"Soft Target - Part 4 of 5: "Airports seek hi-tech security"

Monday, April 1, 2002

How Our Airports Became the First Line of Defense
Airports seek hi-tech security 
All-seeing devices are on the market, but at what price to privacy? 
By Ursula Owre Masterson
MSNBC 


  NEW YORK, - They can see through your clothes and tell exactly who you
are just by glancing in your eyes. Some can even smell you. Since Sept.
11, a new breed of high-tech security devices has been rushed to market,
and they could be coming soon to an airport near you. But the various
new technologies are sure to run into turbulence along the way, as the
flying public decides just how much it's willing to pay - literally and
figuratively - to feel safe again.

IN AN ATTEMPT to help screeners stop potential terrorists in their
tracks, the U.S. government and a handful of airports across the country
are testing new contraptions and biometrics systems reminiscent of "The
Jetsons" that can identify passengers by unique physical traits like a
fingerprint or an iris pattern. 

  Much to the chagrin of civil libertarians, it no longer seems a
question of whether new cutting-edge equipment will be deployed, but
when.

  With $50 million a year earmarked for the development of advanced
technology, the Transportation Security Agency, or TSA, the month-old
federal agency now in charge of all the nation's airport checkpoints, is
shopping around.

  "Congress is opening its checkbook," says Tom Jensen, president and
CEO of the National Safe Skies Alliance, a nonprofit group that tests
new aviation security devices and prototypes. "But one of our main
concerns is that they don't spend the money on stuff that doesn't work."

 
  To avoid bad choices by lawmakers eager to allay the public's current
fear of flying, the TSA has asked Safe Skies for help. Now, at Orlando
International Airport in Florida, passengers can volunteer to go through
security procedures designed to test a series of new devices the
government might consider investing in.
       
'VIRTUAL STRIP SEARCH'

  One of the most controversial items is Rapiscan's Secure 1000 body
scanner, a low-energy X-ray that goes beyond today's metal detectors by
beaming through a passenger's clothes to reveal the outline of foreign
objects next to their skin. It can detect metal, as well as anything
inorganic - from a ceramic gun to plastic explosives. 

  But it also sees other shapes, including the general outline of the
body and genitalia.   

 "This, of course, is a virtual strip-search," says ACLU associate
director Barry Steinhardt. "There's no question this has tremendous
potential for embarrassment."

  But the machine's makers, as well as those who have tested the Secure
1000 independently, say the strip-search comparison has been overblown.
According to Jenson, the X-ray's images of people's more private parts
are blurry at best. Plus, the screeners, who are male for men and female
for women, sit behind a wall and don't even see the passenger they're
viewing in person unless they detect something suspicious. Finally, only
certain passengers - chosen either at random, or because something about
their demeanor or appearance concerns a screener - would be asked to
have the scan in the first place.

  "Knowing what I know about it," says Jenson, "I'd say 'X-ray me and
let me go on my way.' With the ACLU, it's always react first and then
find out what it does later."
       
HANDS OFF

  Bryan Allman, the project manager for Rapiscan's body scanner, says
some travelers may prefer the machine over current inspection methods.
"I fly like everyone else," he says. "And I don't enjoy being hand
frisked at airports. This is much less intrusive in my opinion, because
nobody touches you." 

  The machines emit radiation, but the levels are so low that there are
said to be no medical concerns.

  The federal Immigration and Naturalization Service already uses body
scanners, but given the sensitive nature of what they can "see," their
widespread use could still be a few years away, experts say.

  Another device being tested, the phone booth-sized Barringer Ionscan
400, blows jets of air at passengers. Because heat rises, microscopic
particles float into overhead sensors, which then "sniff" the air to
detect any trace of explosives. As an added bonus for law enforcement
officials, the Ionscan also can be adjusted to test for 60 types of drug
residue, which worries civil liberties advocates like Steinhardt, who
says, "Do we really want to turn airport security personnel into the
DEA?"

Even the less controversial devices being considered by the government
would give screeners a real leg up, experts say. A bottle scanner in the
Orlando experiment, for example, can determine what kind of substance is
in a sealed container.

  And a dual-image X-ray looks at bags from two directions
simultaneously. "In one dimension, a knife just looks like a line," says
Jenson, "but another view would show the flat side of the blade, making
screeners' jobs much quicker and easier."
       
BIOMETRICS IS KEY

   Aviation insiders agree, however, that deploying all of these
high-tech gadgets together would be too expensive, clunky and time
consuming - unless they were combined with biometrics ID cards that
would identify pre-screened passengers.  
  
  "You need to take the low-risk people and get them through the system
quickly, so you can focus your efforts on the higher-risk people," says
the Progressive Policy Institute's Robert Atkinson, a leading proponent
of what's become known as the "trusted traveler" card.

  Proposed as a voluntary system, fliers would be granted a card only
after an initial background check using computers linked to FBI and INS
databases. Then, at airline check-in gates, they'd be asked a la "Star
Trek" to put a finger on a scanner, or look into an eyepiece to prove
they were indeed the person they claimed they were. So-called "trusted
travelers" would go through the standard security checks, but they would
not be subjected to time-consuming random searches and additional
screening machines. 

IDENTIFYING 'BAD ACTORS'

  Advocates say the background check would be much like a routine credit
report, and might examine things like a passenger's residential and
flying history.   

  In Israel, often held up as the gold standard for airport security, a
biometric program for passengers already exists. Over the past three
years, 85,000 Israelis have signed up for the Express Entry system,
which allows them to speed through security and immigration at special
electronic kiosks where they simply insert their cards and put their
hands on a special reader.

 "Biometrics has reduced plane-to-curb time at Ben Gurion from about two
hours per passenger to 15 minutes," says Bret Kidd, a vice president at
Electronic Data Systems, which manages Express Entry. "Physical security
should always be there, of course, but you also need to identify the bad
actors, and biometrics helps expedite the process for those who opt in."

 Kidd believes that systems like its latest version of Express Entry,
unveiled at the most recent COMDEX technology conference in Chicago,
will ultimately be used in the United States.

  "The thought until now was that if we're going to increase security,
we'll have to decrease convenience and efficiency," says Kidd. "What
we're saying is that with biometrics, that's simply not the case."
       
AVOIDING ANOTHER 9/11

 The ACLU has consistently opposed the idea of biometric cards - even if
they are voluntary - because of privacy concerns and fears that they
might be granted unfairly based on racial profiling.

 But Atkinson, who wrote the congressional policy paper "How Technology
Can Help Make Air Travel Safe Again," insists that integrating
biometrics at all levels of airport security may be the only way to
prevent more attacks like the ones on Sept. 11.

 "Four out of the five hijackers on the Dulles flight were on phony
driver's licenses," says Atkinson. "So, when we're talking about people
driving planes into buildings, 'fairness' and 'privacy' shouldn't be the
ultimate criteria."

Attached Photo's:

A demonstration of Rapiscan body scanning technology shows a front view
of a passenger with explosive simulants, keys and coins. The rear view
reveals a Glock 17 ceramic handgun, a 4-inch ceramic knife and a wallet.

Passengers register at Express Entry card stations at Ben Gurion airport
in Tel Aviv, Israel.

rapiscan.jpg

express_entry.jpg