 and pat-downs are creating a concern among passengers, even as terrorists announce new threats.)
SECURITY STALEMATE: Aviation security officials are bracing for the increased passenger traffic that accompanies Thanksgiving and the other end-of-year holidays. This year, however, the use of advanced imaging technology (AIT) and pat-downs are creating a concern among passengers, even as terrorists announce new threats.
Image: COURTESY OF THE TSA
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With Thanksgiving kicking the end-of-year travel season into full gear, concerns over air travel safety have predictably resurfaced. The main issues this time surround the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) advanced imaging technology (AIT) machines—even though the agency has been rolling out these devices over the past few years—as well as the TSA-administered security pat-downs of passengers who refuse to submit to AIT screening.
Controversy has bubbled up this month on a number of fronts. Some question whether AIT, which uses millimeter wave and backscatter imaging technology to detect metallic and nonmetallic objects and substances, poses a health risk. Other major concerns are that AIT images are the equivalent of a virtual strip search, that the TSA stores these images and that the machines tend to malfunction.
The TSA denies all of these allegations but recently softened its stance on its latest approach to aviation security. In a statement posted to the TSA's Web site on Sunday, agency administrator John Pistole noted that the TSA will work to make the procedures "as minimally invasive as possible" and that all security programs must undergo "a continual process of refinement and adjustment" as feedback is received from the public.
Yet Pistole also cited recent threats as the reason for the increased vigilance at airports. Earlier this month, a group known as Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula announced Operation Hemorrhage, a campaign to launch a series of smaller, low-cost attacks (the explosives on the cargo planes intercepted in Dubai and England cost $4,200 to make, the group says) against the U.S and its interests that disrupt commerce and perpetuate an "environment of security phobia." (pdf)
To address health concerns that have been raised about the new scanning equipment, the TSA has said that the backscatter radiation doses for the individuals being screened, operators and bystanders "were well below the dose limits specified by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)." The agency also says that the energy projected by millimeter wave technology is "thousands of times less than a cell phone transmission." The TSA expects to deploy a total of 450 AIT units at airports across the U.S. by the end of this year.
Reactions to the pat-downs have added increased scrutiny of the TSA's approach to tightening security. Some say the TSA has crossed a personal privacy boundary by authorizing pat-downs for any passengers who set off metal-detector alarms or opt out of using the AIT. High-profile protests have been initiated, including one by 15-minute YouTube hero John Tyner, who refused both to use the AIT and to submit to a pat-down on November 13. And Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., is calling for a review of the TSA's pat-down procedures as well as the replacement of TSA workers with private contractors.
Far less visible are suggestions for practical alternatives to the TSA's security policies. Scientific American asked Brian Michael Jenkins, a senior advisor at the RAND Corp. and a former member of the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security, for his perspective on the TSA's latest moves and other options for tightening aviation security.
[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]
The TSA has been testing Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) machines for years. Why has this become such a high-profile issue over the past few weeks?
Though they've been studying this for years, it was only after the December [25, 2009] attempted bombing of the flight over Detroit by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab that led to the decision to deploy thousands of them across the United States. The time of year also has something to do with the attention this is getting. We're going into the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, which are peak travel times when people who do not otherwise travel find themselves at airports and on airplanes. So you have larger passenger loads, and you tend to have longer lines at security check-points. You also have the news media's seasonal coverage of commercial aviation issues this time of year. This year, these travel stories have elements that are particularly attractive to our contemporary news media: First, it's a story about terrorism and, number two, if you read between the lines in these stories, particularly on television, you're talking about groping, modesty, nakedness and the genital area. This combines terrorism with titillation and leads to precisely the kind of lurid coverage that has come to characterize the American news media.
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13 Comments
Add CommentAl-Qaeda says boo, and we jump. TSA is essentially part of the stimulus package. It also costs our country a solid chunk of change each year in travel inefficiency. I realize it is not politically correct to advance this opinion; but the TSA, by seeing us as the suspect every day, weakens us as a nation both monetarily and in terms of national moral. I do not feel safer, because there's always another way to make us feel unsafe (e.g. the recent mail attempt) and react in fearful fashion.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe irony is that, as we tout our freedom in the face of our assailants (who rightly should be fought virulently), we become incrementally and almost imperceptibly less free and more controlled all the time. It's important to keep in mind the cost of this "security". We think we are safer with all the scanners, so we are lulled to forget about the real dangers that life poses by its mere existence; dangers that we send our youth to face head on while we stand docile in line.
I'm interested in civil discourse on this matter. All shrill and histrionic comments will be ignored.
Cheers.
