WASHINGTON – Citizens of 14 nations, including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Nigeria who are flying to the United States, will be subjected indefinitely to the intense screening at airports worldwide that was imposed in the aftermath of the Christmas Day bombing plot, Obama administration officials announced Sunday.
But American citizens, and most others who are not flying through those nations on their way to the United States, will no longer automatically face the full-range of intensified security that had been imposed after the attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight, officials said.
For Americans, the change represents an easing of the immediate response to the attempting bombing of the flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. But the action on Sunday further establishes a global security system that treats people differently based on what country they are from, evoking immediate protests from civil rights groups Sunday.
Citizens of Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria, which are considered “state sponsors of terrorism” as well as citizens from “countries of interest” that consist of Afghanistan, Algeria, Lebanon, Libya, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, and Yemen, will also face the special scrutiny, officials said.
Passengers holding passports from those nations, or taking flights that originated or passed through any of these countries, will be required to undergo a full-body pat-down and extra scrutiny of their carry-on bags before they can board a plane to the United States.
In certain countries that have more advanced screening equipment, travelers also will be required to pass through so-called whole body scanners that can look beneath clothing for hidden explosives or weapons, or they may be checked with a device that can find tiny traces of explosives. on Sunday, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that full-body scanners will be introduced in that country’s airports. Officials in Amsterdam announced last week that they would begin using the scanners on passengers bound for the United States.
Many, though not all, other passengers coming to the United States will face similar measures, but that screening will be done randomly, or if there is some reason to believe that a particular passenger might present a threat, officials said.
The changes should speed up boarding of international flights bound for the United States, while still increasing security beyond the standard X-rays of carry-on bags and metal detector checks of all passengers.
The changes will mean any citizen of Pakistani or Saudi Arabian, for the first time, will be automatically be patted down before boarding any flight to the United States. Even if that person has lived in a country like Great Britain for decades, they will now be subject to these extra security checks.
Nawar Shora, legal director at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said the rule wrongly implies that all citizens of certain nations are suspect.
“I understand there needs to be additional security in light of what was attempted on Christmas Day,” Mr. Shora said, adding that he intended to file a formal protest Monday. “But this is extreme and very dangerous. All of a sudden people are labeled as being related to terrorism just because of the nation they are from.”
In the United States, a requirement for so-called “second screening” has for a number of years already been in effect for a dozen countries, a fact that is not widely known.
But the requirement often does not have much of an impact, as most passengers traveling domestically in the United States use driver’s licenses-- not passports---when passing through checkpoints, so officials do not know their nationality, and there is less chance that they will receive extra attention.
The addition of Nigeria, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to the “country of interest” list marks the first time that citizens of those countries will be subject to automatic additional screening for flights to the United States.
Nigerian-born American Charles Oy, 28, of Chicago, said he detected heightened security this weekend -- not in Nigeria, but upon his arrival Sunday at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. He was one of a few passengers taken aside for an individual interview, and his bags and passport were examined.
The suspect arrested in the Northwest Airlines incident, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, was Nigerian but Mr. Oy said the added scrutiny did not leave him discouraged. “I feel it is very isolated, and is something not characteristic of Nigeria,” he said. “I had no particular feelings of unpleasantness. I understand it is part of the world we live in. I factor all that into my traveling. If it happens, I roll with it.”
A Homeland Security official said the Obama administration did not consider this move a step in the direction of racial profiling, which the Transportation Security Administration has said it has long attempted to avoid.
“Out of abundance of caution and based on the latest intelligence in this evolving threat environment, additional screening measures are necessary to keep transportation safe,” the official said, asking that she not be identified by name, as she was not authorized to address the question on the record.
Domestically, passengers traveling in the United States may notice more canine bomb-detection teams, or face occasional extra checks of carry on bags. Additional behavioral detection officials are also in airports observing passengers for any signs that might offer a hint of a plot. But there have been no comprehensive changes in screening at domestic airports.
David Castelveter, a spokesman for Air Transport Association, the airlines’ trade organization, said the group had been "closely coordinating" the enhanced security measures "with the convenience of customers in mind. I believe we accomplished that," Mr. Castelveter said Sunday.
But some airline officials privately questioned whether the security measures would be effective, saying that screening passengers from particular countries would not necessarily discover those from other countries who intended to do harm.
Rather than screen all passengers, these officials said, the government needed to focus on passengers who might be a threat. Terrorists intend on circumventing the rule also could simply make sure they do not try to travel using a passport from one of the nation’s included on the list, one aviation official said.