New security changes little at U.S. airports

Since the Christmas Day bombing attempt, when a man known to intelligence officials tried to blow up an airliner bound for Detroit, heightened aviation security has been a drumbeat, leaving Americans with the impression that extra security checks and hassling new rules would make getting on a plane more complicated.

But that really didn't happen.

Security at U.S. airports, including Philadelphia's, looks pretty much as it did before Dec. 25.

The new security procedures are aimed not so much at the bad guys lurking within the United States, but at stopping bad guys outside the country from getting in.

The tougher guidelines for U.S.-bound flights - pat-down searches, intensive screening of carry-on bags, extra questioning at foreign airports - still may not have prevented Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab from boarding that Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam. He had a visa. His name was not on a "no fly" list.

Should U.S. fliers feel any safer?

Possibly not.

The White House said Abdulmutallab carried an explosive device sewn into his underwear to board Flight 253.

But would advanced airport-screening technology - such as a full body scan - have detected a bomb in underwear, or in a body cavity? Security experts suggest that only a medical X-ray, which passes through the body, may spot certain kinds of danger.

"I don't want to speculate as to whether this individual would have been stopped if he had undergone screening through a whole-body imaging machine," said Ann Davis, spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration.

"However, TSA is very supportive of the technology. We've invested in 150 new machines, and we have found them to be very effective in identifying objects concealed under clothing," she said.

The new scanners will be installed in U.S. airports starting soon. "We have money to buy an additional 300, bringing the total up to 450," Davis said. "We will deploy at least 300 of those 450 in 2010."

So far, only 40 body scanners are in place, spread among 19 airports nationwide. The TSA screens more than two million passengers a day at thousands of security checkpoints in more than 450 commercial airports.

President Obama said Thursday that the Department of Homeland Security would acquire $1 billion worth of new technology, including bomb-detecting equipment and the imaging machines, which have raised privacy concerns because they scan underneath clothing to look for hidden weapons and explosives and show the person's body.

Passengers departing Philadelphia International Airport have likely not noticed any recent security changes.

Philadelphia police have increased airport patrols with bomb-sniffing canine dogs. "We've increased our vigilance, our patrols," said airport spokesman Mark Pesce.

But TSA has not issued specific security changes to any U.S. airport, Pesce said. The U.S. threat level for domestic and international flights remains orange, as it has been for 31/2 years.

Philadelphia airport's 800 city employees, and thousands of others who are tenants or work at the airport - 42,000 in all - are being encouraged to be "vigilant, if they see something out of the ordinary to report it," Pesce said.

Police Officer James Mooney, on patrol last week with a canine dog, said: "Now we are more alert, but we've always been on alert. We go every tour, 24 hours, patrolling train platforms, terminals, baggage, ticket, and cargo areas."

Besides 10 police dogs, the TSA has three bomb-sniffing airport dogs, which recently did not pass recertification tests. A flap erupted when U.S. Reps. Robert Brady (D., Pa.) and Rob Andrews (D., N.J.) learned last week that the dogs had failed the tests.

Airport officials responded that the three dogs were being trained and should be recertified by the end of the month. Meanwhile, the 10 police dogs continue normal inspection functions, Pesce said.

"We can assure travelers that Philadelphia has ample canine resources to meet security requirements," said Davis, the TSA spokeswoman.

"Security at domestic airports has been ramped up, but we did so using security measures like the dogs, and our behavior-detection officers, and additional law enforcement presence. In other words, using measures that passengers are very used to seeing," she said.

The additional security measures would not affect the travel experience in U.S. airports, Davis said, adding: "Security measures that have increased may differ airport to airport. So passengers shouldn't expect to see the same thing everywhere they travel."

Most U.S.-bound fliers arriving at Philadelphia's Terminal A-West reported stepped-up screening such as pat-down searches, meticulous searches of carry-on bags, occasional prohibitions in leaving their seat the last hour of a flight, and extra questioning at foreign airports.

Those getting extra scrutiny include all passengers flying from or through 14 countries designated as "state sponsors of terrorism" or countries "of interest" to suspected terrorists.

"We noticed a lot of security; they checked our bag two times," said Allentown resident Maria Altagracia, traveling with her son Alexander Nathaniel and her husband, Cesar Nathaniel, from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

"We had to go through metal detectors twice. I had a pat down," she said. "I like it. I feel safe. They are doing their job."

Sarah Shemeld, of Sheffield, England, said that after going through Customs in Manchester, everybody was searched again "and all the bags were checked again, which delayed the flight. They really did double-check your bag and search everybody going through. I had a pat down."

Christiane Wuerzinger of Manayunk, traveling home with daughter Nina, 2, from Frankfurt, said "usually with a child everything goes a little quicker, but today they were very detailed."

"They checked the stroller for explosives. We had to take off our boots, Nina as well." But, she said, "I feel good because I'm traveling with her. I'd rather wait 10 minutes more than feel sorry afterward."

Several foreign carriers that operate flights to Philadelphia said they were complying with the new security directives.

"We are doing 100 percent pat-down screening of all passengers, and a search of all carry-on luggage and cargo," said Air Jamaica's director of security, Howard Morrison.

British Airways, which has instituted a one-bag carry-on rule, said all U.S.-bound passengers were getting full pat downs. "There is 100 percent secondary searching," said airline spokesman John Lampl.

Carriers that do not comply can be barred from flying to the United States.

"If they refuse, the U.S. can say 'You can no longer fly to the U.S.,' " said Steve Lott, spokesman for the International Air Transport Association, which represents 230 carriers worldwide.

The trade group has called for airport security to combine advanced screening technology with passenger-intelligence information.

"There's no magic-bullet technology that's going to catch all threats all the time," Lott said. "We're not saying we don't want body scanners. We're just saying it's not a Band-Aid or quick fix. This is an opportunity to redesign the security checkpoint."

President Obama last week ordered intelligence agencies to change the way terrorism intelligence is distributed, analyzed, and checked against watch lists used to identify potential attackers bound for the United States. "We are at war," the president said.