TSA meets initial passenger aircraft cargo screening goal

From HS Daily Wire:

It’s not everyday that a government agency beats a Congressional deadline, but TSA just has.  Congress mandated through the 9/11 law that 50 percent of cargo on passenger carrying aircraft be screened by February 2009 and 100 percent of cargo be screened by August 2010; And now, four months before the first deadline, TSA says it’s currently screening all cargo on more than 90 percent of all passenger carrying aircraft in the U.S.

• Full story
• TSA Press Release

DHS and Congress at odds over cargo scanning mandate

A war of words has broken out between the House Homeland Security Committee and DHS over the mandate to screen 100 percent of U.S.-bound cargo at foreign ports.

Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson sent Secretary Michael Chertoff two letters in recent months chastising DHS for not living up to the mandate.

On Oct. 3, Chertoff responded with a five-page letter that made clear that the 100 percent screening mandate outlined in the 9/11 Commission recommendations legislation is extremely problematic, both because of the limitations of technology and complications in dealing with sovereign nations, and will be impossible to implement by the 2012 deadline.

• Full article
• Read Michael Chertoff’s latest letter to the Committee