TSA targets inflight bomb assembly
Assembling bombs in flight and then detonating on board--the alleged outline of the plot that led to the arrests of at least 24 people in Britain--is not an entirely new idea. In early 2004, a British newspaper, the Observer, reported that "security sources" believed Islamic militants had conducted "dry runs" on flights between the Middle East, Europe, and North Africa of a brand-new style of attack: Suicide bombers would carry pieces of explosives, items like wires or batteries not banned on airplanes, past security screeners. They would then build a bomb in flight.
Although it's still uncertain whether the Transportation Security Administration has run drills on the exact type of explosives the British plotters were planning to use -- sources now say the suspects planned to mix a liquid substance with a gel to make the bombs meant to down as many as 10 U.S.-bound flights--it's clear the TSA has become wise to this general type of plot. In December, the TSA announced that 18,000 of its screeners had received a new form of training focused on, as Kip Hawley, the head of TSA, put it, "identifying X-ray images of [improvised explosive device] ... parts, not just a completely assembled bomb." The much-publicized decision to lift the ban on small nail scissors this winter was designed to give screeners more time to focus on explosives detection; TSA studies showed screeners opened 1 of every 4 bags to fish out scissors.
But that doesn't mean officials were in tiptop shape to handle an attack like the British plot. Some security officials have said the TSA's explosives training focused mostly on detonators--that means devices like laptops, lighters, and wiring got extra scrutiny, a different beast than liquid-based bombs. Some security experts have said that although gel- or liquid-based bombs have been a known threat for some time, the United States is still years away from developing technology to detect the ingredients used to make them.
The Department of Homeland Security is also still learning from an incident in June 2004, when 13 Syrian men traveling on Northwest Flight 327 from Detroit to Los Angeles aroused the suspicions of passengers, crew, and air marshals when they traveled in succession to airline lavatories. One passenger was said to have carried a bag into a restroom and left the contents inside, arousing suspicion among some on board that some sort of plot was afoot.
Although DHS officials say the incident was not a dry run of a terrorist attack, the department's inspector general released a classified report on the incident this March. DHS sources say the report described how air marshals could better communicate with other security officials on the ground while a potential plot is in progress. Some experts have been critical that the four-hour flight wasn't diverted when officials became suspicious.
The TSA says it's adding tools to allow detection of more types of bombs, including the 340 explosive-detection trace portals or puffer machines it hopes to install in U.S. airports by the end of this year. These machines release jets of air on passengers as they stand in an enclosed space; the air is then analyzed for even minor traces of explosives. More than 420 bomb-sniffing dogs are also used at airports.
TSA has said its latest ban--on liquids and gels in carry-on baggage--will remain in place as officials search for a way to detect chemicals like the hydrogen-peroxide-based liquid/slurry bombs that would have allegedly been used by the British bombers.
Regardless, expect the threat of explosives to remain a real one for some time. Officials point to the growing prevalence of IEDs in Iraq and a trend among terrorists to find new methods of attack that can't be detected by today's technology. In 2004, for instance, two Chechen women evaded security by concealing in their clothing plastic explosives that didn't set off metal detectors. Hardened cockpit doors and a wiser flying public have also changed the viable threats to aviation.
"A hypervigilant public," Rep. John Mica, head of a House aviation subcommittee, told U.S. News this winter, "isn't going to let someone take over an airplane today."
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