I am a 68 year old handicapped frequent flyer with a great deal of metal in my body. Recent flights have been made in a great deal of pain due to the highly intrusive “pat downs”. Even though I offer to show them the are where a tendon is on the surface the then proceed to vigorously attack this area of my body. Purposly attacking a disabled American is not only unconsttutional it is against Federal law (ADA). BHO and Janet allowing this to happen is inexcuseable!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf memory serves (mine often does not), Lt. Col. North took a bit of heat for his testimony on Al-Qaeda from Sen. Gore.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSuper interview. Indeed, "We really need to fundamentally rethink the strategy of how we do this". If only the politicians would do this.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFirst, he's quite wrong about the "Underwear Bomber". Clearly, he has never looked at what these things show. They show anything under clothing.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSecond, to "add randomness" is an ivory tower suggestion. This does nothing to screw up terrorists. They have specific needs, and mostly they are very primitive in capability. It is not the KGB we face. It is a bunch of people socked into a rote memorization world of rules. Creativity of that kind does not come easy to them.
Third, behavior is not a guide. There are plenty of drugs that make people calm, no matter what happens. The Underwear Bomber used drugs to calm himself. That is easy.
Last, the one thing we can do better is to target our searches better by profiling.
Aside from that, sooner or later, there will be successes. He is completely right about the debate. Because a major part of Al Qaeda strategy is to get the dinosaur to bankrupt itself. They saw it happen to the USSR. They want it to happen to us.
Is it truly rational for us to spend over $1 trillion on wars in response to 2,977 deaths and damage to buildings? Influenza kills 10 times that each year, and at least twice that many people under 50. But it is very hard for us to be rational about these things.
I am sure many Americans preparing to travel on Thanksgiving are having second thoughts about flying, because of the well publicized new so called security procedures implemented by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Clearly, the groping of babies and grandmothers for explosives is a waste of resources.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo-called "security measures" at airports are nothing more than PR to reassure the irrational public that they are safe from terrorism methods that have been used in the PAST(not necessarily now or in the future). The only airport method that might actually catch terrorists is profiling. This is because no terrorist can know or anticipate whether he/she fits the profile. The public could be reassured by using traditional, screening methods (such as metal detectors, patdowns, explosive sniffers, etc) but on a random basis. Sometimes every passenger would be examined, sometimes every second person in the morning, every tenth in the afternoon etc. These are just examples. The pattern could be changed at any time quite quickly and easily.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBoth a secret method (profiling by unidentified profilers) and a public method (metal detectors, etc.)are needed. No public method will ever be prospective, i.e., predictive of future terrorist techniques. Hence, they are basically useless except as PR. Besides, these public techniques need to be 100% reliable . It takes just one false negative (a failure to identify a successful terrorist) and the system will lose all credibility with the public.
I have a NEXUS card and am still subjected to inane and useless questioning on the US side (Where am I going? Why am I going there? How long will I be? Who cares? I'm a low risk and shouldn't be questioned at all.) What good is the card as a security device if I am still being questioned? On the Canadian side, after swiping one's card and displaying the card with one's photo on it, one is just waved through. US take note!! An airline card should work just the same way.
Since the US seems to have trouble getting anything right: education, prison, health systems are all in trouble. Is it any surprise that the "security" system is in trouble, too. And, sadly, it won't or can't be fixed.
I am very sorry about your troubles. My son's mother-in-law was (who wears a steel brace on her knee was strip-searched! A lot of this is simply "cover your ass" behavior and to seem to be thorough at one's job.I bet this method has yielded zero terrorists and a lot of people just like you.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe TSA cannot exempt any category of person from examination. As soon as terrorists know that a category is exempt, that's where they could easily place a bomb.What you intend to say, I think, is that each of us is a profiler.It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the people in line with us at the airport are not terrorists.
No, the "groping" of babies and grandmothers is worthwhile. Most people don't remember that a while back a woman in England was married by a muslim jihadist. He got her pregnant, and put her on a plane with a bomb that she did not know about. The bomb was found because the brits had informants that tipped them off.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe woman had no clue that the whole thing, the marriage, the baby, everything was just a ruse to get her to carry a bomb onto a plane and blow herself up.
The best person to get a bomb through airport security is a person who has no clue that they have one.
Could have sworn I saw a DARPA report that said not only were trained dogs still the best detectors of explosive materials, they are by far the cheapest.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDogs and Hogs. Use their incredible sense of smell to whiff out explosives.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnother solution is to revert to the Delta style of aircraft and design them structurally to absorb an explosion midair. We don't need windows when we have individualized video screens that also could show different views out of the aircraft.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA question: Is it possible for a reader to actually submit a question for the "Experts", or are the topics determined by the writers on Scientific American?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this