Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Feds sort through ideas, devices to boost anti-terror forces

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2003 01:29:23 -0400

Feds sort through ideas, devices to boost anti-terror forces
Source: Scripps Howard
Publication date: 2003-07-28

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- In the last 17 months, the Transportation
Security Administration has received more than 30,000 proposals for
products or methods to improve defenses against terrorists.

The worst suggestion involved using a type of rodent with a keen sense of
smell to patrol baggage conveyers, said Randy Null, assistant
administrator and chief of technology for the agency.

The idea was that the most suspicious bags would draw the most
rodents.

"The rodent maybe had good capability in terms of detection but it was
a little off on the deployment strategy," said Null.

The surge in federal spending on homeland security post-9/11 has
produced an explosion of companies and products that Null can only
compare to the number who were going to solve the anticipated "Y2K"
computer problem.

One recent exposition in Washington featured electronic locks, X-ray
scanners, pedestrian barriers, motion sensors, vapor tracers, laser and
infrared scanners, blast shields, security cameras, bio-testers and
personal dosimeters.

So how does the TSA pick the winners?

"If there is an initial claim that they have a silver-bullet solution that's
going to solve all of our problems, you're immediately suspect," Null said.

Technologies that pass initial muster are then tested here at a TSA
laboratory that is outfitted with blast bunkers and 10,000 "lost" bags
donated by the airlines.

As with the rodents, some of the technologies being tested offer great
detection capabilities but have their drawbacks.

For instance, there's the passenger-screening portal having what Null
described as "Superman eyes." The machine clearly shows hidden
weapons, including plastic explosives that won't show up on metal
detectors. But it also outlines the male and female anatomy in graphic
detail.

Even if officials could reconfigure the software to impose a digital "fig
leaf" on the image, the portal's size and expense will probably relegate it
to a secondary screening task, said Null. Passengers who flunk the metal
detector would be given a choice between a body search by hand or by
the see-all scanner.

Another portal detects the presence of explosive residues with a burst
of hair-mussing air from below. The machine can detect whether someone
recently handled explosives, even if they washed their hands 20 times
since then. The problem is, it also will set off an alert if someone has
recently fired a gun, set off fireworks or even loaded certain types of
ammunition.

Blast-resistant containers are tested here using some of the roughly
10,000 lost bags sent here by airlines. The containers work but weigh 100
pounds more and cost several thousand dollars more than do traditional
containers. Probably only one or two will be used on planes for the most
suspicious cargo, Null said.

Integrating all the technology is another problem.

For instance, customs agents who check cargo now carry devices that
detect the presence of radioactivity. But if one tried to incorporate such
detectors at passenger portals, the devices would throw off the other
detectors, Null said.

"At some point it's about risk management and the cost of the security
versus the threat and whether there are alternative means that give you
security levels at a comparable cost," Null said.

For instance, the TSA is under congressional pressure to outfit
passenger airplanes with flares and other measures to evade shoulder-fired
missiles. Military planes carry such protection.

But the maneuvers a military plane uses to avoid missiles may not
work on a passenger plane, and "there are also some safety issues
associated with putting flares on commercial aircraft," Null said. The
agency is now mapping the most vulnerable sites near airports and it may
be more cost-effective to station video cameras in those sites, Null said.

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