Screening could have detected explosives

WASHINGTON, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Existing airport screening equipment could have detected the explosive suspected in the attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner, experts say.

But the screening equipment is used on only a small fraction of passengers in part because of concerns about privacy rights, costs and long lines at airport security, The Washington Post reported Monday.

That Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian suspect, allegedly managed to bring PETN, or pentaerythritol tetranitrate, aboard the Christmas Day flight alarms some international security experts and former U.S. government officials, the Post said.

Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism analyst at Georgetown University, said PETN is well-known and a favorite among suicide bombers.

"This incident was a compound failure of both intelligence and physical security, leaving prevention to the last line of defense -- the passengers themselves," Hoffman wrote in an e-mail.

The TSA uses two types of screening that can detect PETN, even if it's beneath clothes, the Post said. The first method relies on test swabs wiped on passengers and baggage to try to detect traces of explosives. This was not used on Abdulmutallab because, while he appeared on a U.S. terror watch list, he was not on TSA's "no-fly" list even though his father had warned the State Department of his son's increasingly radical views.

Lawmakers told The New York Times the warning from Abdulmutallab's father, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, should have brought more scrutiny before he boarded Northwest Flight 253 in Amsterdam.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said Abdulmutallab's visa should have been revoked and he should have received a pat-down or scan.

"This individual should not have been missed," Collins said. "Clearly, there should have been a red flag next to his name."

In the wake of the failed terrorist attack, President Obama has ordered a review of watch lists and screening procedures, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told CBS.