Terrorist threat

Monday, April 14, 2008 | 2:09 a.m.

The Transportation Security Administration is launching a program this summer to screen all freight that goes on passenger airlines in America.

Surprisingly, nearly seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, most of the 250 million freight packages that are sent each year on passenger planes in the United States are never screened for bombs.

The TSA has been reluctant to mandate screening even though not doing so leaves an opening for a terrorist to try to plant a bomb. After years of debate with security officials, Congress finally passed a law last year making cargo screening mandatory by 2010.

USA Today reported Thursday that the agency will roll out the plan at major airports. But the proposal fails to give us any assurance that it will work.

The TSA is placing the responsibility for screening on private companies, which is similar to the way airport security worked before 9/11.

Under this plan, the agency wants manufacturers and freight companies to screen their cargo before it gets to the airport. They will need to buy and operate screening equipment and submit to government regulation. And, unlike passenger airlines, which pay a portion of the costs of screening passengers and their bags, freight companies will be required to pick up the full cost. Congress estimated the program could cost $3.75 billion over 10 years.

The TSA figures these companies will pick up the cost, because if they don’t, they will not be able carry airfreight on passenger jets.

There is an irony in the free-market Bush administration’s forcing businesses to do this work, because this really is the government’s responsibility. The TSA should be doing this screening and should have been doing so for years.

Instead of just banging the drum of national security, the administration should be doing more about it. It should start by assuming the responsibility to screen cargo, and it should do that as soon as possible.