Monday, August 14, 2006
Airport security still lagging,
experts say
9/11 commission members say too little done to stay ahead of
terror threat
By Pete Williams
MSNBC
WASHINGTON - The sudden
change in air security rules imposed last week in response to the British terror
plot has raised new questions for the Department of Homeland Security. Among
them, why aren't systems for detecting liquid explosives already deployed or at
least well along in development? And why isn't more being done to profile
passengers, looking for suspicious behavior?
At airports nationwide
Monday, all passengers were ordered to remove their shoes — a rule that had been
enforced inconsistently even though the danger was discovered, in Richard Reid's
shoes, nearly five years ago.
But members of the 9-11 commission say the
government has done too little to stay a step ahead of the
threat.
Especially, they say, in not accelerating research on detecting
liquid explosives.
"It's appalling to us that five years after 9-11, you
do not have detection devices for all kinds of explosives," says Lee Hamilton,
9-11 commission co-chairman.
And they say the government has been slow to
install machines that sniff passengers for traces of explosives, now at only 36
airports.
In response, Homeland Security says it has spent $800 million
this year alone to develop bomb detectors, and that 38,000 screeners have been
trained to spot potential explosives, including liquids.
A former
government air safety director criticizes Congress for refusing to tack a $5
user fee onto plane tickets to pay for more research.
"It makes sense
that we have a user fee associated with our aviation tickets so we can upgrade
our technology and better protect ourselves," says David Stone, former TSA
administrator.
But some security experts say the answer should be based
more on behavior, not just technology. Instead of looking for bombs, which can
take countless forms, they advocate doing more to spot the people who carry
them.
The model is the Israeli approach, based on observing individual
passengers.
One security expert says a recent experience shows that U.S.
airport employees who make the very first check — of tickets and IDs — don't
even do that job well.
"I handed her my Montana driver's license, and I'm
a lifelong Montana resident," says Neil Livingstone, a terrorism expert. "And
she looked at it, and looked at me, and said, 'Is Montana part of the United
States?'"
TSA is now testing behavioral profiling at about a dozen
airports, including Miami and Washington's Dulles, and hopes it can replace
those ticket checkers with trained TSA screeners. But that's months away, at the
earliest.
Is the U.S. looking far enough forward?
Is the U.S. doing enough to guard against the next terrorist
threat? NBC's Pete Williams reports.
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