"Inspectors get weapons past U.S. airport screeners"

Saturday, September 13, 2003

Inspectors get weapons past airport screeners
By Leslie Miller
The Associated Press


WASHINGTON -- Undercover federal investigators testing airport security were
able to sneak weapons past screeners, the chairman of the House Aviation
subcommittee said yesterday.
  
Representative John L. Mica, Republican of Florida, asked the General
Accounting Office to conduct the probe to compare the performance of
government-employed screeners with those who work for private companies.

"The preliminary reports confirm our original suspicion that there's not
much difference between private screeners and the federal screeners, except
for great cost," Mica said. "It's not a pretty picture."

The GAO declined to comment on the report, which is to be presented to
Congress in a couple of weeks. Mica and others were briefed on the findings,
but did not share details about what kinds of weapons got past screeners or
which airports were tested.

Brian Turmail, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration,
acknowledged that screeners don't catch all prohibited items. "No single
layer of security is ever going to be 100 percent effective," Turmail said.
"That's why we worked so hard to build all these layers of security."

Among the other security measures put in place since the attacks of Sept.
11, 2001: All luggage is screened for explosives; pilots may volunteer to
carry guns in the cockpit; bulletproof doors have been added to commercial
planes; and the number of air marshals was increased dramatically.

The agency's own undercover investigators have tried to sneak prohibited
items past screeners in all 429 airports where TSA is responsible for
screening, Turmail said. When weaknesses are discovered, he said, the agency
makes adjustments.

As of Aug. 31, the agency has intercepted more than 8.1 million items at
checkpoints, including 2.4 million knives, 1,498 firearms, and 51,408 box
cutters.

Representative Peter DeFazio of Oregon, the ranking Democrat on the Aviation
subcommittee, said he's concerned about deficiencies in airport screening,
but contended:

"The state of privatized, lowest-budget screening prior to 9/11 was
absolutely abysmal. There was high turnover, many people weren't even legal
residents of the United States. They didn't speak the language, didn't know
their job."


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