John Pistole says he understands people's sensitivities but won't change TSA policies. TSA head: 'Not going to change'

John Pistole, administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, said several times Sunday that no changes are planned in airport screening procedures, despite an online backlash.

“Do I understand the sensitivities of people? Yes,” Pistole said to CNN’s Candy Crowley on “State of the Union.” “If you're asking, am I going to change the policies? No.”


His boss, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, was asked on Bloomberg TV’s “Political Capital With Al Hunt” if the pat-down procedures are working.

“Yes,” she replied. “And I think it is objectively better at helping us find the liquids, the powders, the gels that could be smuggled onto a plane and used to explode it. … Remember, the walkthrough metal detector was hugely controversial when it began, and now, of course, we don't even think about it.”

There are signs, though, that the administration may eventually refine the policy. President Barack Obama said Saturday during a news conference in Lisbon, Portugal: ““I understand people’s frustrations. And what I’ve said to the TSA is that you have to constantly refine and measure whether what we’re doing is the only way to assure the American people’s safety.”

And Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on CBS’s “Face the Nation: “If there is a way to limit the number of people who are going to be put through surveillance, that’s something that I’m sure can be considered.” On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” she said: “Our security experts are looking for ways to diminish the impact on the traveling public. “

The TSA chief said on CNN that the U.S. faces “a determined enemy who has been adept at devising and concealing explosive devices, bombs that will target not only aviation in terms of commercial aircraft but also cargo aircraft, as we saw in Yemen recently.”

“The challenge is how do we balance the security that everybody wants … with the privacy that everybody wants also,” Pistole said. “TSA is really the last line of defense for the U.S. government in trying to keep the traveling public safe. …

“So if all the other levels or layers of security have not worked and somebody literally gets to the airport and is able to get past behavior detection officers, all the information we have about the travelers, the watch lists and all of those things — if somebody is actually able to get to an airport with a bomb that is nonmetallic so it's not going to alert a walk-through medal detector, then the AIT, the advanced imaging technology machine, gives us the best opportunity to detect that device.”

The exchange continued:

CROWLEY: “Are you looking for ways to make the pat-down less onerous?”

PISTOLE: Well, let me start by saying that very few people actually receive the pat-down. In spite of all the public furor about this, very few people do.” …

CROWLEY: “So when the secretary of state says the government security experts are looking for ways to diminish the impact on the traveling public, you don't know what that — that is?

PISTOLE: “No, I think what she's talking about is trying to be informed by the latest intelligence, to say how can we use these layers of security in the most efficient, effective way, while protecting the privacy of people and blending that with the security that everybody wants? … There's no doubt, and I understand the public debate. I'm sympathetic to it. …”

CROWLEY: “But you're still not going to change anything.

PISTOLE: “No. Not going to change.”

Pistole, a lawyer who became the TSA’s fifth administrator in July, is a 26-year veteran of the FBI, who rose to become the bureau’s executive assistant director for counterterrorism and counterintelligence, and then in 2005 to deputy director.