New screening measures in effect for airline travel to US

In an effort to “mitigate evolving terrorist threats,” the US will begin an enhanced screening program of US-bound air passengers.

America:Bartamaha-Set to begin immediately, the new program will replace hastily created rules put in place after the failed attempt of December’s Christmas Day bombing plot, according to the BBC. Airline carriers were notified on Thursday of the new procedure that allows DHS to forward intelligence on possible suspects to foreign governments and airlines.

Those hastily-laid rules included profiling directed mainly toward passengers from 14 countries: Afghanistan, Algeria, Cuba, Iran Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Syria, Sudan and Yemen.

President Barack Obama ordered a three-month study after the Christmas Day incident in which a Nigerian passenger boarded a Detroit-bound plane with explosives concealed under his clothing. The new program is a result of that study.

The new screening process includes “real-time, threat-based intelligence along with multiple, random layers of security, both seen and unseen, to more effectively mitigate evolving terrorist threats,” according to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
Both US citizens and foreign travelers may be impacted by the new measures which include advanced imaging technology, canine teams, explosives trace detection and pat downs.

The new process will also consider a person’s nationality, age, recent travel history, and partial names, the Wall Street Journal reported.

There are currently 6,000 names on the US government’s “no-fly” list of terrorist suspects, all banned from flights within or to the US. While the no-fly list remains in effect under the new program, it will be supplemented with additional cross-referenced information.

Radio Free Europe said the US consulted with international governments, including Israel, which is well-known for its multiple-level screening process. “We did actually talk with the people in Israel after Christmas. Of course, their situation is somewhat different: They have one airport that throughputs about 50,000 passengers a day [while] we throughput about 2 million passengers a day, so some of the things they can do would really clog up U.S. air travel,” Napolitano said An official with DHS said the new guidelines are more flexible than previous ones and and are designed “to reflect the most current information available to the US government.”

Source: Digital Journal.