Screeners at Los Angeles International Airport missed 75 percent of fake bombs
oh big fuckin' suprise! homeland security MY ASS!!!!! QUIT SPYING ON US CITIZENS AND LOOK FOR THE REAL TERRORISTS! WHERE'S OSAMA BIN LADEN!?!Screeners At LAX Missed 75 Percent Of Fake Bombs
POLL: Are You Surprised That Screeners At LAX Missed 75 Percent Of Fake Explosives?
(CBS) LOS ANGELES Transportation Security Administration screeners at LAX failed to notice 75 percent of fake bombs and explosives that passed through the airport during unannounced drills.
By comparison, screeners at San Francisco International missed 20 percent of the would-be bombs and, at Chicago's O'Hare International, 60 percent of the fake explosives were unnoticed, according to USA Today, citing a classified memo.
TSA officials would not confirm or deny details of the report, but defended the screeners, saying the tests were done two years ago and designed to fool security personnel. Whenever the so-called pass rate gets too high, the TSA revise the tests to make them more difficult, using different devices, the TSA's local spokesman, Nico Melendez, told the Los Angeles Times.
"People have the misconception that these are like sticks of dynamite," he said. "These are more like caps on a pen . . . a piece of metal with a wire in it."
"It takes real skill to look and find that," he said. "This is an extreme effort on our part to keep our people up to date on the threats and how to thwart those threats."
The TSA does about 20,000 tests a week nationwide, meaning each of its 43,000 employees, including 2,000 at LAX, get tested about every two weeks, Melendez told the newspaper.
Based on the LAX test results from two years ago, Melendez said the amount of training screeners get increased from three to four hours per week, with a focus on detecting homemade bombs.
Screeners who consistently do poorly on tests are removed from duty and put into remedial training until their ability to spot possible threats improve. Repeat trips to retraining sessions can go on their record and is considered during their annual recertification process, The Times reported.
Airport officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the report did not alarm them.
"We understand how the TSA's aggressive and increasingly difficult testing program identifies vulnerable areas and results in a safer aviation system," one official told the newspaper.
Dave Stone, the former federal security director at LAX and one-time head of the TSA, told The Times that LAX is vulnerable because of its size. Aside from passengers, screeners check more than 150,000 pieces of baggage daily, by far the most in the nation.
"The testing program should be designed to break the system," Stone said. "I spent a lot of time trying to have testing scenarios that exploit the vulnerability and gaps that we had at the passenger checkpoint. So therefore you would have failure rates that were relatively high."
Jack Keady, a Playa del Rey-based aviation consultant, questioned the TSA's training method.
"If you make anything innocuous-looking enough, you can usually get by," Keady said. "Because the only screening method they have is looking through the TV screen."
He suggested that random searches may be one of the best ways to catch terrorists.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. ) cbs2.com - Screeners At LAX Missed 75 Percent Of Fake Bombs
The only terrorist anyone has to worry about goes by the name George Bush.
I know people are gonna jump down my throat for it, esepcially the patriotic Americans, but I don't believe in Osama Bin Laden being the bad guy. There's too many holes in that story.
yeah but would bush bomb his own people? oh wait ....
You misunderestimate him
Meanwhile the definition of that is: 'A Bushism is any of a number of peculiar words, phrases, pronunciations, semantic or linguistic errors that have occurred in the public speaking'
As long as they notice the real bombs
My husband heard this and said "It's not the 75% of the fake bombs I'm worried about, it's the one real one and that one hasn't gotten thru yet. They can't be doing that bad of a job."
I can't decide if he's stupid or right!
I child-proofed my house but they keep getting back in!
Well, by all means, let's put this in the news then. Hey, Terrorists! Over here!
It's ridiculous to advertise weak links in our security. I also hate it when they put it in the news that we're almost completely defenseless against biological weapons.
^ yeah no shit, thats what i always think too!
Great job people! Keep up the hard work.
I keep reading this title as fake boobs!! I couldn't for the life of me figure out why screeners were on the lookout for fake boobs, and the fact that they were on the lookout in LA indicated an awful lot of job security ....
Originally Posted by stella blue
The fact is that modern explosives are now so easily concealed and undetectable that a determined terrorist could easily smuggle something onto a plane. Remember, the 9/11 aircraft were all brought down by 99c boxcutters from Home Depot.
I'm a total fatalist. If my number is up, that's it. I'm not going to stop doing things for fear of what might happen.
Why do people say "Grow some balls"? Balls are weak and sensitive! If you really wanna get tough, grow a vagina! Those things take a pounding! -Betty White
^^Agreed. That is the only way to live. I refuse to leave in fear of what could happen. Take reasonable precautions and hope for the best.
A fearful public is exactly what people like Bush and his cronies want, which is why they've worked so hard to create it.
He's right - one hasn't apparently gotten through yet, but with these failure rates on the fake ones, it's only a matter of time until they miss the real deal.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."
JFK Airport: NYC: Sept 07'
On my trip to Italy, I set off the sensors after I walked through the metal detector. The screener asked me if I was wearing a belt or any jewlery. I told her I was wearing a ring and held out my hand. She acknowledged it and let me go.
I thought, what a fucking idiot, she didn't even search me. If I had been a "terrorist" I cold have blown up the whole fucking plane.
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