Expand Scope of 'No-Fly' List, 9/11 Panel's Staff Says

[papau]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-commish9sep09.story
Expand Scope of 'No-Fly' List, 9/11 Panel's Staff Says
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar
Times Staff Writer

September 9, 2004

WASHINGTON — The government should convert its "no-fly" list of suspected terrorists into a "no-transport" list that applies to cruise ships, Amtrak and other forms of travel, the Sept. 11 commission staff recommended in a previously unreleased report.

Distributed to Congress this week, the staff report buttresses the commission's transportation recommendations and provides much greater detail — including suggested deadlines for such improvements as classes in self-defense for flight attendants. The Times obtained a copy Wednesday.

Transportation security should be elevated to a national defense issue, complete with its own version of war games to detect vulnerabilities, the staff concluded. More intensive protective measures should be applied to trains, ships and mass transit, while remaining loopholes in aviation security should be closed. The staff offered no cost estimates, but such an ambitious program could cost billions of dollars.

"These should be looked at as recommendations made by the staff, not approved by the commission, but generally consistent with ours," said Lee H. Hamilton, vice chairman of the panel. "Don't think that the commission looked at them and rejected them…. We just didn't act on them."

Congressional staffers said they were reviewing the 19-page report as lawmakers weighed legislation to adopt the commission's recommendations. That legislation is likely to follow the commission's broad proposals, which represent a bipartisan consensus. Some of the ideas in the staff report are more controversial, said congressional aides, but they may serve as a blueprint for the legislative committees that oversee transportation.
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