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LAX and O'Hare are the bomb...Follow

#1 Oct 18 2007 at 4:41 AM Rating: Good
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Or at least, they missed most of the fake one sent through airport security.

Link

Quote:
WASHINGTON — Security screeners at two of the nation's busiest airports failed to find fake bombs hidden on undercover agents posing as passengers in more than 60% of tests last year, according to a classified report obtained by USA TODAY.
Screeners at Los Angeles International Airport missed about 75% of simulated explosives and bomb parts that Transportation Security Administration testers hid under their clothes or in carry-on bags at checkpoints, the TSA report shows.


TOUGHER TESTS AHEAD: Agents raise bar on screeners

At Chicago O'Hare International Airport, screeners missed about 60% of hidden bomb materials that were packed in everyday carry-ons — including toiletry kits, briefcases and CD players. San Francisco International Airport screeners, who work for a private company instead of the TSA, missed about 20% of the bombs, the report shows. The TSA ran about 70 tests at Los Angeles, 75 at Chicago and 145 at San Francisco.

The report looks only at those three airports, using them as case studies to understand how well the rest of the U.S. screening system is working to stop terrorists from carrying bombs through checkpoints.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Chicago | Security | O'Hare International Airport | John Zich
The failure rates at Los Angeles and Chicago stunned security experts.

"That's a huge cause for concern," said Clark Kent Ervin, the Homeland Security Department's former inspector general. Screeners' inability to find bombs could encourage terrorists to try to bring them on airplanes, Ervin said, and points to the need for more screener training and more powerful checkpoint scanning machines.

In the past year, the TSA has adopted a more aggressive approach in its attempt to keep screeners attentive — the agency runs covert tests every day at every U.S. airport, TSA spokeswoman Ellen Howe said. Screeners who miss detonators, timers, batteries and blocks that resemble plastic explosives get remedial training.

The failure rates at Los Angeles and Chicago are "somewhat misleading" because they don't reflect screeners' improved ability to find bombs, Howe said.

TSA chief Kip Hawley, responding to previous reports about screeners missing hidden weapons, told a House hearing Tuesday that high failure rates stem from increasingly difficult covert tests that require screeners to find bomb parts the size of a pen cap. "We moved from testing of completely assembled bombs … to the small component parts," he said.

Terrorists bringing a homemade bomb on an airplane, or bringing on bomb parts and assembling them in the cabin, is the top threat against aviation. "Their focus is on using items easily available off grocery and hardware store shelves," Hawley said.

A report on covert tests in 2002 found screeners failed to find fake bombs, dynamite and guns 24% of the time. The TSA ran those tests shortly after it took over checkpoint screening from security companies.

Tests earlier in 2002 showed screeners missing 60% of fake bombs. In the late 1990s, tests showed that screeners missed about 40% of fake bombs, according to a separate report by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

The recent TSA report says San Francisco screeners face constant covert tests and are "more suspicious."



Smiley: eek
#2 Oct 18 2007 at 4:42 AM Rating: Good
Have you been to O'hare?

Cause I have....and this isn't surprising in the least.
#3 Oct 18 2007 at 4:49 AM Rating: Good
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Well, looks like I won't be flying in to meet you Tuesday. You're just going to have to absorb my awesomeness through the intertubes.


I'm so happy to not see Newark or Dallas in this since I'll be flying through both next week.

Edited, Oct 18th 2007 9:54am by Uglysasquatch
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#4 Oct 18 2007 at 5:26 AM Rating: Good
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By god, they didn't let a single tube of toothpaste or bottle of mouthwash through though.
#5 Oct 18 2007 at 5:41 AM Rating: Good
True American heroes to be sure.
#6 Oct 18 2007 at 5:59 AM Rating: Decent
Makes me feel all safe and tingly inside. Smiley: disappointed
#7 Oct 18 2007 at 6:29 AM Rating: Excellent
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You'll be happy to know that security at O'Hare let my carry-on full of electronic gizmos (2 portable DVDs, two cameras, battery chargers and voltage adapters, etc) go through without a hitch but they did take my bag apart in Italy for the return trip.

