AIRPORT INSECURITY AS YOU MAY NEVER HAD KNOWN BEFORE

BY DAVE BROWN
December 2009

I was the press officer on the FAA task force that developed, tested, and verified the initial procedure
during 1969-70 (Unfortunately, I am the lone remaining member.) Our team psychologist developed a
characteristics-based "profile" to be used as Step One. We took it to 9 airports across the country and to
Puerto Rico. I gave the press conferences, and also videotaped passenger reaction. After only working
with Eastern Airlines, the most hijacked at the time, we discovered that less than 1 percent of passengers
fit the required minimum of 6 elements of the "profile." If they did, they were to be taken aside,
interrogated, and fully searched. For our last effort, we used the "profile" for all airlines using New
Orleans. The same percentage held up. That told us our procedure would facilitate boarding of the other
99 percent of airline passengers. Not only did the ACLU "approve" of the "profile," but a New York
Federal Court judge ruled it constitutional because it did not violate the 24th Amendment regarding
unlawful search and seizure.
We did such a good job "going outside of the bureaucratic box" that the agency disbanded our nine-
man group in August 1970 following the New Orleans demonstration. (By the way, that evening in New
Orleans got significant coverage on both the Huntley/Brinkley Show on NBC and Walter Cronkite on
CBS.)
The following month, "Black September" occurred. Four U.S. aircraft were hijacked. The Nixon
Administration panicked and ordered EVERYONE to be considered a potential terrorist. Step One now
became the body search by what we used in WWII to detect mines. Our "profile" was relegated to the
back of the bus. (I'll get to that a bit later.) Using the threat of terrorism against U.S. airline passengers,
this enabled the Nixon Administration to bypass the 14th Amendment. There is one problem: ALL
THOSE AIRCRAFT WERE NOT HIJACKED AT ANY U.S. AIRPORT. THEY WERE HIJACKED IN THE
MIDDLE EAST!!!!!!!!!!!!)
In the early 1970s, I conducted a press conference to introduce the newly created armed federal air
marshal program, using military volunteers. To make the tale of the press conference from hell short, a
high Transportation official took over the briefing and not only identified for the cameras the new
"graduated" air marshals, but also the ammunition they were to use. Both of those two were never to be
made known.
In 1978, our Task Force issued its Final Report (available to anyone for about $50). On Page 93, these
words appear: "Some day, terrorists may use U.S. aircraft to further their missions."
Fast forward to the early 1990s when the World Trade Center was bombed on the ground by terrorists.
You would have thought that the FAA would connect the dots between that act and the warning in our
1978 Final Report, and expect a similar incident using U.S. aircraft. But, of course, none of us from the
task force were involved, except our security representative.
Fast forward once again to September 11, 2001. Suffice it to say, had our "profile" still be Step One, all
19 terrorists would have triggered those required six elements. At the very least, they would be been
denied boarding. And, with three of the flights having 5 terrorists, and one having 4, you would think gate
personnel would have been suspicious of so many on one flight who could be suspects.
Fast forward to Christmas Day, 2009 and the loopy Nigerian on the Northwest Airline flight about to
land at Detroit. Most media reports indicate technology should have caught him in Amsterdam where he
boarded. Would you believe that this moron triggered at 5 of the elements that I know of?
Technology only is as good as the people operating it. Tonight, Diane Sawyer on CBS talked about a
new device that in essence is a quick totally body scan. Sounds good, and would have caught the
Nigerian ninny, BUT . . . guess who is operating this device, analyzing what is seen, and making a
decision? An hourly-wage Transportation Security Administration employee. Would you like your X-rays,
MRIs, CY scans, etc. checked out by non-trained technicians?
Bureaucracy being what it is, which why I finally escape with my reasoning and humor intact, you would
have thought that Airport Security 101 would have demanded that when the head of the largest bank in a
foreign country warned authorities about his son's radical affiliation, that would have put the young man
on high priority alert. No, they put him on a list with 500,000 names. Oh, by the way, Great Britain would
not let him into that country because he claimed to be attending a fictional university program. Talk about
the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. .
 Wait, you say, intelligence sometimes is dysfunction. The problem with that rationale is that this
business with airline terrorism has been going on for decades - and our task force did its work some 40
years ago!!!!!!
The second of my two books critical of such procedures tells it all: "Airline Passenger Screening Has
Become a FEMA-Type SNAFU."
Oh, by the way, I was interviewed by the 9/11 Commission. I essentially told them what you have read
here. Take a deep breath before cheering -- NOT ONE WORD OF THIS APPEARED ANYWHERE IN
THE COMMISSION REPORT!!!!!!!!!!
So, next time you see an 80 year-old woman literally being strip-searched, or a toddler removed from a
baby carriage, take heart in the knowledge that those age groups never have been involved in a terrorist
skyjacking. Well, I guess there's always a first time. I'm keeping a leery eye on all of you.

Devious Dave