Says THAT'S Why Failure Rates Are So High

When it comes to the Sisyphean task of testing the effectiveness of current screening methods at airports, the Transportation Security Administration's special operations division continues to come up with new and creative ways to foil screeners' efforts to find hidden explosives and security threats... which is why, the TSA maintains, screeners continue to fail to detect such threats at astonishing levels.

So says a classified TSA report obtained by USA Today. The report details but a few methods testers use to stump screeners... including packing a makeshift bomb inside a stuffed toiletry kit, hiding sheets of fake explosives in briefcase linings, and even smearing plastic explosives on shoelaces.

We already know the results of such efforts.

As ANN has reported, screeners continue to earn marks so poor, they've (INSERT JOKE HERE -- Ed.) In addition to a staggering 90 percent failure rate at Denver International earlier this year, screeners have also managed to rack up "Fs" at Los Angeles International (a failure rate of about 75%) and Chicago's O'Hare (60%).

Agency spokeswoman Ellen Howe says the higher negative marks are to be expected... since the TSA has made the testing much harder than in the past, when agents would merely hide a gun or an assembled bomb in otherwise-empty suitcases.

"We want to have higher failure rates because it shows that we're raising the bar and the tests are harder," Howe said. She compared screener testing to a basketball game: "You might score more points against a high-school team, but your skills are going to be improved if you're playing against an NBA team."

The TSA has significantly stepped up testing efforts in the past two years. Howe says screeners received an extra hour per week of training after current agency head Kip Hawley came onboard.

The agency has also increased the rate of testing at all airports, in response to another agency study that showed screeners at San Francisco International improved measurably when they were tested several times a day... to the tune of finding about 80 percent of all fake bombs sent through.

In a typical scenario, an undercover agent slips a bag containing a fake bomb on an X-ray machine belt. Such testing makes screeners "more suspicious as well as more capable of recognizing (bomb) components," said the report -- which also noted, disturbingly, checkpoints at O'Hare were too congested and too wide for supervisors to properly conduct similar checks.

Cris Soulia, a screener at San Diego International, tells USA Today TSA managers are even sneakier in SoCal. Those officials ask passengers to carry a fake bomb through. "It's nobody we would ever expect," Soulia said.

Orlando International screener Don Thomas has also noticed changes in testing methods. A few weeks ago, Thomas says, he was tested three times in one week... including once at an airport worker line.

"I kind of like it," he said. "It keeps you a little bit sharp, and you don't feel pressured, like you're going to get fired or written up."

That statement may not strike fear into the hearts of terrorists, however. To continue Howe's earlier basketball analogy, aviation consultant Rich Roth tells the paper high failure rates among screeners convince the terrorists they're the pros... and they're not afraid of the team they're up against.

"The terrorist will think he's got a very small chance of getting caught," Roth said.

FMI: www.tsa.gov