[Infowarrior] - Aircraft-Security Focus Swings to People

[Richard Forno]

(c/o M.S.)

Aircraft-Security Focus Swings to People
Spotting Dangerous Individuals Gains Supporters, but Remains Beset With
Problems
By LAURA MECKLER and DANIEL MICHAELS
August 12, 2006; Page A4
http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB115535025189634122-1lQ7ZS1_41cJ
Uw_KOISyeaP3yhQ_20060912.html

Security officials trying to protect America's airliners face a twin battle:
stopping bad stuff and stopping bad people.

Most of the focus has traditionally been on stopping bad stuff, and that is
a big challenge. Distinguishing good water bottles from deadly ones will
never be easy.

So increasingly, security experts think the nation needs to focus more on
stopping bad people. Much of the work to stop potential terrorists must
occur before they ever walk into an airport, aviation experts say. "By the
time you get to the security checkpoint, chances are you've lost the
battle," said Douglas Laird, an aviation consultant who once headed security
for Northwest Airlines.

But U.S. programs aimed at identifying threatening people have been mired in
controversies and setbacks including privacy protections, technology
troubles and old-fashioned management fumbles.

Secure Flight, the Homeland Security program that is supposed to check
passengers against a comprehensive terrorist watch list, is the most
troubled. The program has been in development for three years and is nowhere
close to being put into practice. On the flip side is the Registered
Traveler program to identify the good guys through advanced background
checks and speed their trip through security so that screeners can focus on
lesser-known travelers. But it, too, has been delayed and derided in some
circles as a waste of resources.

A third initiative, behavior recognition, tries to identify suspicious
people at the airport. But the idea languished for years amid concerns about
racial profiling. In recent months, the Transportation Security
Administration made progress, developing a screening system it believes can
avoid those minefields. The program is still at just a handful of airports.

To be sure, no matter how good these techniques get, they are meant to
complement physical screenings. After discovery of the plot to mix bombs
with liquid explosives, the TSA has barred passengers from carrying on most
liquids and gels. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Friday
that the policy would be modified, but he didn't specify how.

Now that the ban on liquids is in place and the threat has been publicized,
relaxing it will be tricky. Several experts say they will not be surprised
if it sticks. "I'm quite confident it will lead to a permanent ban on
liquids," said Clark Kent Ervin, former inspector general for the Department
of Homeland Security who is now at the Aspen Institute. "This is apparently
as close to 9/11 as we've come since and I think we're going to see some
permanent changes, and we should."
[TSA]
Passengers placed carry-on items in plastic bins before having them screened
by a Transportation Security Administration agent yesterday.

Other incidents have led to lasting changes in security. After Richard Reid
tried to light a bomb in his shoe on a flight bound for Miami in 2001, the
TSA required that travelers remove their shoes for screening.

Relaxing the rules is tough. A ban after Sept. 11, 2001, on all kinds of
sharp objects was scaled back late last year so that screeners could focus
on bigger threats, like explosives, but flight attendants and others
fiercely protested the change.

Some worry that a permanent ban on liquids could keep passengers away. "It
took almost four years before people understood a cuticle scissor is not a
weapon," said Capt. Duane Woerth, president of the Air Line Pilots
Association. "Until we have a system that tries to get bad people instead of
bad things we haven't advanced."

Meantime, the effort to improve screening of the travelers moves slowly.
Under the system in place since before the 2001 attacks, airlines check
passenger names against terror watch lists. The new system would have
government take over this screening, but its first effort was abandoned in
2004 amid controversy over plans to use commercial databases to look for
indications that someone posed a threat.

Secure Flight was the next effort. Though it was more modest, considerable
concerns persisted over the protection of data and how passengers wrongly
flagged could seek redress. Congress banned the TSA from implementing the
program until privacy issues were addressed, and the Government
Accountability Office issued some harsh reports.

The problems were multiple, said Cathleen Berrick, director of the GAO's
Homeland Security and Justice program. TSA never figured out how the program
would operate, what data would be needed about passengers from airlines or
how to protect privacy. "TSA was trying to squeeze a two to three year
program into six months," she said. "They were rushing."

As a result, earlier this year, the agency put the program on hold and went
back to the beginning. Ms. Berrick is now more optimistic.

Still, problems persist. Last year, the Justice Department's inspector
general raised concerns about the completeness and accuracy of data in a key
terrorist database. And even if it works perfectly, Secure Flight can't
guard against identity theft. "It won't protect against stealing someone's
identity or creating a false identity," Ms. Berrick said.

Some aren't persuaded it will ever be effective. "It's obviously
unmanageable and results in a huge number of false positives that distract
security personnel from finding the true terrorists," said Gregory T.
Nojeim, an expert on the program at the American Civil Liberties Union.

Bad people can, theoretically, be identified once they are at the airport.
By assessing a person's body language and travel details, screeners can make
a quick judgment on the threat level.

The TSA has a program in place in a few airports to do that now. Called
Spot, or Screening Passengers by Observation Technique, it involves
specially trained security officers scrutinizing people in security lines
and elsewhere in the airport.

Write to Laura Meckler at laura.meckler at wsj.com9 and Daniel Michaels at
daniel.michaels at wsj.com10