Screening equipment exists to ID alleged explosive
Published 12:01 am Monday, December 28, 2009
WASHINGTON — The explosive allegedly used in the failed bombing plot aboard a transatlantic jetliner over Detroit on Christmas Day could have been detected by existing screening equipment, and the failure to do so reflects significant weaknesses in aviation security and intelligence, former U.S. government officials and international security experts said.
The compound that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly brought aboard Northwest Flight 253 from Amsterdam was PETN, or pentaerythritol tetranitrate, the same plastic explosive used in 2001 by would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid, the FBI said. That attempt sped the launch of the Transportation Security Administration, which took over and expanded airport security practices.
But technology and methods that might have detected the explosive have been deployed in airports on a limited basis in the face of concerns about privacy, cost and the potential to slow airport security lines.
The TSA and its counterpart in the Netherlands, where Amsterdam Schipol Airport is regarded as one of the most secure in the world, have fielded two types of screening equipment able to detect PETN, a commonly used military and commercial explosive, even if hidden beneath clothing, experts said.
However, the first type, detectors that test swabs wiped on passengers and baggage for traces of explosives, weren’t used because they are generally reserved for travelers who trigger added scrutiny. Abdulmutallab’s name was not placed on TSA watch lists despite warnings by his father to the State Department, officials said.
Abdulmutallab also did not pass through the second type of machine, whole-body imaging scanners that use X-rays or radio waves to detect objects under clothing, equipment that is also used at Schipol.
No sign of broader plot, Homeland Security says
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Sunday that there is no indication that a self-proclaimed al-Qaida suicide bomber who allegedly tried to blow up a plane over Detroit on Christmas was part of a broader international effort to attack U.S. targets.
Napolitano said it was too early to speculate on the claims of al-Qaida connections made by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian in custody. “Right now we have no indication that it is part of anything larger,” Napolitano said.
Napolitano also downplayed suggestions that Dutch or U.S. authorities should have stopped Abdulmutallab from flying, even though his name had been entered into a U.S. counterterrorism database a month or so beforehand.
That broad security watch list contains “half a million” names and is shared with airlines and foreign security agencies. But Napolitano said that without specific evidence of suspicious activity, Abdulmutallab could not be formally classified as the kind of greater security risk that would bar him from traveling to the United States.
Two passengers released
Two men thought to have been acting suspicious aboard a flight bound for Phoenix were detained and questioned by federal authorities before they were released, the FBI said Sunday.
Transportation Security Administration officials said passengers aboard U.S. Airways Flight 192 from Orlando, Fla., on Saturday night reported that two men, described as Middle Eastern, were acting strangely and talking loudly to each other in a foreign language.
A nearby passenger also observed one of the men watching what appeared to be footage of a suicide bombing, but was actually a scene from the 2007 movie “The Kingdom.” The man also got up from his seat while the seat belt warning sign was still lit, FBI spokesman Manuel Johnson said.
The flight crew called for law enforcement and TSA officers to meet them when the plane landed at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport. Authorities said the two men were met by Phoenix police and TSA officials and later interviewed by FBI agents.
The men were released after questioning and allowed to continue on to California.
From Herald news services
