Wednesday, January 06, 2010
TSA response reactive rather than pro-active
A bomb-attempt Christmas day was successfully thwarted by passengers on a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight. The explosive concealed in the underwear of a Nigerian traveler reportedly was powerful enough to put a hole in the side of an airliner.
According to federal investigators, the bomb packet contained 80 grams of the explosive chemical PETN, sewn into the briefs of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
Shoe bomber Richard C. Reid had carried 50 grams of the material in his failed bomb attempt on an airplane in December 2001.
Officials said that the detonator used by Abdulmutallab, a syringe filled with acid, failed to work, preventing an explosion. He attempted to blow up the bomb from under an airline blanket. Passengers and crew subdued the bomber and held him under arrest until landing at the Detroit airport.
According to federal investigators, the bomb packet contained 80 grams of the explosive chemical PETN, sewn into the briefs of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
Shoe bomber Richard C. Reid had carried 50 grams of the material in his failed bomb attempt on an airplane in December 2001.
Officials said that the detonator used by Abdulmutallab, a syringe filled with acid, failed to work, preventing an explosion. He attempted to blow up the bomb from under an airline blanket. Passengers and crew subdued the bomber and held him under arrest until landing at the Detroit airport.
In the meantime, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), a part of Homeland Security, is being criticized for its failure to act on the ground to prevent Al Qaeda trained Abdulmutallab from getting on the flight in Amsterdam.
The bomber was traveling on a visa issued by the State Department on June 16, 2008 and valid until June 12, 2010. Abdulmutallab was on a "terror watch list" but not on the "no fly" list, which would have prevented him from boarding the flight.
Reports from Nigeria said Abdulmutallab's father had contacted the U.S. embassy six months ago about concerns his son had become radicalized and could pose a threat to the U.S. One report said the father could not understand why his son was allowed to board a flight to the U.S. given his warning.
The TSA's reaction to the bombing attempt was to impose new security restrictions on passengers. Some of the restrictions have raised concerns about passenger privacy.
"The Department of Homeland Security immediately put additional screening measures into place- for all domestic and international flights- to ensure the continued safety of the traveling public," said Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano.
"Passengers flying from international locations to U.S. destinations may notice additional security measures in place," said Napolitano. "These measures are designed to be unpredictable, so passengers should not expect to see the same thing everywhere."
According to CBS travel correspondent Peter Greenberg, "The TSA has been extraordinarily quiet about announcing its new security rules, other than to say there would be different rules for different airports and that they would not be announcing them."
Greenberg predicts that passengers will see "bomb sniffing dogs and an increase in "secondary" inspections -- pat downs and, where available, a greater use of sniffer machines." Some airlines may be restricting people to only one carry-on.
On flights originating overseas, Greenberg wrote passengers will not be able to leave their seats for one hour before arrival and for one hour prior to arrival there will be no public announcements or online flight information about the location of the plane or its arrival time. All onboard entertainment systems will be turned off and all reading materials and blankets will be taken away an hour before landing. Passengers will not have access to their belongings in overhead storage bins.
Greenberg claims the restrictions are "pathetic" and "misdirected." As a result of Reid's failed bomb attempt in 2001, passengers in the U.S. have been required to remove their shoes when going through security. The scanning equipment has no ability to detect explosives.
"There is no standard, unilateral application of security for airline passengers worldwide.
Equipment is either not working, or not effective in combating chemical explosives. And the governing agencies -- in this case the TSA, are, sadly, and historically, reactive at best," wrote Greenberg.
The TSA is reacting to the recent bombing attempt, according to Greenberg, "by prohibiting us from having a blanket, book or pillow during the last hour of our flight -- all because one person tried -- unsuccessfully -- to blow up a plane and he used a blanket during the last hour of HIS flight to try to conceal his poor attempt at detonating a chemical device?"
One of the major privacy concerns is full body scanners that do a "digital strip search." Congress delayed use of these earlier in the year, but 150 of the scanners are now on the way to airports and may be installed as early as January.
The U.S. Constitution protects citizens against "unreasonable searches." But experts are predicting that citizens will give up this right for security.
One of the concerns about the full body scanners is that they show a person completely naked during the scan process. Not only is there concern about a person's immediate privacy, but also critics worry about what happens to the scans -- how the scans will be stored and their potential future use and abuse.
"[The attack] is certainly not something we want to have happen again," Napolitano told "Good Morning America."
"That's why we're looking at that technology, why we're employing new technology. ... This is an ever-changing environment we're dealing with. We can't be static."
The TSA also is adopting a behavior monitoring system that the Israelis use successfully at Ben Gurion airport. Security at Ben Gurion single out suspicious people in airport crowds based on specific facial expressions, body language, behavior, speech and even attire. The people are then questioned.
To identify potentially dangerous individuals, the TSA has stationed specially trained behavior-detection officers at U.S. airports. The officers may be positioned anywhere, from the parking garage to the gate, trying to spot passengers who show an unusual level of nervousness or stress.
Under the behavior monitoring system, a suspicious passenger might be given a secondary security screening or questioned by police or U.S. air marshals. The TSA has established specific guidelines for normal behavior "in an airport environment." If passengers don't fit the guidelines, then they are subject to secondary screening or questioning.
In 2008, the TSA nationwide required 98,805 passengers to undergo additional screenings. Police questioned 9,854 of them and arrested 813.
The TSA indicated that the Behavior Detection Officers (BDOs) do not have a background in behavior analysis, but are chosen based on their intelligence, maturity and ability to work with people. Officers undergo only four days of behavior training, which includes learning to spot suicide terrorists, and then receive 24 hours of on-the-job preparation.
Former Georgia Congressman and Libertarian Presidential Candidate Bob Barr wrote an op-ed piece in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution expressing concern about the "significant expansion of TSA's jurisdiction." In addition to the deployment of Behavior Detection Officers (BDOs), Barr expressed concerns about TSA's "fixation with technology." Besides the full-body x-ray machines at airports, the Department of Homeland Security is spending millions on developing "technology that would remotely monitor certain bodily functions and alert TSA employees whenever someone is exuding signs of nervousness."
Barr was referring to potential behavior detection-related technologies that are being studied at DHS's science and technology directorate that could detect suspicious behavior. It's known as the Future Attribute Screening Technology, or FAST, program. Similar initiatives are underway in Israel.
The TSA also is taking its mandate outside airports. A recent article in The New American describes how the TSA is recruiting truck and bus drivers in a program called First Observers to watch for suspicious activities on the nation's highways.
Security expert Bruce Schneier has questioned the "social costs, including loss of liberty, restriction of fundamental freedoms, and the creation of a thought crime."
"Is this the sort of power we want to give a police force in a constitutional democracy, or does it feel more like a police-state sort of thing?" he asks.
Meanwhile, Napolitano says, "The American people should continue their planned holiday travel and, as always, be observant and aware of their surroundings and report any suspicious behavior or activity to law enforcement officials." Also, "allot extra-time for check-in."
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