Billions spent on airport security, but major security gaps remain
slow deployment of technology at checkpoints:
* Lack of private investment. Top TSA officials blame limited private investment in security development. The security industry, for its part, blames a lack of federal funding and criticizes the difficulty of navigating a bureaucratic approval process that one executive described as “a maze.” They also say frequent turnover in the top ranks of the TSA has sent mixed messages. Congressional investigators have raised concerns about the TSA’s strategic vision, and top government security officials remain uneasy about quickly deploying technology before they believe it has been fully vetted. The problems started before the 2001 terrorist attacks, when there were but few security or technology companies investing much money in such equipment, government officials said. Even after the attacks, there was no surge in investment, and the TSA was given two mandates by Congress which had little to do with upgrading technology at checkpoints: Hire tens of thousands of screeners to take over security from private firms, and buy hundreds of machines to inspect checked bags for explosives.
* Major gaps in screening. Security experts have been worried for a long time about how easy it would be for a terrorist to smuggle a bomb onto a plane in checked luggage. The government spent more than $5 billion over the years to buy, maintain, and install explosive-detection systems, which basically scan bags using medical imaging technology, according to government records. Meanwhile, the government spent only a fraction of that amount — about $600 million from 2001 to 2007 — on technology to be used at checkpoints, including upgrades of X-ray machines and devices which can analyze a swab taken of passengers’ clothing for traces of explosives. Even when companies did approach the TSA with new ideas, government officials said they were less than impressed with the results. “Company after company, trying to be helpful and make some money, was pushing their technology…. After testing it, we found it didn’t do near what they promised,” recalled John Magaw, the TSA’s first administrator.
* Overseas attacks raise red flags. By 2004, TSA officials believed they were being confronted by another serious security threat: Terrorists suspected of hiding plastic explosives under their clothes slipped through security and blew up two Russian jetliners. Magnetometers — the ubiquitous metal detectors that have long been a staple of airport security — could not spot such explosives strapped to terrorists’ bodies,
