But, critics say, Bush administration officials who were describing Lakhani as a major arms dealer and suggesting that he had ties to terror groups appear to have been exaggerating. And they said flatly that the arrest did little to protect the U.S. commercial aviation industry and its passengers.

For many experts and members of Congress, the Bush administration's efforts in combating the shoulder-fired missile threat have been too little and too late; and in recent months, aviation security experts -- including some military and government officials -- have begun to question Bush's commitment to solving the problem.

Among the strongest advocates of the need to move quickly to protect the nation's airliners is U.S. Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y. "After the attacks on Sept. 11, we cracked down on security at airports, searched every bag, put military police at airports, and shut down vulnerable airports until we knew they could be protected," he says. "We've protected our airports quickly, but when it comes to protecting our aircraft from shoulder-fired missiles, it is just taking too long." Israel and a number of other members of Congress have been pressing the administration to protect America's airliners since al-Qaida attacked an Israeli airliner just after takeoff from Mombasa, Kenya, using Russian-designed SA-7 missiles.

Shortly after the Mombasa attack, Israel joined Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., in calling for $10 billion to equip commercial airliners with a new and highly effective laser system that the Air Force is beginning to install on its large, slow transport planes, the ones most similar to commercial jets. Administration opposition killed that proposal, as well as a much smaller effort initially proposed by Florida Republican John Mica, chairman of the House Aviation Subcommittee. Mica's proposal would have provided the administration with $30 million to study ways of adapting military countermeasures into less expensive models for commercial aircraft.

But leaks from the administration's Interagency Task Force showed a preference for low-cost solutions, such as training people who live or work near airports to recognize a missile attack, regardless of whether those solutions offer any real level of protection. When pushed by Congress to take more concrete actions, the administration took two inconsistent approaches: The Department of Homeland Security decided that the solution to this threat lay in sophisticated countermeasures and the Defense Department rejected the need for countermeasures on civilian aircraft.

An aide to a key Republican House member says the administration's failure was a function of the budget cycle, noting that the process of preparing next year's budget began well before November's al-Qaida attack on the Israeli airliner in Kenya. But Leon Panetta, former chief of the Office of Management and Budget and later President Clinton's chief of staff, rejected that excuse: "That's bull!" If addressing the shoulder-fired missile issue were truly a priority for the administration, he suggested, the White House would have sent Congress an emergency supplemental budget request -- as it did to fund the war in Iraq.

"We use emergency supplementals to fund unforeseen emergencies such as wars, disasters and fighting fires," Panetta notes. "If the administration considered [defending against shoulder-fired missiles] critical to the security of our citizens no one in Congress would question an emergency supplemental."

Despite inattention on the part of the administration, Mica and Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., recently secured a congressional commitment for $60 million for research aimed at defeating the shoulder-fired missiles. Though the budget is not yet official, and $60 million pales in the face of the estimated $10 billion to $18 billion needed address the threat posed by shoulder-fired missiles, both men see this initial funding as secure. While a welcome development, Byrd laments the delay in moving forward to protect the nation's travelers.

"With such agreement, I expect that the work finally will get underway," Byrd told Salon last week. "Unfortunately, because of White House obstinance earlier this year, the work is several months behind where it should be." Mica, the only member of Congress to hold hearings on the shoulder-fired-missile threat, told Salon that he is confident that he can move Department of Homeland Security to act "sooner rather than later." But he stresses that he wants to make sure that "we don't spend money on systems that won't work."

Adm. James Loy, chief of Bush's Transportation Security Administration, seemed to tell CBS News' "60 Minutes" in March that the effort to address the threat should be expedited. "I think the right thing for us to do is to continue the methodical study process that has been undertaken by the National Security Council, not with years of study to come, but with weeks of study to come." Now, however, it looks like the first fruits of the DHS's work will not emerge before 2006.

Until the administration's program gets up and running, and several years of research and development yield a sufficiently inexpensive solution to the portable-missile threat, the American public must rely upon the efforts of law enforcement to protect the nation's airliners. But even after the arrest of Lakhani, Byrd and others remain uneasy. "We cannot rely solely on law enforcement stings to protect air passengers from missile attack," Byrd says. "We must invest in defenses to help save lives now."

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