FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2010
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From Page One A13 Experts: Holes in aviation security must be addressed
Behavior detection officers are important part of process
BY ANNE E. KORNBLUT AND ASHLEY HALSEY III
When agents lead canine units
through an airport, they are not looking only for suspicious bags to sniff. Plainclothes officers often
trail a few feet behind, watching bystanders’ reactions to the bomb-detection dogs. If passen- gers become nervous or run for the exits, it can be a sign that they were planning to do harm, senior U.S. security officials said. “Most people are not put off by
a dog, unless it’s a snarling German shepherd or some- thing,” said John S. Pistole, the head of the Transportation Secu- rity Administration. Referring to the Nigerian passenger who al- legedly tried to ignite a bomb mid-flight last Christmas Day, he said: “But if it’s an Abdul- mutallab type, I can almost guar- antee, when they see a dog, he or she is going to think that’s a bomb-sniffing dog and take eva- sive action. That’s what we’re looking for.” The work of behavior detec-
tion officers is one of the TSA’s more subtle approaches, a tacit admission that machines alone cannot stop the next attack. But according to experts and
lawmakers, persistent holes in aviation security must be ad- dressed. Among their concerns: l Air cargo. Pistole describes
air cargo as a topworry, illustrat- ed by the October attempt by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsu- la. The screening process—espe- cially for packages sent from overseas—remains riddled with holes. In the “Yemen cargo plot,” authorities tracked down pack- ages with printer cartridges re- purposed as bombs after receiv- ing a tip from Saudi authorities. Even then, finding them took several attempts. The incident spurred the TSA
to ban large cartridges and all cargo originating in Yemen. It also renewed interest in strengthening cargo standards. Currently, all cargo carried on domestic passenger flights is screened, but compliance cannot be enforced abroad. The Govern- ment Accountability Office esti- mates that 55 percent to 65 percent of all foreign-launched cargo on passenger flights is thoroughly screened before heading to the United States. At issue now is whether the
JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES Travelers are patted down by a TSAagent in Denver.
United States should seek 100 percent cargo screening on U.S.-bound cargo planes, a goal that Rep. Edward J. Markey (D- Mass.) is pursuing legislation to mandate but that others say is absurd. “I don’t believe that the 100
percent cargo screening, wheth- er it’s in the aviation ormaritime
environment, will ever equal 100 percent security,” Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), a member of the House Homeland Security Com- mittee, said in June. “It provides the appearance of increased se- curity without any new increase in security.” Aviation officials say that all high-risk cargo coming from
CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES Avolunteer stands inside a “millimeter wave” scanner during a demonstration at Ronald ReaganNational Airport.
“I don’t believe that the 100 percent cargo screening, whether it’s in the aviation or maritime environment, will ever equal 100 percent security.”
—Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), a member of the House Homeland Security Committee
pertswho havewatched develop- ments abroad note that a favored technique of terrorists is to ap- proach a checkpoint and deto- nate a bomb, something that remains a concern here. l Airport employees. Al-
though airport job applicants undergo background checks be- fore they are hired, they are not scanned every day. According to the TSA, the airport operator determines which secure areas the employees can access, but the workers face randominspections and are continuously vetted against terrorist watch lists. l Matching bags to passen-
gers. In the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, checked luggage wasn’t allowed on a plane if the passen- ger did not board the plane, too. That policy was abandoned, but Arnold I. Barnett, an aviation security expert who teaches sta- tistics at theMassachusetts Insti- tute of Technology, argues that it should be reinstituted. “They stopped because they
began putting bags through the explosives detectors, but the ex- plosives detectors are not per- fect,” he said. l Better security on over-
flights. The TSA requires en- hanced security for foreign flights headed to the United States. Vahid Motevalli, head of the
department of mechanical engi- neering technology at Purdue University, said the same strict standards should be applied to international flights that pass over the United States without landing. Many are flying from Europe to Mexico, passing high above “prime targets on the U.S. East Coast.” “An overflight could be taken
over [by terrorists] in a 9/11-type attack,”Motevalli said. U.S. officials have access to
abroad is checked. But, said a congressional aidewhoworks on aviation security, “the big fight is over the definition of the word ‘screen.’ ” “You’ll hear, ‘We do 100 per-
cent screening of high-risk pack- ages,’ but it’s that they run an algorithmand see if it comes up a high-risk package or not.” Refer- ring to the October plot, the aide said: “Those two packages were sent fromYemen,wherewe knew there is al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, to a synagogue. If that’s not a high-risk package, I don’t know exactly what is.”
l Security lines at the
checkpoint. Officials said there is little to stop a terrorist from detonating a bombwhilewaiting in line outside a secure area. Agents patrol the entire airport, but Pistole compared the situa- tion to any big, open area where people congregate, “whether it’s Tysons Corner or the Mall of America.” The work of the behavior de-
tection officers is critical in that regard. They have caught at least one suspicious passenger outside a checkpoint carrying explosive material, officials said. But ex-
information about who is travel- ing aboard many of the more than 300,000 overflights each year. They have turned away flights based on passengermani- fests, but they are seeking more data and security. l Lack of passenger inter-
views. It would be impossible to replicate the Israeli model — in which many air passengers are questioned before boarding — but experts think some inter- views would give the TSA more leeway to ferret out suspicious passengers. Currently, the TSA must call in law enforcement to talk to passengers.
kornbluta@washpost.com halseya@washpost.com
Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.
