WASHINGTON - U.S. homeland security officials have no plans to back away from air passenger security patdowns despite traveler complaints that they violate privacy rights and growing congressional concern about the policy.
As the heavy holiday travel season got under way, John Pistole, head of the Transportation Security Administration, acknowledged Sunday that the law enforcement-style patdowns, performed as an alternative or additional screening measure, can be unexpectedly intrusive.
"It's invasive; it's not comfortable," he said.
But Pistole stressed that tighter security, including a wider use of controversial full body scanners at airports by year's end, is necessary to mitigate terrorism risks.
"I want to be as sensitive as I can to those folks. I'm very attuned given all the concerns that have been raised," Pistole told CNN's "State of the Union" program. "No, we're not changing the policies."
With pilots allowed to carry guns and cockpits hardened against hijacking threats following the 2001 hijack attacks on New York and Washington, screening in recent years has focused on potential bomb plots using sophisticated explosives that are hard to detect.
Urging vigilance, Obama administration officials have pointed to a thwarted bombing of U.S.-bound air cargo flights last month and last year's Christmas attempt to blow up a Delta Air Lines flight bound for Detroit.
The Yemen-based group al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for both plots.
At a news conference in Lisbon Saturday, President Barack Obama said TSA is under "enormous pressure" after the Detroit incident to guard against a similar attempt. Obama said TSA, in consultation with counterterrorism experts, has indicated that current procedures are "the only ones" they consider effective against that type of threat.
Obama said he is "constantly asking" whether the security approaches are absolutely necessary. "Have we thought it through? Are there other ways of accomplishing it that meet the same objectives?" Obama said.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Sunday she believes vigilance is necessary, but that "striking the right balance" between security and passenger interests requires precision.
"Let's not kid ourselves. The terrorists are adaptable," she said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
"You've got folks putting explosives in their underwear. Who would have thought that?" Clinton said referring to the accused Detroit bomber.
But Clinton said she would not submit to a patdown if it were avoidable. "Who would?"
TSA has tweaked its patdown policy in recent days, agreeing to exclude children under 12 and pilots.
Consumer complaints about patdowns and revealing walk-through scanners have flooded airlines, congressional offices, civil liberties groups, and security agencies. Internet-fueled campaigns are urging travel boycotts.
Airlines are in the midst of a financial rebound and expect 24 million people to travel over the Thanksgiving holiday period. Airlines say they have passed along passenger concerns to TSA.
"We rely on TSA to do risk assessments and to implement appropriate security measures as they have done," said David Castelveter, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association, the industry's chief lobbying group.
Republican Representative John Mica, a TSA critic who will chair the House Transportation Committee when the new Congress convenes in January, has asked the agency to conduct patdowns only after screening triggers an alarm.
Patdowns are conducted now if passengers refuse to walk through a full-body screener, if an anomaly is found on the scan or if someone sets off traditional metal detectors.
"This does need to be refined," Mica told CNN.
House Democratic leader Steny Hoyer told CBS there would be hearings on the patdown controversy.
"I don't think any of us feel that the discomfort and the delay is something that we like. But most people understand that we've got to keep airplanes safe," Hoyer said.
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