Inside the TSA: Screening for Nervous Fliers

WASHINGTON, Aug. 16, 2006 — -- The government has been quietly testing new airport screening tactics in the hopes of preventing terror attacks.

Since December, security officials have deployed uniform and undercover agents at airports across the country to watch the behavior of airline passengers.

A dozen airports, including those in Washington, Miami and Minneapolis, have been using a technique the Transportation Safety Administration calls "screening passengers by observation."

"One of the things that we would be looking for is a person who was profusely sweating," TSA security supervisor Waverly Cousin said.

Behavior deemed suspicious would also include incessant blinking of the eyes, fidgeting excessively with clothes or acting in an evasive manner.

Cousin said screeners "definitely are looking for anyone who would be a suicide bomber." The idea is that a simple conversation with a person acting suspiciously could possibly foil malicious plans.

"You may in fact be impeding them from getting to a certain location, perhaps to meet another person. … You are now changing field and inducing anxiety, and that's where you want to be," former FBI agent Jack Cloonan said.

With the nation's airports on high alert, government screeners are under more pressure than ever to find potential terrorists.

Against the backdrop of the London terror plot, screeners in training at Reagan National Airport in Washington today were particularly preoccupied with learning how to detect if a passenger might be trying to smuggle explosives onboard.

TSA instructor Kristine Norton told the trainees that as security screeners, they are the "key to the process.

"We need your keen eye and expert analysis to see the threat," she said.

The training the security screeners undergo has changed to include the detection of improvised explosive devices. In the last six months, the government has increased the number of screeners who can recognize such mechanisms from 18,000 to 31,000.