Posted on 08/15/2006 6:51:59 AM PDT by Rutles4Ever
X-ray machines that screen airline passengers' shoes cannot detect explosives, according to a Homeland Security Department report on aviation screening.
Findings from the report, obtained by The Associated Press, did not stop the Transportation Security Administration from announcing Sunday that all airline passengers must remove their shoes and run them through X-ray machines before boarding commercial aircraft.
The shoe-scanning requirement was ordered as the government fine-tunes new security procedures since British police last week broke up a terrorist plot to assemble and detonate bombs aboard as many as 10 airliners crossing the Atlantic Ocean from Britain to the United States.
Among the new procedures are a ban on liquids and gels in airline passenger cabins, more hand searches of carryon luggage, and random double screening of passengers at boarding gates.
On Sunday, the TSA made it mandatory for shoes to be run through X-ray machines as passengers go through metal detectors. They were begun in late 2001, after the arrest of Richard Reid aboard a trans-Atlantic flight when he tried to ignite an explosive device hidden in his shoe. The shoe scans have been optional for several years.
In its April 2005 report, "Systems Engineering Study of Civil Aviation Security _ Phase I," the Homeland Security Department concluded that images on X-ray machines don't provide the information necessary to detect explosives.
Machines used at most airports to scan hand-held luggage, purses, briefcases and shoes have not been upgraded to detect explosives since the report was issued.
TSA spokeswoman Yolanda Clark said putting shoes on the X-ray machines makes the screening process more efficient and eliminates confusion. "We do not have a specific threat regarding shoes," Clark said. "In an abundance of caution we require all shoes to be removed and X-rayed to mitigate a variety of threats."
The Homeland Security report said that "even a 1/4-inch insole of sheet explosive" could create the kind of blast that reportedly brought down Pan Am flight 103, the airliner that blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland, in December 1988, killing 270 people in the air and on the ground.
"To help close this gap, the percentage of shoes subjected to explosives inspection should be significantly increased," the report said.
The Homeland Security report recommends that explosives trace detection, or ETD, be used on the shoes and hands of passengers when the screeners determine they must be checked more thoroughly.
"Within the current state of the art, they afford the only meaningful explosives detection capability at the checkpoint," the report said.
ETD involves a screener using a dry pad on the end of a wand to wipe a surface _ baggage, shoes, clothing _ and then putting the pad into a machine called an ion mobility spectrometer. The machine can detect tiny particles, or traces, of explosives.
Screeners do use ETD on passengers who have been selected to be screened a second time after going through the checkpoint.
TSA chief Kip Hawley recently acknowledged that the threat from liquid explosives isn't going away _ and new security measures designed to thwart the threat may be around for awhile.
The agency is testing equipment to detect liquid explosives at six airports, Hawley said, and he called the technology "very promising."
But, he said, "with a million and a half to 2 million passengers every day, it is not practical to think that we are going to take every bottle and scan it through these liquid scanners."
"We are not going to wait for the perfect device to be deployable," Hawley said in an interview Friday. "We're going to look for a total system to be at the level to make us comfortable."
The agency wants to make better use of a limited resource _ airport screeners, whose numbers have been capped by Congress at 45,000. The TSA handles security for 450 commercial airports.
Among the changes the TSA is considering, according to TSA spokeswoman Ellen Howe:
_Hire more people to take baggage-handling responsibilities from screeners so the screeners can focus on security responsibilities.
_Have screeners, instead of contract employees hired by airlines, check IDs and boarding passes.
_Expand a program that trains screeners to look for unusual behavior in passengers that might indicate malicious intent. Called SPOT _ Screening Passengers by Observation Technique _ it's used in at least 12 airports, Howe said.
Those changes may require approval by Congress and agreement with airports and the airline industry, which might have to bear some of the cost, Howe said.
The airlines might go along with the plan, an industry spokesman said.
"We favor this proposal provided it doesn't add costs to the carriers," said David Castelveter, spokesman for the Air Transport Association.
Long article, but the first line sums it up. Might I ask, "WTF?"
they need to train more dogs and buy more chemical sniffers.
