Boulder Dude

And here I thought that we were done with sweeps stories.

KUSA - Checkpoint security screeners at Denver International Airport last month failed to find liquid explosives packed in carry-on luggage and also improvised explosive devices, or IED's, worn by undercover agents sources told 9NEWS.

Okay, Since the whole "Liquid Explosive" thing is silly and the "Great War in Liquids" is eve sillier, I do not see much there there. IED's...please explain what it is that you decided what and IED is supposed to look like.

"It really is concerning considering that we're paying millions of dollars out of our budget to be secure in the airline industry," said passenger Mark Butler who has had two Army Swiss knives confiscated by screeners in the past. "Yet, we're not any safer than we were before 9/11, in my opinion."

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screeners failed most of the covert tests because of human error, sources told 9NEWS. Alarms went off on the machines, but sources said screeners violated TSA standard operating procedures and did not hand-search suspicious luggage, wand, or pat down the undercover agents.

But what about the puffer machine...surely they got sent through the puffer machine?

"The good news is we have our own people probing and looking and examining the system," said Rep. Ed Perlmutter, a Democrat in the 7th congressional who sits on the House Homeland Security and transportation committees. "The bad news is they're finding weaknesses."

After 9NEWS told Perlmutter about the undercover results, he requested a classified briefing from the TSA about the team. Four TSA and Homeland Security Department officials briefed the congressman last week.

"The bottom line is, we've got to plug those holes,"

But wouldn't that make the Fantasy Liquid Exlosives...better...or not...so confused.

said Perlmutter. "We can't have those kinds of problems because we want to have people who fly across this nation be as safe as possible."

In one test, sources told 9NEWS an agent taped an IED to her leg and told the screener it was a bandage from surgery. Even though alarms sounded on the walk-through metal detector, the agent was able to bluff her way past the screener.

Niiiiice....now anyone with a broken leg that required a rod and screws is going to be run through the X-ray machine I guess.

"If they miss something that's obvious, often times that could happen, we will pull them off the line and retrain them," said Security Director Earl Morris at TSA headquarters in Washington, D.C. "That's how we audit and keep track of which people are doing a better job than others and how we keep this whole process so that it really is one that's legitimate and factual and actually is effective."

The TSA would not confirm the test results obtained by 9NEWS.

The covert testers who were at DIA are part of the TSA's Red Team. The Red Team was formed by the Federal Aviation Administration after terrorists blew up Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, killing 270 people.

The Red Team tests about 100 airports nationwide every year, according to Morris. It halted testing after 9/11. Since it re-started testing in 2003, the Red Team has investigated security at approximately 735 airports. The team tested DIA once during 2006 and on February 12 to 14, said Morris. The agents act and think like terrorists to find vulnerabilities in the aviation security system.

The Red Team uses very expensive chemical simulates in the test devices that look, smell and taste like real explosives, except they do not explode. To the CTX bomb detection machines at DIA, they are real explosives, according to a former Red Team leader.

Ahh....now that explains my earlier question. But then again there was this Article awhile back that may explain some things....but that would mean that 9news wouldn't have much of a story...so...FEAR! FEAR! FEAR! BE AFRAID!

"There's very little substance to security," said former Red Team leader Bogdan Dzakovic. "It literally is all window dressing that we're doing. It's big theater on TV and when you go to the airport. It's just security theater."

Or you know, you have airlines trying to make money....but I guess you could just have folks show up at airport 6 hours early and search every bag that triggers the CTX machine by hand....or just ban baggage all together, that would pretty much make things 100% effective.

Dzakovic, who is currently a TSA inspector, said security is no better today.

"It's worse now. The terrorists can pretty much do what they want when they want to do it," he said.

Which is why planes are just blowing up all over the place.

Sources tell 9Wants to Know screeners failed the tests because they feel pressured to put passengers on planes quickly and say they are short-staffed. When the TSA took over screening at DIA in 2002, there were 1100 officers. However, there are only 750 today because Congress capped funding for employees.

Like I said...

Perlmutter voted last week for a bill that gives more money for aviation security, but the President said he'll veto the bill because it includes time lines on ending the war in Iraq.

Yeah....it's just pork.