[Infowarrior] - TSA missed 90% of bombs at Denver airport

Fri Mar 30 19:53:09 UTC 2007

Undercover agents slip bombs past DIA screeners
reported by: Deborah Sherman , I-Team Reporter

created: 3/29/2007 3:00:43 PM
Last updated: 3/29/2007 10:38:20 PM

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=67166

Undercover agents slip bombs past DIA screeners. 9NEWS at 10 p.m. 3/29/07
KUSA - Checkpoint security screeners at Denver International Airport last
month failed to find liquid explosives packed in carry-on luggage and also
improvised explosive devices, or IED's, worn by undercover agents sources
told 9NEWS.

"It really is concerning considering that we're paying millions of dollars
out of our budget to be secure in the airline industry," said passenger Mark
Butler who has had two Army Swiss knives confiscated by screeners in the
past. "Yet, we're not any safer than we were before 9/11, in my opinion."

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screeners failed most of
the covert tests because of human error, sources told 9NEWS. Alarms went off
on the machines, but sources said screeners violated TSA standard operating
procedures and did not hand-search suspicious luggage, wand, or pat down the
undercover agents.

"The good news is we have our own people probing and looking and examining
the system," said Rep. Ed Perlmutter, a Democrat in the 7th congressional
who sits on the House Homeland Security and transportation committees. "The
bad news is they're finding weaknesses."

After 9NEWS told Perlmutter about the undercover results, he requested a
classified briefing from the TSA about the team. Four TSA and Homeland
Security Department officials briefed the congressman last week.

"The bottom line is, we've got to plug those holes," said Perlmutter. "We
can't have those kinds of problems because we want to have people who fly
across this nation be as safe as possible."

In one test, sources told 9NEWS an agent taped an IED to her leg and told
the screener it was a bandage from surgery. Even though alarms sounded on
the walk-through metal detector, the agent was able to bluff her way past
the screener.

"If they miss something that's obvious, often times that could happen, we
will pull them off the line and retrain them," said Security Director Earl
Morris at TSA headquarters in Washington, D.C. "That's how we audit and keep
track of which people are doing a better job than others and how we keep
this whole process so that it really is one that's legitimate and factual
and actually is effective."

The TSA would not confirm the test results obtained by 9NEWS.

The covert testers who were at DIA are part of the TSA's Red Team. The Red
Team was formed by the Federal Aviation Administration after terrorists blew
up Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, killing 270 people.

The Red Team tests about 100 airports nationwide every year, according to
Morris. It halted testing after 9/11. Since it re-started testing in 2003,
the Red Team has investigated security at approximately 735 airports. The
team tested DIA once during 2006 and on February 12 to 14, said Morris. The
agents act and think like terrorists to find vulnerabilities in the aviation
security system.

The Red Team uses very expensive chemical simulates in the test devices that
look, smell and taste like real explosives, except they do not explode. To
the CTX bomb detection machines at DIA, they are real explosives, according
to a former Red Team leader.

Sources told 9NEWS the Red Team was able to sneak about 90 percent of
simulated weapons past checkpoint screeners in Denver. In the baggage area,
screeners caught one explosive device that was packed in a suitcase. However
later, screeners in the baggage area missed a book bomb, according to
sources.

"There's very little substance to security," said former Red Team leader
Bogdan Dzakovic. "It literally is all window dressing that we're doing. It's
big theater on TV and when you go to the airport. It's just security
theater."

Dzakovic was a Red Team leader from 1995 until September 11, 2001. After the
terrorist attacks, Dzakovic became a federally protected whistleblower and
alleged that thousands of people died needlessly. He testified before the
9/11 Commission and the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the US
that the Red Team "breached security with ridiculous ease up to 90 percent
of the time," and said the FAA "knew how vulnerable aviation security was."

Dzakovic, who is currently a TSA inspector, said security is no better
today.

"It's worse now. The terrorists can pretty much do what they want when they
want to do it," he said.

TSA's Morris disagrees with that.

"We have a very robust program of which we are very proud, in which we
utilize testing at all of our airports every single day," said Morris.

The security chief says he expects screeners to fail the Red Team tests
because they are difficult.

"We could put these tests together so that we have a 100 percent success
rate every single time," said Morris. "Then, they wouldn't be challenging,
they wouldn't be realistic and they really wouldn't be stretching the limits
and the imagination of the Transportation Security Officer."

Morris says the tests are designed to be tough so that officers can learn
from their mistakes and successes.

"It's a test but it's also a learning experience," said Morris. "It's a
constant audit that we put on there to see where our employees are and where
we need to enhance the weaknesses."

Morris says other agents, not with the Red Team, test and train screeners
every day at the nation's 450 airports and says screeners pass most of those
tests. In those kinds of tests, he said Denver has done well in the past.

However, tests done by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of
Inspector General and the U.S. Government Accountability Office in 2006
found widespread failures. According to the GAO, screeners at 15 airports
missed 90 percent of the explosives and guns agents tried to sneak past
checkpoints.

Also, a Denver woman who carries a Taser for personal protection, told 9NEWS
she carried it on board airplanes last year six times. Her Taser shoots
500,000 volts of electricity. She says the TSA never caught it and stopped
her.

Most test results, including results from the Red Team, are secret,
classified as SSI or sensitive security information. Morris says they do not
make them public because they could point out holes in the system.

"We're actually fighting a war on terror. Our intent is not to educate the
public on how we do tests and what are tests consist of. Our sole objective
is to prevent those who have intent to do us harm from being able to
successfully complete their mission."

Sources who leaked the test results to 9Wants to Know say they were
concerned about the failures and want security improved.

Morris says the screeners were told about the failures and the problems were
fixed. He called 9Wants to Know's sources 'disgruntled and underachieving
employees.'

"Anyone who violates the rule we have in place for divulging information
that is sensitive and secret, that jeopardizes the security of this country
is wrong," said Morris. "They're out of line, it's not acceptable and it's
not appropriate."

Dzakovic, who testified that the FAA ordered the Red Team to "not write up
our findings," said the TSA is also trying to hide its results.

"The last thing TSA wants to do is look bad in front of congress and in
front of the public, so rather than fix the problem, they'd rather just keep
them quiet," said Dzakovic.

Dzakovic says aviation security needs fundamental changes if it's going to
improve.

"If anything of value is to be achieved out of this latest round of testing
in Denver, congressmen need to go into the internal mechanics of how TSA
operates in order to really affect change," said Dzakovic. "Because if they
don't, next year there will be another round of testing, get them same kind
of results and it's just a matter of time before potentially thousands of
more people get killed."

While Morris said security can always get better, it's already excellent.

"We understand that security is not perfect in every aspect but we
understand that we go about trying to be perfect every single day and we are
doing a tremendous job out there and the public should feel comfortable
flying out today and quite frankly, they do," he said.

Sources tell 9Wants to Know screeners failed the tests because they feel
pressured to put passengers on planes quickly and say they are
short-staffed. When the TSA took over screening at DIA in 2002, there were
1100 officers. However, there are only 750 today because Congress capped
funding for employees.

Perlmutter voted last week for a bill that gives more money for aviation
security, but the President said he'll veto the bill because it includes
time lines on ending the war in Iraq.