US airport security examines major leak

The American Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is looking into how confidential and highly sensitive information on the state of airport and airline security was leaked to the press. Earlier this year, several TSA employees reportedly told CNN that no more than one percent of flights in the US are protected by air marshalls, thus calling into question the nature and effectiveness of security measures introduced after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington DC. One employee claimed that he decided to disclose this information in order to shed light on the shortcomings of the TSA and its efforts aimed at protecting passengers.

The TSA, however, confirmed earlier today that it would now investigate the disclosure of “sensitive and classified information.” American security officials also told journalists at CNN that the organization will now interview a number of employees, who may be able to provide useful information on how the leak occurred. The news network, however, pointed out that the startling statistic about the acute lack of air marshalls on nearly all flights was not based on the claims of a single source. Instead, CNN actually contacted around a dozen air marshalls-some of whom no longer worked for TSA-and most of them confirmed the unavailability of armed security personnel on airplanes. For its part, the TSA has always disputed CNN’s findings and asserts that the proportion of flights with air marshalls is much higher than the anaemic 1 percent figure that was originally quoted, but offered no specific statistic.

Jeff Denning, an Iraqi war veteran, was the one who first broke the newest story concerning the internal TSA investigation to the American news network.