TSA Blasted for Checked Baggage Scans, Security Breaches

ToastyKen/<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/toasty/2619866851/sizes/o/in/photostream/">Flickr</a>

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


This week will be a tough one for TSA’s public relations team due to two new findings. One, a GAO report, highlights the TSA’s failure to conduct risk assessments for 87% of US airports and the uncertain record of the agency’s behavior detection program. The other report, released by the Department of Homeland Security, revealed that there were 25,000 breaches of TSA security since 2001, including weapons brought on planes. Both were the subject of a heated hearing yesterday by the House Subcommittee on National Security, Homeland Defense and Foreign Operations.

Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), who’s chastised the TSA in the past, once again voiced his lack of confidence in the organization in light of the 25,000 security breaches. “These are just the ones we know about,” Chaffetz said, “it’s a stunningly high number.” Chaffetz characterized TSA’s services as ineffective “security theater.” “We have to be right all the time,” he said, “terrorists only have to get lucky once.”

Chaffetz is right to be concerned about security, as the GAO’s report says that TSA isn’t even close to meeting current standards for detecting explosives in checked luggage. It took TSA four years to begin meeting 2005 requirements, and it looks like meeting current standards will be delayed similarly, if they’re ever instituted. “We found that TSA did not have a plan to deploy and operate electronic detection systems to meet the most recent requirements,” the report says [emphasis mine]. “As of January 2011, some of the electronic detection systems in TSA’s fleet are detecting explosives at the level established by the 2005 requirements,” and some were operating at the 1998 level of detection.

While TSA’s checked baggage scanning is still far behind, TSA is using a program to detect potential terrorists based on their body language. The program, Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT), has been lauded by Department of Homeland Security as being more effective than random screenings, but GAO isn’t buying it. The GAO says that DHS’s data collection wasn’t good enough to verify a link between a certain behaviors and terrorist activity. And anyway, “it is not known if the SPOT program has ever resulted in the arrest of anyone who is a terrorist, or who was planning to engage in terrorist-related activity.” This is really unfortunate, as last year DHS spent $212 million on the program and employed 3000 behavior-detection officers. This year, DHS wants an additional $20 million so it can employ 350 more officers. That seems like a lot of money and employees for a program that doesn’t actually work. GAO notes that it would have been a good idea if DHS scientifically assessed the program’s potential effectiveness before it was rolled out in 161 airports across the country.

Here’s a chart I made of the SPOT program’s results for FY2010. You’ll notice that “terrorism” is not one of the reasons people were charged.


 

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate