AIRLINE INSECURITY
By Michael Hammerschlag 2450 wd
The battle in Afghanistan, despite the bravery of our
troops, isn’t really a war- for the last
15 years our dominance has been so complete
that we simply annihilate our designated
enemies. This war, as the President warned,
would be fought at home- by bystanders and
victimized innocents. If so, they are still
mostly defenseless, because the security
measures taken to defend the air transport
system have been pitifully lacking. From
the beginning the foolish conclusion was
that the problem wasn’t bad people getting on planes, it was weapons; so little old ladies and pilots
were terrorized for their nail clippers without any thought or reason. Weapons,
though, can be made from anything- a plastic knife, a rope to strangle, a pen,
a baggage cart. 5 burly hijackers might not even need weapons. The screening
was promiscuous, stupid, overwhelming- not directed towards likely threats, so
mostly wasted. The only solution is armed skymarshals.
Meanwhile,
while pilots were subject to humiliating searches by minimum wage screeners; 3
million unsearched and unscreened checked bags a day were dumped into
the holds; and 600,000 ramp workers- cabin cleaners, gas refuelers, caterers,
cargo haulers + mechanics, were allowed access to planes with NO daily security check.
“It is assumed, dangerous as it may be, that if you’ve issued that badge to a
person, they have successfully undergone a background check of the last 10
years,” says FAA Northwest rep Mike Fergus, though he’s talking about new
regulations that are just now finishing checking current employees. Although the law says all bags must be
inspected by end of the year, that’s impossible, unless Congress and the FAA
take radical action. When Transportation Secretary Mineta admitted they
wouldn’t be able to make the impossible Jan 17th deadline, he was pilloried
instead of given the funding and power necessary, so he just changed the rules
to call passenger bag-matching “screening”. The new Transportation Security
Administration, created Nov 16, has
only been allotted $1.5 bil. of the $3-8 bil. they need for airport security;
it is supposed to be paid for by the $2.50 a flight segment fee started Feb. 1,
which should bring in about $2 billion a year. This could rise to $5 a segment.
Bush’s massive new proposed $38 billion homeland security budget also requests
$4.8 bil. for airline security.
There
are only 162 of the CT scanners ($ .7 to 1.4 million) used to detect explosives
installed in the US, but some 2200 more are needed* to scan all bags. 90% of these machines
are made by one company- Invision, which has been turning out only 8 a month
but claims it could make 50. Another company-L3,
could make 40 a month, so if they both instantly
had the orders, funding, and facilities-
it would still take over 2 years. But 5 months
after the bombings, according to Invision
spokesman Alisa Hicks, “There have been no new orders as a result of 9-11.” There is a $16 mil order that was in the
works before that time, but the massive urgent
order from Dept. of Transportation hasn’t
materialized- they finally did order 100 machines and the parts to
make 300 more on March 5, a half year after
9-11. They also ordered 10 more for test-bed
airport San Francisco, which now screens
20% of checked bags with it’s 13 machines,
but the average across the US is under 9%. “SFO ordered CTX’s directly on their own”, said
Hicks. Dallas has 30 of the 78 machines needed. Only 55 airports out of 455 even have bomb
detector machines, which search for the densities
of plastic explosives- now 100% of the time
by law. 1 out of 5 bags will typically trigger
an alert, which “usually can be resolved
by the operator” by adjusting settings on
the machine, otherwise hand inspection is
called for. According to FAA whistle-blowing
security tester Bogdan Dzakovic though, they
were able to repeatedly sneak simulated bombs through the new machines. There are also
bomb sniffer machines, that search for the
chemical scent of explosives, which may be
even more effective than CT; and live human
MRI-like scanners, which tend to be too anatomically
correct. Air cargo (60% carried on passenger
planes), including postal packages, must also be screened or sniffed- Pan Am
103 was supposedly brought down by 8oz of explosives.
Forget
the stories of hurrying passengers shutting down terminals: since Oct., a Miami
Airport employee was found guilty for making fake security badges, then
with his 12 compatriots deported as illegal aliens; a man arrested in Dallas
had a fake pilot’s certificate, fake airman’s medical certificate, multiple
passports and Social Security numbers; an employee
at the LAX duty-free shop in an Inspector
General’s test smuggled 10 guns, 7 blocks
of inert C-4, and 4 hand grenades past Argenbright
security by just flashing his badge. Inspectors
examining security have been terrified ramp
workers smuggling supposed drugs, which happened
in Miami, would unknowingly put a bomb on
board. Another issue is general aviation
airports- private pilots and their planes.
"Just because you don't have a big airplane,
doesn't mean it can't be loaded with explosives,"
warns FAA's Fergus. "The General aviation
security question is .. one of the front
burner items in the FAA and TSA right now."
