WASHINGTON - Despite the multibillion-dollar ramp-up in aviation security since Sept. 11, congressional investigators were able to sneak homemade bomb components past federal screeners at all 21 airports they targeted in a recent covert exercise.
The General Accountability Office conducted the tests between October and January to determine the vulnerability posed by a would-be suicide bomber carrying easily purchased materials that could be assembled into a bomb once past security.
The GAO findings, first reported by NBC News, are classified, and the airports' identities were not disclosed. The GAO refused to comment Friday on any aspect of its report.
The head of the Transportation Security Administration, which oversees nearly 43,000 screeners at 429 commercial airports, didn't quarrel with the GAO analysis - and in fact termed it helpful as his agency focuses on its top mission: intercepting improvised explosive devices.
But Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Edmund "Kip" Hawley said the GAO testing doesn't take into account the many layers of security that occur before passengers reach the screening checkpoint and once they're through. Among them: checking travelers' names against watch lists; analyzing behavior patterns; making security procedures less predictable; and deploying federal air marshals.
While deeming the report "interesting," Hawley said it is "not at all an evaluation of the entire system. It's a data point on that one particular thing."
Speaking to reporters at a Homeland Security Department briefing, he added, "This should not be an alarming report."
His outlook wasn't shared by a pair of House Homeland Security Committee members.
"Half-measures will not prevent the next terrorist disaster - we cannot allow half of the contents traveling on passenger planes to go unscreened, as we continue to do today," said Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who has long lobbied for tighter aviation security. "How many warnings does this administration need to take action?"
Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the committee's top Democrat, said: "It's like the story of the Trojan horse. TSA has spent so much time telling people to take off their shoes and belts, that they have missed the bomb-making materials."
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/politics/14126131.htm Does this administration ever do anything right?
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