Airport Security Essay

"America's Airports: The threat from within" Airports are a very vulnerable place to kill thousands of people with just one try. Many terrorist see airports as vulnerable targets and take advantage of the situation. Unites States of America has received many attacks and after 9-11, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security decided to create the federal agency, Transportation Security Administration (TSA). But, are they taking the correct measures to secure airports? In this essay, I will be talking about three main topics: How can we confront terrorists groups when they target U.S. airports?, Is TSA doing their job correctly? And how can we protect public spaces in airports?.
There are many terrorists in America that are related to Al-
Qaeda and other terrorists groups. Janet Napolitano, a worker from the Department of Homeland Security mentioned some terrorist that are U.S. citizens:
"...like David Headley, who pled guilty for his role in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, or Najibullah Zazi, who pled guilty to plotting to bomb the New York subway. Other suspects have been online followers of Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen based in Yemen who is a self-proclaimed member of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and who supports the use of violence against America." (Napolitano, 2010)
Securing the airports from the U.S citizens terrorists is more difficult for the DHS, because these people are able to plan the attack more easily being inside the U.S.
The DHS is always trying to find new ways to confront the terrorist, by making sure that the law enforcement have all information available about threats. In this way, it would be easier for them to confront the threats and problems. U.S citizens being radicalize is another issue that the DHS must focus on. For terrorist groups from another country, it is easier for them to radicalize U.S. citizens, because they have more access to public places in America where they can create a terrorist attack. For this reason is that the DHS is currently working to combat violent extremists. To confront the terrorism in the airports and other places, the DHS is always sharing some of their information with other organizations. This is an effective way that the terrorism can be prevented because all the organizations come together with a better plan of how to fight back the terrorists and their threats. DHS is also trying to focus on travelers that come from countries like Lybia, Yemen and Somalia, and prohibiting people who traveled to these country in the last 5 years, to enter U.S. without a visa. It is getting more difficult everyday for terrorists to commit an act of violence in airports. DHS created Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for better results in the security check points inside the
airports.
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) "protects the nation's transportation systems to ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce." (TSA Mission, n.d.).
TSA was created on November 19, 2001, in response of the terrorist attack on 9/11, when President George Bush decided to sign the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (ATSA). This federal agency was created to strength the security of transportation areas, such as airports, buses, ports, railroads. This agency helps prevent future attacks and secure passengers by implementing security measures and technology. According to Justin Lee, "TSA oversees about 440 federally regulated airports, which include a daily stream of about 1.8 million passengers and 1.2 million checked bags". A large effort of this agency is to hire people because TSA continues to expand to more airports and more transportation areas. Even though TSA receive millions of people daily, they have to ensure that they search every single person, to prevent people from sneaking prohibited materials into to the airport. One of the weaknesses that TSA has is that when they want to secure us, they make us waste time in the long security lines. TSA has been criticized by the long lines since they started, because usually their
waiting lines take too much of their time. The Red Team, who work exposing gaps and keeping
TSA screeners sharp, they found a great weakness in TSA. The Red Team successfully hid fake weapons and explosives from the screens 67 out of 70 times. This is a big threat to everyone, and has much to say about TSA. Terrorist see these type of situation and they will try to do the same; they could be able to hide weapons and explosives without being caught. The inspectors said that this failures are caused by bad TSA screeners and poor technology. Usually when the inspectors pass the screeners without being caught, they report it to the manager so the screener learns from his mistake. Even though TSA have weaknesses, they try to come up with new strategies, procedures and new technology to create a safer environment. External Reporting has played a big role in keeping track of possible threats in airports. Making everyday people the source of reporting things that are out of the ordinary keeps the TSA informed without having to be everywhere all the time. This is an amazing opportunity because it cost nothing and has a high rate of response. The security of the people is TSA's main goal, and they have achieved it for many years. It is not easy to secure millions of people, or to prevent terrorist to enter an aircraft without a prohibited item, but TSA always find new ways to prevent attacks from happening.