• Lawmakers demand better TSA pat-down training

    Lawmakers write the president, TSA to demand a better system of security checks at airports; demand ; “Surely it is possible to secure an airplane without sacrificing individual liberties or privacy. We can utilize bomb-sniffing dogs, AIT machines as a method of secondary screening, and behavioral profiling to accomplish the shared goal of safe and secure air travel,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) wrote Obama; “These new searches are a novel procedure both for the traveling public and your front line TSA officers, and I am not convinced the Transportation Security officers have received adequate training in what is clearly an invasive procedure,” Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) wrote the TSA administrator

  • Nuclear DUI: DOE IG finds cause for concern

    There are about 600 OST (Office of Secure Transportation) agents — that is, drivers who have permits to haul nuclear weapons, weapons components, and special nuclear material (SNM) around the country; the Department of Energy inspector general investigated reports that some of these drivers are drunk on the job; a new report found 16 incident, of which 2 were of “particular concern”

  • TSA to make airports screenings "minimally invasive"

    The head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), facing protests from travelers and pressure from the White House, appeared to give ground Sunday on his position that there would be no change in policies regarding invasive passenger screening procedures; John Pistole said in a statement that the agency would work to make screening methods “as minimally invasive as possible,” although he gave no indication that screening changes were imminent; still, he pointed to the alleged attempt by a Nigerian with explosives in his underwear to try to bring down an Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight last Christmas. “We all wish we lived in a world where security procedures at airports weren’t necessary,” Pistole said, “but that just isn’t the case”

  • U.S., Kazakhstan complete secret transfer of Soviet-era nuclear materials

    In the largest such operation ever mounted, U.S. and Kazakh officials transferred 11 tons of highly enriched uranium and 3 tons of plutonium some 1,890 miles by rail and road across the Central Asian country; the nuclear material, which could have been used to make more than 770 bombs, was moved from a facility feared vulnerable to terrorist attack to a new high-security facility

  • Q&A: Full-body scanners

    Questions are being raised about the privacy and health aspects of wide use of full-body scanners; here is one example: millimeter wave scanners, in theory, ought to be safer than X-rays because millimeter photons do not have enough energy to break chemical bonds; last year, however, researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory found that while these photons cannot break DNA, they can shake it: this shaking may be so strong that it unzips the two strands in DNA, interfering with the genetic machinery that keeps cells working and healthy

  • TSA: Religion offers no exemption from airport screening

    An airline passenger was thrown out of the San Diego airport for rejecting a full-body scan and pat-down groin check and instead insisting on passing through a metal detector; the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says the agency will not allow airline passengers to get out of body imaging screening or pat-downs based on their religious beliefs; TSA chief John Pistole said that passengers who refuse to go through a full-body scanner machine and reject a pat-down will not be allowed to board, even if they turned down the in-depth screening for religious reasons; “That person is not going to get on an airplane,” Pistole said yesterday in a congressional committee testimony

  • Communications gap allowed packet bomb to go unchecked

    German customs officials wanted to search last week’s package containing a bomb from Yemen, but it had left the country by the time the paperwork arrived; a communications breakdown enabled the explosive to pass through Germany without security checks; the security gap at the Cologne-Bonn Airport meant that the explosive-laden printer from Yemen avoided customs

  • Full-body scanners at U.S. airports may be dangerous: scientists

    U.S. scientists warned that the full-body, graphic-image X-ray scanners now being used to screen passengers and airline crews at airports around the country may be unsafe; scientists say that most of the energy from the scanners is delivered to the skin and underlying tissue; “While the dose would be safe if it were distributed throughout the volume of the entire body, the dose to the skin may be dangerously high,” they say

  • Better bomb sniffer built

    Chemists have developed a sensor that detects minute amounts of TATP, an explosive favored by terrorists because it is easy to make and difficult to detect; TATP is easy to make from readily available ingredients: acetone, hydrogen peroxide, and an acid; since none of these ingredients contains nitrogen, the most common target for current bomb-sniffing technologies, TATP is especially difficult to detect

  • Sniffer rats saving lives in war zones -- and in the lab

    Light, with an acute sense of smell and easily motivated by food rewards, giant African pouched rats have been found to be highly effective in mine detection; in the lab, the rats use their keen noses positively to identify tuberculosis sputum samples; the next frontier would be to use the “hero rats” to sniff out narcotics or to search for survivors of disasters such as earthquakes or collapsed buildings

  • Al Qaeda plot to use kamikaze dogs failed

    Al Qaeda operatives in Iraq tried to bring a plane down by deploying a pair of kamikaze canines on a U.S.-bound airplane; terrorists placed the bombs inside the dogs’ bodies, then took the dogs to the Baghdad airport in kennel carriers, destined for a flight to the United States; the plot failed because the bombs were so poorly stitched inside the dogs, that the dogs died

  • New liquid explosives screening technology deployed

    The deployment of two new liquid explosive detection devices — HI-SCAN 6040aX by Smiths Detection and the Bottle Scanner from Kromek — will likely be the first step toward lifting restrictions that prohibit passengers from carrying more than 3.4 ounces of liquid or gel aboard an aircraft

  • Laser has clinical, security applications

    A novel laser system that could help detect bone diseases — and airport security; the spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (SORS) instrument uses a technique that allows it to scan deep into human tissue; the instrument is also being studied as a bottle and packaging scanner for airport security and is already used to assess the content of drugs

  • Real-time detection of PETN explosive with PTR-MS

    PETN is an extremely powerful explosive, belonging to the nitroglycerine family, but is very stable; it is therefore a preferred explosive used by terrorists; a major problem for security personnel is that PETN is difficult to detect; academic, commercial organizations collaborate to develop PTR-MS technology for the detection of explosives — not only PETN, but also TNT, RDX, Semtex, and HMX

  • New nano explosive sniffer would have detected cargo bombs

    Israeli scientists developed a nanotechnology-based sensor capable of detecting numerous types of explosives and can also be adapted to detect chemical and biological toxins; the researchers say that the sensor is particularly effective at detecting explosives like those used in the parcel bombs sent from Yemen to the United States