Security at airports still full of holes

As the summer travel season moves into high gear, concerns are growing about gaps in security at the nation's airports.

Lawmakers, airport security officials and other security experts have warned of inadequate air cargo inspections, a failure to thoroughly vet the backgrounds of airport workers, and delays in a system that would screen all checked luggage for explosives.

In frantic e-mails, airport officials around the country recently vented their anxieties after the federal government issued new details about further cuts to the nation's airport security workforce.

Dulles International Airport already was losing passenger screeners at a rate of at least one a day, said Scott McHugh, the airport's security director, in an e-mail to colleagues at other East Coast airports. He said that with fewer workers, the airport was now able to screen only 57 percent of checked luggage for explosives.

"Up to now we have been able to hide this fact from the public," McHugh, an official with the Transportation Security Administration, wrote in a June 6 e-mail obtained by The Washington Post.

McHugh further worried that when Congress recesses for the July 4 holiday, some 50 to 60 lawmakers will fly out of Dulles. "They will all see the machines sitting idle," he wrote, referring to the screening equipment. "We cannot wait any longer, we need to hire or transfer people here NOW!"

Since the hijackings on Sept. 11, 2001, millions of flights have went on without incident. In a short time, the TSA -- the federal agency entrusted with protecting airports and airliners -- has undertaken a raft of aggressive measures to beef up security.

But as the e-mails and other recent incidents suggest, behind-the-scenes lapses have weakened airport security in ways that may not be readily apparent to travelers.

Unsecure cargo

To some critics, the most glaring hole in aviation security is the lack of screening for explosives in cargo and luggage stored under passenger seats in an airplane's hold. Airlines carry not only passenger luggage in the belly of the plane but also cargo, such as electronics equipment, online deliveries and virtually anything a company sends from one location to another. None of this cargo, which sits next to the luggage, is screened for explosives.

"The more the public learns about this, the closer to a guarantee that politically the Bush administration will have to respond," said Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., who has filed legislation that would require the TSA to screen cargo with explosives-detection machines. "It's inexcusable that passengers are screened but cargo is not screened."

The TSA has improved a plan to track air cargo by identifying the companies that ship the goods. The agency plans to spend $5 million on research this year to explore whether technology used to screen luggage can also be used to check cargo, Johnson said.

The government has considered various proposals to scan cargo and luggage since 1988, when Pan Am Flight 103 went down over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 259 on board and 11 people on the ground. A terrorist blew up the plane by packing a bomb in a suitcase that was placed in the plane's cargo hold.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, Congress imposed a deadline for screening all checked luggage, using devices that detect explosives. The TSA proudly announced that it had met the deadline last December, but it widened the definition of screening. In practice only a fraction of all luggage is screened by machine.

At about a dozen airports, including some of the nation's largest hubs, the TSA "screens" luggage by ensuring that every bag loaded onto a plane is matched to a passenger on board -- a precaution that would not prevent a suicidal terrorist from blowing up an aircraft.

"It's not clear to me that anything rigorous has been done to meet the intent of the law" that requires the screening of luggage, said Bob Poole, director of Reason Foundation, a public-policy think tank based in Los Angeles. "If that's all they're doing is matching passengers and bags, it's pretty pathetic."

Missing the goal

Congress granted the TSA an extension until the end of this year to use machines to scan all luggage. But it now appears the agency is falling behind in that goal. Integrating a luggage-scanning system into the baggage sorting areas at airports has proved to be complicated and expensive, according to Airports Council International-North America, an organization of airport owners.

Airports "are starting to focus on this newest deadline because they know they have to get started on their work to have any chance of getting close," said Steve Van Beek, senior vice president of policy and strategic development of the airports' group. He said it will be "very difficult" for the TSA to meet its deadline this year.

The TSA's Johnson said the agency is working closely with Congress to meet the deadline. "It is an evolving situation and clearly that is in our sights as an important (goal) to achieve," he said.

Security breaches by airport and airline workers themselves leave some in Congress uneasy. At Dulles, the TSA discovered in an audit several months ago that off-duty airport and airline workers were using airport identification badges to access secure doors while they were traveling as passengers and carrying luggage that had not been screened.

Johnson declined to say how many employees were caught. He said no one was punished. The practice apparently continues. Just last week at Dulles, an observer noticed a man with a security badge swiping his card through a reader and punching in a code. The man then passed through the secure door with a large piece of luggage on rollers and a garment bag on his shoulder.

"We needed to remind airport and airline employees that this door is only for use at work, not travel," Johnson said. "We'll continue to monitor the situation to make sure. If there is a violation, we will follow up on it."