TSA: Threat prompted gate-screening program

WASHINGTON -- The Transportation Security Administration is worried about a group of terrorists sneaking weapons components through an airport checkpoint, assembling them after going through security and bringing a weapon on an airplane, an agency official said Friday.

Douglas Hofsass, head of commercial-airport security for TSA, told an airports conference that the TSA recently launched a stepped-up program of screening randomly chosen passengers at airport gates partly in response to that threat.

Under the program, uniformed TSA screeners pull some passengers out of lines as they are waiting to board planes to view their IDs, search their belongings or check them for weapons with a handheld metal detector.

The TSA is "concerned about the ability of multiple people bringing individual items through the checkpoint," Hofsass told about 100 airport executives at a Washington, D.C., conference center.

The decision to launch the gate-screening program was partly driven by "intelligence and threats," Hofsass said.

But the program has generated concern among airport officials who fear passengers will feel harassed by the gate screening.

Hofsass said most questions he has fielded in recent conference calls with airport executives focused on the gate-screening program. Gate screening was done extensively in the year after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but was greatly scaled back in 2003.

Hofsass' comments expand on an explanation the TSA gave 10 days ago after USA TODAY obtained a TSA memo describing the new gate-screening program.

TSA spokesman Greg Soule said at the time that the program was not driven by any specific alerts but that the TSA was trying to protect against "insider threats." Airport employees, who do not go through security checkpoints, could bring a weapon to an airport gate and hand it to someone about to board a plane.

At the conference Friday, Krys Bart, CEO of the Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority in Nevada, told Hofsass that passengers at her airport "feel intimidated" and "harassed" by the gate screening.

"Is this really driven by security, or to keep screeners busy because they don't have enough to do?" Bart said as the audience of 100 airport executives broke into applause.

Gate screening could deter some passengers from flying, Bart added in an interview.

"They just might say, this is the last straw, I'm going to drive," Bart said.

Oakland International Airoprt director Steve Grossman said that many airport officials believe the TSA started gate screening because the sharp decline in air travel has left them with few passengers to scrutinize.

"I do have screeners standing around," Grossman said.

Grossman said he supports gate screening as a new security program that could catch or deter terrorists.

"Anything that's random is good security," Grossman said. "I'd rather have them [screeners] doing gate-screening than nothing. Let's keep them busy."