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.

FMI: www.tsa.gov