Mon, Aug 11, 2003
MA Democrat Wants Packages Of A Pound Or More Scanned For
Explosives
If Congressman Ed
Markey (D-MA) has his way, everything that weighs a pound or more
will be scanned for explosive traces before it's allowed on an
aircraft. Markey who's a member of the Select Committee on Homeland
Security, says the failure to screen small packages is "an
unacceptable security risk that must be immediately remedied."
Speaking to reporters at Boston's Logan Field, Markey said of
small cargo, "It is unseen and unscreened. It is taken right off
these trucks and it is loaded right on to passenger planes right
under the feet of passengers who have just taken off their shoes to
have them screened."
Markey points to the so-called shoe-bomber, Richard Reid, who
carried less than ten ounces of explosives in his tennis shoes in
December, 2001, when he boarded an American Airlines flight from
Paris to Miami (FL). That small amount of explosives, the
government says, would have knocked Flight 63 out of the sky.
Markey also pointed to the explosives that blew up Pan Am Flight
103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, killing 170 people. That
little package, he said, contained 11 ounces to a pound of Semtex
plastic explosives.
Still, the smaller packages aren't screened. That decision has
been based, in part, on research done by the US Postal Service.
Transportation Security Administration spokesman Brian Turmail said
small U.S. mail packages are not screened because federal studies
have concluded that less than a pound of explosives in the cargo
area "is not going to bring an aircraft down or threaten
passengers."
There is a price tag attached to Markey's demands. The TSA said
it would cost $500 million to buy the necessary scanners and train
the necessary people to screen all small packages.
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