U.S. reporter easily smuggles weapons past TSA goons - 75% success rate of bypassing security at U.S. airports

Thursday, November 26, 2015 by: J. D. Heyes
Tags: airport security breaches, TSA, terrorism

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(NaturalNews) The Transportation Security Administration was supposed to be Big Government's solution to the supposedly "lax" airport security prior to the 9/11 attacks that contributed to the worst terrorist assault in the nation's history. Only, like all Big Government "solutions," the TSA has failed to live up to its hype, let alone justify its massive annual budget.

Miserably, in fact.

As reported by NBC News, an undercover investigative news team sought to test airport security and TSA capabilities recently, and what they discovered was shocking: On three of four occasions, TSA inspectors failed to find banned items in the team's carry-on luggage – items that included a box cutter (which is what the 9/11 attackers used to take over their planes), a Swiss Army knife and a long, sharp pair of scissors.

NBC News noted that, in reviewing the results, aviation security expert Anthony Roman called them "a complete and utter failure of the system."

So terrible were the results, in fact, that the TSA sent the news network its own scathing assessment upon hearing of the undercover investigation.

"It is unacceptable for any prohibited item to pass through security undetected," said a statement from TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger. "Both the DHS Office of the Inspector General and TSA frequently conduct testing and evaluations of our screening measures so that we can continuously improve our security screening procedures. As a result of this input, TSA has been implementing systematic changes in how we screen passengers and their baggage in order to better deter, detect, and disrupt any potential threat of terrorism."

'Something is not working'

Of course, this wasn't the first systemic security failure by the TSA. In fact, far from it.

In June, CNN and ABC News reported that the then-acting administrator for the TSA was reassigned following the results of similar security testing. A report from the department, which had conducted an internal investigation, said airport screeners could not detect explosives and weapons in nearly all tests that an undercover team conducted at scores of airports.

The internal investigation found that "red teams" with the Department of Homeland Security's Office of the Inspector General, managed to get banned items past the screening process in 67 of 70 tests conducted at sites around the country. The massive failure led top DHS officials to reassign the acting director, Melvin Carraway – though honestly, the fault could not possibly have been his, given the TSA's incredibly poor record of actually providing airport "security".

"Over the past six years, we have seen TSA consume an enormous amount of government resources, but I'm not convinced we have much to show for it," said Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, in a statement. "After spending over $540 million on baggage screening equipment and millions more on training, the failure rate today is higher than it was in 2007. Something is not working."

Why is this agency still around?

In 2013, the New York Post reported that TSA screeners allowed a federal agent with a fake bomb through airport security at the Newark International Airport. Not only did the phony passenger get through security with the "bomb," but the agent actually underwent a pat-down as well.

"This episode once again demonstrates how Newark Airport is the Ground Zero of TSA failures," a source told the paper. "He did have a simulated IED in his pants. They did not find it."

The Post's report led one TSA agent to contact the paper a few days later to make a stunning admission – that the agency tasked specifically with boosting airport security, doesn't and can't.

"We're not any big deterrent. It's all for show. Most TSA screeners know their job is a complete joke," the source said. "Their goal is to use this as a stepping stone to another government agency. We work in a culture where common sense has no place. All but a very few TSA personnel know they're employed by a bottom-of-the-barrel agency."

But like every other government agency, Congress seems incapable of killing the TSA off (figuratively), and honestly, that's the real crime.

Sources:

Today.com

CNN.com

NYPost.com

NaturalNews.com