"Officials: Plot shows America remains vulnerable"

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Officials: Plot shows America remains vulnerable
By Zachary Coile
The San Francisco (CA) Chronicle


Washington -- Despite billions of dollars spent bolstering airport security
since 19 hijackers commandeered four passenger jets using box-cutters on
Sept. 11, 2001, counter-terrorism officials say America remains vulnerable
to the type of terrorist plot allegedly foiled by British authorities this
week. 

"There are always gaps in security," said aviation security consultant
Cathal Flynn, a retired Navy rear admiral who was associate administrator
for civilian aviation security at the Federal Aviation Administration during
the Clinton administration. "It all depends on the organization and the
capabilities of the terrorists." 

Security officials, since at least the 1988 explosion of Pam Am Flight 103
over Lockerbie, Scotland, have tried to get ahead of those terrorist
capabilities. For example, U.S. officials in recent years have become
increasingly worried about terrorists using shoulder-fired missiles against
passenger jets. The Department of Homeland Security is testing technologies
on planes and on the ground that could jam the missile's targeting system.
But the technologies may prove too costly for the government or industry to
install, Flynn said. 

"Deploying that would cost billions of dollars for our fleet or for our
airports," he said. "Our nation and people, through our representatives,
have to ask: How much do we want to spend on that versus what is the
effectiveness of that? And what is the probability that terrorists will have
those things and use them in the United States?" 

Anti-terrorism experts agree that heavy spending on airline security over
the past five years has made it more difficult to carry out an attack. The
Transportation Security Administration hired more than 65,000 passenger and
baggage screeners and air marshals and met a congressional mandate to screen
for explosives in all checked luggage. 

But, as U.S. and British authorities acknowledged this week, the new
measures would not necessarily stop a terrorist from carrying onto a plane
the raw materials to build a crude bomb. The CT scanners used to check
carry-on luggage at security checkpoints can't always detect explosive
chemicals, especially if they are hidden in a water bottle or other
innocuous-looking container. 

"An X-ray system doesn't pick up vapors. It picks up shapes and densities,
and it's tuned to enhance the visual effects of densities likely to be the
densities of explosives," said Colin Drury, an engineering professor who
directs the Research Institute for Safety and Security in Transportation at
State University of New York in Buffalo. 

A much smaller percentage of luggage is "swabbed" and run through more
sophisticated devices that test for explosives or other dangerous compounds.
But not all chemicals are detected by these machines or by "puffers," which
blast air over passengers as they walk through to check for various vapors. 

In the short term, aviation security experts said it's prudent to stop
people from carrying onboard any liquids or gels (except baby bottles and
certain medicines) until authorities can put in place better detection
systems for explosives. 

"It's sadly and frustratingly always a race to stay ahead of these guys,"
said Jack Riley, a homeland security expert at the Rand Corporation, who
testified before Congress recently on explosive detection systems. 

"The scanners that are used (on) checked baggage are potentially useful
here," Riley said. "It all comes down to: What were the explosives these
guys were intending to use? And are the existing explosive detection
machines or the trace detection systems capable of detecting that chemical
signature?" 

Critics of the Bush administration complain that security officials still
fail to screen all air cargo for explosives, instead relying on random
checks and the "known shipper" program that requires cargo companies to
register with the government. The TSA responded in May by beefing up
background checks of airport and freight workers, using more bomb-sniffing
dogs and hiring 300 air cargo inspectors. 

Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., a critic of the administration's cargo screening
system, said Thursday: "While this terrorist plan may have been thwarted, I
still am gravely concerned about gaping aviation security loopholes that
continue to put passengers and crew members at risk." 

But some counter-terrorism experts praised the government's efforts,
including spending hundreds of millions of dollars developing new
technologies that detect weapons, explosives and biological or chemical
agents. 

"The entire aviation security system has improved perhaps tenfold since
before 9/11," said Thomas Hartwick, who chaired a National Academy of
Sciences panel on aviation security. "But you know the old dictum in the
military is that any defense can be penetrated. You have to stay ahead of
the bad guys to keep the system safe."

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