Airlines, Transportation Department
scramble to meet security deadline
By Seth Borenstein
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON (KRT) - Federal
transportation and airline officials
concede that they haven’t figured
out how to screen all checked lug
gage for bombs, with only days to go
to meet a legal deadline. But they
promise to do it by Jan. 18.
Somehow.
“We do not have a specific plan
yet,” Department of Transportation
spokesman Hank Price said Tuesday.
That’s despite daily meetings with
airlines, and aviation security per
sonnel working through the holidays.
The nation’s airlines don’t have a
plan either, officials acknowledged,
and the solutions are likely to vary by
airport and by airline.
Whatever the security system
chosen, passengers should expect
confusion and longer-than-ever de
lays in airports beginning Jan. 18,
experts say.
“I just don’t see, operationally, how
all airports can be compliant,” said
Charlie LeBlanc, managing director
of Air Security International, a Hous
ton aviation security-consulting firm.
“And if we’re not, what are we going
to do? Nobody has the answers or no
body wants to talk about it. ”
The Jan. 18 deadline is just one of
four upcoming hurdles spelled out in
the aviation security law that Presi
dent Bush signed Nov. 19. Starting
Feb. 1, the Department of Transporta
tion must collect a $2.50 security fee
from each passenger on every flight.
On Feb. 17, a new federal agency, the
Transportation Security Administra
tion, must take over responsibility for
aviation security from the Federal
Aviation Administration. Soon after
that, TSA personnel must take over
passenger and bag-screening duty,
now handled by private firms.
It all starts with checked bags.
Under the new Aviation Security
Act, each piece must be searched by
hand or by a bomb-detecting ma
chine, a bomb-sniffing dog or an X
ray machine. As a fallback, the law
allows airlines to meet the new re
quirement by confirming that each
checked bag belongs to a passenger
who has boarded the plane.
The easiest option, experts say, is
the fallback, known as 100 percent
bag matching. But it has a big prob
lem: While it prevents a terrorist from
planting a bomb in an aircraft’s lug
New airport security system
Highlights of airport security biif passed by the House and Senate:
Baggage
screeners
All workers will be
federal employees
within one year;
airports can take
back control after
three years; alternative system
tested at five airports
Database
of suspects
New computer
federal law
enforcement
watch lists;
“trusted
passenger" list for frequent fliers;
new links between airline and
Customs computers
pit! Now agency m
:' Transportation Dept, office
for transportation security
Q2001KRT Source: AP Graphic: Todd Ufttieman
Chocked
bags
Inspections
within 60 days;
explosive
detectors used
on all bags
by end of 2002
Airplane security
Stronger cockpit
doors; only flight
crew in cockpit;
video camera
will let pilots
see passengers;
more sky marshals; marshals
on all “high-risk" flights; weapons
in cockpits possible; switch for
flight crew to alert pi lot
■ New passenger fee
$2.50 to $5 per flight
gage hold and walking away, it won’t
stop a suicidal terrorist like those
aboard hijacked aircraft Sept. 11.
Moreover, 100 percent bag
matching can cause substantial de
lays. The problem occurs when lug
gage without an owner is found, ex
plained Geoff Askew, security chief
of Qantas Airlines, the Australian
carrier, which adopted the system a
decade ago. At the start, he said,
about 1 flight in 10 was delayed an
hour or longer to unload, find and
remove baggage without accompa
nying passengers.
Each of the other security options
also has drawbacks, experts say.
Explosive-detection machines
are everybody’s favorite choice, and
the law mandates them by 2003. But
there aren’t enough of them, they
can’t be built fast enough and the
current models trigger too many
false alarms, experts say. They are
also expensive: The 2,200 machines
the nation’s airports need will cost
$5 billion.
Enhanced X-ray machines, while
not as effective as explosive-detec
tion machines, can be built faster
and more cheaply. But there aren’t
enough of them either, said Cabal
Flynn, a former Federal Aviation
Administration security chief who
retired in 2000.
Bomb-sniffing dogs are a senti
mental favorite, but they, too, are in
short supply, and training a new dog
takes 11 weeks, FAA spokeswoman
Rebecca Terrell said. The FAA has
175 dog-trainer teams at 39 airports
and plans to increase that to 313
teams at the 80 busiest airports by
the end of 2003, Terrell said.
Hand-searching every bag — the
solution on which Israeli air securi
ty relies — would take more trained
searchers and more time. It takes
about 10 minutes per bag, experts
said, or up to two hours additional
waiting time per flight. It also takes
space, which many airports lack.
Hand searches offer real deter
rence. But if this option is chosen,
expect “an absolute nightmare” of
delays, said Tony Potter, former
head of security at Tampa Interna
tional Airport, now a Seattle con
sultant.
©2002, Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services.
Weapons plan may include loophole
ny warren v. sironei
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON (KRT) - Thou
sands of U.S. nuclear warheads that
President Bush plans to take out of
operation in a disarmament agree
ment with Russia may be put into
storage for possible later use rather
than destroyed, according to a classi
fied Pentagon nuclear weapons plan
presented to Congress on Tuesday.
