US Transportation Security Administration hit for laxity

THE US Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) efforts to protect commercial aircraft from terrorist attack are inadequate, according to a report conducted by Richard Skinner, inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security.

The TSA system, said Mr. Skinner, "increases the opportunities [to put] explosives, incendiaries and other dangerous devices on passenger aircraft," reported USA Today.

The TSA largely agreed with the inspector general's conclusions. "They were legitimate criticisms," said John Sammon, a TSA assistant administrator.

But Mr Samson added that terrorists are less likely to use a cargo bomb because it's not certain the explosive will make it into a passenger plane, Mr Sammon said because most cargo comes to airports from freight handlers who also assign it to cargo planes.

Mr Sammon said TSA training has been improved, regulations clarified and 150 cargo inspectors will be added to a staff of 300 over the next two years. The TSA has started putting all packages that are brought to airports for shipping through bomb detectors.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced last week that his department is creating a "certified shipper" programme. Big companies such as computer majors would be approved to do their own security inspections at plants as they put merchandise in boxes. "Then that stuff would pass through without being re-inspected," he said.

The report comes one month after Congress ordered the TSA to vastly improve cargo screening over the next three years.