The
truth is it’s a miracle that 5 to 10 planes haven’t been brought down by
checked luggage bombs- Ashcroft’s much maligned roundup may have been
successful in breaking up Al Qaeda cells. The lame compromise to allow bag
matching to passengers (done for years in Europe) to substitute for actual
inspections accomplishes nothing- if the fiends are ready to die. They even
made an insane exception for connecting flights, but Ramzi Yousef (the ’93 WTC
bomber), in his ’95 plan to blow up 11 planes over the Pacific, was planning to
do just that- put bombs on planes
that went from Philippines to Seoul, Taipei, + Hong Kong and get off as the
planes continued to LAX.
Before he allowed the security screeners
to become Federal employees (which 100 Senators
had approved), President Bush was more worried
about Democratic unions than untrained screeners-
the JFK crash broke the stalemate. He supported
British owned Argenbright security (which
operates in 40% of US airports, including
Dulles), which was notorious for their security
breaches- they were booted out of Logan Airport
after they were discovered to have a felony
conviction for falsifying employee records
and hiring felons. The February 17th TSA takeover of the passenger screening
contracts will eventually exclude Argenbright
security, but they probably need to hire
their workers. The 28,000 screeners will
not even be required to be high-school graduates,
though they need to be citizens (forcing
25% to be fired by November 19th when
they are fully federalized.). Republicans were concerned that as federal
employees, incompetent screeners couldn’t be easily fired or disciplined. On
March 4, the TSA hired a British co. to do Web-based hiring of the screeners,
who are to make $23-40,000. One Congressman thinks it would actually require
about 40,000 to cover new bomb detection machines.
The Skymarshal program has been another disappointment-
apparently only a handful have been hired.
A pilot, in a devastating January commentary
says, “I have yet to see an air marshal on any
of my flights and I have not spoken to another pilot who has (except those
flying out of Reagan National Airport).”
Like Enron execs, Congress ensured resources go where they are needed.
I
have a simple cheap solution: allow
local, state, and federal police to fly free anywhere - they know how to handle weapons
and recognize shady characters. Train marksmen
from larger departments in using low velocity
fragmenting bullets in aircraft, and certify
them. Police Departments could even donate
officers for 1 or 2 days a month: wars should
entail some sacrifice. National Guardsmen
in the airport are another cosmetic gesture,
useful if, as the pilot says, someone tries
to hijack the airport and fly it into a building.
I’m waiting for them to start firing into
a crowded terminal when a late passenger
races for a plane and doesn’t hear the panicked
order to stop. Put them on the tarmac access
to check ramp workers’ ID and belongings.
Pilots, however, should be allowed to carry
aircraft guns, and flight attendants stun
guns, which still haven’t been approved.
The USAir pilot led off in handcuffs said,
“Why are you
worried about tweezers when I could crash the plane?” Zero
tolerance? No, zero brains. Pilots are not the same as everyone else: unlike
ramp workers, they actually should bypass security, except for verification of
identity. They are reportedly ready to strike over having to repeatedly
go through tortuous security- including removing clothing and ripping the liner
of suitcases- even Michigan Congressman Dingell had to drop his pants.
Screeners, many to be canned under Federalization, are taking great pleasure in
showing bigwigs how thorough they can be. Profiling is essential if we don’t
want to waste resources and cause huge delays; a young Middle Eastern man
doesn’t present the same threat as an elderly woman from Dubuque. Many airports
are using CAPPs (computer assisted passenger profiling), which analyzes
passenger’s travel history to detect suspicious patterns, but that requires
positive ID. Supposedly 9 of the hijackers were flagged and questioned
after they triggered CAPPs protocols, but none were stopped. Cal. Governor Grey
Davis has just offered state police to function as air marshals. The job
requirements on the Dept. Transportation web site for air marshals seem
unnecessarily high- when they were last seriously tried in the 70’s, air
marshals went half-crazy with boredom, since they are waiting for one in a
million events. A much larger pool of part time and volunteer marshals would minimize
that- the courageous actions of alert passengers and attendants show a huge
level of training isn’t mandatory.
