Secret agents discover TSA screens subpar
Operation unearths inattentive workers and poor equipment
WASHINGTON — They are so expert at evading airport security that a former head of the Transportation Security Administration once hailed them as “superterrorists” for their ability to smuggle weapons and other prohibited items aboard planes.
They are said to use disguises and false identities, and one recently managed to sneak fake explosives taped to his body past a TSA screener’s routine pat-down.
But these “superterrorists” are actually undercover federal agents, known as the Red Team, working for the inspector general at the Department of Homeland Security, and their job is to test airport screening in an effort to expose security gaps and keep TSA screeners sharp.
In recent tests, the Red Team identified a weakness so glaring that the team successfully concealed mock explosives and weapons from TSAscreeners 67 out of 70 times, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal reports.
That stunning failure rate — more than 95 percent — was behind Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson’s decision late Monday to reassign Melvin Carraway, the acting administrator of the TSA.
Carraway, who has worked at the TSA almost since its creation after the terrorist attacks in 2001, was reassigned to another Homeland Security office. The acting deputy director, Mark Hatfield, will run the agency for now.
President Barack Obama nominated Coast Guard Vice Adm. Peter Neffenger in April to run the TSA. His next Senate confirmation hearing is scheduled for next week, and he is likely to be grilled on problems at an agency that screens more than 1.8 million passengers and 3 million carry-on bags every day at U.S. airports.
In the meantime, John- son, who was briefed on the Red Team’s findings two weeks ago, ordered the TSA to revise its standard procedures for screening and initiated a plan to retrain every screener and supervisor, in phases, across the country.
He also ordered officials to retest and re-evaluate screening equipment now in use. Johnson also vowed to meet with executives of the private companies that sell the screening equipment to prod them to fix the “deficiencies” found by the Red Team.
The TSA, which has a budget of $7.2 billion, has repeatedly come under fire in recent years. It was forced to remove backscatter X-ray body scanners from airports in 2013 under congressional pressure, has fired or disciplined hundreds of employees for theft or misconduct and faces major morale issues.
The latest problems at the troubled agency sparked immediate concerns on Capitol Hill.
“Terrorist groups like ISIS take notice when TSA fails to intercept 67 out of 70 attempts by undercover investigators to penetrate airport checkpoints with simulated weapons and explosives,” Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., and Bill Nelson, DFla., the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, which has primary legislative and oversight jurisdiction over the TSA, said in a joint statement using an acronym for the Islamic State group.
The Red Team inspectors blamed the lapses they discovered on a potentially devastating combination: inattentive TSA screeners and poorly designed or malfunctioning equipment.
After conducting a “series of covert penetration tests,” officials “identified vulnerabilities caused by human and technology-based failures,” John Roth, the inspector general at Homeland Security, told a House hearing last month.
The humdrum, repetitive nature of passenger screen- ing poses a problem for TSA managers, according to Stewart Baker, former head of policy at Homeland Security. “It is very hard to do your job effectively every day without getting a little sloppy or complacent,” he said.
Officials declined to identify the specific weakness that the Red Team found, and the inspector general’s report, which has not been finalized, is classified. The test results were first reported by ABC News.
The Red Team has conducted over 6,000 tests at airport checkpoints and other sites in recent years.