Most Fake Bombs Missed By Screeners

USA Today: Tests At 2 Big U.S. Airports Show Screeners Miss Bombs 60 Percent Of The Time

(CBS)  Security screeners at two of the nation's busiest airports failed to find bombs carried by undercover agents posing as passengers in more than 60 percent of tests last year, according to a classified report obtained by USA Today.

The newspaper said screeners at Los Angeles International Airport missed about 75 percent of simulated explosives and bomb parts that Transportation Security Administration testers hid under their clothes or in carry-on bags at checkpoints, a TSA report shows.

At Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, screeners missed about 60 percent of hidden bomb materials that were packed in everyday carry-ons.

The failure rates "stunned" experts, the paper reports. Homeland Security Department's former inspector general, Clark Kent Erwin, called it a "huge cause for concern."

[seansun2]

It''s scary that people are able to get past security with fake bombs, but they want to take away my lotion and perfume. I read about this classified report on Global Grind, but how can you call a report classified when the whole world knows about it now?

[ioweign]

I agree..we should fire all these incompetent unionized people..if they hide behind ''''afirmative action'''' we say screw it. back to good ol fashion racial profiling.

I hope you feel safer..the DNC will make sure we have an endless pool of educated and competent work force.

Posted by xzavierbrown at 08:20 PM : Oct 18, 2007


You''re not solving the problem !

Bush has tried that with generals already - and their not union !!

[ioweign]

Total incompetence. On the issue the GOP claims that only THEY can handle!

LA misses 75% and Chicago misses 60%.

Feeling safer, everyone?

Posted by NativeWoman at 07:26 PM : Oct 18, 2007

Wow - I had a gut feeling too !

[xzavierbrown]

Posted by NativeWoman at 07:26 PM : Oct 18, 2007
+ report abuse
************

I agree..we should fire all these incompetent unionized people..if they hide behind ''afirmative action'' we say screw it. back to good ol fashion racial profiling.

I hope you feel safer..the DNC will make sure we have an endless pool of educated and competent work force.

[nativewoman]

Total incompetence. On the issue the GOP claims that only THEY can handle!

LA misses 75% and Chicago misses 60%.

Feeling safer, everyone?

[lawyertom1]

Once again the stark inefficiency of DHS rears its ugly head. Billions for bureaucrats, but not one cent for effectiveness. Not unlike the Shrub''s failed strategy in all things terrorist. God save us from their incompetence and stupidity.

[smirk5]

Well it''s pretty obvious that the Bushies have just been lucky that we haven''t been hit again. They were lucky with the shoe bomber and it looks like they''ll have to be lucky again if terrorists want to get bombs on planes.

[tylenol6]

Does it really matter anymore????? Bush has left our
borders WIDE open for any so called terrorist to come in. Does anyone see anything wrong with that? I really
wonder if there are any terrorists to fear or is the
terrorist our own government.

[zootallures2]

But the news reports begging for someone to boost the war on terror with a real bomb on a plane have don even worse, huh?

[bareemperor]

We understand Bu$hCo did 9/11, so why look at airline passengers?

[xzavierbrown]

what can you do?? there is the union and there is afirmative action..

[cdfoxtrot]

I guess they were too busy checking out the big bazoomas on the more attractive passengers on their new toys, er, I mean scanners.

[stephengosson]

How about offering the screeners a humongous cash reward for any bomb or bomb-part they find?
Not only will they pay more attention, you''ll find all kinds of new, enthusiastic applicants jockeying for the job!

[mitch0927]

s1ckd09, did you mean December 6th 1941?

[alphaa10-2009]

Six long years after 911, Bush still flounders with the mission he was assigned by the American people, in congress assembled. Rather than find bin Laden, and prosecute the so-called "War on Terror", Bush and Cheney have squandered both opportunity and a huge public funding, with little but a disastrous war to show for it.

A GAO investigation now reveals Bush has pulled a Katrina-scale failure of due diligence at the Department of Homeland Security. As its report says "... there is as yet no overall strategy to coordinate the various activities across federal agencies and the private sector. Further, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) lacks processes needed to address specific weaknesses in sharing information on control system vulnerabilities."

AP/CBS reports, "Screeners at Los Angeles International Airport missed about 75 percent of simulated explosives and bomb parts that Transportation Security Administration testers hid under their clothes or in carry-on bags at checkpoints, a TSA report shows. At Chicago''s O''Hare International Airport, screeners missed about 60 percent of hidden bomb materials that were packed in everyday carry-ons."

What has the DHS been doing? While we still should worry about an attack on a prominent public landmark like the World Trade Center of New York City, the newer modes of attack are far more damaging. Characteristically, however, Bush has been out to lunch.
(see next Department of Homeland Security--2)

[alphaa10-2009]

Department of Homeland Security-- 2
Unwilling to confront their monumental failures across the entire national security front, Bush and Cheney instead have tried to distract the public with a battle with congress. Bush and Cheney have made constitutionally unwarranted claims about the powers of the presidency not seen since the days of Richard Nixon. When Bush first made these claims, he barely avoided a mass exodus in protest by DOJ officials, and a crisis over executive misbehavior surely will mark his final year in office.

A basic requirement of presidential power is the oath to "execute faithfully the laws of the United States". Instead of carrying out the will of the people in congress, however, Bush and Cheney say they have the power to defy congress. Bush and his hundreds of signing statements leave a paper trial which is superb grounds for impeachment.

Bush once confided he understands the advantage of a dictatorship, but the urgent question is whether he understands the rule of constitutional law. Bush is the individual who, in November, 2005, facing an assembly of party members critical of his NSA spying program, bristled like a teenager caught drinking after curfew-- "Stop throwing the Constitution in my face! It''s just a GD)((#@*! piece of paper!"

Is this figure, who claims to be president of the United States, the same who pledged an oath to "protect, preserve and defend" the document he calls a "GD)((#@*! piece of paper"?

[random_radar]

This is not hard to understand at all. Since the government things toothpaste, shampoo, sports drinks, and nail clippers are weapons of mass destruction, it is quite reasonable that screeners would miss these items.

I assume that grenades, guns, and plastic explosives are the 25-40% of items being caught. So no need to worry, America.

[jowand]

"The failure rates "stunned" experts"...why? There is not one thing Bush and friends have done right.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Most of the baggage handlers can''t get real jobs so they must be Democrats.

[oleander8]

I''m only interested in the bombs that AREN''T fake.

[hypnotoad72]

Could that be because the bombs are fake?

The only idiocy is in the type of fake bomb constructed. It would not contain the elements typically used, which would be why such fakes aren''t being registered.

Or am I missing the point?

As for private vs public sector, both sides are guilty of inability or incompetence - it depends on the issue. Maybe the solution is regulation and adherence to them? Not excessive regulations, just common sense ones.