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| Steps to safer air travel |
| By thenewstribune.com |
| Published: 01/22/2010 |
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The problem in stopping terrorist travel to the United States is not simply one of better airport screening. Trying to turn every airport into another Maginot Line or Fort Knox will fail sooner or later. The best way to stop terrorist plots is to frustrate them before they get started. Adopting some long-overdue common-sense initiatives could help close security gaps. Here is a short "to-do" list of measures that the Obama administration could act on immediately: (1) Improve visa security coordination between the Departments of State and Homeland Security. Serious questions have been raised over why the visa of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (the Detroit-bound Christmas bomber) wasn't revoked, and why there wasn't additional follow-up with the National Counterterrorism Center. Such measures might have placed him on a "no-fly" list. By law, the Department of Homeland Security is supposed to set security policies for the State Department Consular Affairs offices that issue visas. That has never happened because of squabbling between the two departments. Likewise, embassies have been reluctant to accept visa security officers from Homeland Security who could work with the consular officers in identifying security gaps and threats. For now, only the U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia is required by law to have visa security officers present. At the very least, other "high-risk" traveler countries should be required to have them as well. The White House should press both departments to put these programs back on the fast track. (2) Put more air marshals in the skies and in airports. Air marshals provide another layer of deterrence against terrorism. In addition, giving these marshals real-time access to databases (both while they are on the ground and in the air) would offer an additional capacity to screen flight manifests for suspicious passengers. An alert air marshal might have flagged Abdulmutallab for more scrutiny or spotted malicious behavior before the would-be bomber tried to bring down the plane. Currently, armed U.S. air marshals cover only a fraction of international flights, and few other countries have air marshal programs. The U.S. force should be expanded, and the White House should press allies to establish or expand their programs. (3) Move the "Secure Flight" program faster. Secure Flight is a program that would flag suspicious passengers for additional screening on domestic flights. Although Abdulmutallab's flight originated from overseas, the 9/11 hijackers all left from U.S. airports. The type of attack Abdulmutallab tried could be launched from a small rural airport in the United States. Secure Flight might flag such a passenger for additional screening. Bombs like the one carried by Abdulmutallab would likely be found in a "pat-down" in secondary screening. (4) Step up implementation of Real ID. The Real ID program sets standards for U.S. driver's licenses. Again, if a Detroit-style attack were tried domestically, Real ID-compliant licenses would help keep malicious actors attempting to use fraudulent, stolen or altered licenses from breezing through security check points. As the 9/11 Commission pointed out, improving the surety of licenses must be a high priority. Yet many states are far from ready to implement Real ID. Rather than trying to alter or gut the program, the White House should work with federal agencies and the states to implement Real ID as quickly as practical. (5) Expand the Visa Waiver Program. Exempting more countries from the requirements that their citizens must have a visa to fly to the United States might sound risky. States that participate in the Visa Waiver Program actually have to agree to a more robust level of information sharing on travelers than states from which America requires visas. Nigeria, for example, (where Abdulmutallab hailed from) is not a VWP country. So it doesn't have to supply the U.S authorities with passenger name records, which provides the itinerary and other important identifying information. In contrast, data obtained under the program makes it much easier to identify potential malicious travelers and prevent them from coming to the United States. Read More. |
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