Security Report Meant To Raise Awareness, Not Alarm, TSA Says

The TSA wants screeners to think more broadly about suspicious materials. "They should not just be stuck on lighters," Administrator Kip Hawley said. (By Brett Coomer -- Associated Press)

Passengers mentioned in a security report describing suspicious items at airports are not terrorism suspects and were included in the document only to help airport screeners think more broadly about potential threats, the nation's top aviation security official said yesterday.

The report, issued by the Transportation Security Administration and titled "Incidents at U.S. Airports May Suggest Possible Pre-Attack Probing," was obtained by the news media and cited widely on cable news programs yesterday. It describes several incidents, including one at Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport last year, in which screeners stopped items that looked like bombs.

"A surge in recent suspicious incidents at U.S. airports may indicate terrorists are conducting pre-attack security probes and 'dry runs' similar to dress rehearsals," according to the report.

The report cited items found on passengers, including "wires, switches, pipes or tubes, cellphone components and dense clay-like substances. The unusual nature and increase in number of these improvised items raise concern." It did not identify the passengers.

TSA Administrator Kip Hawley said yesterday that the document was not a "threat bulletin" but was meant to get screeners to be more open-minded about potential threats. He said he wants them to look for materials that are not banned but could be dangerous.

"The point of this bulletin was not 'this is a threat or not a threat,' " Hawley said. "This is saying that they should not just be stuck on lighters or other prohibited items."

Hawley said the report was meant for law enforcement use only and was not supposed to be released to the public.

In an interview, Hawley at first declined to say whether the four incidents were thought to have involved terrorists making dry runs. Later, he said the people presented no "current vulnerability" and were "completely covered" by law enforcement agencies.

Other law enforcement sources said investigations uncovered no terrorist ties to the passengers.

A TSA spokeswoman said the report was nothing unusual and was one of about 90 that have been sent to the field this year.

Although the report noted a "surge" in suspicious activity, it cited four incidents, including two that occurred last year.

On July 5, a U.S. citizen put clay into two bags that normally contain blue ice gel, and the items were discovered in checked luggage, the report said.

The report said that on June 4 screeners in Milwaukee discovered items that resembled components of a homemade bomb, "such as a wire coil wrapped around a possible initiator, an electrical switch, batteries, three tubes and two blocks of cheese" in a passenger's carry-on bags.

On Nov. 8 in Houston, screeners found a nine-volt battery, wires, pipes and a block of brown clay-like minerals in a passenger's checked bags, according to the report.

Screeners at BWI reported a plastic bag containing a block of cheese taped to a cellphone charger in checked bags Sept. 16. Law enforcement sources said the couple who were carrying the bag were flying on Southwest Airlines and were questioned by police and federal agents. They were allowed to continue their trip and to keep the items.

"The bottom line, ultimately, was that given what they told us and what our investigation determined, the cheese and the charger were not a threat," said Cpl. Jonathan Green of the Maryland Transportation Authority Police, which patrols BWI.

Green said the charger actually was for a DVD player, not a cellphone. He declined to say where the passengers were traveling or to identify them.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said the report showed that the TSA was trying to connect the dots of potential threats.

"TSA is handling this issue in the appropriate manner," Thompson said in a statement. "In order for TSA to continue to stay ahead of potential threats to our aviation system it must use all of the intelligence available as part of its daily operations."