Superseding emergency measures put in place following a foiled terrorist attack on a US-bound aircraft on December 25, America on Friday announced enhanced security measures for all international carriers to strengthen passengers' safety.
The new measures will select passengers based on possible matches to intelligence information, including physical descriptions or a particular travel pattern.
By putting this policy in place the US has abandoned its earlier policy of using nationality alone such as Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen -- to determine which US-bound international air traveller should be subject to additional screening.
"These new measures utilise real-time, threat-based intelligence along with multiple, random layers of security, both seen and unseen, to more effectively mitigate evolving terrorist threats," said the Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.
The system will be "much more intel-based as opposed to blunt force," a senior administration official was quoted as saying by The Washington Post.
The department of homeland security said passengers travelling to US from abroad may notice enhanced security and random screening measures throughout passenger check-in and boarding process, including use of explosives trace detection, advanced imaging technology, canine teams, or pat downs, among other security measures.
"It's much more tailored to what intelligence is telling us and what the threat is, as opposed to stopping all individuals from a particular nationality," one Obama administration official told CBS News.
The new system is supposed to raise red flags on those whose names do not appear on "no fly" lists by "surgically targeting" potential terrorists.
Soon after a foiled December 25 al Qaeda attack to blow up a North West plane, US introduced new rules which required extra screening, such as full-body pat-downs, for everyone from, or travelling through, any of these 14 countries - Afghanistan, Algeria, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
The new rules use an intelligence-based targeting which will be in addition to screening names on terror watch lists.
The government's "no-fly" list of suspected terrorists, who are banned from flights to, or within, US territory, has about 6,000 names.
