Airport Security Fails to Detect 95% of Fake Explosives, Weapons by Lauren Walker.
From the post:
As air travelers, we take off our shoes, remove our belts, have our bodies scanned and condense our liquids into mini bottles—and it all may be for naught.
An internal investigation of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) found that undercover investigators were able to smuggle fake explosives and weapons through checkpoints in 95 percent of trials, which they conducted at dozens of America’s busiest airports. Officials did not disclose when the testing took place, other than to say it ended recently.
In the trials, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) investigators posed as ordinary passengers. They carried out 70 tests, all of which included trying to sneak a banned item through security. Officials briefed on the results told ABC News that TSA agents failed 67 of the 70 tests.
…
When I wrote You Are Safer Than You Think, I didn’t know the TSA was still a leaky sieve for guns and explosives.
So 95% of the over 10.3 billion passengers since 9/11 could have smuggled explosives onto airplanes but chose not to do so.
After over 10.3 billion passengers and not one terrorist, with a history of a 95% failure rate (same results in 2009 and no improvement since then), and knowing that drug and arms smuggling continues, despite the TSA, isn’t it time to save everyone the time and expense of the TSA?
Fiscal Year 2015 Budget for the TSA -> $7.3 billion