers during a pair of miles-long hikes at the Grand Canyon last summer.
-
Adult education GED classes offered
Anderson Community Schools is offering classes in GED preparation, English Language classes and Basic Education Refresher classes for the 2011-12 school year.
- More Breaking News Headlines
-
US slaps terrorism sanctions on Iran intel agency
NJ Trooper's Child Killed in School Bus Crash
Gas Prices Soaring
Teens Who Doused, Burned Classmate Face Prison
Electric Cigarette Explodes in FL Man's Mouth
Report: Most Honduras Fire Inmates Awaited Trial
Family: Josh Powell Won't Be Buried Near Sons
Top Bargainers Announce Payroll Tax Cut Deal
Student Photos 'hijacked', Used on Porn Site
Should U.S. Arm Medevacs in Afghanistan?
Foreclosures Rise Only Slightly, More Expected
Old Friends, New Mission: China VP Visits Iowa
Jeremy Lin a Slam-dunk for Knicks and Fans
Defense Begins in UVA Player Murder Trial
More Than 350 Die in Honduran Prison Fire
Defiant Iran Loads Own Fuel Rods Into Reactor
Raw Video: Syrian Army, Rebels Battle in Homs
Video Essay: Saving the Miami Blue Butterfly
NYPD Officer Shot During Subway Confrontation
Iranian Boats Shadow US Aircraft Carrier in Gulf
Hundreds Rally Against Alabama Immigration Law