Metro to use explosives-screening devices and bomb-sniffing dogs metro from A1
Metro rail cars, according to court documents. However, Metro Interim Gen-
eralManager Richard Sarles said the inspections are not a re- sponse to any specific or height- ened threat. “It’s good to vary your security
posture,” he said, noting that transit agencies in New York, New Jersey and Boston have successfully carried out random checks. The inspections over the far-
flung transit network, which has 86 rail stations and 12,000 bus stops,will be conducted by sever- al dozen officers
atmost.Metro’s trains and buses carrymore than 1.2 million passengers every weekday, and officials acknowl- edge the limitations of the plan. “This is just another method
to sort of throw the bad guy off” by using the threat of a search to discourage bringing a bomb into the transit network, Taborn said. “We’re not going to clog up the Metro system.”
Riders consider impact Metro riders had mixed reac-
tions about the plan. Sienna Reynaga, a 32-year-old
writer fromReston, arrived at the West Falls Church Station with two bags of luggage after return- ing fromSpain. Reynaga said the inspections
will be effective at one thing: slowing everyone down. “I would have been mad today
if somebody checked my bags,” she said, laughing, “because it’s cold.” Falls Church resident IrvMor-
gan, 49, said the inspections violate the Constitution. “I think itwill create a sense of
unease,” he said before boarding an Orange Line train from the West Falls Church Station to attend a Christmas party in the District. Morgan, a longtimeMetro rid-
er, said the system was once efficient and reliable.
“Metro is none of those things
these days,” he said, adding that the security inspections are “one more level of degradationofwhat Metro use to be.” Metro officials said the search-
es will be quick and unobtrusive. Metro’s 20-member anti-ter-
rorism police unit, its special operations unit, and several teams of dogs and handlers will conduct the checks with assis- tance from Transportation Secu- rity Administration personnel, officials said. The officers will call over peo-
ple whose bags are selected for screening to a table and allow themto watch the inspection. The searches will take one or
two minutes and will involve swabbing bags with special pa- per, which will be analyzed using a hand-held device that tests for explosives. A bag that tests posi- tive will be double-checked by a bomb-sniffing dog. Only bags that test positive
will be opened,Metro said. The screeningwill be conduct-
ed before passengers pay to enter the rail system or board a bus, and customers who refuse the inspectionswill be “free to leave,” Taborn said. But there is a possi- bility that those who decline screening will be questioned. Metro officials predicted that
customers would appreciate the added security. The system, which is largely open, depends on riders for vigilance, Taborn said. “What we’ve found in the past
is . . . people welcomed it,” said Sarles, the former head of New Jersey Transit.
Inspecting other systems In 2004, Boston’s Massachu-
setts Bay Transportation Author- ity became the first transit agen- cy in the nation to institute a permanent policy of randombag and package searches on sub- ways and commuter trains. It was prompted by the deadly al-Qaeda-linked train bombing in March of that year that killed
191 people inMadrid. New York City authorities be-
gan random bag searches in the subway system in 2005 after mass transit bombings in Lon- don that killed 56 people, said
ANDREW HARRER/BLOOMBERG NEWS
The inspections will continue indefinitely. If people refuse the searches, they’ll be barred from entering stations with their bags.
Paul J. Browne, deputy commis- sioner of the New York police. Browne said the searches are
conducted by some of the 2,500 police officers assigned to the subway system.
York did. Bombings on trains in Mum-
bai in 2006, which killed more than 200 people; a terrorist at- tack that began at Mumbai’s historic railway station in 2008; and two suicide bombings on Moscow’sMetro inMarchfurther exposed the vulnerabilities of rail systems. “You put these into place be-
cause there’s no question that these types of security measures do act as deterrents,” said Brian Michael Jenkins, director of the Transportation Security Center at the Mineta Transportation In- stitute at San Jose StateUniversi- ty. “Washington’sMetro has been looking at this for quite a while,” and it gives systems a chance to rehearse and prepare for increas- es in security if they become needed. The institute, which tracks at-
JAHI CHIKWENDIU/THE WASHINGTON POST The searches will be conducted atMetro bus stops and atMetro subway stations, officials say. “Backpacks and other luggage
are checked for explosives using swabs similar to those used at airports,” he said in an e-mail. “We periodically find illegal
weapons and drugs, but we have not uncovered explosives as part of a terrorist plot,” Browne said. “That’s not to say the system hasn’t deterred an attack. We rarely know if police presence has deterred an attack. . . . The unpredictability of which sta- tions and at what times inspec- tions take place makes it harder for plotters to plan an attack.” New York officers stop one out
of five, one out of 10 or another ratio of riders based on the num- ber of passengers, Browne said. Four out of 11 known terrorist plots targeting New York since the Sept. 11 attacks have involved the subway system, he said. New Jersey’s transit system
and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey began ran- dom inspections soon after New
tempts on transit systems world- wide, found that they have in- creasingly become an “attractive target.” Over a three-month stretch
last year, researchers found an average of 88 attacks on transit systems per month and deter- mined that 83 percent of attacks on passenger rail involved explo- sive devices. Amtrak, the national passen-
ger railroad, performed occa- sional bag checks in response to threats or as part of counterter- rorismexercises after the Sept. 11 attack but expanded the program in 2008 after seeing the success of theNewYork subwayprogram. Metro Orange Line riders Lina
Dajani, 25, and Kaydia Kentish, 26, said they would notmind the inspections. “We do it at airports, so it
shouldn’t be an issue doing it here,” Kentish said. “If it’s on everyone, it’s kind of
a security issue,” Dajani said. “I’d rather be safe.”
tysona@washpost.com kravitzd@washpost.com
Staff writer Kafia A. Hosh contributed to this report.
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