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Security failures at U.S. airports are greater than expected

A group with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) known as the Red Team, posing as passengers, was able to sneak fake bombs and banned weapons past security checkpoints at major airports across the country 67 out of 70 times. That’s 95 percent of the time.

ABC News broke the story on Monday morning after learning Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson had held a detailed meeting last week with TSA officials over the results of the internal investigation into the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

“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,” the agency told ABC in a statement. The statement did not identify those fixes, nor did the agency provide a time frame for when the testing was carried out.

In this latest test, one Red Team agent was able to sneak a fake bomb past TSA agents, after setting off the alarm on a magnetometer. Screeners failed to detect the fake explosive taped to the middle of the agent’s back, even after a pat down.

This is not the first time the TSA has failed to pick up on weapons or fake bombs. In 2013, an agent made it through a metal detector at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty Airport, prompting then-TSA administrator John Pistole to label the Red Team agents as “super terrorists.”

“They know exactly what the technology’s capabilities are of detection. They know exactly what our protocols are,” he said. “They can create and devise and conceal items that only the best terrorist in the world would be able — not even the best terrorists would be able to do.”

In September of 2014, the DHS inspector general’s office released a three paragraph summary of a report detailing a series of undercover tests that targeted the screening of checked luggage at airports. In a review of those tests, “vulnerabilities” were found throughout the system. The DHS attributed them to human error and technological failures.

Probably more damning was the finding that “despite spending $540 million for checked baggage screening equipment and another $11 million for training since a previous review in 2009, the TSA failed to make any noticeable improvements in that time,” says ABC News.

The TSA’s side of the story
TSA agents interact with over two million air travel passengers every day in the U.S. The agency had a very busy year in 2014, according to the agency’s blog, screening over 653 million passengers, or 1.8 million a day. This was an increase of 14.8 million passengers over the previous year.

The TSA found 2,212 firearms at 224 airports, in carry-on luggage, or an average of six firearms a day. Of the firearms discovered, 1.835 were loaded. In describing other types of weapons, the agency cited an MK-2 hand grenade discovered in a carry-on bag at LAX’s Terminal 1. The blog is filled with pictures of the various pieces of contraband confiscated by TSA agents and is worth taking the time to browse through.

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We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of our dear friend Karen Graham, who served as Editor-at-Large at Digital Journal. She was 78 years old. Karen's view of what is happening in our world was colored by her love of history and how the past influences events taking place today. Her belief in humankind's part in the care of the planet and our environment has led her to focus on the need for action in dealing with climate change. It was said by Geoffrey C. Ward, "Journalism is merely history's first draft." Everyone who writes about what is happening today is indeed, writing a small part of our history.

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