Markey Reacts to Chertoff Announcement at Logan on Cargo

MARKEY REACTS TO CHERTOFF ANNOUNCEMENT AT LOGAN ON CARGO

Today Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), a senior member of the House Homeland Security Committee, released the following statement on DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff's visit to Boston's Logan Airport to announce a new policy on packages brought to passenger airline counters by individuals, which rep. Markey has been critical of:

"It is about time the Bush Administration considered an aviation security loophole dangerous enough to actually close it. All cargo brought to an airlines counter by individuals who aren't even required to be known shippers or submit to paperwork checks should be inspected. Last month I urged Sec. Chertoff to close this glaring security gap, and I am pleased that DHS has taken action. But the bottom line is that until the Bush Administration physically screens all cargo on passenger planes for explosives and requires all cargo to arrive at the airport in a form that is screenable using existing screening technology, passenger planes are vulnerable to terrorist attack by people who don't even fly on the planes they seek to bring down.

"The Bush Administration is still presiding over a state of homeland insecurity by bending to corporate interests and lurching from problem to problem without any clear plan."

Until today's announcement, many major airlines allowed any individual to bring packages weighing less than 16 ounces to the airport as little as one half hour before a passenger flight of their choosing, fill out a document, pay a shipping fee, and the envelope or package would then be put onto the flight for a speedy delivery. There was no 100% inspection requirement for these packages. Pan Am flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, was brought down by less than 16 ounces of semtex plastic explosives.

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http://markey.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2137&Itemid=141