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Journalism of Courage
Travelers will still have to take off their shoes when they go through security gates at U.S. airports for the foreseeable future.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Tuesday that technology currently available doesnt allow screeners to adequately examine what is in someones shoes while the person is wearing them.
While that could change one day,for now the Transportation Security Administration doesnt have plans to stow away the shoe-removal requirement,which was implemented after Richard Reid tried but failed to ignite a shoe bomb on a U.S.-bound trans-Atlantic jetliner in 2001.
Napolitano spoke in a live online video chat with travelers about the federal governments aviation security efforts.
The Sept. 11,2001 terrorist attacks and the shoe bomber incident prompted tighter security at U.S. airports,as did a failed attack this past Christmas aboard a Detroit-bound airliner.
Some air travelers have raised privacy questions about the full-body scanners that have been popping up at more airports. TSA also has increased the hand swabs that screeners are using to check passengers for traces of explosives.
Napolitano said officials are focused on making the public aware of the security measures and comfortable with them.
She was asked about air marshals on aircraft and the prohibition against people without tickets going through security and meeting arriving passengers at their gates.
Napolitano said she doesnt know if air marshals will one day be on every international flight. On the gate area issue,she said the gate is designed to be a secure area where only ticketed passengers are allowed.
It may be possible to change that as we move forward,but right now I cant say that, Napolitano said.
