[Infowarrior] - San Francisco airport officials cheated on security testing

[Richard Forno]

San Francisco airport officials cheated on security testing
By Michael Hampton
Posted: November 19, 2006 3:57 pm
http://www.homelandstupidity.us/2006/11/19/san-francisco-airport-officials-c
heated-on-security-testing/

Transportation Security Administration officials, along with officials of
the contractor which performs passenger screening at San Francisco
International Airport, compromised covert security testing by warning
checkpoint screeners when a test was about to take place, a government audit
found.

A report (PDF) by the Homeland Security Office of Inspector General dated
October 26 and released Thursday said that TSA workers acting in collusion
with employees of Covenant Aviation Security compromised ³covert security
testing between August 2003 and May 2004 by tracking testers throughout the
airport via surveillance cameras and on foot² and then notifying checkpoint
screeners when a tester was about to approach the checkpoint.

The report confirms allegations of a CAS employee who said he was fired in
2004 after refusing to participate in the scheme and notifying TSA
management. That whistleblower, Gene Bencomo, filed a wrongful termination
lawsuit in February 2005.

³TSA and the contractor issued directives in May 2004 to stop all activity
that could compromise the integrity of covert security testing,² the report
said. ³TSA management at SFO issued another protocol in January 2005 that
prohibits any notification to screening checkpoints that covert testing is
being conducted.²

I guess that was good enough.

    The TSA asked the inspector general¹s office to investigate after it
received the whistle-blower¹s letter. TSA spokesman Nico Melendez said the
agency disciplined some employees but considers the matter closed. . . .

    The TSA last month awarded Covenant a four-year contract worth more than
$300 million to continue screening at the airport.

    ³We have confidence in their ability to do their job and think they are
doing a good job,² Melendez said. ‹ Associated Press

³How is the public expected to have any confidence in the screening systems
when managers game the system?² said Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), ranking
member of the House Homeland Security Committee.