Security Briefs - Jan. 25 - Jan. 31
- Attacks Send Security Price Tag Soaring
- Pilots’ Union Seeks Stricter Cargo Screening
- San Francisco Terminal Shut Down After Breach
- KLLM Giving ID Cards to All Drivers
- Truck Security Not Simple, NITL Chief Says
- Senate Staffers Complain of Reaction to Irradiated Mail
- Capitol Truck Ban to Remain
- TSA to Alter Security Procedures at BWI
- Makers of Airport Scanners to Increase Production
- Pilots’ Union Seeks Stricter Cargo Screening
Attacks Send Security Price Tag Soaring
The federal government will spend 29% more on homeland security in 2002 than it did in 2001 and more than four times what it spent for domestic defense in 1998, the Associated Press reported Thursday.The Congressional Budget Office said the government would make $22.2 billion in payouts to keep the country safe from terrorism as it tries to define exactly what defending the homeland entails.
Many agencies, from the Border Patrol and Coast Guard, to law enforcement and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are all expecting some money for homeland security.
In 1998, when the Congress first starting earmarking money for "combating terrorism," the United States spent $7.2 billion on homeland security, the AP said. Since Sept. 11, terrorism has been at or near the top of the agenda for many political leaders, helping to spur the surge in spending. Transport Topics
Pilots’ Union Seeks Stricter Cargo Screening
The Air Line Pilots Association is calling on the federal government to look as closely at air cargo as they do at passengers and luggage, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.Since a good deal of air cargo is carried to and from airports in trucks, if there is a delay or a problem in air shipments, then ground transportation networks may be disrupted.
A spokesperson for the ALPA said little attention is paid to cargo and cargo planes because of their reputation as being a low-risk target for terrorists. The union is arguing that the Sept. 11 attacks showed that just as watchful an eye must be placed on the airfreight industry as on the passenger airlines.
The Transportation Security Administration, created by Congress to set up the new security system, acknowledged that air cargo is not getting top priority right now as officials race to meet deadlines for screening passengers and their luggage, the Post reported.
Most passenger planes also carry cargo, in particular mail, in their bellies. Nearly 60% of all U.S. air cargo travels in the bellies of passenger planes said John Magaw, head of the TSA, but only 4% of that cargo is screened for dangerous items, the Post reported. Transport Topics
San Francisco Terminal Shut Down After Breach
Twenty-eight gates at San Francisco International Airport were shut for more than two hours Wednesday morning after security guards detected explosive residue on a man's shoes, the Associated Press reported.Airplanes often carry freight, so long delays at airports could also affect ground-transportation networks, including trucks.
The man disappeared before guards could question him, forcing several thousand passengers to be cleared from the United Airlines domestic terminal. The terminal was reopened by midmorning the AP said, with all passengers being screened again.
An airport spokesman said the residue could have been picked up from contacting anything from fireworks to nitroglycerin tablets. Transport Topics
KLLM Giving ID Cards to All Drivers
Truckload carrier KLLM Transport Services said Jan. 22 that it is in the process of issuing photo-identification cards to its 1,700 drivers.The Richland, Miss.-based company said this move is in response to customers' requests, and represents a general enhancement of its own security procedures in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The company is also adding gates and fences at all of its terminals and has added round-the-clock security at all facilities. Transport Topics
Truck Security Not Simple, NITL Chief Says
In an interview Monday on the CNNfn program “Business Unusual,” Edward Emmett, president of the National Industrial Transportation League, a shipper group, said that keeping trucks safe and secure requires looking at more than just trucks.Emmett told CNNfn that in the weeks and months since Sept. 11, focus has shifted from truck security and the contents of trucks travelling domestically, to overall transportation security. He pointed out that many trucks carry containers from ships that were sealed overseas, so it is important to monitor the entire transportation network.
What people “have to understand about the freight transportation system” Emmet said, “is it’s an integrated whole.”
Containers travel by ship, truck and rail, he said, making it vitally important to know what a container is holding.
Prior to Sept. 11, Emmett said, safety meant limiting accidents, and security meant protecting cargo from theft.
“Sept. 11 changed the entire situation,” he said. “Now, for the first time, all of us have to worry about the load, the freight shipment actually being a weapon of terror.”
Emmett said that the NITL is looking to the U.S. Department of Transportation and the new Transportation Security Administration for industry rules about cargo security. Transport Topics
Senate Staffers Complain of Reaction to Irradiated Mail
The Senate is looking into complaints from six Senate offices that staffers suffered health problems after handling mail that was irradiated to guard against anthrax, the Associated Press reported late Monday.A panel consisting of representatives from the U.S. Postal Service, the Centers for Disease Control and other agencies is expected to meet later this week to analyze reports of reactions to irradiated mail. Because trucks are used to transfer, treat and deliver the mail, this meeting could be important to truckers to ensure they are not at risk if they come into contact with this mail.
Currently, all mail going to Congress and to federal office buildings in Washington is irradiated before being delivered. Lightheadedness, rashes, nausea and headaches are among the complaints staffers are having after handling mail. Transport Topics
Capitol Truck Ban to Remain
The truck restrictions around the U.S. Capitol will remain in place permanently, the Washington Times reported Monday, citing the U.S. Capitol Police.The streets were closed to commercial traffic after Sept. 11 amid fears that an explosive-laden truck could be used in a terrorist attack
A spokesperson for the Capitol Police told the Times the restrictions would remain in effect, although the patrol cars guarding the roads would be removed. Transport Topics
TSA to Alter Security Procedures at BWI
Some of the security procedures at Baltimore-Washington International Airport will be redesigned in the next few weeks, government officials said Friday.The Washington Post reported that beginning Feb. 1, the Transportation Security Administration will observe operations for one week, before spending two weeks altering the security processes and three weeks training workers.
Last week, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said BWI will be used to test airport security methods and operations that will be used at airports nationwide. Transport Topics
Makers of Airport Scanners to Increase Production
InVision Technologies and L-3 Communications Holdings Inc., the only two government-approved makers of bomb detection scanners, are planning to expand their work forces exponentially because Congress wants the machines in every U.S. airport by year's end, the Associated Press reported Sunday.Because many passenger flights carry cargo, flight delays caused by new security regulations can disrupt ground transportation networks.
Currently, only 160 scanners are in U.S. airports, with 90% of them made by InVision. However, the Airport Security Act requires every outgoing bag to be checked through the scanners. That means 2,200 machines are needed nationwide, requiring the two companies to step up production.
These scanners use the same technology as medical CAT scans. Bags are X-rayed from many angles, producing three-dimensional images so objects' density can be evaluated for properties of explosives. Transport Topics
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