Success of scan machines questioned

WASHINGTON -- The $1-million machines the government plans to deploy by the hundreds to scan airline baggage for bombs have been foiled repeatedly by undercover teams simulating terrorists, a veteran federal agent charged Wednesday.

"We were extraordinarily successful in mock-destroying aircraft and killing large numbers of innocent people in ... simulated attacks," said Bogdan Dzakovic, supervisor of a special Federal Aviation Administration team that tested airport security. "This occurred with such regularity and ease as to present a frightening picture of the sorry state of aviation security on a worldwide basis. This was all before 9/11."

These and other public allegations by Dzakovic raise questions about the government's effort to ensure that all checked bags are screened effectively for hidden bombs by the end of the year. The charges also provide a glimpse of the highly secretive manner in which plainclothes agents test the nation's aviation security system.

The Office of Special Counsel, an agency charged with protecting federal whistle-blowers, asked Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta earlier this month to investigate allegations by Dzakovic that FAA managers suppressed information about gaps in airport security.

A former air marshal and 14-year veteran of FAA security, Dzakovic supervised an FAA "red team" that was charged with aggressively trying to expose gaps in security. Beginning in 1999 and continuing until a few weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks, Dzakovic said, red team undercover tests found poor detection rates by machines that were supposed to find bombs. However, it was not clear whether the problem was with the machines, their human operators, or the interaction of technology and operator.

Fewer than 200 of the machines are now being used at airports around the country. An estimated 2,990 would be needed to cover all 429 airports with regular airline service, at a cost of more than $2.5-billion.

Senior spokesman Chet Lunner said Mineta has asked Transportation Inspector General Kenneth Mead to investigate Dzakovic's charges, some of which concern incidents in the mid-to-late 1990s. "The secretary has asked the inspector general to vigorously pursue these allegations," Lunner said.

A new Transportation Security Administration, headed by a former Secret Service director, has taken over security from the FAA and the airlines. "Our current system is not the subject of these allegations," Lunner said. "We are confident that the system we have now in place is an improvement. ... Security is much tighter."

But Dzakovic, who is now a TSA employee, said the new agency is working with the same equipment and many of the same people as the old FAA security division.

"It's a big mistake, how they're doing it," he said, of the explosives detection effort. He spoke at a news conference in support of new legislation to strengthen whistle-blower protections.

The baggage scanners -- which are the size of a sport utility vehicle and can be seen in major airport lobbies -- are considered a state-of-the art means of detecting explosives. They rely on CT technology similar to that used for medical diagnosis and are widely considered to be superior to traditional X-ray machines.

The actual detection rate of the CT-based machines is classified. The Transportation Department inspector general has said that they are effective in finding explosives but that operators can be prone to error as they make split-second judgments on bags identified as suspicious by the scanner.

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