"TSA targets inflight bomb assembly"

Thursday, August 10, 2006

TSA targets inflight bomb assembly
By Angie C. Marek
U.S.News & World Report


Assembling bombs in flight and then detonating on board--the alleged outline
of the plot that led to the arrests of at least 24 people in Britain--is not
an entirely new idea. In early 2004, a British newspaper, the Observer,
reported that "security sources" believed Islamic militants had conducted
"dry runs" on flights between the Middle East, Europe, and North Africa of a
brand new style of attack: Suicide bombers would carry pieces of explosives,
items like wires or batteries not banned on airplanes, past security
screeners. They would then build a bomb in flight.

Although it's still uncertain whether the Transportation Security
Administration has run drills on the exact type of explosives the British
plotters were planning to use-sources now say the suspects planned to mix a
liquid substance with a gel to make the bombs meant to down as many as 10
U.S.-bound flights--it's clear the TSA has become wise to this general type
of plot. In December, the TSA announced that 18,000 of its screeners had
received a new form of training focused on, as Kip Hawley, the head of TSA,
put it, "identifying X-ray images of [improvised explosive device]. parts,
not just a completely assembled bomb." The much-publicized decision to lift
the ban on small nail scissors this winter was designed to give screeners
more time to focus on explosives detection; TSA studies showed screeners
opened 1 of every 4 bags to fish out scissors.

The focus on detecting explosives, many say, is caused by the growing
prevalence of IEDs in Iraq and a trend among terrorists to find new methods
of attack that can't be detected by today's technology. In 2004, for
instance, two Chechen women evaded security by concealing in their clothing
plastic explosives that didn't set off metal detectors. Hardened cockpit
doors and a wiser flying public have also changed the viable threats to
aviation.

"A hypervigilant public," Rep. John Mica, head of a House aviation
subcommittee, told U.S. News this winter, "isn't going to let someone take
over an airplane today."

The TSA says it's adding tools to allow detection of more types of bombs,
including the 340 explosive-detection trace portals or puffer machines it
hopes to install in U.S. airports by the end of this year. These machines
release jets of air on passengers as they stand in an enclosed space; the
air is then analyzed for even minor traces of explosives. More than 420
bomb-sniffing dogs are also used at airports.

TSA has said its latest ban--on liquids and gels in carry-on baggage--will
remain in place as officials search for a way to detect chemicals like
hydrogen-peroxide-based liquid/slurry bombs that would have allegedly been
used by the British bombers.

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