Airports Warned About Terror Dry Runs
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
WASHINGTON — Airport security officers around the nation have been alerted by federal officials to look out for terrorists practicing to carry explosive components onto aircraft, based on four curious seizures at airports since last September.
The seizures at airports in San Diego, Milwaukee, Houston, and Baltimore included “wires, switches, pipes, or tubes, cellphone components, and dense clay-like substances,” including block cheese, the bulletin said. “The unusual nature and increase in number of these improvised items raise concern.”
The bulletin was posted on the Internet by NBC Nightly News, which first reported the story.
“There is no credible, specific threat here,” TSA spokeswoman Ellen Howe said. “Don’t panic. We do these things all the time.” A statement posted late Tuesday by the TSA on its Web site confirmed that “a routine TSA intelligence bulletin relating to suspicious incidents at U.S. airports” had leaked to news organizations.
