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test case of airport security=20
Logan scanners snag a specialist=20
By Mac Daniel, Globe Staff, 3/10/2003=20
T <http://graphics.boston.com/globe/images/dropcaps/T.gif> wo months
after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the stock value for American
Science and Engineering in Billerica was rising and the firm's vice
president, Richard W. Sesnewicz, was on CNBC with a battered metallic
suitcase.=20
=20
<http://rmedia.boston.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/www.boston.com/news
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His company manufactures an X-ray technology that offers deeply detailed
images, and he was using the suitcase -- and the airwaves -- to talk
about the poor quality of standard airport scanners.
''This suitcase has been all over the world with me,'' Sesnewicz told
the CNBC reporter while displaying the case's contents -- a Glock 9mm
handgun, three simulated pipe bombs, and a small quantity of Semtex
plastique explosive.
''You don't always travel with that stuff, do you, Dick?'' the reporter
asked.
''I do, and I've never been stopped yet,'' Sesnewicz replied.
Until Jan. 16, that is, when he was detained at Logan Airport and
charged with felony possession of a hoax device -- a plastic silhouette
of a gun, fake pipe bombs, and a fake block resembling plastique
explosive. State Police and federal airport security officials said they
believe Sesnewicz was trying to test the federal security apparatus with
his suitcase, which was marked ''X-ray test kit,'' according to a police
report.
The bag remains in State Police custody, and the 59-year-old business
executive, whose company sells high-tech X-ray equipment to the CIA and
the White House, is scheduled to appear in East Boston District Court
March 20.
American Science and Engineering officials said Sesnewicz was not
testing Logan's system. The company's president, Ralph Sheridan, said
via e-mail that ''AS&E was requested to meet with senior officials at a
US government security agency [in Washington, D.C.], and Mr. Sesnewicz
brought the test bag with him at their request to assess AS&E equipment
at a government location.''
According to the State Police, Sesnewicz neither told airport security
officials about the contents of his bag nor presented a notarized letter
he was carrying that explained the bag's contents.
This ''testing'' of Logan's new federal security net is a rare
occurrence, said federal Transportation Security Administration
spokesman Brian Doyle.
But Sesnewicz, who was issued a summons, was not the first to be
charged. And some apparently have slipped through without being caught.
Several reporters from the New York Daily News said they carried illegal
items in carry-on bags through security checkpoints at 11 airports,
including Logan. They wrote about it later as part of an undercover
investigation.
Last week, Walter ''Skip'' Pile, a top Boston advertising executive, was
arrested at Logan after a dummy hand grenade, wrapped in computer cables
and sitting next to Pile's wristwatch, was found in his laptop
briefcase. Pile said the incident was an innocent mistake after he threw
what he said was a novelty paperweight in his briefcase during a move.
At the time of the arrest, TSA officials thought otherwise. Pile has
pleaded not guilty to felony possession of a hoax device and is awaiting
a pretrial hearing.
''Are there people who are going to do this? Yes,'' Doyle said. ''But
outside of these incidents, we have not had major problems with the
flying public trying to test out the system.''
With the installation on Dec. 31 of the nation's first behind-the-scenes
bomb detection system for checked baggage, Logan officials consider the
airport one of the most secure in the nation. Logan is also one of a
handful of airports sponsoring federal experiments in new security
technology, such as facial recognition devices that can match people to
wanted suspects, and passport scanners that can sniff out forgeries.
Massachusetts Port Authority officials have said their desire to be
among the first to bring in new security measures is part of Logan's
effort to change its image after two planes departing from the airport
were hijacked as part of the Sept. 11 attacks.
But beefed-up safety measures can be accompanied by those who want to
test the new security -- from a passenger who knowingly carries a small
penknife in a backpack for the thrill of getting it through security, to
the analyst trying to find holes in the system.
Logan's federal security director, George Naccara, said he did not
believe the recent arrests represent a small trend, adding that the
number of confiscated items has gone down significantly at Logan since
November. But he noted that the airport ''has been out in front, and
perhaps there's a hazard involved in that because people will want to
bring us down, to find fault with us, and that's part of our
challenge.''
The challenges come in different forms, with some using the nation's new
airport security systems to make political statements. In January, TSA
screeners in San Jose, Calif., jailed a couple from Machias, Maine, for
three days after a piece of their checked baggage at Mineta San Jose
International Airport triggered a bomb detection machine. Inside the
luggage, screeners found a note -- scribbled on an oat bran cereal box
-- that read: ''To the uniformed puppets opening this bag --
Congratulations! You've just brought this once free nation one step
closer to becoming a fascist state.'' The couple said they objected to
new airport security measures that allow officials to search checked
luggage outside an owner's view. There were four such notes in four
different bags.
TSA officials said they believed the couple arranged their suitcase so
screeners would become suspicious. The couple, who was never charged,
denied this, though one of the pair, Paul K. Donahue, said he was happy
with the result.
''This gave me the opportunity to speak out to a much wider audience,
and I don't regret that happened at all,'' he said Thursday.
This story ran on page B1 of the Boston Globe on 3/10/2003.
=A9 Copyright <http://www.boston.com/globe/search/copyright.html> 2003
Globe Newspaper Company.=20
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