Really? No Foolin'?
Faced with intense
grilling before a Congressional committee, on Wednesday agency
administrator Kip Hawley said officials with the Transportation
Security Administration did not mean to give airport screeners a
heads-up to covert tests earlier this year.
Hawley asserted the April 28, 2006 email -- sent by an
agency employee to airport security officials -- was meant to warn
screeners of the possibility al-Qaeda or other terror operatives
could pose as transportation officials... and not to tip screeners
off to government personnel posing as potential terror
suspects, reports The Associated Press.
"Knowledgeably tipping off covert testing is wrong," Hawley told
lawmakers, hastily adding that wasn't what happened earlier this
year. "There was no intent to tip off. There was no cheating."
The incident is now under investigation by the Department of
Homeland Security.
As ANN reported, an email
sent from the account of the assistant administrator of the TSA's
Office of Security Operations, Mike Restovich, warned "several
airport authorities and airport police departments have recently
received informal notice" of security testing being carried out by
the Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation
Administration.
The email also described a couple who were testing
security. The woman was white but has "an oriental woman's picture"
on her identification card, the message stated. "They will print a
boarding pass from a flight, change the date, get through security
(if not noticed) and try to board a flight and place a bag in the
overhead."
"Alert your security line vendors to be aware of subtle
alterations to date info," the e-mail advised.
Hawley told lawmakers while the email was sent in Restovich's
name, he wasn't the one who sent it; furthermore, Hawley asserts,
FAA and DOT officials don't conduct undercover tests -- the TSA
does, along with the Government Accountability Office and the
Homeland Security inspector general's office.
Representative Bennie
Thompson, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, noted
Hawley's statements Wednesday marked the first time the TSA chief
admitted the email had been sent in the first place.
"I think some of this is clearly a breach of what I would
consider TSA policy," said Thompson (D-MS). "When errors like this
occur, I think Kip Hawley has to be forthright and take appropriate
actions."
Hawley said the suspect email was recalled 13 minutes after...
someone... sent it, although that couldn't be confirmed through the
email list given to lawmakers, which did not list the message
recall.
In the spirit of forthrightness, Hawley said he couldn't answer
further questions on the matter... as the agency's hard drives and
backups related to the incident are now in the hands of the TSA
inspector general.