ABC News is reporting that, in an internal investigation conducted by the Department of Homeland Security, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) failed to detect banned weapons and fake explosives smuggled in by undercover agents posing as passengers 95% of the time.
The trials were conducted at the busiest U.S. airports and agents were repeatedly able to smuggle weapons through checkpoints. TSA agents failed 67 out of 70 tests, the ABC report said. Homeland Security’s findings on the tests are still being written up and are slated to be made public later this summer, the report said.
A Homeland Security spokesperson told CNN that “the numbers in these reports never look good out of context, but they are a critical element in the continual evolution of our aviation security.”
“The evolution of our aviation security” — spoken like a true government bureaucrat. Hey, so our metrics are lousy, so what? We’re working on it; more important, we’re learning from it.
The series of tests were conducted by Homeland Security Red Teams who pose as passengers, setting out to beat the system. According to officials briefed on the results of a recent Homeland Security Inspector General’s report, TSA agents failed 67 out of 70 tests, with Red Team members repeatedly able to get potential weapons through checkpoints.
In one test an undercover agent was stopped after setting off an alarm at a magnetometer, but TSA screeners failed to detect a fake explosive device that was taped to his back during a follow-on pat down. Officials would not divulge the exact time period of the testing other than to say it concluded recently.
Abolish the TSA and the Orwellian Department of Homeland Security, get serious about ethnic and religious profiling, and severely restrict travel to and from Muslim lands until the current crisis is over. If ever.
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