Washington – Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said on Monday he had ordered improved security at U.S. airports after media reports that checkpoint screeners failed to detect mock explosives and weapons in 95 percent of tests carried out by undercover agents.
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Airport screeners, who are employees of the Transportation Security Administration, did not detect banned weapons in 67 of 70 tests at dozens of airports, ABC News said, citing officials briefed on a report by Homeland Security’s inspector general.
Johnson, whose department oversees the TSA, was briefed last week on the trials, which were completed recently, ABC News said.
In one test, the network said an undercover agent was stopped when he set off an alarm at a checkpoint but that TSA screeners then failed to find a fake explosive device taped to his back when they patted him down.
Johnson issued a statement on Monday saying the results of the security checks were classified but that he had directed the TSA to revise screening procedures “to address specific vulnerabilities identified” in the undercover operation. He also ordered training for all TSA officers and supervisors across the country and testing of airports’ screening equipment.
Johnson said there would be more random covert testing at checkpoints.
“The numbers in these reports never look good out of context but they are a critical element in the continual evolution of our aviation security,” Johnson said. “We take these findings very seriously in our continued effort to test, measure and enhance our capabilities and techniques as threats evolve.”
What happened to “firing” the agents who failed to find them?
The fact of the matter is that after fourteen years, the TSA still does not know what it is doing. The lowest of the lowest employees are hired, including individuals with prior criminal records. There is a very high turnover among TSA personnel. Also, standards at each gate within the same airport, are different. One time, at an Air Tran gate at LaGuardia, some incompetent, lowlife TSA agent, ordered all shoes to be removed from those filthy trays where passengers place their keys, coins, and other property. Where did they expect people to place their shoes? At over 99.99% of the boarding gates that I went to at other parts of LaGuardia, JFK, Newark, and at other airports, the TSA never objected to the shoes being placed in those filthy tray bins. One time, when I was retrieving my shoes from those filthy tray bins, at the Akron-Canton Airport, a disgusting female TSA agent shouted, “Are you going to return those”. She actually thought that I wanted to take that filthy train bin! She was typical of the incompetent fools and low lifes, that the TSA hires!