Holes In U.S. Air Security?

Monday, August 21, 2006

By Jeanne Meserve, CNN's Paula Zahn Now

August 11, 2006

Transcript

PAULA ZAHN: So as most of you know out there, this is the peak of the summer travel season and the terror arrests in Britain are making life even more difficult on this side of the Atlantic. Our top story coverage turns to travelers and the nation's huge air security system all struggling with tough brand new rules. You can't bring anything liquid on the plane with you anymore not even a bottle of water. But the bottom line from the experts tonight is this, 100 percent security is almost impossible. Here's homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): His department does not have a technology to detect liquid explosives like those the alleged terrorists wanted to use. But Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says the blanket ban on carrying liquids and gels onto aircraft is working.

MICHAEL CHERTOFF, SECY. OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Again I want to reiterate, flying is safe.

MESERVE: But some experts say aviation security is chock full of holes. Most air cargo is not screened. There's no system to ward off attacks with shoulder-fired missiles. Some airport personnel with access to secure areas and even aircraft don't have to pass through security checkpoints and over and over again, the government's own security watch dogs have smuggled prohibited items past screeners and their machines.

One expert is most horrified by this. The airlines, not the government, are checking passenger names against terror watch lists.

JAMES CARAFANO, THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION: Here we are, we'll be at the fifth anniversary of 9/11 and we still haven't done the one kind of practical, common-sense thing we could do to keep terrorists off airplanes.

MESERVE: A member of the commission that investigated 9/11, says aviation security is rife with questionable decisions and pork barrel spending.

TIM ROEMER, FMR. 9/11 COMMISSION MEMBER: Too often some of these contracts are let to particular businesses in districts of members of Congress rather than based on an intelligence assessment and the best technologies.

MESERVE: With threats morphing and multiplying, absolute security is impossible, the head of the Transportation Security Administration says. But he argues that federal air marshals, reinforced cockpit door, combat air patrols and technology, provide effective layers of security, if routines are varied and kept unpredictable.

EDMUND "KIP" HAWLEY, TSA DIRECTOR: What we don't is to allow a terrorist to engineer his process, knowing exactly what we're going to do. MESERVE: Hawley also wants to expand the training of security personnel to recognize suspicious behavior. He says it is inexpensive yet effective.

HAWLEY: We'd rather put the effort into that security, which guards against any kind of threat, rather than spend millions of dollars, wait many years, and then only deploy it where you can afford it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: So, Jeanne, when we think about these measures that were put into effect yesterday, do we expect them to be in place permanently?

MESERVE: Well, Secretary Chertoff said today that there would be adjustments over time and Kip Hawley, the head of the TSA, told me he did not expect the ban on gels and liquids to be permanent. But he said travelers should not expect any relaxation of that rule for the next several weeks at least. Paula.

ZAHN: All right, Jeanne Meserve, thanks so much.