Test finds Logan safe for takeoff
 

The Boston herald
By Jules Crittenden
Sunday, September 5, 2004

It's hard to imagine who was more surprised - the undercover feds or the statie who busted them at Logan International Airport trying to sneak a ``test device'' through security three months ago.

The trooper, trained in Behavioral Pattern Recognition, spotted two men who set off a mental red light, state police Maj. Scott Pare said. ``They were headed to the checkpoint. They fit what we'd be looking for.''

He and others won't discuss details, but say BPR works strictly on behavior, such as signs of stress or excitement, and does not include racial profiling. The trooper began asking the feds who they were and where they were going. Their cover story wasn't holding up.

``Halfway through the process, they gave up,'' said Pare. ``They were very surprised.'' Two of the planes hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001, took off from Logan. The 9/11 Commission cleared Massport officials of any wrongdoing. Since then, federal authorities say, Logan has exceeded federal security requirements, adding new measures to screen passengers before they get to the Transportation Security Administration checkpoints.

Staties carry automatic weapons. Uniformed and plainclothes patrols practice BPR techniques to single out potential terrorists. Though no terrorists have been caught with those methods, the staties question about 50 people a month on BPR suspicions and have arrested about 20 during the last year and a half when they were found to have outstanding warrants.

Meanwhile, Aviation Director Thomas Kinton said he has initiated ``Loganwatch,'' a kind of neighborhood watch program in which airport employees are trained in a lower level of BPR so they can report suspicious behavior.

Concerns were raised earlier this year about uncontrolled truck traffic into Logan, and police now conduct random roadblocks to question drivers and check their vehicles.

Meanwhile, Kinton holds a daily meeting of all federal and local security chiefs and airline representatives to discuss any incidents in the previous 24 hours and what's coming up.

``Nothing is going to be 100 percent,'' Kinton said. ``What we're trying to do is take the percentage of success and take it from X to Y.''

Interesting story.. but it's also interesting to notice that the 9/11 hijackers seemed rather serene on the video that was released a few months ago.