THE DAILY BLADE: The TSA Emperor Wears No Clothes: Part II
In response to the foiled Christmas Day terrorist attack on a plane that was en route to Detroit, the Transportation Security Administration ordered "full body pat-down and physical inspection of property" for passengers who are citizens of, or are flying from, four nations deemed by the State Department to be states sponsors of terrorism and 10 others that are “countries of interest,” beginning January 4th but The Associated Press reports that “enforcement of the stricter U.S. screening rules appeared spotty”:
In Lagos, guards wearing latex gloves combed through bags, spending more than a minute on each one.
But at international airports in Lebanon, Syria and Libya, all on the list, there were no visible changes in screening. And several European governments, including Germany, France and Spain, said they were still studying the rules before tightening security any further than the steps they took after the failed Christmas attack.
As it turns out, pat-down searches and full-body scans are not foolproof.
Aviation experts tell The Associated Press that even if Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had been frisked, airport security screeners would not have found the bomb-making components hidden in his crotch:
"To have people hold up their arms and just pat them - like I'm really going to carry a bomb there," said industry analyst Michael Boyd, arguing that pat-downs are often of little value. "You know where you're going to put it, and no one's going to go there." …
Unlike the frisking of suspects conducted by police - which involves officers running their hands firmly up and down the body, including sensitive areas like the groin, buttocks and breasts - the pat-downs at airports usually involve, well, patting down. …
The TSA last year decided to permit what it describes as "enhanced pat-downs" that include breast and groin searches. But these could be done only under limited circumstances and only after the use of metal detectors, less invasive pat-downs and all other tools had been exhausted.
Still, even in those cases, screeners must use the back of their hands when touching the groin area and breasts, according to the TSA.
And the privacy concerns raised by scanners that can reveal objects concealed beneath clothes, are a red herring. Already in use at six U.S. airports for primary screening and 12 airports for secondary screening, the problem isn’t what the backscatter and milimeter wave scanners can “see” - it’s that they have a blind spot, reports The Washington Post:
Passengers walk through the machines fully clothed; the resulting image appears on a monitor in a separate room and conceals passengers' faces and sensitive areas.
"It covers up the dirty bits," said James Carafano, a homeland security expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation. …
And, experts say, explosives can go undetected even in a full-body screening if potential terrorists conceal them in body cavities.
"It's definitely not a silver bullet," Carafano said. "There's a way to beat it. It's called a 'booty bomb,' where you actually insert the explosive inside the human being and then you detonate the explosive with a cellphone."
The Independent (London) also reports that though milimeter wave scanners have been touted by the government as being able to detect explosive devices containing liquids, chemicals or plastic explosive that can get by a metal detectors, “[i]f a material is low density, such as powder, liquid or thin plastic – as well as the passenger's clothing – the millimetre waves pass through and the object is not shown on screen.” An expert tells the paper that Abdulmutallab’s homemade bomb would not have been revealed in a full body scan.
Because it considers full body scans tantamount to an unlawful strip search, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is instead advocating the use of the “Puffer” machine, which blows puffs of air around a passenger and then analyzes the air for trace molecules of explosive or narcotic substances. But the TSA tells The Christian Science Monitor that they are being phased out because of maintenance issues and because dust and humidity can clog up the sensors.
The only other way to quickly screen passengers for traces of explosives or drugs is using specially trained dogs, but even their performance is not up to snuff 100 percent of the time. The Associated Press reports that three bomb-sniffing dogs at Philadelphia International Airport failed recent recertification tests:
TSA spokesman Greg Soule said the agency could not comment on the status of its dogs. He said, however, that the rigorous nature of yearly certification tests means that some of the nation's 700 TSA-led dog teams deployed in air, marine and mass transportation systems may not pass and must go through a remedial program.
In the meantime, other layers of security are employed, Soule said. TSA-led teams concentrate on cargo screening while law enforcement-led teams handle all areas of the airport and spend part of their time supporting cargo inspection.
But none of the other layers of security are foolproof, either, so when it comes to thwarting terrorism, the TSA is still chasing its tail.
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