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| Aircraft-Security Focus Swings to People |
| 2006-08-12 |
| Security officials trying to protect America's airliners face a twin battle: stopping bad stuff and stopping bad people. Most of the focus has traditionally been on stopping bad stuff, and that is a big challenge. Distinguishing good water bottles from deadly ones will never be easy. So increasingly, security experts think the nation needs to focus more on stopping bad people. Much of the work to stop potential terrorists must occur before they ever walk into an airport, aviation experts say. "By the time you get to the security checkpoint, chances are you've lost the battle," said Douglas Laird, an aviation consultant who once headed security for Northwest Airlines. But U.S. programs aimed at identifying threatening people have been mired in controversies and setbacks including privacy protections, technology troubles and old-fashioned management fumbles. Secure Flight, the Homeland Security program that is supposed to check passengers against a comprehensive terrorist watch list, is the most troubled. The program has been in development for three years and is nowhere close to being put into practice. On the flip side is the Registered Traveler program to identify the good guys through advanced background checks and speed their trip through security so that screeners can focus on lesser-known travelers. But it, too, has been delayed and derided in some circles as a waste of resources. A third initiative, behavior recognition, tries to identify suspicious people at the airport. But the idea languished for years amid concerns about racial profiling. In recent months, the Transportation Security Administration made progress, developing a screening system it believes can avoid those minefields. The program is still at just a handful of airports. To be sure, no matter how good these techniques get, they are meant to complement physical screenings. After discovery of the plot to mix bombs with liquid explosives, the TSA has barred passengers from carrying on most liquids and gels. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Friday that the policy would be modified, but he didn't specify how. Now that the ban on liquids is in place and the threat has been publicized, relaxing it will be tricky. Several experts say they will not be surprised if it sticks. "I'm quite confident it will lead to a permanent ban on liquids," said Clark Kent Ervin, former inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security who is now at the Aspen Institute. "This is apparently as close to 9/11 as we've come since and I think we're going to see some permanent changes, and we should." Bad people can, theoretically, be identified once they are at the airport. By assessing a person's body language and travel details, screeners can make a quick judgment on the threat level. The TSA has a program in place in a few airports to do that now. Called Spot, or Screening Passengers by Observation Technique, it involves specially trained security officers scrutinizing people in security lines and elsewhere in the airport. |
| Posted by:Nimble Spemble |
| #2 Note that at least one of the UK plotters is a white convert. Not a big trend yet, but the networks are trying hard to recruit them specifically to get around profiling. |
| Posted by: lotp 2006-08-12 12:40 |
| #1 OMG, tell me it's not true. Are these witless fools finally going to start looking at Muzzie males instead of strip searching grandmothers from Sheyboygan ? I think I'm going to have a spasm. |
| Posted by: SOP35/Rat 2006-08-12 12:38 |