Not many airports enforce new rules

By ERIN McCLAM

On the first day of what was supposed to be tighter screening ordered by the U.S. for airline passengers from certain countries, some airports around the world conceded Monday they hadn’t cracked down.

The United States demanded more careful screening for people who are citizens of, or are flying from, 14 nations deemed security risks. But enforcement of the U.S. rules appeared spotty.

“Everything is the same. There is no extra security,” said an aviation official in Lebanon, one of the countries on the list. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

The Obama administration ordered the changes after what authorities say was a failed attempt by a Nigerian man to blow up a jetliner bound from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day.

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration said the enhanced screening techniques would include full-body pat-downs, searches of carry-on bags, full-body scanning and explosive-detection technology.

On Monday, passengers arriving on international flights reported they had been patted down individually, or had their luggage inspected by hand — steps that have been in place on many international flights since the failed bombing.

Passengers on a flight from Stockholm to Newark, N.J., were patted down and had their bags checked at the gate, flier Mark Biddle said. He said no passengers had been singled out for special attention.

In Nigeria, one of the nations on the U.S. list for additional security, there were long lines on the first day of the new rules. At the airport in the capital of Lagos, Mine Oniovosa, a 24-year-old student, said she had been told to show up more than seven hours ahead of time for a flight to Atlanta.

A Nigerian official pledged that everyone would be patted down at the country’s international airports. In Lagos, guards wearing latex gloves combed through bags, spending more than a minute on each one.

But at international airports in Lebanon, Syria and Libya, all on the list, there were no visible changes in screening. And several European governments, including Germany, France and Spain, said they were still studying the rules before tightening security any further than the steps they took after the failed Christmas attack.

“We will continue to work with our airline and international partners to ensure they meet both international and TSA security standards,” TSA spokesman Greg Soule said.

Among the 14 nations are four — Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria — that the U.S. government considers state sponsors of terrorism. The list also includes Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen.

Passengers arriving at U.S. airports on international flights described a wide range of screening methods — from being separated by gender and patted down to nothing more invasive than normal airport security.

A U.S. intelligence official said the government had moved the names of dozens of people onto its terrorism watch list and its no-fly list after reviewing the government’s database of suspected terrorists.

The man arrested in the Christmas incident, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, had been in a database with about 550,000 other terror suspects since late November. But officials said the government did not have enough information to put him on the no-fly list.

Authorities say Abdulmutallab tried to bring down Northwest Flight 253 by igniting explosives concealed in his underwear, but the material failed to detonate, causing only a small fire. Passengers put out the fire and restrained Abdulmutallab.

While screening for international flights has been tightened since Christmas Day, there have been few changes at domestic airports.

On Sunday, officials at the Newark airport emptied a terminal and forced passengers to go through screening again after a man passed through a security checkpoint going the wrong way. His identity and whereabouts remained unknown Monday.

The failed Northwest attack has led to calls for wider use of full-body scanners, now in regular use at only a few U.S. airports. Dutch officials announced Monday they would buy 60 more of the scanners. There are already 15 in use at the Amsterdam airport alone.