TERRORISM: 21 Airports Nationwide Fail Government Screening Tests

The Government Accountability Office recently conducted screening tests of the nation's airports at the request of Congress. Screeners in 21 airports failed to detect bomb making materials, even when luggage was flagged for additional screening. The TSA refused comment on the outcome of the testing.



This is pathetic. Our boarders are unprotected...our ports are unprotected...our air carriers are unprotected...our utilities are unprotected...In fact, I am having trouble identifying ANYTHING that is well protected in this country...other than perhaps certain buildings in DC... Care to guess which ones??? :shk:

I particularly love this statement from the TSA:

"detecting explosive materials and IEDs at the checkpoint is TSA's top priority."

What rubbish....

Look at DHS's budget...

I count over the last 5 years, $100 Billion... and what do we have to show for it???

The incompetency is appalling.

And this surprised you? This is the same organization that forced all the trained screeners to fail their test to get hired, so that they could blame private screeners instead of the FAA for 9/11. And then went out and spent $500,000 on a Christmas party and bonuses for managers.

Maybe the screeners were too busy lying down on the conveyor belt to pass their own bodies through the X-ray machine. They think it's funny. Scanning actual luggages for explosives is boring, time for coffee break.


[edit on 17-3-2006 by ufia]

Zaphod58:

Am I surprised? YES.

I think it absolutely unconscionable that ALL of the airports tested FAILED.

If that's the outcome, then I say stop making me arrive 45 minutes early...stand in long lines... take off my shoes.... take away my nail clippers...and do that oh so special pat down... It clearly doesn't matter....

I once witnessed a TSA official scan my wife's BARE feet.... I've seen my son (12 months old, at the time) getting frisked...

Remember the story about the TSA official that forced a woman to drink her own breast milk???

What a freakin' joke!!! :shk:


[edit on 17-3-2006 by loam]

There is another disturbing point from this article, it states



If the report is classified how on earth did NBC get hold of the list of materials?



[edit on 3/17/2006 by shots]

Info on bomb making is not classified, and finding out what chemicals you need to do it is as easy as heading down to your local library, plugging a modem in, or hitting up a second-hand bookstore and browsing the military interest section for old TMs.

Besides, the report was not about bomb making materials, it was about airport security (the particulars of which are kept classified so as not to give the boogeymen any additional ideas or incentive).

Does that clear up some confusion?

Edit: Oh, and I agree completely with the thread author, the state of affairs is incredibly pathetic. They're wasting so much money...

I could have built about 80 THOUSAND humble homes with just 1 Billion of that...

Any idea how many lives that would have saved?

It's a goddamn farce, and anyone who doesn't realize it deserves to be the punch line in this unfunny joke.


[edit on 17-3-2006 by WyrdeOne]

Well, on a flight back from Arizona, i brought a can of my favorite espresso coffee. I stood there in wonder as this man looked via the computer at my bag and examined it for what appeared to be a long time.
I was quite impressed. He determined it was a can of some sort and he was correct.

I was already prepared to say i wasnt a threat to national security, and he went on to the next bag.

I'd say he was doing his job. What else do we do for them? disrobe? :shk:

Well considering I watched people that had been screeners for 10+ years mysteriously fail the TSA exam to become screeners, and what took 4 weeks training for us take 3 hours for the TSA I'm not even the tiniest bit shocked by this report.

Dont let people bring toothpaste, shaving cream, soap, or any other liquids with them in their luggage. Make sure clothes do not have inside liners full of chemical powders. I mean i'm sure people can live with having to buy toiletries and beauty products when they get off the plane. And not all explosives need detenators since any bomb on a plane is a suicide attack, they could just use an explosive that exploded when mixed. But banning electronics would be needed to just in case.

All common sense to me if you REALLY want to stop explosives from being brough onto airliners. But I dont see it happening. Hopefully it does. I think everyone in the world knows the idea of "blowing up planes" now. Someone at some point is going to try again.

The TSA is a joke that was forced down our throats so that the gov't could say "Look what we're doing to keep you safe!" after 9/11. Yes, private security wasn't GREAT, but it was an easily fixable problem and would have made a lot more sense, if congress hadn't been so desperate to blame anyone but the FAA for their idiotic rules that allowed 9/11 to happen. Best way to do that? Blame the security force on duty, find idiotic ways to make them fail the hiring exam, and replace them all as quickly as possible, and screw training.

As if the airport test wasn't problem enough:

Testers Slip Radioactive Materials Over Borders

Undercover Congressional investigators successfully smuggled into the United States enough radioactive material to make two dirty bombs, even after it set off alarms on radiation detectors installed at border checkpoints, a new report says.

The test, conducted in December by the Government Accountability Office, demonstrated the mixed progress by the Department of Homeland Security, among other federal agencies, in trying to prevent terrorists from smuggling radioactive material into the United States.

Nationally, at a cost so far of about $286 million, about 60 percent of all containerized commercial goods entering the United States by truck or ship and 77 percent of all private cars are now screened for radioactive material.

But flaws in the inspection procedures and limitations with the equipment mean that nuclear materials may still be able to be sent illegally into the country through seaports or land borders, the study found. And because the program for installing radiation detectors is far behind schedule, many border crossing points, including many seaports, still have no detection equipment, the report says.

More...

I'm beginning to think the GAO is the only honest agency left in government.

Good for them for telling the American people the truth!

Unbelievable.

So where's the money going? The USA has no money to speak of left over for "pandemic preparedness" - a real and present danger, not just with bird flu - because all the ready cash and loans have gone to "fight terrorism."

But even with all that $$$ they're not doing their job?

The priorities suck - and it looks like the administration does too.

You want to know where it's going? Do some research on the mangerial bonuses, Christmas parties, and office redesigns.

I think it's more a lack of technology and protocol.

Airport screeners have 50-70 hours of classroom training, 100-120 hours of on the job training, and certificate exams. Plus specialized training in their equipment such as the xray's, bomb detectors, handwands, etc.

To me that sounds reasonable. They are probably constantly under reveiw, having new procedures, and getting experience in their everyday work and supervision.

I think its the technology that is not perfected which makes it only human for screeners to not be able to catch everything. I think it's probably a lack of sensible procedures that allows people to bring things on airplanes that potentially could be malicious such as chemical explosives maybe disguised as an ordinary toothpaste tube, haircombs that can contain plastic knives in their handles, clothes lined with explosives, etc. How are they supposed to detect these things if all they have is distorted xray images, metal detectors, and a flood of people coming in everyday.

It's a hard job I would imagine.

It's not the technology. The technology is quite easily capable of detecting the threats. The new Explosive Trace Detectors have a false alarm rate of well UNDER 1%, and if it alarms then there's a damn good chance it's because there's something in the bag. They're not active in the airports yet, but even the Itemiser II has an outstanding detection rate.

As a private screener, I was a certified CTX-5500 operator. To pass the class I had to take a class that consisted of one week written, one week simulated, one week OJT, and a certification test consisting of running 150 passenger bags, with test bags mixed in. I had to identify the threat bags, missing no more than three, and not identifying more than 10 non-threat bags as threats. If I failed ANY test at ANY time during the training, I failed the entire course. When the TSA took over the airports, they reduced the training for the CTX to THREE HOURS. They completely IGNORE 3/4ths of the things the machine is capable of, and instead of using the tools built into it, they open every bag that alarms in the machine.

THAT is why they fail so miserably at all the airports. Their training is a JOKE.