Thomas Frank
USA Today
February 12, 2010
WASHINGTON — About 10,000 airport security workers will get access to secret intelligence that could help stop terrorist attacks on planes.
The Transportation Security Administration plan aims to help its officers spot terrorists by giving them more detailed information about tactics and threats, TSA officials and security experts said. The agency, viewed by some as throngs of workers pawing through luggage at checkpoints, hopes to empower its higher-level workers as part of an effort to professionalize airport security.
[efoods]The 10,000 people in line to get classified information are managers, supervisors and “behavior detection officers” who roam airports looking for suspicious people. They represent about 20% of the TSA’s airport workforce and exclude screeners who scan passengers and bags.
The information could include copies of terrorist training videos or tips vaguely describing a terrorism suspect, experts said. “Some classified information seems innocuous but is classified because it was derived from an intercepted phone conversation,” said Steven Aftergood, an intelligence-policy specialist for the Federation of American Scientists.
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