Airport Security Remains Porous Screeners Depart, Officials Alarmed By Sara Kehaulani Goo Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, June 22, 2003; As the summer travel season moves into high gear, members of Congress, airport security officials and advocacy groups warn that behind-the-scenes lapses have weakened security in ways that may not be apparent to travelers. They are pressing the federal Transportation Security Administration to move more quickly to inspect air cargo adequately, thoroughly research the backgrounds of airport workers and finally begin screening all checked luggage for explosives. Airport officials around the country recently expressed their anxieties in e-mails after the federal government issued details of further cuts to the airport-security workforce. Dulles International Airport already was losing passenger screeners at a rate of at least one a day, Scott McHugh, the airport's federal security director, wrote in an e-mail to colleagues at other East Coast airports. He said that with fewer workers, the airport was able to screen only 57 percent of checked luggage for explosives. "Up to now we have been able to hide this fact from the public (and any terrorist surveillance teams)," McHugh wrote in a June 6 e-mail obtained by The Washington Post. McHugh further worried that when Congress recesses for the July 4 holiday, 50 to 60 members will fly out of Dulles. "They will all see the machines sitting idle," he wrote, referring to screening equipment. "We cannot wait any longer, we need to hire or transfer people here NOW!" Since the hijackings on Sept. 11, 2001, millions of commercial flights have crisscrossed the nation without incident. In a fairly short time, the TSA -- the federal agency entrusted with protecting airports and airliners -- has undertaken many aggressive measures to improve security. Protecting flights, however, amounts to a balancing act between security and passenger convenience. Too much security can mean airport congestion that can upset travelers and airlines. Too much convenience can mean that security is compromised. "We have made incredible progress on a number of fronts since 9/11," said Robert Johnson, spokesman for the TSA. "We'll likely never be done with construction of this. The threat always changes." The TSA has been praised even by its critics for its accomplishments. The agency, which was created two months after the 2001 attacks, has spent $9.2 billion. Much of the money went to hire more than 55,000 airport screeners in one of the largest and fastest employment mobilizations ever undertaken. The agency also bought thousands of devices to scan checked luggage for explosives. The machines are installed in 429 airports across the country, although all of them are not being used. Cockpit doors have been reinforced with bulletproof materials. The federal air marshal program, which puts armed undercover agents on some flights, has been significantly expanded. And the TSA has begun a program that allows a small number of commercial pilots to carry firearms in their cockpits. "Overall, there have been major improvements compared to what it was in the time of 9/11," said Paul Hudson, executive director of Aviation Consumer Action Project. "On a scale of one to 10, we were about a three. We're now at least double that." Many passengers applaud the tighter security and the better-trained screeners. One, Herndon resident Susan Fisher, said at Dulles last week that she was pleased with the courteous uniformed screeners, who helped her fold her daughter's stroller and place it on the X-ray belt. Security is "very thorough and very kind to a lady traveling with a baby," said Fisher, who was going to Chicago on vacation. "Definitely, there's an increased presence. You feel it." But others, peering beyond appearances, see troubling weaknesses in need of swift correction. To some critics, the most glaring hole in aviation security is the lack of screening for explosives. Airliners carry not only passenger luggage in the belly of the plane but also cargo, which is not screened. "It's inexcusable that passengers are screened but cargo is not screened," said Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.). He has proposed legislation to require the TSA to screen cargo with explosive-detecting machines. The TSA has improved a plan to track air cargo by identifying the companies that ship it. The agency plans to spend $5 million on research this year to explore whether the technology used to screen luggage can also be used to check cargo, Johnson said. The government has considered various proposals to scan cargo and luggage since 1988, when Pan Am Flight 103 went down over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 259 on board and 11 people on the ground. A terrorist blew up the plane by packing a bomb in a suitcase that was placed in the plane's cargo hold. After the 2001 attacks, Congress imposed a deadline for screening all checked luggage with devices that detect explosives. The TSA announced that it met the deadline last December, but it had broadened the definition of screening. In practice not all luggage is screened by machine. At about a dozen airports, including some of the nation's largest hubs, the TSA "screens" luggage by ensuring that every bag loaded onto a plane is matched to a passenger on board, a precaution that would not prevent a suicidal terrorist from blowing up an aircraft. "It's not clear to me that anything rigorous has been done to meet the intent of the law," said Robert W. Poole Jr., director of the Reason Foundation, a public-policy think tank based in Los Angeles. "If that's all they're doing is matching passengers and bags, it's pretty pathetic." Congress gave the TSA an extension until the end of this year to use machines to scan all luggage, but it appears that the agency is falling behind in achieving that goal. Integrating a luggage-scanning system into the baggage-sorting areas at airports has been complicated and expensive, according to Airports Council International-North America, an organization of airport owners. Airports "are starting to focus on this newest deadline because they know they have to get started on their work to have any chance of getting close," said Stephen D. Van Beek, senior vice president of policy and strategic development of the airport group. He said it will be "very difficult" for the TSA to meet the deadline. Johnson, the TSA spokesman, said meeting the deadline is "in our sights." Security breaches by airport and airline workers make some members of Congress uneasy. At Dulles, the TSA discovered several months ago that off-duty airport and airline workers were using airport identification badges to get through secure doors while they were traveling as passengers and carrying luggage that had not been screened. Johnson declined to say how many employees were caught. He said no one was punished. The practice apparently continues. Last week at Dulles, an observer noticed a man with a security badge swiping his card through a reader and punching in a code. The man then passed through the secure door with a large piece of luggage on rollers and a garment bag on his shoulder. "We needed to remind airport and airline employees that this door is only for use at work, not travel," Johnson said. "We'll continue to monitor the situation to make sure. If there is a violation, we will follow up on it." Some airport workers in the past have abused their security privileges. In 1986, dozens of Eastern Air Lines baggage handlers and mechanics were indicted in a drug-smuggling ring at Miami International Airport where workers were using their access to smuggle cocaine into the country from Colombia. In an extreme case, in 1987, a disgruntled former airport employee used his security badge to bypass security. He boarded a Pacific Southwest Airlines plane and shot the two pilots during the flight. The plane went down and 44 people died. Rep. Peter A. DeFazio (D-Ore.) said airport workers should not be allowed to use badges to enter secure doors, especially if they are carrying unscreened bags or packages. DeFazio said he saw airport employees using such doors on a recent visit to Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, and he has filed a bill to stop the practice. "I thought it was a problem at one airport. I didn't realize this was routine," DeFazio said. Security screening "needs to be uniform. Everyone needs to be screened. If you're not going to do that you might as well do away with the whole system." Security at Pittsburgh International Airport was compromised last month when a man sneaked through an airline door, drove a United Airlines truck around the airfield and walked onto a US Airways plane. He was not found until the next morning, asleep. The federal government disclosed this month that it fired 85 felons it had hired to work as security screeners and that it has yet to finish 22,000 background checks. Private airport security firms, which hired screeners before the federal takeover, had similar problems. Charles G. Slepian, a former security consultant for TWA, is dismayed by the lapses. "Nothing has really changed that much in terms of substantive security," he said. He noted that reinforced cockpit doors and more explosive-detecting machines have helped. But Slepian said Congress and the rest of the federal government are focusing too much on preventing another Sept. 11 attack instead of concentrating on other tactics that terrorists have used, such as planting bombs on aircraft. "When a terrorist sees that the front of the airport has some semblance of security, he's just going to go through the back of [the] airport," Slepian said. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Mas Site: www.tntisland.com/tntrecords/mas2003/ Site of the Week: http://www.carib-link.net/naparima/naps.html TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************