Morning Security Brief: Airport Security in the Aftermath of the Moscow Attack, Border Security, Ciudad Juarez, & More

♦ The New York Times asks whether it's possible to totally secure an airport and security professionals answer in the negative. "How do you fully secure something as big and sprawling as an international airport against a terrorist bombing like the one on Monday at Domodedovo Airport in Moscow?," reporter Joe Sharkey asks. "You cannot, security experts I spoke with on Monday say. Airports are by definition public places requiring relatively free access. The experts have long contended that serious holes in security at airports have been neglected while most of the effort and money goes into looking for weapons on passengers at checkpoints. But they have also warned that a sensational incident in one place can lead to widespread overreaction and demands for quick fixes."

♦ The security experts The Washington Post spoke with say airport security can get better outside secured areas. "But the farther you get away from the controlled area, the bigger the drop-off in terms of quality and quantity of security," Richard W. Bloom, an aviation security expert at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, told the Post. Bloom said some security resources may have to be reallocated to other parts of an airport to stop a suicide attack like yesterday's in Moscow. Rafi Ron, who is a security consultant for U.S. airports, added that airport design should come under scrutiny. "I don't know what the situation was in Moscow, but judging from the large number of casualties I would assume there were a lot of flying objects," he said. "A lot of U.S. airports have a lot of glass elements and partitions, all of which turn into very dangerous projectiles when there is an explosion."

♦Whatever the experts think, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is calling on management at Domodedevo Airport to be "held accountable" for the suicide bombing that murdered 35 and wounded approximately 180 people.

♦ In Texas, the Senate leadership's proposed budget will make border security a priority as social spending, like education, will receive cuts. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Steve Ogden, who filed the budget, spoke about border security's importance. "That was a conscious decision that the first responsibility of government is to provide for the security of the people," he said, according to The Houston Chronicle.

♦ A simulation says the nightmarish violence swallowing up Ciudad Juarez will only get worse this year. "An artificial-intelligence model generated by a university researcher in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, projects that 5,000 people will be killed in the violent border city this year," reports the Los Angeles Times. "The same model projected at the start of 2010 that 3,000 would be killed in the greater Juarez area, a figure that eventually reached 3,111 -- about a 94% accuracy rate."

♦ Former Minnesota Governor Jesse "The Body" Ventura is suing the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration over enhanced screening procedures at U.S. airports. Ventura is asking a federal judge in Minnesota to issue an injunction ordering officials to stop subjecting him to 'warrantless and suspicionless' scans and body searches," according to the Associated Press. "The lawsuit, which also names Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and TSA Administrator John Pistole as defendants, argues the searches are 'unwarranted and unreasonable intrusions on Governor Ventura's personal privacy and dignity and are a justifiable cause for him to be concerned for his personal health and well-being.'"