"Gaming the System: TSA accused of security lapses at Mississippi airport"

Sunday, September 10, 2006

How safe are we?
Security agency accused of safety lapses
The Jackson (MS) Clarion-Ledger

  
Five years after the federal Transportation Security Administration was
created to help fight terrorism, current and former TSA employees in Jackson
claim security at Jackson-Evers International Airport is compromised
regularly.

Those employees allege they are assisted by their supervisors in cheating on
TSA security inspections, have been told to allow potentially dangerous
passengers to board aircraft and that top managers ignore safety procedures
in order to protect their jobs and to please the airlines flying out of
Jackson.

"They didn't do anything right. They didn't even try," said Bill Gillam, a
former TSA screener at the airport, referring to top management at
Jackson-Evers. Gillam worked at the airport from September 2002 to December
2004 before quitting because of a disability.

The Clarion-Ledger spent more than two months investigating numerous
allegations, talking to a dozen current and former TSA employees, including
some who would not talk on the record for fear of being fired. The newspaper
also reviewed a number of documents and e-mails regarding TSA's operations
at Jackson-Evers.

The TSA denies the allegations, saying it stands by the management staff in
Jackson. Christopher White, TSA's Atlanta-based spokesman, praised the
Jackson-Evers team for providing "world-class security and customer service
at the same time."

"Security is absolutely our No. 1 priority. All of our supervisors and
managers nationwide are well aware of this," said White, who worked with TSA
officials in Jackson to answer the newspaper's questions for this story.

TSA has a staff of about 100 people in Jackson, led by Larry Rowlett, a
former Secret Service agent.

Second District U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, the ranking Democrat on the House
Homeland Security Committee, said the new allegations - if proven - would
result in the "harshest penalties" for those involved.

"If this is true, it will require review at the highest levels," said
Thompson, who in May called for a Congressional investigation into TSA
management of airport security nationwide. That investigation is ongoing.

Some within Jackson's ranks claim security has been compromised over the
years, especially when security tests came down.

TSA randomly conducts security tests with undercover agents - known as "red
teams" - who try to sneak past screeners with weapons or other prohibited
items. For instance, sometimes an agent would have a gun hidden in a bag or
on his body. Other times, he might have simulated plastic explosives in
hollowed-out soles of shoes.

But Gillam and some other current and former TSA workers said supervisors
are tipped off when inspections are going to happen, giving them time to
prepare their teams. The clandestine tests are part of a system of grading
TSA screeners to make sure they are doing their jobs properly.

TSA personnel, who do not have civil service protection, can lose their jobs
if they don't pass the tests. Airports that do not do well on the
inspections reflect poorly on TSA managers at that airport.

Gillam said there was little left to chance when the red teams were around.
"They would call us together and say that this is going to happen between 4
and 5 o'clock," he said. "I don't know how they got the script, but that's
the kind of clout (Rowlett) has."

Gillam said they would put the most skilled screeners on the X-ray machines
when they knew a test was coming, essentially "stacking the deck" to make
sure they passed.

"It happened with me on duty there three times," he said. "They would even
tell us what kind of shoe to look for."

Barry Bissell, a TSA screener who has been at the airport since 2002, said
the practice is still in place.

"They would put out the word. You know, 'The red team is coming through,'"
he said.

Mary Rausa, a TSA supervisor in Jackson from September 2002 to June 2005,
said the inspection warnings came from top management.

"Why do you think our airport did so good?" she asked. "Our airport got
tested just as much as any airport, but we never failed."

As a matter of course, White said Rowlett sometimes is notified in advance
of such security tests, but he is not given specifics. In addition, White
said there are tests where Rowlett is not informed.

White said sometimes TSA employees at a nearby airport where a test has just
occurred will call employees in neighboring airports to warn them that a red
team is on the way. But he said the TSA "does not encourage or endorse this
practice (of employees tipping off friends at other airports)."

Gillam challenged that, saying warnings about the tests were not passed
along from airport to airport. Instead, supervisors would gather their teams
before a shift and work out the details of a test.

"This was given to us in the form of ad-hoc briefings," he said.

When not under the microscope, some current and former employees said
security is even more lax.

In December 2002, a lead screener failed to report an angry passenger who
claimed to have a bomb, Rausa said. When a screener went over her head and
reported the incident to Charlie Foreman, a top Jackson TSA official
assigned to work with the airlines, TSA management was forced to empty the
terminal and rescreen all passengers, she said.

But Rausa - who, as a supervisor, was in a position to know - said there was
no apparent corrective measures taken by TSA managers. Instead, the lead
screener was moved to another team on the other side of the airport, she
said.

"She wasn't suspended or retrained or anything," she said.

Rausa also alleges management overruled her in spring 2004 when a passenger
was allowed to board a plane with explosive blasting caps in his carry-on
bag. Rausa said a screening manager called her "stupid" for raising the
alarm and allowed the passenger to board because the caps were in an
unopened package.

Bissell said he recalls "at least a dozen" instances when passengers
attempted to board a plane with a gun in their carry-on baggage. TSA
screeners caught the firearms when they passed through the X-ray machine,
but he said top management had the guns confiscated and allowed the
passengers to board.

Passengers who attempt to board a plane with a loaded weapon are supposed to
be arrested and their names placed on a watch list so their baggage is more
closely searched the next time they fly. That is not done in Jackson, former
and current TSA workers said.

White said the decision to charge someone with attempting to bring a deadly
weapon aboard a plane is made by local law enforcement and not TSA. "The TSA
is not aware of any incident in which an individual has been allowed to
travel with a prohibited item," White said.

The airport has its own police department under the Jackson Municipal
Airport Authority. JMAA Chief Operating Officer Bonnie Wilson said airport
police are called when a weapon is found at a checkpoint. Wilson said those
passengers are detained and questioned and a report is made of each
instance, but it is up to prosecutors in Rankin County, the FBI or the TSA
on whether to bring charges.

The most recent dust-up came this year - regarding Jackson Mayor Frank
Melton and his guns. Melton, though not a law enforcement officer, has flown
at least six times with a weapon since he took office as mayor in July 2005.
The TSA since has asked him not to board commercial aircraft armed.

TSA employees said they've tried to take their concerns up the chain of
command. In 2004, several sent e-mails to Chip Justice, an operations
manager in TSA's Atlanta office, detailing complaints ranging from problems
with compensation for on-the-job injuries to security breaches.

Justice pushed employees for details, specific instances and complaints,
according to the e-mails. After about a year of correspondence, Justice came
to Jackson to meet with Rowlett, Rausa said.

During the visit, Justice never talked to the employees who filed the
complaints, said Rausa, who eventually left TSA for another government job.
"No results ever came trickling down," she said.

Justice, who is no longer with TSA, did not return calls and e-mails seeking
comment for this story.

WHAT'S NEXT

Federal Security Director Larry Rowlett will address the TSA screening force
Monday at 11 a.m. at Jackson-Evers International Airport.

 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/dcfp/dcboard.php


*****************************************