Personal traits will be used to screen U.S.-bound air passengers

The Obama administration will announce Friday a new screening system for flights to the United States under which passengers who fit an intelligence profile of potential terrorists will be searched before boarding their planes, a senior administration official said.The new plan is designed to catch terrorism suspects about whom the U.S. may know bits of information but not full names or other identifying data that would lead to their names being placed on a no-fly list.

In many cases, the U.S. might learn of a possible attack by someone about whom it has only fragmentary information -- a partial name, nationality, certain facial features or details about recent travel.

Such information will be forwarded to airlines and foreign governments by the Department of Homeland Security as it is received and will be used to guide them in deciding which travelers to subject to special screening, the official said.

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