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Tuesday, April 23, 2002

By Ann McFeatters, Post-Gazette National Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said yesterday he thought random checks of passengers getting on airplanes "do not enhance national security" and that they should be replaced with a better system.

At a breakfast with reporters, he said too much attention in airports was placed on identifying weapons and not enough to identifying no-risk, low-risk and high-risk people.

Ridge suggested that millions of airline passengers who are frequent fliers and pay for extra amenities would probably be willing to pay for the airlines to gather enough information about them to enable them to whisk through security checks as non-threats.

Now, security guards pick out several passengers at random as each flight boards for thorough checks of their carry-on luggage and person, often making them remove belts, shoes and jewelry and empty their pockets.

The former Pennsylvania governor said that, when he flew frequently, he paid an annual fee to use the frequent fliers' club room, "to get access to coffee and a stale Danish as I waited for a connection." He maintained that many fliers would similarly be willing to "share ... information about themselves," so the airline could "double check ... and make a rational, responsible assessment as to the likelihood of these people being terrorists," and thus allow those who have been pre-screened to avoid the prospect of searches.

"I think you've got to combine looking not just at weapons and explosives, but [also] direct your technology to those people you think are high-risk," Ridge said.

The federal government was embarrassed recently when Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., who has served 24 terms in Congress and flies nearly every week, was stripped to his underwear at Reagan National Airport en route home to Michigan because a metal rod in his leg from an old injury had set off a metal detector.

Ridge insisted that his idea would extend not only to first-class passengers who could avoid a search and possible delay, but also to any frequent flier willing to reveal in-depth information in advance to airlines.

He is not, however, suggesting a national identification card.

"There is absolutely no discussion in the Office of Homeland Security, or anywhere else in the administration that I know of, regarding a national ID," he said.

"I think before we take that approach to our citizens, we have to take that approach to those who are non-citizens. If you are a guest of this country, you ought to have an ID card.

"We have literally millions and millions of non-citizens ... who secure driver's licenses. I think some would argue that's a national ID card even though the authorization, the tenure and the qualifications may vary from state to state."

Perhaps, he said, driver's licenses should note whether the holder is a U.S. citizen.

Ridge also thinks that those who regularly cross the U.S. border into Canada or Mexico should have special recognition, so border guards and Customs officials spend their time, personnel and technology on people and vehicles they don't recognize.

He also said President Bush could decide within a week or two whether to concur with a homeland security council recommendation to merge Customs officials, border guards and Immigration and Naturalization Service enforcement officers into a single agency.

Congress would have to authorize the change.