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US Airport Screeners Missed 95% of Weapons, Explosives In Undercover Tests
An anonymous reader writes: An internal investigation by the TSA found that 95% of agents testing airport checkpoints were able to bring weapons through. In one case, an alarm sounded, but during the pat down, the screener failed to detect a fake plastic explosive taped to the undercover agent's back. ABC reports: "Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson was apparently so frustrated by the findings he sought a detailed briefing on them last week at TSA headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, according to sources. U.S. officials insisted changes have already been made at airports to address vulnerabilities identified by the latest tests. 'Upon learning the initial findings of the Office of Inspector General's report, Secretary Johnson immediately directed TSA to implement a series of actions, several of which are now in place, to address the issues raised in the report,' the DHS said in a written statement to ABC News."
My point is that the methods (and level of "fake enemy") on those "friendly" security checks are very different from what most people (most "bad guys" included) will ever use.
Antisthenes: "Wisdom begins by examining the words/names." - excuse my English, i am (slightly...) better with my Greek!
Not to mention keeping our airplanes safe from containers of liquid larger than 3.4 ounces. Who knows what a terrorist might do if he smuggled 4 ounces of shampoo aboard a plane!
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
They already knew that TSA screenings are security theater. It takes only a bit of casual observation, from the waiting lounge, to see which security personnel at which airport are competent or most overwhelmed. The 9/11 terrorists and any modern counterparts have opportunities to visit or travel through airports with _real_ security, like Egypt, Arabia, Pakistan, and Israel, and see the trade-offs between cost and security at all of them. There were compelling reasons that the 9/11 attackers chose Boston to fly from: one of the reasons was doubtless the very lax security at Logan Airport.
Doing a "lot of attempts" winds up getting one attempt noticed and tightening up security at that airport and possibly others, so "do a lot of attempts" breaks down quickly. What a lot of attempts could do is drain the budget of the TSA and of airlines: overwhelming the staff with hundreds or thousands of false positives over a day or a week would cost the TSA and the airlines many millions of dollars, Simply wiping or spraying enough nitrate residues on a an escalator handrail would expose hundreds, even thousands of people in a day to explosive detection and wipe out the resources and budget of many TSA offices.
If a terrorist wants to blow up a plane, they use a Surface to Air Missile from just outside the airport.
If they want to hijack a plane, it won't work anymore because the doors are heavily locked - any explosive capable of opening the cockpit door will crash the plane.
The routinely miss liquids - water, suntan lotion, etc. I traveled with someone that packed suntan lotion in a carry on bag and they missed it. They found and took the blade out of his safety razor, but missed the suntan lotion.
Even their own original studies claim that any benefit is far exceeded by the cost. The basic rule for MOST government agencies is if the cost exceeds $1 million per life saved, don't bother - smoke detectors cost $210,000 per life saved. http://www.econ.ucsb.edu/~tedb/Courses/UCSBpf/readings/interventions.pdf
But the TSA argues they should be allowed to spend $10 million per life saved - and admit they actually cost $180 million per life saved. https://www.schneier.com/blog/...
Their budget should be cut to 1% of what it currently is, that way we will only be spending twice what we spend on other industries to save lives.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
Try China. They have x-ray machines and wands at every subway station and, of course, airports. I sent my bags through dozens of times traveling around Beijing, I got 'wanded' dozens more times.
It was very obvious that almost all of the machines and wands were turned off. Camera in my pocket? Wand doesn't even beep. Dark screens on the x-ray machines, staff not even looking the few times when the screens were actually on, they never stopped or questioned anyone. They obviously didn't care, either.
I kind of liked their "we don't give a crap" attitude. It was very...China. Made me like the place even more.
Terrorism...yea... that thing.
Look carefully at the "underwear bomber." He was let onto the plan by an still unidentified Indian man. There are many who believe this was an FBI op. Shoe-bomber? Same shady situation. Even going back to the Pan-Am bombing, the CIA gave that man the explosives. They were suppose to give him non-functioning explosives. They actively sought to radicalize someone; making a criminal out of someone who wouldn't have been on their own. This is the definition of entrapment.
EVERY SINGLE AIRPORT related "attack" was directly caused by the US. Every security precaution is "security theatre." Those rape-a-scanners? Keep in mind that people who have repeated CAT scans for medical purposes have a higher risk for cancer. The effects build over time for continual exposure. In 20 years, we're gong to see frequent flyers with cancers directly related to body scanners.
The American media is not free. We live in a propaganda state. Oh brave new world, with such people in it.
That's only in Beijing and only during times of 'unrest'. Most of the year there is nothing, not even theater, so when they are ordered to dig out the wands, the batteries are dead and no one can remember how they work. Saudi Arabia is the best - do not wake the sleeping guards, it annoys them. Please walk around the detector with your luggage to prevent it from beeping. Thanks.
The TSA clowns at airports are not government employees, they are private contractors. It the last resort for someone who wants to wear a uniform and have a badge but is too incompetent to be a mall cop. So it's no surprise that they have a 95% failure rate.
A huge chunk of taxpayer money gets wasted and there is little real world payoff. Make no mistake, the real big bucks go to the upper management, political insiders who grease the wheels for lucrative contracts. Just a division of the military industrial complex.
Another example: the Air Force just signed the very first contract with Boeing for commercial manned flights to the International Space Station. The Boeing crew vehicle hasn't even flown yet, unlike the SpaceX capsule which is now going through it's manned launch escape testing. Boeing is in bed with the AF, SpaceX isn't. All the AF guys know that they will just slide over to high paying jobs at Boeing when they retire, and there are lots of Congress Critters who get campaign contribution from Boeing, and want to protect defense jobs in their state.
Saving money? Competition? Innovation? Not even on the table. It's government of, by and for the insiders. And you are paying for it.
Why is Snark Required?