The obsession with weapons and torturing
passengers, and the illusion of a foolproof
shield is almost a pathology that shows how
fragile we are, as is the determined refusal
to talk about this issue for the first 3
months. Editors groan and say, "I don't
want to hear this, my daughter is flying
next week", security guards will shush
you like they're afraid you'll scare nonexistent
children. Every time they close down a terminal
or airport over a single security breach,
while thousands of unscreened bags are dumped
into holds, I have to laugh (as I’m sure
BL is, if he’s not a charred hulk in a deep
Afghani grave). By definition, the chance
that any single random security breach is
an actual terrorist
is negligible, since terrorists are so infinitesimal a number. They've put Fox
police locks on the doors, infrared alarms covering the yard, vibration sensors
on the windows, guard dogs inside the bedroom; and then left the garage door
wide open (with the baggage). Worse, they changed the meaning of the word
"screened", so that even Congressmen at the hearing on airline
security were confused- thinking they actually were searching or X-raying
baggage- when they aren't. They even asked ‘how many machines have you
ordered?’ -incredibly Federal witnesses managed to duck the question. It’s true
that TSA head John Magaw, who was Director of the Secret Service and Bush Sr.’s
agent-in-charge in Maine + Texas, was only finally appointed in Jan, but the
screaming need for these CT machines was obvious since Sept. 12. A program is
in place at Baltimore/Washington and SFO airports to test different machines
and screening techniques, as if they have a year to assess alternatives (they
originally planned to install these machines over 8-11 years). It’s understandable that the TSA doesn’t
want to be rushed into massive expenditures
on constantly changing options, but there
is some urgency here.
Their reticence, however, may be driven by
legitimate concerns about the scanners: the
Defense Dept. official charged with overseeing
FAA tests said, “These (scanning) thresholds
have been driven by the inability of the
current equipment to perform any better…
If the thresholds were tightened by only
a couple of percentage points, there would
currently be few, if any [explosive detection]
equipment certified at all." Despite
reservations, CTX machines took about 4 years
to develop- a feasible alternative isn’t
likely to suddenly materialize in the next
half year, and really thorough operator training
may alleviate many errors. There are some
problems finding the space and floor support
to install the minivan size 3 ton machines
in airports, preferably close to check-in.
In committee hearings, the DOT Inspector
General, a severe critic before, claimed
to be impressed and confident in the security
measures and management of the TSA, which
does have a massive job- they have reinforced all cockpit doors, which may
have saved that United Buenos Aires flight
crew that was attacked by a psychotic Uruguayan
banker.
I was supposed to fly over Manhattan on 9-11 and did 4 days later. I’ve played
out again and again what I would have done
in a hijacking to assuage my rage at the
terrorists and the governments’ incompetence.
(The FAA might, if they had issued a detailed warning instead
of the cryptic “beware cockpit intrusion”
at 9:05am, have saved the victims in the
Pentagon and Pa. planes, which crashed 37
and 65 minutes later. Actor James Woods claims
he flew with the supposed hijackers from
Boston to LA a month before 9-11; they were
so suspicious he thought they were about
to hijack the plane, but nothing was done.
Tardy fighter planes had to fly 250 miles
because we only had 6-7 bases on strip alert
in the entire country. 9 hijackers were flagged
as suspicious at the airport, 2 were on the
terrorism watch list; one came in on an expired
visa. In the ’95 Philippines plot, the bombers
warned about members taking flight training.)
I think I would have known it was a suicide
attack right away- in a political newsletter
I predicted a terrorist attack on New York
or DC… last July. I would have loved
to have been on Reid’s plane. The 911 attacks have probably cost NYC, the
travel industry, the economy, the world- over a hundred billion dollars.
Another mass downing of planes would cripple the entire airline system, divide
us into separate colonies, and devastate the tentative economy, which was Bin Laden’s last instruction. In 2001
United lost $2.1 bil, US Air $2 bil, American/TWA $1.7 bil - they
wouldn’t survive another blow. West German intelligence estimates 70,000 went
through the Al Qaeda training camps, and they can’t all be as moronic as
Richard Reid, who could have crashed a $150 million plane, but for a 50¢ Bic
lighter. In the Gulf War we moved ½ million troops and equipment to the other
side of the world in 4½ months, we put a man on the Moon in 8½ years; we can do
this: take the proper defensive measures. It is true that the best defense is a
good offense, but also that an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure.
We’ve reacted stupidly and slothfully to the brutal attack of Sept. 11; and the
evil ones won’t wait forever.
Michael Hammerschlag has
written commentaries + articles for
Seattle Times, Providence Journal, Honolulu Advertiser, Columbia
Journalism Review, MediaChannel, Moscow News, Tribune, and + Guardian; was a TV reporter and a former travel agent.
His website is http://mikehammer.tripod.com e-mail
hammerschlag@bigfoot.com
Jan 3,
2000 View from
Roof - WTC Michael Hammerschlag©2001
*UPDATE: On April 24th the TSA admitted that full screening of baggage with the large EDS machines was impossible by Dec., and switched to mostly (4400) explosive sniffers. EDS purchases would be limited to 1100, about half the amount required. http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/020424/airlines_security_7.html