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VIPER Teams Protect Transit Hubs

By Dan Schlossberg
ConsumerAffairs.com

July 5, 2007

VIPER, which stands for Visible Intermodeal Protection And Response, is a high-security, low-profile unit designed to defray terrorist attacks at airports and other transportation hubs.

Created by another agency better-known for its acronym, the TSA (Transportation Security Administration), the new unit doesn’t want publicity. To it, stealth is an asset.

"This is nothing new," said the TSA’s Ellen Howe. "Over the last 18 months, we’ve had 84 VIPER team operations."

She said her teams consist of transportation inspectors, air marshals, behavioral experts, and bomb detectors, among others. Taking a page from the terrorist textbook, they bank on being unpredictable, so that nobody knows where they might show up next.

Not surprisingly, they are already on the job in New York, the focal point of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

They were deployed there even before British authorities thwarted car-bombing plots, minimized an attack on Glasgow airport, and arrested eight alleged co-conspirators last weekend.

VIPER teams carry arms but do not always wear uniforms. They have worked such events as the Super Bowl and the funeral of former president Gerald Ford.

According to Howe, "It’s not unusual to deploy them at a time like this when a lot of people will be using public transit systems."

In addition to the New York-New Jersey area, which has three major airports, VIPER teams are at work in Boston, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, among other places. The teams work in concert with local authorities, including city and state police and airport agencies like the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

How much time they spend in a given location, where they are deployed, and the size of each team is confidential information, not known to the public or the media.

That’s the way the TSA likes it.

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