Subject: [NEXTEL-1] U.S. Is Slow to Upgrade Airport Security Systems Decision Needed on Bomb, Explosives Threats

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 08 Dec 2003 18:34:01 -0500

U.S. Is Slow to Upgrade Airport Security Systems  Decision Needed on Bomb,
Explosives Threats

By Sara Kehaulani Goo
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 8, 2003; Page A03

More than two years after the hijackings that prompted a new U.S. air security
system, the
government has been unable to decide on a new technology that could prevent
terrorists from
sneaking explosives into airline cabins.

Airport security officials have circulated several alerts to airport directors
and security screeners
across the country this year, warning that terrorists might try to get
explosives or bombs through
security checkpoints inside items such as cameras, cell phones and stuffed
animals, or inside the
linings of jackets and pillows.

Several technology companies say they make systems that could thwart such
tactics. But the
companies say the Transportation Security Administration has been slow to review
their products.

TSA officials say they have been reviewing more than 30,000 proposals submitted
by private
companies, testing some in laboratories and rejecting many because the suggested
devices are too
big to be installed in U.S. airports. The proposals include such things as
screens that can see
through a person's clothing and access systems that allow people to enter doors
by pressing their
palms on a machine.

"You can have the latest gadget to detect a single threat, but then you'd have
to remove all of your
metal detectors, all your screeners" to make room for it, TSA spokesman Brian
Turmail said.

Since 2001, the TSA has spent more than $1 billion to install machines that test
checked luggage for
explosives. Most of those devices, which use existing technology, scan
passengers' bags at ticket
counters.

Congress mandated that airports install machines to test checked luggage for
explosives by Dec. 31, 2002, but issued no such
deadlines for checking passengers and carry-on luggage. Still, some lawmakers
and aviation security experts say the agency
could have moved sooner to address the threat posed at the checkpoint by
terrorists like Richard C. Reid, the British citizen
who was convicted of trying to ignite explosives hidden in his shoes during a
flight in 2001.

Terrorists have succeeded in sneaking explosives past checkpoints outside the
United States. In 1994, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef
brought bomb materials on board a Philippine Airlines flight, assembled a device
in the lavatory and left it on a timer under a
seat when he departed. The bomb killed a passenger on the next flight and blew a
hole in the cabin. The plane landed safely.
Yousef is in U.S. custody for masterminding the World Trade Center bombing in
1993 and for plotting to blow up a dozen
U.S. airliners over the Pacific Ocean in 1995.

U.S. security checkpoints do have some bomb-detecting machines but they are not
used routinely on every passenger, nor are
they used to scan for explosives on passengers' bodies. Screeners use them both
randomly and on passengers who are flagged
for additional screening. The machines sometimes fail to find well-hidden
explosives, say security experts.

Rep. John L. Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation and
Infrastructure's aviation subcommittee, said the TSA
has hurt itself with misguided priorities and by cutting its own research and
development budget. Of the $226 million set aside
for research and development in the last two years, 36 percent was diverted for
other purposes such as general TSA
operations, paying contractors, and even a technology project for another
agency, TSA records show.

Mica said that, for example, it was a waste for the TSA to buy new metal
detectors for every airport in the nation. "That money
should have been spent first on new technology. The latest metal-detection
equipment they've deployed is only marginally better
than the previous and does nothing to detect explosives," he said.

The TSA's chief technology officer, Randy Null, said the metal detectors at
airports in September 2001 could not detect metal
across a person's entire body and could not detect metal in someone's shoes.

"We find much smaller objects now" with the new detectors, Null said, as well as
a wider range of weapons.

Null said the agency plans to budget $155 million for research and development
this year. He said research and development
investment fell behind as the agency's priority was to meet congressional
deadlines for employing a new workforce of more than
48,000 federal airport screeners, and for inspecting checked luggage for
explosives.

In fiscal 2004, $55 million will be devoted to developing technologies to screen
air cargo and $45 million will go to "next
generation" explosive-detection machines. The rest of the $155 million research
and development budget will be devoted to
operations and staff at the TSA's technology lab in Atlantic City.

Null said the TSA will begin testing machines in January checkpoints that will
scan documents, such as boarding passes and
other objects handled by passengers, to see whether they contain traces of
explosives. He said the machines, made by two
manufacturers, are the closest to being approved by the TSA.

Technology company executives say attracting the TSA's attention has been
frustrating. The executives complain that while new
technologies must meet certain TSA detection standards to win certification, the
TSA has yet to tell them what the standards
are.

"It's an endless development cycle," said a security technology executive, who
requested anonymity because his company's
products are being reviewed by the TSA. The executive said it often seems as
though the TSA's technology lab doesn't intend
to move technology outside the lab. "Someone has to make a decision that this
technology has reached a point that it can
significantly improve security, and then you need to put the equipment out there
and determine how it operates in the real
world," the executive said.

Last year, three technology companies took matters into their own hands. They
invested $1 million to showcase their equipment
at Orlando International Airport and have it tested by two independent research
organizations.

The results, which were not made public but were submitted to the TSA this
summer, showed that the technologies could
detect explosives and other weapons at more than twice the rate of today's
security checkpoints, according to SRI International
and the National Safe Skies Alliance, a nonprofit aviation testing group
partially funded by the TSA. The companies are waiting
for the TSA to respond.

Among the participants in a system called the "advanced security checkpoint"
were GE Ion Track, a division of General Electric
Co., which proposed a walk-through device that could "sniff" a passenger by
puffing air at the body to detect the presence of
explosives; Rapiscan Security Products Inc., a unit of OSI Systems Inc., which
proposed a scanner that can see through a
person's clothing to turn up hidden weapons or explosives but also shows clear
outlines of private body parts; and Quantum
Magnetics Inc., a unit of InVision Technologies Inc., which developed a device
that looks like a standard X-ray machine but
can detect explosives in briefcases and other carry-on bags.

While the technologies are promising, the TSA's Null said, the problem with the
advanced security checkpoint is similar to other
proposals the TSA has been reviewing: The machines take up too much space.
Another common problem is that some
technologies take too long to check a passenger and would slow down what the TSA
calls "throughput," or the number of
passengers who pass through a checkpoint in a given time, resulting in longer
lines, said Null.

Null said that with that in mind, he is trying to persuade some of the security
technology companies to combine their products
into one machine that might perform two functions at once and save space.

"Go figure out how to combine those boxes," Null said he told the companies.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A43991-2003Dec7?language=printer

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark
Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada.
http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511
http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/61FxlB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/