Complete explosives screening starts 1/1 By Blake Morrison, USA TODAY WASHINGTON =97 Beginning New Year's Day, workers at the nation's airports=20 will screen every checked bag for explosives, Transportation Security=20 Administration officials say. "With this additional layer of security in=20 place, airports and air travelers are better protected than they have ever= =20 been," says James Loy, head of the TSA. But some aviation security analysts= =20 and airport officials worry that the new procedures might create trouble=20 for travelers. "I think it's going to be messy in places," says Stephen Van= =20 Beek of the Airports Council International-North America. The reason: Not= =20 every airport has enough machines to screen bags electronically. Although=20 officials say at least 90% of the approximately 2 million bags checked each= =20 day will be screened electronically, other airports must use dogs to sniff= =20 for explosives or workers to search bags by hand. That means some searches= =20 could be time-consuming, especially at major airports. Government officials have repeatedly refused to tell travelers which=20 airports will use only the state-of-the-art electronic systems. They also=20 won't say which airports will rely on a combination of dogs, hand searches= =20 or matching bags to passengers to supplement the electronic=20 equipment. "Too much detail could provide information to terrorists," TSA= =20 spokesman Robert Johnson says. Critics, however, contend the agency won't=20 be able to screen every bag for explosives. "That's why they don't want=20 people to know," says Bob Monetti, a security consultant whose son was=20 killed when a bomb downed Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in=20 1988. "This whole thing is a public relations gimmick." TSA and many=20 airport officials insist otherwise. Although they remain concerned about=20 possible delays, they say the new procedures will make traveling safer. At most airports, workers will use an instrument on the outside of a bag to= =20 detect explosives residue. Other bags will be sent through an SUV-size=20 explosives-detection machine. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) : escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: www.tobagoweddings.com/ TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************