WASHINGTON, Dec. 14 (Xinhuanet)-- The US government will dispatch teams of undercover air marshals and uniformed law enforcement officers to guard various mass transit facilities across the country this week, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

    It is a new security program aimed to conduct surveillance and "counter potential criminal terrorist activity in all modes of transportation," the newspaper quoted internal Transportation Security Administration (TSA) documents as saying.

    The newly-created teams dubbed as "Visible Intermodal Protection and Response" teams (Viper teams), will take positions in public areas along Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and Los Angeles rail lines, ferries in Washington state, mass transit systems in Atlanta, Philadelphia and Baltimore, as well as the Washington DC Metro system.

    A Viper team typically consists of two air marshals, one TSA bomb-sniffing-canine team, one or two transportation security inspectors, one local law enforcement officer, and one other TSA employee, according to the newspaper.

    Some members of the team will be obvious to the traveling public and wear jackets bearing the TSA logo while others will be plainclothes air marshals scanning the crowds for suspicious people.

    TSA officials said the new program is not triggered by any intelligence indicating terrorists plots against transportation modes.

    Rather, it is aimed to expand the role of air marshals, who have been eager to conduct surveillance activities beyond the aircraft, and provide a beefed-up law enforcement presence at bus,train and public transit stations over the upcoming busy holiday period of Christmas and the New Year.

    TSA officials said they hope that the undercover air marshals will use their expertise in identifying usual behavior of the passengers to assist other members of the Viper teams.

    However, some security experts question whether air marshals should be conducting surveillance or any operations outside of an aircraft cabin.

    Meanwhile the air marshal training was called into question last week, after two marshals shot and killed an American Airlinespassenger in Miami who allegedly claimed to have a bomb in his backpack. Enditem