Sat, Oct 06, 2007
Investigator Wants To Know If Screeners Were Tipped To Security
Tests
A federal investigator
in looking into whether or not security screeners at six airports
cheated by receiving information prior to covert tests run by
undercover agents trying to sneak weapons through checkpoints.
A USA Today report says Homeland Security Inspector General
Richard Skinner is investigating whether screeners were tipped off
to tests that determine how well airport workers find guns, bombs
and knives.
The investigation comes on the heals of Skinner's findings
screeners at airports in San Francisco, CA, and Jackson, MS, had
been told in advance of undercover tests in 2003 and 2004. Homeland
Security Spokeswoman Tamara Faulkner says Skinner is investigating
whether screeners at other airports received advance notice of any
covert testing.
Faulkner says Skinner "selected several airports" for the
investigation, and the investigation should be completed by late
fall.
Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat-MS, chairman of the
House Homeland Security Committee welcomes the probe. In fact, last
year he called for an investigation into his home state's
Jackson-Evers International Airport following media reports of
wrongdoing. He says cheating simply "weakens our security systems
at airports."
Regardless of whether TSA actually knew of such checks, it can't
be argued the agency may have an incentive to seek out such
advanced warnings... as TSA has suffered some profoundly
embarrassing blunders in that regard.
As ANN reported, a "Red Team"
test at Denver International Airport earlier this year found
screeners failed to find simulated weapons and explosive materials
carried through by undercover agents roughly nine times out of
10.
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