Posted on 07/26/2007 5:52:24 AM PDT by Daffynition
SAN DIEGO – The San Diego director of the Transportation Security Administration said Wednesday that a recent report of a possible terrorist “dry run” at Lindbergh Field stemmed from what turned out to be a false alarm.
The TSA circulated an intelligence bulletin Friday noting the July 5 discovery of two suspicious ice packs found inside a checked bag at the Harbor Drive airfield. The bulletin was obtained by NBC News, which first reported the story.
The bulletin said the incident at Lindbergh and three others at airports around the country since 2006 could indicate some type of pre-attack security probing by terrorists.
The bulletin said the ice packs found in San Diego contained clay.
But local TSA Security Director Michael J. Aguilar – and the chief of the police agency that patrols the airport – said Wednesday that while screeners initially thought the packs held a clay-like substance, it was quickly determined they contained the usual blue gel.
Aguilar said he didn't know why the TSA memo, issued in Washington, reported the substance as clay.
Christopher White, a spokesman with the TSA in Washington, contradicted the San Diego officials and said the agency stood by its bulletin.
“The information that we have in the report is for official use only and I am not going to discuss our sources,” White said.
Aguilar said TSA screeners at Lindbergh spotted the ice packs while working an X-ray machine. He said he believed the incident occurred in Terminal 2.
San Diego Harbor Police Chief Kirk Sanfilippo said the incident involved a bag checked by a woman in her 60s flying out of Lindbergh Field.
Sanfilippo said a routine swab test of the bag indicated the presence of a chemical that is sometimes used in explosives or medications. Inside the luggage, inspectors found cold packs, wrapped in clear packing tape, that were old and leaking.
The TSA bulletin said the ice packs were covered in duct tape and had clay inside of them.
Sanfilippo said they weren't covered in duct tape and didn't have clay inside of them. “It is a little bit off,” he said of the bulletin.
The chief said a Harbor Police officer found what appeared to be hardened old gel that had seeped out of the ice packs and dried, leaving a clay-like substance around the outside edge of the pack.
Investigators with the county's Metro Arson Strike Team were called in to assess the ice packs, and they determined there was no risk.
In all, it took about three hours for the woman's luggage to be cleared by security officials.
After the packs were cleared, the woman told authorities she didn't want to keep them and they were thrown away, Sanfilippo said.
Sanfilippo said he first heard the San Diego incident was being highlighted in the TSA bulletin early Wednesday morning on the TV news.
He said his agency sporadically receives TSA bulletins, but that he plans to make sure the notifications become more regular.
“I can't say they come to us routinely,” Sanfilippo said. “We have gotten them, but it is more sporadic than constant. It has now raised awareness.”
Aguilar said TSA alerts are circulated on a daily basis to make sure they agency's staff has access to the latest security concerns, even if they later prove false or inconclusive.
“We get these all the time,” he said. “Almost all the time they prove false.”
The TSA memo also reported curious seizures at the Milwaukee, Houston and Baltimore airports in recent weeks.
TSA regional spokeswoman Jennifer Peppin said her agency has issued more than 90 bulletins in the past six months.
“It is really a standard way of communicating that information to the people out there on the front line,” Peppin said.
“I think it's really crucial to focus on the fact that there is no specific credible threat related to this information. It is simply just part of an overall environment of being alert.”
Nothing to see here, please move along. /MIB
"We have nothing to fear, but fear itself"
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