DHS lab tries to stay one step ahead of bomb makers.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: HOMELAND DEFENSE

* ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Patrick O'Conner gets paid to make bombs.

He constructs the most dastardly and sneaky improvised explosive devices he can conjure, and has at his disposal a vast sampling of military grade and homemade explosives, along with the latest intelligence on the tricks terrorists are using to make IEDs.

He takes these explosives and hides them as best he can in stuffed animals, shoes, laptops or anything else that may make it past a baggage screener.

Fortunately, O'Conner works for the Transportation Security Laboratory, a Department of Homeland Security facility administered by the science and technology directorate. It's his job to trip up those who are testing the latest luggage screening equipment destined for airports.

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Down the hall, William Petracci, the lab's test director, places the bombs O'Conner creates on the belt of a new check-in baggage screening machine.

"We run thousand and thousands of bombs through these machines before we are comfortable with [the technology's] performance," he said as he examined the image of a laptop containing a thin strip of explosives. With technology similar to what is used in a CAT scan, the machine's imager spins at hundreds of rotations per minute to come up with a 3-D image of the laptop. The explosives are highlighted in red. The operator viewing the image can turn it around to have a better look.

"There is a little bit of a rivalry, but we love each other," Petracci said of O'Conner.

The lab was established in the wake of the Lockerbie bombing over Scotland in 1988, explained its director Susan Hallowell during a tour of the facility.

"It was a horrific event and in my mind the first step in modern terrorism because we realized it was no longer about just trying to get knives and guns through checkpoints for hijacking," she told reporters. "We now had the ugly specter of keeping bombs off airplanes."

The lab tests the fully developed machines sent to it by manufacturers to ensure they meet TSA standards. It also carries out basic and applied research into promising new technologies. It has a human factors division that tests how passengers and TSA screeners interact with new technologies. There is also a vulnerability analysis section where bombs are detonated on aircraft to see how well they can withstand explosions.

To further ensure that tests are realistic, there is a massive collection of lost and unclaimed luggage and their contents that...