Most fake bombs missed by screeners

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-10-17-airport-security_N.htm

Most fake bombs missed by screeners

10-17-2007

TSA agents screen airline passengers at Chicago's O'Hare International

Airport, where screeners missed about 60% of hidden bomb materials that were

packed in everyday carry-ons.

WASHINGTON - Security screeners at two of the nation's busiest airports

failed to find fake bombs hidden on undercover agents posing as passengers

in more than 60% of tests last year, according to a classified report

obtained by USA TODAY.

Screeners at Los Angeles International Airport missed about 75% of simulated

explosives and bomb parts that Transportation Security Administration

testers hid under their clothes or in carry-on bags at checkpoints, the TSA

report shows.

TOUGHER TESTS AHEAD: Agents raise bar on screeners

At Chicago O'Hare International Airport, screeners missed about 60% of

hidden bomb materials that were packed in everyday carry-ons - including

toiletry kits, briefcases and CD players. San Francisco International

Airport screeners, who work for a private company instead of the TSA, missed

about 20% of the bombs, the report shows. The TSA ran about 70 tests at Los

Angeles, 75 at Chicago and 145 at San Francisco.

The report looks only at those three airports, using them as case studies to

understand how well the rest of the U.S. screening system is working to stop

terrorists from carrying bombs through checkpoints.

The failure rates at Los Angeles and Chicago stunned security experts.

"That's a huge cause for concern," said Clark Kent Ervin, the Homeland

Security Department's former inspector general. Screeners' inability to find

bombs could encourage terrorists to try to bring them on airplanes, Ervin

said, and points to the need for more screener training and more powerful

checkpoint scanning machines.

In the past year, the TSA has adopted a more aggressive approach in its

attempt to keep screeners attentive - the agency runs covert tests every day

at every U.S. airport, TSA spokeswoman Ellen Howe said. Screeners who miss

detonators, timers, batteries and blocks that resemble plastic explosives

get remedial training.

The failure rates at Los Angeles and Chicago are "somewhat misleading"

because they don't reflect screeners' improved ability to find bombs, Howe

said.

TSA chief Kip Hawley, responding to previous reports about screeners missing

hidden weapons, told a House hearing Tuesday that high failure rates stem

from increasingly difficult covert tests that require screeners to find bomb

parts the size of a pen cap. "We moved from testing of completely assembled

bombs . to the small component parts," he said.

Terrorists bringing a homemade bomb on an airplane, or bringing on bomb

parts and assembling them in the cabin, is the top threat against aviation.

"Their focus is on using items easily available off grocery and hardware

store shelves," Hawley said.

A report on covert tests in 2002 found screeners failed to find fake bombs,

dynamite and guns 24% of the time. The TSA ran those tests shortly after it

took over checkpoint screening from security companies.

Tests earlier in 2002 showed screeners missing 60% of fake bombs. In the

late 1990s, tests showed that screeners missed about 40% of fake bombs,

according to a separate report by the Government Accountability Office, the

investigative arm of Congress.

The recent TSA report says San Francisco screeners face constant covert

tests and are "more suspicious."

SIDEBAR:

'EXPLOSIVES' IN CARRY-ONS

Contraband carried by undercover agents posing as passengers at airport

checkpoints:

.. Bomb residue on shoelaces

.. Detonator and explosives hidden in briefcase lining

.. Inert explosives inside CD players

.. Fake dynamite and timer in toiletry kit

.. Phony plastic explosive and battery inside hollowed-out book

.. Inert explosives and detonator in back support concealed by clothing

Source: Transportation Security Administration classified report, January

2007