WASHINGTON, July 25, 2007
U.S. Warns Airports To Watch For Dry Runs
"Routine" Advisory Tells Of Bomb-Like Ingredients Seized At Four Airports Since Sept. 2006
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Play CBS Video Video Airport Security Threat Following an alert from the Transportation Security Administration, airport security officials are on the lookout for terrorist activity. Claire Leka reports.
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(AP)
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The unclassified alert was distributed on July 20 by the Transportation Security Administration to federal air marshals, its own transportation security officers and other law enforcement agencies.
CBS News correspondent Bob Orr says U.S. officials stress that this is a routine advisory – one of about 90 similar "bulletins" the TSA has circulated to its workers since January, as a reminder to baggage screeners, air marshals and other security officials to take a very broad "eyes open" approach to their jobs.
The bulletin, which does not constitute a heightened state of alert, tells TSA workers that items seized in separate incidents at the airports in San Diego, Milwaukee, Houston and Baltimore airports have included "wires, switches, pipes or tubes, cell phone components and dense clay-like substances," including block cheese. "The unusual nature and increase in number of these improvised items," the TSA says in its advisory, "raise concern."
Security officers are urged to keep an eye out for "ordinary items that look like improvised explosive device components" – that is, things that could be used to build a homemade bomb.
Word of the advisory surfaced on the same day as two other reports which could put American nerves on edge: comments by a U.S. military commander on the potential for al Qaeda terror cells within the fifty states, and a non-terror related warning from air traffic controllers who say poor maintenance of airport facilities could endanger the flying public.
The TSA circulated its 13-paragraph security advisory internally and not to reporters – who started questioning Bush administration officials after the document leaked out to the media late Tuesday and was posted on the web.
"There is no credible, specific threat here," said TSA spokeswoman Ellen Howe. "Don't panic. We do these things all the time."
The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI both say that while aviation remains a prime terrorist target, they see no credible evidence of any imminent attack in the U.S.
The alert level for the nation's airports remains Orange, which means "High," while the alert level for the rest of the country is unchanged at Yellow, which means "Elevated."
Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke described the TSA advisory as the latest copy of a routine informational bulletin.
A statement posted late Tuesday by the TSA on its Web site confirms that "a routine TSA intelligence bulletin relating to suspicious incidents at U.S. airports" had leaked out to news organizations.
The bulletin says a joint FBI-Homeland Security Department assessment found that terrorists have conducted probes, dry runs and dress rehearsals in advance of previous attacks.
It cites various types of rehearsals conducted by terrorists before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon; the July 7, 2005, London subway bombings; the Aug. 2, 2006, London-based plot to blow up trans-Atlantic flights using liquid explosives and the 1994 Bojinka plot in the Philippines to blow up multiple airliners over the Pacific Ocean.
The bulletin says initial investigation has not linked the men and women carrying the suspicious items to any terrorist or criminal organizations. The TSA adds that most of the explanations given by passengers caught with subsequently seized items have been suspicious in themselves and some are still under investigation.
The four seizures are described as follows:
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Add a Comment See all 38 Comments
- Don't take it lightly, ya'll. Cheese and crackers in your carryon bag is a snack. Cheese, wires, and a detonator is a simulated-bomb dry run.
I'd still like to hear that these people are in jail despite the fact that TSA "has not linked the men and women carrying the suspicious items to any terrorist or criminal organization."
I'd say "this little cheese-and-wires or clay-and-wires-and-duct-tape trick makes us about 60% sure you're a terrorist -- and that's enough for us. Hit the lockup. Oops, sorry about that accident in prison"
We've got to find the middle road between protecting civil liberties and neutralizing the right people. If we can't find the talent to identify the bad actors and the will to put an ice pick in their temples, this country will deserve what it gets. - Reply to this comment
- Dos' wicked ole al Kaeder...they be prak' tissing dry runs an' not gettin' arres'tad fo' it...but we'uns 'noze theyz up ta no good. We gotz da cheese on 'em, we duz....spokesperson, Department of Homeland Security.
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- What is really odd about this story, is the US authorities spoke to the passengers involved, investigated their backgrounds and released them because there was no evidence of a link to a terrorist or criminal organization. Yet now, their baggage with the suspicious contents are making the news, not the people themselves.
If these were "dry runs" and the passengers were not held by the authorities.....very odd. - Reply to this comment
- This is what the terrorists did leading up to any attack. Don't make fun of it, realize it is real and the next thing that happens is going to be really bad. Maybe then you will be glad all this other stuff was found ahead of time. They are describing practice runs with fake bombs.
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- Looks like we will be attacked by exploding cheese...if you cut the cheese...is the weapon disabled, or is it activated spreading a deadly invisible cloud of death? Is the threat greater from imported cheese? Is there any sinister relationship between the cheeseheads from the Netherlands and Greenbay, Wisconsin? And small minded people say we don't need a Department of Homeland Security and TSA (Thousands Standing Around) to deal with these very real, very sinister problems.
Troops Home Now! Free Korey! - Reply to this comment
- Free Korey Rowe...LOOSE CHANGE, co-producer, seized by the Regime's henchmen. LOOSE CHANGE has been downloaded more than 100 million times...He has served tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, was previously taken in for leaving the service and told he was discharged. Now, for political reasons the cowardly dogs in Washington are trying to scuttle his 9-11 work.
- Reply to this comment
- please support our troops
demonic-rats won't fight the fascist nazi terrorislamic war...
Incredible! George S Patton's New Speech-Iraq & modern world
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyUX6wV1lBQ - Reply to this comment
- neenga -ok
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- With all this searching of baggage and people at the airports, who is watching the seaports? Less than 1/4 of incoming cargo is searched. Has anyone given any thought to the idea that while we are watching "the front door" someone might try to get through "the back door"?
Let's face it, you can only beat a dead horse for so long.....or can you go one indefinitely???? - Reply to this comment
- When traveling to various U.S. cities, such as, PIT, PBI, JAX and a few more we often stop to eat before boarding our plane. We have already gone through the security check point with our carry on and take off our shoes to enter the terminal. We go to T.G.I.F or one similar and are given a steak knife, fork and a real glass not plastic to eat with.
Where is the security check point before boarding? There is none and you or anyone else can bring on the plane knives and broken glass and cigarette lighters which you can purchase at the stores after you go through the check point.
I have also experienced twice, not once a plane that still had my carry on luggage. The plane was delayed on the runway and we were told to get off plane and return to the gate in 1 hr. I went to a near by restaurant at PIT airport and while in there the gate was changed and time to board plane --- I never heard the announcement because I was inside a restaurant. Even though the women that was seated beside me told the attendant that I was not on the plane and my carry on was still under my seat her complaint was dismissed. This very same thing just happen to my son on his connecting flight in NY from PBI going to PIT.
I e-mailed the White House after my experience with the knives and glass, but nothing became of it so I never reported the carry on bag incident and I doubt if the Pilot or flight attendant reported this to USAir Officials. - Reply to this comment
