naturalnews.com printable article

Originally published June 5 2015

95% of bombs, guns and knives get past airport security while TSA agents grope Americans

by J. D. Heyes

(NaturalNews) If there is a more hapless, incompetent federal agency than the Transportation Security Administration, we would be hard-pressed to name it. When its agents aren't molesting passengers, committing crimes and joking about naked travelers, they are failing miserably at the very function that the agency was formed to perform: air travel security.

A recent internal investigation of the TSA found massive security failures at scores of airports all over the United States, but particularly in some of the country's busiest airports. In these instances, undercover investigators managed to smuggle mock explosives, banned weapons and other contraband past checkpoints 95 percent of the time, reports ABC News.

The tests were conducted by Department of Homeland Security "Red Teams," whose members pose as passengers who try to beat the security systems. By any measure, they were wildly successful, which is bad news, potentially, for air travelers.

Officials who were briefed on the disastrous results contained in a recent Homeland Security Inspector General's report, TSA agents failed 67 of 70 tests; Red Team members repeatedly slipped potential weapons past them at checkpoints.

This has all happened before

As ABC News further reported:

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.


Jeh Johnson, the Homeland Security secretary, was reportedly so perturbed by the results he demanded a detailed briefing on them in late May at TSA headquarters in Arlington, Va., sources told ABC News. And right on cue, U.S. officials claim that changes have since been made at airports to ensure that there are far fewer misses in the future. We'll see.

"Upon learning the initial findings of the Office of Inspector General's report, Secretary Johnson immediately directed TSA to implement a series of actions, several of which are now in place, to address the issues raised in the report," DHS told ABC News in a written statement.

On the heels of the findings, however, DHS officials are ridiculously claiming that security is top-notch at the nation's airports and that Americans have nothing to worry about. They claim that there are "layers of security... seen and unseen," such as bomb-sniffing dogs and the use of technology.

But weren't those measures already in place? And if not, why not?

History of epic failure

Such explanations seem implausible, given the TSA's history of failure. In the past, noted ABC News, Red Team members have often eluded TSA "security" measures. In 2013, in fact, an undercover agent with a phony bomb hidden on his person made it through a metal detector and pat down at New Jersey's Newark Liberty Airport. Never caught. Then, TSA claimed that Red Team tests were taking place all over the country on a weekly basis and that they were designed to "push the boundaries of our people, processes, and technology."

Uh-huh.

Real airport security experts say the act put on by the TSA is just that – an act – and that few serious security threats posed by dedicated terrorists and professionals would ever be detected by checkpoint agents.

"Checking luggage is very nice, it looks great, taking away the breast milk of the mother of a one month old baby, that looks great," Rafi Sela, the president of A.R. Challenges, a transportation consulting firm based in Israel, told The Huffington Post in December 2013. "It does nothing for security. It's just a show."

He has long called for the "Israel-ification" of American airports, a concept involving much more face time with passengers. At Israeli airports, passengers must go through a series of interviews and screenings before ever stepping foot on a commercial flight.

In the meantime, in the U.S.A., we are stuck with the feckless TSA and its serial abuses and failures.

Sources:

http://abcnews.go.com

http://www.huffingtonpost.com

http://www.naturalnews.com






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