A couple years ago, I had a Zippo lighter in my bag which I had found in the parking lot (the lighter, not the bag). Went out of Chicago's Midway just fine but I got the 3rd degree in Boston for it when I tried to go home.

In short, they don't seem to catch a lot coming out of Chicago.

Edited, Oct 18th 2007 9:30am by Jophiel
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Wow. Regular ol' Joph fan club in here.
#8 Oct 18 2007 at 6:40 AM Rating: Excellent
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Princess Usagichan wrote:
By god, they didn't let a single tube of toothpaste or bottle of mouthwash through though.


Well thank goodness! We're all going to die but at least our teeth will be gummy.
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#9 Oct 18 2007 at 11:07 AM Rating: Decent
There's a lesson somewhere here.

What do we Americans do when we find a potentially hazardous fault in our system somewhere? Well, rather than keep it on the down low and fix it up right, we publish it for the entire world to see. Hell we've probably written 80% of the terrorist handbooks ourselves through the "media".

Might as well send Osama a note:

Quote:
Hey, we fixed New York, but Chicago, she's all yours!
#10 Oct 18 2007 at 11:48 AM Rating: Default
Wow, security sure is LAX in airports these days...

Oh yes, I did go there.
#11 Oct 18 2007 at 11:51 AM Rating: Good
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The last time I went to LAX I was too scared of the police carrying assault rifles to even think about blowing up a plane.
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#12 Oct 18 2007 at 11:52 AM Rating: Excellent
Last time I was in LAX I paid ten dollars for a breakfast burrito.
#13 Oct 18 2007 at 11:54 AM Rating: Good
I've never been to LAX.

Last time I was in BNA, I spent way too much for a Sudoku book and an ink pen, though.
#14 Oct 18 2007 at 12:03 PM Rating: Decent
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I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. How many planes have been bombed in the U.S. over the last 20 years (or ever)? And how many thousands of flights are there every day? You've probably got a better chance of slipping in the shower and breaking your neck than being blown up by a bomb on an airplane.

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#15 Oct 18 2007 at 12:04 PM Rating: Good
What the fuck? I can't even sneak a bottle of lotion on the plane. Smiley: motz
#16 Oct 18 2007 at 12:05 PM Rating: Excellent
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Makaro wrote:
Wow, security sure is LAX in airports these days...
Oh, are deese puns lousy. Smiley: disappointed
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Belkira wrote:
Wow. Regular ol' Joph fan club in here.
#17 Oct 18 2007 at 12:05 PM Rating: Excellent
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Dread Lord Rimesume wrote:
What the fuck? I can't even sneak a bottle of lotion on the plane. Smiley: motz


Apparently you have to hide it inside the bomb.
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#18 Oct 18 2007 at 12:05 PM Rating: Decent
Dread Lord Rimesume wrote:
What the fuck? I can't even sneak a bottle of lotion on the plane. Smiley: motz


Blowing people up: OK
Blowing your load on a plane: Not OK

Edited, Oct 18th 2007 3:06pm by StubsOnAsura
#19 Oct 18 2007 at 12:06 PM Rating: Good
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Dread Lord Rimesume wrote:
What the fuck? I can't even sneak a bottle of lotion on the plane. Smiley: motz


Looking to join the Mile High Club solo style are we?
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#20 Oct 18 2007 at 12:23 PM Rating: Good
PunkFloyd the Flatulent wrote:
I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. How many planes have been bombed in the U.S. over the last 20 years (or ever)? And how many thousands of flights are there every day? You've probably got a better chance of slipping in the shower and breaking your neck than being blown up by a bomb on an airplane.



You'd be correct, seeing as how I take a shower every day but I do not board an airplane every day.
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