Homeland Security

August 8, 2003
The Honorable Tom Ridge
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Washington, D.C. 20528

Dear Secretary Ridge,

I am writing to request that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) redouble its efforts to protect America’s 5,000 commercial airliners against shoulder-fired missiles because the current DHS timetable for action is grossly inadequate to counter what top Administration security officials call an imminent threat.

As you are aware, American commercial airliners are extremely vulnerable to attack from shoulder-fired missiles. Hundreds of these weapons are readily available on the black market and US intelligence suggests that at least 26 terrorist groups around the world possess these weapons.

Top security officials in the Administration have also stated unequivocally that the shoulder-fired missile threat requires immediate action. General John Handy of the United States Transportation Command has said that, in the war on terror, shoulder fired missiles pose “perhaps the greatest threat that we face anywhere in the world.” Admiral James Loy of the Transportation Security Administration has echoed this statement, stating “the potential for actual attacks is very real.” Two recent missile attacks on US military cargo planes in Iraq only underscore this fact.

Nonetheless, DHS’s response to this threat continues to be penny wise and pound foolish. Although recent moves by American security officials to prevent attacks from shoulder-fired missiles at airports around the globe are encouraging, the Administration refuses to make the investment needed to install anti-missile systems on planes themselves, currently the best means available to prevent the success of such attacks as demonstrated by the ability of the US military cargo planes to emerge unscathed.

While I have generally supported your efforts to improve our security, I am very disappointed that, thus far, the Administration has decided only to conduct a $60 million study of anti-missile systems in the hope that a prototype system will be available for commercial airliners by 2005. Given that these shoulder-fired missile pose a clear and present danger to our security, I think you would agree that this approach is far too slow and incomplete. I strongly encourage you to accelerate the process to install anti-missile systems on American commercial airliners.

Sincerely,
Charles Schumer
U.S. Senator