The plan, described by U.S. offi
cials who were briefed on its con
tents, appears to raise new ques
tions about the finality of Bush's
pledge to cut the U.S. nuclear arse
nal to between 1,700 and 2,200 war
heads from its level of almost 6,000.
It also could provoke a storm of
protest from Moscow, where Russ
ian President Vladimir Putin would
like a formal treaty permanently en
shrining the cuts, as opposed to the
more informal accord Bush prefers.
The Pentagon plan, called the Nu
clear Posture Review, says that some
of the nuclear warheads taken off of
land-based missiles, bombers and
submarines could be put in storage
“as a hedge force” and redeployed if
needed, according to a U.S. official.
He spoke on condition of anonymity.
They would always have the flexi
bility to redeploy those warheads if
circumstances change,” the official
said.
On another topic, nuclear testing,
the Pentagon document says that the
Energy Department’s nuclear
weapons labs should be in a position
to resume underground testing more
rapidly than they can now if the presi
dent makes a decision to do so.
Defense Secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld said Tuesday that Bush
will continue, for now, to observe a
self-imposed moratorium on under
ground nuclear testing that the elder
President Bush initiated in 1992.
But, Rumsfeld said, “any country
that has nuclear weapons has to be
respectful of the enormous lethali
ty and power of those weapons, and
has a responsibility to see that they
are safe and reliable... To the extent
that can be done without testing,
clearly that is the preference.”
The United States and Russia
agreed last month to try to finish an
agreement slashing their nuclear ar
senals during the first half of 2002.
Under U.S. policy, the labs must be
able to resume testing within 24 to 36
months of a decision by the president
to test. The new Pentagon report says
the labs should make preparations so
that the window could be shortened,
perhaps to a year.
But a senior Bush aide, speaking
on condition of anonymity, recently
told Knight Ridder that, in the pro
posed agreement, Washington wants
the flexibility to deploy nuclear
weapons above the 1,700-2,200 level
that Bush promised Putin at their No
vember summit if circumstances
warrant.
That, some Democratic lawmak
ers and arms control advocates
protest, would give Russia no incen
tive to destroy its own warheads
that are taken off active duty. And
warheads stored in Russia likely
will be less secure than those stored
in the United States, they note.
But senior White House and Pen
tagon officials have argued that for
mal, Cold War-style arms control
agreements are obsolete and the
United States should be free to ad
just its nuclear arsenal upward or
downward based on its security
needs.
©2002, Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services.
Officials approve
Dixon expansion
by Kristy hessman
OSU Barometer
After two months of waiting with
their fingers crossed, OSU officials
have been given the green light to
begin construction on the long
awaited Dixon Recreation Center
expansion project.
The $19 million project was put
on hold in October, two weeks be
fore groundbreaking was set to be
gin, when the Oregon University
System decided to rethink the mod
el in which student funds are allo
cated for building projects within
Oregon’s public universities.
The delay worried both OSU of
ficials and students, who have wait
ed more than 15 years and spent
more than $1.5 million in student
fees on the planning and architec
ture leading up to the expansion.
A newly expanded recreation
center including 80,000 additional
square feet, a suspended running
track, new basketball courts and
weight equipment, is scheduled to
be completed no later than fall 2003.
While the approval of funding is
welcome news to the OSU commu
nity, some members of the OUS Ad
ministrative Council were critical of
the process that was used to obtain it.
“I have no complaint about the
(Dixon) project, but about the
process in which it was decided,”
said Dan Williams, University of
Oregon vice president for adminis
tration and a council member.
i
Williams said he was surprised
the approval went through the way
it was because the funding for the
project was originally estimated
and brought to the board at a figure
closer to $10 million, rather than
$19 million.
The original planning totaled $10
to $12 million, but the costs in gener
al work was greater than at first antic
ipated.
The actual costs for direct con
struction total $15 million, while
planning and permits make up the
remaining $4 million.
“The process was ignored as I un
derstand it,” Williams said, adding
that he thinks it may put other uni
versities at a disadvantage once a fi
nal financial model is decided on.
OUS is currently discussing a
model in which each university
will keep the money it puts in for its
own campuses, with the three larger
campuses — OSU, UO and PSU —
contributing 8 percent of their funds
to the smaller campuses for a more
fair distribution of funds.
“It was not proven that there was
a disadvantage to other schools,
although there were concerns,”
said Mark McCambridge, OSU vice
president of finance and
administration.
The new financial model will be
the topic of conversation at the next
OUS Administrative Council
meeting in late January, when a
possible decision will be made.
Shoe Sale
January 11 - 21*
Save 20-70%
on discontinued shoes and slippers
*Save an extra 20% on Monday, January 21
Sorry, this is not a Birkenstock sale
rOOTWISE
THE BIRKENSTOCK STORE
181 E Broadway - Downtown Eugene - 342-6107
301 SW Madison Ave - Downtown Corvallis - 757-0875
Open Monday - Saturday, 10-6 and Sunday, 11-5
NIGHT
THURSDAYS
DJ Dynamite
Hip Hop • Top 40
your favorites from
80’s and 90’s
V2 price dinners on Wednesdays and Thursdays
with UO student ID
• OPEN TO ANYONE UNTIL 10 pm
707 Willamette St. 683-5160 L (free parking in Rock-n-Rodeo Lot)