Aviation Officials Defend Security Measures
TSA Criticized for Its Response to Shoe Bombs, Shoulder-Fired Missiles

By Del Quentin Wilber
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Top U.S. aviation security officials yesterday defended stepped-up security measures taken in recent days, rebutting criticism from outside security experts and members of Congress who have questioned whether authorities are prepared to handle potential terrorist threats.

Transportation Security Administration officials said they had not decided when they would end the increased screening procedures enacted after British authorities last week said they had unraveled a plot to blow up commercial jets with liquid explosives. The TSA banned all liquids and gels, including bottled water and toothpaste, from aircraft passenger cabins.

"We wanted to assure the public that air travel is, in fact, safe, and that the security measures taking place at the check point will get both the known threat and the unknown threat," said TSA Administrator Edmund S. "Kip" Hawley.

Over the weekend, TSA officials revised some security measures and began requiring passengers to remove their shoes for examination at X-ray machines.

TSA officials said the rule requiring shoe removal was not motivated by any specific intelligence about a potential attack using shoe bombs. In late 2001, Richard Reid tried to use such a device to blow up an airliner on a transatlantic flight.

Hawley's comments came at a news conference at Reagan National Airport to respond to reports about a government study questioning the effectiveness of X-ray technology in screening shoes for explosives. The existence of the 2005 study, conducted by the Department of Homeland Security, was reported by the Associated Press.

TSA officials took the unusual step of declassifying X-ray images of a shoe bomb and of unaltered sneakers. Hawley and others said the images showed how easy such bombs are to detect. They said they have improved training for their 43,000 screeners so they can more easily recognize explosives hidden in footwear.

"Screening shoes by X-ray is an effective way of identifying any anomaly, including explosives," Hawley said. "It does take the human brain to make the interpretation on X-ray, but it is, frankly, not the most difficult thing we have to do to find potential shoe bombs."

Outside experts, including members of Congress, criticized the TSA yesterday for not adequately addressing other threats, such as shoulder-fired missiles or bombs in checked bags.

Rep. John L. Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House subcommittee on aviation, said the agency has been too slow to adopt emerging technologies that might make it easier to identify explosives.

"The threats we face go far beyond shoes and liquids," Mica said in an interview. "Their problem is in not initiating advances in technology and replacing the cumbersome workforce with technology."

Mica and outside experts also said the TSA needs to embrace Israeli and U.S. Secret Service tactics that focus on identifying terrorist behavioral patterns. They said that because terrorists are developing weapons that might go undetected, even by the most advanced screening devices, it is essential to detect suspicious behavior.

"There are an infinite number of items that you can use to bring down an airplane," said Scott McHugh, a security consultant and a former federal security director at Dulles International Airport. "As long as they are looking for things, they will always be behind."

TSA officials say they have several teams of officers trained to identify the behavior patterns of potential terrorists. Those teams are deployed in at least 10 airports, including Dulles. Officials plan to add more such teams in coming months.

Among the threats that most concern security experts: the availability of thousands of shoulder-fired missiles on the black market. Although the threat of a terrorist using such a missile in the United States is fairly remote, flights overseas are in more jeopardy, experts said. Terrorists fired two such missiles that barely missed an Israeli jet taking off in Kenya in November 2002.

Many in the security community are pushing officials and U.S. airlines to develop high-tech countermeasures to shoulder-fired missiles . But government reports indicate that it will probably take decades before passenger aircraft are outfitted with such systems.

"TSA always seems to be at least two steps behind every threat we face," said Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.). "I have spent the last four years trying to get TSA to acknowledge the threat of shoulder-fired missiles, which are one of our biggest vulnerabilities, and they have responded with denials at first, then with begrudging acceptance, then one study after another."

Hawley and other TSA officials defended his agency's response to other threats, saying it deploys several layers of security, such as air marshals on planes, screeners and bomb-sniffing dogs.

"I call them the movie-script plots, that there are many, many, many scenarios that you can come up with and then look for individual solutions," Hawley said. "The answer is to have layered solutions that bring in intelligence, law enforcement, all the partners working together to make it impossible for someone to get off a successful attack."