-Caveat Lector- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17806-2001Dec22.html
WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! Little Change in Security New Airport Rules Ensure Long Lines, Inconsistencies By Greg Schneider Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, December 23, 2001; Page A02 Eight security workers hovered around an idle bomb-detection scanner at Dulles International Airport one afternoon last week. Holiday travelers bustled through the terminal, but no bags were being run through the machine. "They're supposed to be set up to keep it running full time, but that obviously isn't happening," said Billie Vincent, who was head of airport security for the Federal Aviation Administration during the 1980s and who stood watching the scanner from several feet away. "Look at that. Is it being used? That says something about the state of security, doesn't it?" As travelers took to the air for the holidays in recent days, they continued to find inconsistent security measures at the region's two biggest airports, Dulles International Airport and Baltimore-Washington International Airport. >From sporadic scanning for bombs to short-staffed security checkpoints, the airports showed how unresolved the nation's air travel security system remains three and a half months after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. The Transportation Department is scrambling to implement the Aviation and Transportation Security Act that Congress passed last month, and airports continue to enact emergency restrictions put into place after the attacks. Experts said, however, that the rush to take action has obscured debate over fundamental issues, such as whether the new system relies too much on technology and not enough on people. The result is that while passengers are waiting in longer lines and National Guardsmen are patrolling airports with automatic weapons, "nothing has changed" in the quality of airport security, said Isaac Yeffet, the former head of security for Israel's El Al airline, which is widely considered the most secure carrier in the world. Yeffet said the steps the government has hurried to implement, such as increasing the use of bomb-detection technology and tightening the process at passenger screening checkpoints, are half-measures. He compared them with the problem of trying to warm up with a blanket that is too short: "You don't know what to cover first, head or legs. Whatever you do, in the morning, you are sick." At BWI, for example, there are many signs of apparent security improvements. Airlines have dismantled folding tables where they used to perform random manual searches of checked bags, and they have replaced them with van-sized bomb detection machines. The scanners -- Examiner 3DX 6000 models, built by L-3 Communications Corp. -- were supplied recently by the FAA, which directed that the machines be run continuously, scanning as many bags as possible. One day late last week, however, two of BWI's new machines were switched off. The two that were running seemed to be operating at vastly different rates. A machine being shared by Southwest Airlines and American Airlines scanned 35 bags in a 20-minute period, overseen by three security staffers who used walkie-talkies to coordinate actions on either side of the scanner. Nearby, between the ticket counters of Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines, the other active scanner handled only 15 bags in 20 minutes. Two security staffers ran the machine, but seemed to work independently of one another, feeding a bag into the front end and then walking around to the rear to watch it scan, a more time-consuming process. Anything less than constant use of those machines, Yeffet said, is nearly meaningless. "We cannot rely on God" to reveal which bags to scan out of the thousands that flow through the airport every day, he said. And while Congress set the end of next year as a deadline for scanning all checked bags for bombs, most authorities say it will be almost impossible to buy and install the more than 2,000 machines, at a total cost of $4 billion to $5 billion, that quickly. Instead, Yeffet advocates an Israeli-style system of passenger interrogations by guards trained to pick out suspicious travelers by the way they answer questions. That way, he said, the vast majority of passengers would clear security more quickly than they do now, and resources could be concentrated on the most dangerous few. Others argue that such a system would never work in this country because there are too many people traveling to interview them all. As it is, passengers are being asked to wait so long in security lines that they are becoming discouraged about flying at all, said Vincent, the former FAA security chief. At Dulles last week, he pointed out a problem at one of the airport's two passenger screening checkpoints. A single airline employee was stationed at the entrance to the checkpoint queue, asking to see boarding passes before letting passengers proceed. The line of travelers stretched far across the terminal, but the checkpoint itself was almost empty because of the wait to show boarding passes. "That's being inadequately staffed by the airlines," Vincent said. "These things are irritants to passengers." Soon, another employee and two supervisors showed up, but they began waving people forward, glancing quickly at passes to clear the crowd. Vincent said the workers were not checking to see which passengers had been picked out by the computer profiling system for a hand search of carry-on bags. They most likely would be searched inside at the gate, he said. But by that time they would already be past the first checkpoint and well within the secure zone of the airport, where there is easier access to airplanes. Such low-level procedural issues can have major consequences, he and other experts said, but they are not addressed in the security act passed by Congress. "The problem is that so far, the [legislation] speaks in general terms about what should be done and covers the major issues, but how to implement it -- that's the big question," said Joel Feldschuh, former chief executive of El Al and former head of intelligence for the Israeli air force. Feldschuh, who now runs an aviation security consulting firm with several other Israeli experts, said the airlines must bear in mind that good security does not have to be bad for business. For example, closer tracking of baggage to prevent terrorists from planting bombs on planes can also lead to fewer incidents of lost luggage for ordinary travelers. Vincent worries that airlines do not see it that way and are pushing for security compromises for the sake of convenience. As proof, he pointed to a scene at Dulles so utterly typical that no one else would have given it a second glance: A man in a white shirt and dark pants rushed up to the checkpoint pulling a wheeled carry-on bag with a shoulder bag attached to it. He stopped, separated the two bags and wrestled them onto the X-ray scanner conveyor belt. "Wheelies," Vincent snarled. "Look at the size of that guy's wheeled bag." The fact that passengers are still allowed to carry on one suitcase plus a personal bag creates too many hiding places for baggage screeners to effectively look for weapons, he said. The Transportation Department issued the one-plus-one rule shortly after Sept. 11, acting in part on the advice of airline officials serving on an emergency task force. A more serious restriction, Vincent said, would have been to limit passengers to one carry-on only, with strict size requirements. Passengers find it more convenient to have multiple carry-ons, but the number of bags are contributing to long lines at security stations, he said. At BWI last week, several checkpoints saw crowds stretching past shops, escalators and arrivals boards, almost to the airport entrance. Another reason for the crowds is that passengers still do not prepare themselves for the new, stricter checkpoint procedures, said Dan Boelsche, former supervisor for Argenbright Security Inc. at Dulles. Travelers should remember to take off their coats before they approach the checkpoints and to either take off their shoes or simply not wear dress shoes that have metal shanks that set off the magnetometer, Boelsche said. At the same time, they should keep in mind that the people doing the screening are under added pressure now -- many could lose their jobs when new citizenship requirements go into effect for baggage screeners, they are coping with added procedures and scrutiny, and emotions just tend to run high during the holiday season, he said. But Yeffet scoffed at the whole notion that tighter security means tense crowds and long lines. The current approach, he said, puts too much emphasis on confiscating objects and too little on targeting human beings who might actually be dangerous. During a recent stop at an airport he declined to identify, Yeffet intentionally set off the magnetometer so the guard would search him, he said. "The first thing they said was, take off your shoes," Yeffet said. "Ahhh, take my shoes. This is security? This is a joke." *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? Write at [EMAIL PROTECTED] for a menu of our lists! Write to same address to be off lists! <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! 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