Weaknesses in homeland security efforts at airports

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Weaknesses in homeland security Efforts at airports

Introduction

Terrorism has continued to pose a major threat to the security not only of the United States but to the whole world as well . Our airports have become very easy targets for these threats and have been used as corridors to achieve deadly attacks on innocent civilians and key installations . One such attack is the bombing of the World Trade Center commonly referred to as 9 /11 .This was perhaps the deadliest terrorist attack

anywhere in the world 's resulted into loss of thousands of lives and property

It is ironical that the terrorists innocently passed through the well secured airports undetected by the security apparatus . This was indeed was a major security lapse . Homeland Security

Homeland security is a term that is used to refer to all aspects of government 's efforts directed towards protecting the territory of the United States from all forms of threats both internally and externally

Homeland security from the definition of the National Strategy for Homeland security is a concerted national effort to prevent terrorist attacks within the United States , reduce Americas vulnerability to terrorism , and minimize the damage and recover from attacks that do not occur ( HYPERLINK "http /www .whitehouse .gov /homeland book /index .html " www .whitehouse .gov /homeland book /index .html

Thus homeland security is a very important element of the national security system that ensures that the security of nation is upheld However , major threats are faced at the airports which are very vulnerable as gateways to the rest of the nation

Because of the increased number of threat that face these airports sometime the homeland security is unable to cope , making it extremely challenging for them leading to pockets of weaknesses . At these airports , airport security is meant to serve two purposes

-Protecting the airports

- Protecting the aircrafts from attacks

Weaknesses

There are various weaknesses that have been identified which this is going to discuss

i .Information Security

According to the reports done by the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO ) dated July 2007 . Significant weaknesses were identified in the systems supporting the US - VISIT Program . US - VISIT program stands for United States Visitor and Immigrant States Indicator Technology . The program covers the pre-entry , entry , status management and exit of foreign travelers that enter or leave the United States at 285 air , sea and land points of entry

From this report it is clear that technological advancement should be ahead of pace with the changing facets of the threats that the airports face . The technology that was used yester years should be upgraded constantly to ensure it meets the demands , which are placed on it

ii ) Lack of proper implementation of security guidelines

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA ) which is an arm of the Homeland Security has set clear guidelines on how security incidents are identified and then reported to the TSA headquarters . It is also the responsibility of the TSA to carry out covert...