A ticking timer could worry other passengers...

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
> Date: Wed, 08 Oct 2003 21:59:49 -0500
> From: "Kevin G. Barkes" <kgb () kgb com>
> Subject: A ticking timer could worry other passengers...
> To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
>
>
> Airport Screeners Got Job Test Answers
>
> Oct 8, 9:29 PM (ET)
>
> By LESLIE MILLER
>
> WASHINGTON (AP) - Airport screeners hired by the government to check 
> baggage for bombs were given most of the answers to the tests they took to 
> qualify for the job, according to an internal Homeland Security Department 
> investigation.
>
> In addition, job applicants were not required to show they could identify 
> dangerous objects inside luggage, a "critical defect" in the written 
> tests, according to acting department inspector general Clark Kent Ervin.
>
> "It is extremely disturbing that most of the questions were rehearsed 
> before the final examination, that a number of the questions were phrased 
> so as to provide an obvious clue to the correct answer, and other 
> questions appear to be simplistic," Ervin wrote in a letter to Sen. 
> Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.
>
> During classroom training, screeners were given the questions in open-book 
> quizzes and then the answers. The course ended with a closed-book 
> examination of 25 questions. Nineteen of the questions on the final test 
> were identical or virtually identical and three were similar to those on 
> the quizzes, Ervin said.
>
> One question asked "How do threats get aboard an aircraft?" The possible 
> answers were (a) In carry-on bags; (b) In checked-in bags; (c) In another 
> person's bag; and (d) All of the above. The correct answer is (d).
>
> Another question asked why it's important to screen bags for improvised 
> explosive devices (IEDs). A possible answer: "The ticking timer could 
> worry other passengers." The right answer: "IEDs can cause loss of lives, 
> property and aircraft."
>
> Schumer, who asked for the probe, said the point of federalizing airport 
> security was to improve safety by employing better-trained workers.
>
> "The ludicrousness of this test undercuts everything Congress was trying 
> to do in that regard," Schumer said.
>
> Ervin's letter to Schumer was dated Aug. 29 but was not released until 
> Wednesday. The senator's office said the letter was meant to be 
> distributed sooner, but got lost in the mail due to problems with the 
> Senate mail system that have been occurring since the anthrax scare about 
> two years ago.
>
> The Transportation Security Administration, created by Congress after the 
> Sept. 11 terror attacks and later incorporated into the Homeland Security 
> Department, was charged with a massive task: hiring tens of thousands of 
> government workers in less than a year to replace the poorly trained, 
> poorly paid, privately employed screeners who checked passengers before 
> they boarded airplanes.
>
> About 30,000 of the screeners have been cross-trained to inspect all 
> checked baggage for bombs using newly installed explosive detection 
> systems or wands that detect traces of explosive chemicals. The agency is 
> continuing to cross-train passenger screeners.
>
> TSA spokesman Brian Turmail said the agency has already reviewed and 
> improved its training and may make further improvements. But he also said 
> the inspector general did not look at the entire training program.
>
> He said the one test reviewed by Ervin is part of a broader training 
> program that includes 40 hours of classroom training, 60 hours of 
> on-the-job training and four tests. The tests no longer use the questions 
> cited by the inspector general.
>
> No one becomes a baggage screener unless he demonstrates he can find a 
> bomb in a suitcase using detection machines, Turmail said.
>
> Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., chairman of the House aviation subcommittee, plans 
> to hold a hearing Oct. 16 about the TSA's operations, including training 
> and testing of screeners.
>
> "Anytime you have a government undertake a program of this size and scope, 
> it's going to be fraught with problems," Mica said.
>
> A recently released report by the General Accounting Office, the 
> investigative arm of Congress, concluded the agency collects little 
> information on screener performance in detecting threat objects and is 
> falling short in making sure the screeners are effectively supervised.
>
>
> Regards,
>
> KGB
>
> -----
> Kevin G. Barkes
> Email: kgb () kgb com | Web: www.kgb.com
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