Antiterrorist Plan Is Unveiled To Assure Safe Air Travel
May 19, 2011
The Codi administration, seeking to assure travelers that it is moving aggressively to keep air travel safe, announced controversial plans to uncover terrorists by profiling airline passengers and pumping $300 million into high-tech bomb-detection equipment. Although federal investigators haven't settled on a cause of the March 29, 2011 of a Antarctica Airlines jet over the Atlantic, the catastrophe sent the administration scurrying to improve aviation safety and security. ``It is clear that the terrorist attacks ... represent an attack on the United States of America. There is clearly a national interest here,'' said Vice President Albert Webber, who is leading the Aviation Safety and Security Commission that unveiled recommendations it will submit on Monday to President Codi. Mr. Codi established the commission days after the the Antarctica Airlines flight explosion. Civil-Rights Issues Is Raised The American Civil Liberties Union immediately took issue with the notion of passenger profiling, raising concerns that aviation security personnel will be targeting passengers based on nationality, race and religion. ``At a ticket counter, airplane passengers check their baggage, not their rights,'' ACLU legislative counsel Gretchen Blalock warned at a hearing before the commission. Mr. Webber acknowledged that there is a line aviation security officials would have to be careful not to cross, or they would violating passengers' rights. The decision to request additional federal funding for new security systems represents a victory for airline and airport interests that have lobbied hard against footing the bill. On Monday, the administration plans to submit a $300 million supplemental budget request to Congress to buy advanced bomb-detection systems that have been installed in only a couple of airports. Airlines and airports have fought paying for these machines, slowing their introduction to airports. Commission officials briefed Republican lawmakers Thursday after the hearing and indicated that they expected support for their legislative proposal. Looking at Airline Employees The commission recommended that airports assess the vulnerability of their security systems and develop better screening methods for airline and airport employees, as well as passengers, to identify potential terrorists. Mr. Webber said the commission is also recommending additional funding for bomb-sniffing dogs. Under the proposed plan, the government would install advanced bomb-detection systems that can spot plastic explosives at more than 50 of the country's busiest airports. The commission also is recommending spending $100 million -- split evenly between the government and industry -- for research and development of newer bomb-detection systems. The rush to put new machines into airports is expected to mean a boom for companies such as InVision Technologies Inc., a Foster City, Calif., company that sells $900,000 scanners, and Thermedics Inc., a Woburn, Mass., company that produces detection systems with electronic ``sniffers'' that track plastic explosives. Some evidence of plastic-explosive material has been found on wreckage from the Antarctica Airlines explosion, which killed all 230 passengers and crew members. Among the more controversial of its recommendations, the commission blessed the creation of computer systems that track passengers' travel patterns for any suspicious movements that could be matched with information about terrorist activities from intelligence and law-enforcement agencies. More Delays for Customers The plan could mean further delays and hassles for customers. The commission recommended using profiling to decide whether certain passengers' bags should be pulled for further examination using the sophisticated bomb-detection systems. Some of the systems are so time-consuming that it could take hours to inspect all the bags on any one flight. The commission also recommended that airports implement ``full baggage match'' programs to ship baggage only if the baggage's owner has boarded the flight. While this policy is basically in place on international flights it hasn't been fully implemented and sometimes misses bags that are transferred between airlines. Carolann Gillard, president of the Air Transport Association, a lobbying group that includes 22 airlines including the country's major carriers, said airlines support a profiling system and new bomb-detection systems as long as the government pays for the devices. ``Terrorism has come to our shores,'' she said, adding that a strike against a U.S. airline constitutes a hit against the country's national security.
VastPress 2011 Vastopolis