Just the media trying to downplay the seriousness of the plot to blow up British airliners. This report didn't come out 5 months ago, nor did it come out 5 years ago.
The gist of the article:
Grow up. You are going to have to accept a tiny risk of harm if you fly.
"Might I ask, "WTF?"
The "TF" of the situation is that the writer dosen't know of what she speaks and is writing to scare people.
X-Rays obviously cannot tell the chemical makeup of what it sees or we would have no need for medical biopsies.
The X-Rays detect that something is different then a normal shoe, leading to further investigation.
>You win the Cigar! The press is just dumber than a box of rocks.
Nah, the gist of the article is to play on the emotions of those people who have felt "inconvenienced" since 9/11.
Exactly. What's the alternative to putting shoes through x-ray? NOT putting them through x-ray?
Yeah! That'll do it!
No matter what is done, it's either too much ('...takes too much time! Lines are too long! My civil liberty hurts mommy!') or it's too little ('....seee! G. W. Bush is not protecting us enough. I'm going to vote for Hillary! and teach the GOP a lesson!')
Fristrating!!! (typo?)
Conservatives OUGHT to be demanding that government/TSA get OUT of the airline security business and simply indemnify airlines such that they are allowed to refuse service to anyone without fear of a discrimination lawsuit.
You go up to the counter, check in, bag screen, and if American Airlines rejects you as a security risk, or even thinks you look funny, then you ride Continental. Fail them, you ride Southwest. If all the airlines think you're a risky looking swarthy guy, you don't fly and the Congress backs them up.
Such a full measure never happen, you say? Then quit bitching about your half-assed security instead.
"The shoe scans have been optional for several years."
Not where I have flown. I was told it was "strongly advisable" to remove my shoes for scanning at each and every security gate I tried to cross.
That doesn't mean "optional" as in "no biggie, do it or not".
Scanning shoes would detect if they were tampered with or had the heels hollowed out , contained metals, stuff like that, even if they did not get the actual explosives.
Sure, that has always been my experience. Everyone taking their shoes off, running them through the x-ray machine, and then putting them back on makes the screening process much more efficient and eliminates a bunch of confusion.
If I felt any safer because of the "inconvenience" I wouldn't mind.
To this point it's only been fluff and show.
If you want security, copy Israel's security. PROFILE!!!!
Xrays can detect the absence of materials that make up the interior of a normal heel. If they find shoes with out the material that makes up the normal heel, they do a physical examination.
The alternative is to make fly barefoot and buy new shoes at your destination.
If you want to know how the media can fool the people look in the Mirror.
Technically the article is correct. A blasting cap filled with explosives may x-ray the same as a blasting cap filled with yogurt.
So what is the poor screener to do when the outlines of a blasting cap appear on the screen?
We are domed.
Of course it doesn't show the explosives but it shows any abnormal hollowed out portions of the shoes that can contain explosives and then if that's detected they can do further screening.
We have had TWO airline disasters since 9/11. How many did we have in the five years prior to that?
Security screening works.
If a terrorist manages to shove a bomb up his ass to blow up a plane, at least he's earned it.
There is no end to the objects and substances that Muslim terrorists can bring on board an airplane and kill the passengers or wreck the thing. Our methods for screening for dangerous objects include only honesty (law-abiding, non-terrorists voluntarily give up certain items or substances for no good reason), X-rays for some checked baggage and all carry-ons (detects only SOME dangerous objects), metal detectors for passengers (detects only metal objects - does not detect ceramic blades, for instance), and very expensive explosives sniffer devices (detects only some specific types of explosive substances). NONE of those methods and NONE of the current methods would stop a Muslim terrorist from carrying out a slightly modified version of the most recent liquid/gel plot.
The only sane screening method is to target the population demographic that is responsible for 99.99% of terrorist acts. The only sane thing we're doing is deploying armed Air Marshals on some flights. But the policies under which Air Marshals must operate have reduced their effectiveness considerably.
Screen YMMs, not Gatorade and nail clippers.
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