Creepy Computer-Generated Avatar Greets Travelers At Newark Liberty

Port Authority Of N.Y./N.J. Spends $180,000 On New 'Help' For Area Airports

NEWARK, N.J. (CBSNewYork) — The future was among the arrivals at Newark Airport on Friday, in the form of a computer-generated greeter at the gate.

Travelers met “Libby.” She’s Newark Airport’s newest — and perhaps most chipper — customer service rep. You may have noticed that she’s a bit shallow, and she’s completely two-faced, but she’s always smiling, and she never complains.

“Hello, and welcome to Newark Liberty International Airport. You have arrived at Terminal B,” the avatar says.

Libby’s presence seemed to catch arriving passengers off-guard Friday. Some loved her … or it, but not everyone was enchanted by her computer-generated smile, CBS 2’s Alex Denis reported.

“It’s a little bit freaky when you walk down there. Her body doesn’t look real but her head does,” one woman said.

“It’s freaky!” another woman said.

“I think it’s weird,” another said.-[First Article]

 

Newark TSA officer pleads guilty to theft from passengers

(Reuters) - A federal security officer at Newark Liberty International Airport pleaded guilty on Monday to accepting bribes and kickbacks from a colleague who regularly stole money from passengers during security screenings, authorities said.

The Transportation Security Administration officer, Michael Arato, 41, admitted in U.S. District Court in Newark he took kickbacks from a subordinate officer, whom he permitted to steal between $10,000 and $30,000 in cash from travelers over the course of a year ending in October 2010, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

During a three-week period ending on October 5, video surveillance showed Arato pocketing some $3,100 in kickbacks from the scheme, mostly in $100 bills, authorities said.

He also admitted he regularly stole from passengers at his own checkpoint at the airport's Terminal B...

[Full Article]

Gaping Holes in Airline Security: Loaded Gun Slips Past TSA Screeners
Secret Tests At LAX, O'Hare, Newark Show TSA Screeners Missed Guns, Bombs

Last fall, as he had done hundreds of times, Iranian-American businessman Farid Seif passed through security at a Houston airport and boarded an international flight.

He didn't realize he had forgotten to remove the loaded snub nose "baby" Glock pistol from his computer bag. But TSA officers never noticed as his bag glided along the belt and was x-rayed. When he got to his hotel after the three-hour flight, he was shocked to discover the gun traveled unnoticed from Houston.

"It's just impossible to miss it, you know. I mean, this is not a small gun," Seif told ABC News. "How can you miss it? You cannot miss it."

But the TSA did miss it, and despite what most people believe about the painstaking effort to screen airline passengers and their luggage before they enter the terminal, it was not that unusual.

Experts tell ABC News that every year since the September 11 terror attacks, federal agencies have conducted random, covert "red team tests," where undercover agents try to see just how much they can get past security checks at major U.S. airports. And while the Department of Homeland Security closely guards the results as classified, those that have leaked in media reports have been shocking...

[Full Article]

Coming Soon: Body Scanners at JFK, Newark, LaGuardia

[NBCNewYork.com]

Full body scanners that have stirred controversy for producing virtually naked images of airline passengers are coming to airports near you next month.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced that the hotly debated machines will be installed at Newark Liberty, John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia international airports in September. TSA officials contend that the technology allows security screeners to see non-metal weapons like explosives that go undetected by existing metal detectors.

In March 2010, the agency started sending out 450 machines, which were bought with funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Forty-one airports across the country already have the imaging technology installed at security checkpoints, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

While the TSA calls the technology less invasive than a pat-down, the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center is suing the Department of Homeland Security to stop the use of the machines, charging that the scanners are unconstitutional.

“Body scanners produce detailed, three-dimensional images of individuals,” the group states on its Web site. “Security experts have described whole body scanners as the equivalent of ‘a physically invasive strip-search.’”

Only passengers that are flagged for extra security screenings are asked to go stand in the machines for imaging.

The TSA has tried to allay the public’s privacy concerns by stating that the scanners cannot store naked images of travelers, but through a Freedom of Information Act request EPIC found that one of these machines at a courthouse in Florida had stored 35,314 images.

Acting director of the TSA, Gale Rossides, said in a letter to EPIC, “It seems that though the machines at airports are manufactured with the capability to store images, that capability is used in ‘testing mode’ only – and not at airports."