U.S. reviewing how foreign air passengers are screened for terror ties

Concerned about a potential terrorist attack, U.S. authorities are reviewing systems used to screen airplane passengers with Western passports before they board flights to the United States, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Wednesday.

Officials are assessing checks and safeguards at airports “to ensure that they are adequate,” Johnson said at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City.

Since the Syrian civil war erupted in 2011, more than 4,000 foreign fighters have traveled there, including about 1,000 people with European or other passports that normally assure easy entry to the United States, Johnson said.

In addition, more than 100 Americans have traveled or attempted to travel to Syria to join rebel groups fighting against Bashar Assad’s government in Damascus.

U.S. officials are especially concerned that fighters from England, France, Germany or 35 other countries whose citizens can visit the U.S. without a visa will try to blow up a jetliner bound for the U.S. or launch an attack inside the country.

Under current rules, passengers from so-called visa waiver countries must complete an information form 72 hours before they depart. But not all the forms are checked for accuracy and some security officials would like more details collected before a flight.

Johnson said his department has enhanced aviation security overseas in the last three months after evidence suggested militant groups based in Syria and Iraq could target U.S.-bound aircraft.

Since July, the U.S. has boosted security screening of passengers and carry-on luggage in 25 foreign airports with direct flights to the U.S., he said.

“We need to ensure we are doing all we can to identify those who, by their travel patterns, attempt to hide their association with terrorist groups,” Johnson said.

President Obama will lead a United Nations Security Council meeting on Sept. 24 during the annual General Assembly session in New York. It is rare for a sitting U.S. president to attend Security Council proceedings.

Obama is expected to seek a U.N. resolution requiring countries to collect and share more information about the travel of foreign fighters and other potential terrorists.

Although an Islamic State militant beheaded two American journalists in Syria, Johnson said U.S. intelligence agencies have not found specific evidence of a terrorist plot aimed at the United States by the extremist group.

“At present we have no credible information that ISIL is planning to attack the homeland of the United States, but that is not, by any means, the end of the story,” Johnson said, using an alternative abbreviation for Islamic State.

“We know ISIL views the United States as an enemy, and we know that ISIL’s leaders have said they will soon be in ‘direct confrontation’ with the United States,” Johnson said.

Johnson said he worries most about a “lone wolf” attack by someone already in the United States who decides, without direct contact from a foreign terrorist group, to launch a strike.

“We are continually on guard against the potential domestic-based, homegrown terrorist threat who may be lurking in our society,” he said. “In many respects, this is the hardest threat to detect.”

For more reporting on national security, follow me on Twitter @ByBrianBennett.