"Security has to address the perceived threat," said Lyle Malotky, a Federal Aviation Administration security specialist.
That means officials must weigh both the threat of terrorism and the inconvenience to passengers when deciding which of the possible future measures should become reality.
Attention was riveted on airport security in the weeks after TWA Flight 800 blew up in July, killing 230 people. Politicians and pundits produced opinions, President Clinton and Congress provided money and regulators hatched plans.
Months later, the cause of the disaster is still unresolved and airport security is less on the minds of travelers.
"We're a crisis-oriented society - right after TWA, it spiked up," said Capt. Steve Luckey, chair of the National Security Committee for the Air Line Pilots Association. "But Americans are conditioned to be forgiving and forgetful in a hurry."
But security still worries airlines, government officials and airport managers who are struggling to find that balance between safety and inconvenience.
In the wings are new imaging technologies, using X-rays or other electromagnetic rays, that could electronically strip-search passengers. The machines could detect such hidden items as guns, drugs and plexiglass knives.
But the machines also see through clothing, displaying an image of the body on a screen, which some people may consider an invasion of privacy. Also uncertain is whether passengers would complain about exposue to X-rays on a regular basis, and how the equipment would be paid for.
Other technologies sniff for drugs and chemicals or use metal detectors, but each has some drawbacks.
One security practice already getting under way is that of conducting criminal background checks on airport personnel, as provided for in a new law this year. The law also authorizes the government to produce computer profiles of passengers to track travel patterns or other indicators that raise suspicion.
Flight lists also will be matched with lists of known terrorists compiled by intelligence and law enforcement agencies. Similar methods have been used in drug interdiction efforts in recent years.
But full use of all those measures is still in the future.
For this traveling season, Mark Hess of the Federal Aviation Administration is urging people who haven't flown recently to give themselves plenty of time, because some things have changed.
For example, passengers need to carry identification with their picture on it. And officials screening luggage are questioning more passengers and opening more bags than in the past, Hess said.
Luggage loaded on all international and some domestic planes is matched with passengers, making sure no bag travels unless its owner is on the same plane. That practice is expected to increase in the future.
In addition, many airports also have restricted parking near terminals, and passengers may notice police dogs sniffing around.
Just last weekend, police blocked traffic and brought in dogs and bomb experts to search a car left in a no-parking area at Baltimore-Washington International Airport by a man rushing to a plane. Traffic was snarled and passengers delayed until police determined the car harmless.
The one-count indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in suburban Alexandria, Va., charged the former CIA station chief with conspiracy to commit espionage. The charge carries a top penalty of life in prison without parole.
U.S. Attorney Helen Fahey said the investigation has not turned up information necessary to seek a death penalty. A death penalty can be sought if someone is killed as a result of espionage.
CIA Director John Deutch has said U.S. officials know of no deaths or arrests as a result of Nicholson's alleged treachery, although he said Nicholson is believed to have given Moscow the identities and future assignments of up to two years' worth of CIA recruits.
The government also moved to forfeit, if Nicholson is convicted, any direct or indirect proceeds of his spying. A court document alleged that this includes: $180,000 in cash, a Chevrolet Lumina Sports van and a Toshiba portable computer.
Brian Peterson Jr. did not flinch. The fresh-faced youth looked dazed as he pushed through the swarm of reporters and onlookers yesterday to face charges he killed his girlfriend's newborn son. Peterson and his girlfriend, Amy Grossberg, could face the death penalty - a prospect that made his parents consider sending him abroad rather than turn him over to police.
His mother, Barbara, sobbed uncontrollably, wrapping her arms around her son and burying her face in his shoulder as the family pushed its way toward FBI offices in Wilmington.
Once inside, Peterson lost his composure and cried, but also comforted his mother, telling her it would be all right, his attorney Joseph Hurley said.
"How can I give my only boy to the state to die?" Peterson's mother told Hurly.
The question others are asking: How did Peterson and his high school sweetheart end up in a budget motel room delivering her baby, and how did that baby end up in a trash bin behind the motel?
How did these "good kids" from affluent northern New Jersey neighborhoods end up with their names spread across New York tabloids with headlines calling them "baby-slay" teens?
They went off to college this fall - he to Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, she to the University of Delaware to study art.
They reunited on Nov. 12 - Peterson drove three hours to be with her and help her secretly deliver the baby boy in a Newark, Del., motel.
What happened next has not been explained.
He told police he wrapped the tiny body in a plastic garbage bag and dumped the baby in a trash bin before both returned to their dorm rooms.
But they couldn't keep their secret after Grossberg, also 18, was hospitalized with complications from the birth.
A search dog found the body of the 20-inch, 6-pound 2-ounce boy along with bloody linen in the trash bin. An autopsy found the boy died of a skull fracture, but investigators don't know if the injury happened before or after the baby was put in the trash.
Bloodied bed linens were also found in Grossberg's dorm room, according to the state's probable cause affidavit.
Grossberg's lawyers have said their client committed no crime but have declined to say how the baby died.
"There was no murder," Hurley said Thursday after Peterson was ordered held without bond. He said the case was more complicated than prosecutors describe, but would not elaborate.
Hurley was asked repeatedly Thursday about a motive and has not responded - although the Daily News in New York quoted Hurley as saying Grossberg was terrified her mother would find out she was pregnant.
He said he hasn't talked to Peterson about his relationship with Grossberg or whether he was the father of the baby.
Peterson was charged with first-degree murder on Saturday, but spent the following days with his family, delaying his surrender even as frustrated authorities issued a federal fugitive arrest warrant.
Asked why it took so long for Peterson to turn himself in, Hurley responded, "Who in hell doesn't deserve 100 hours to get themselves together" when facing murder charges?
Hurley said no decision has been made on what sort of defense to mount, although he told Fox News Channel he "can't imagine" an insanity plea.
By his afternoon bail hearing, Peterson was no longer in his jeans and baseball cap, but prison-issue white pants and short-sleeve V-neck shirt. His only comment during the five-minute proceeding was to respond softly "yes" to identify himself and to whisper "thank you" to his attorney and touch his sleeve as he was led away.
Hurley said he told Peterson: "He's going to have to be very obedient and soft-spoken and carry a small stick."
Peterson will be kept in the prison infirmary for up to 72 hours of standard medical and mental evaluations before prison officials decide where he'll go, said Gail Stallings, spokeswoman for the Department of Correction.
Stallings said Peterson will be treated as a "high-profile" inmate, but would not say what, if any, special security measures might be taken.
Late in the day, Superior Court President Judge Henry DuPont Ridgely imposed a gag order on all attorneys involved in the case.
The state must hold a preliminary hearing within 10 work days or seek a grand jury indictment against the pair.
The baby's body is at the state medical examiner's office, where experts will test his blood to confirm that Grossberg and Peterson are the parents, police said.