Airline screeners fail government bomb tests

["Gary Funck" <gary () intrepid com>]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11863165/

Airline screeners fail government bomb tests
21 airports nationwide don’t detect bomb-making materials

By Lisa Myers, Rich Gardella & the NBC Investigative Unit
NBC News
Updated: 8:00 p.m. ET March 16, 2006


WASHINGTON - Imagine an explosion strong enough to blow a car's trunk apart,
caused by a bomb inside a passenger plane. Government sources tell NBC News
that federal investigators recently were able to carry materials needed to
make a similar homemade bomb through security screening at 21 airports.

In all 21 airports tested, no machine, no swab, no screener anywhere stopped
the bomb materials from getting through. Even when investigators
deliberately triggered extra screening of bags, no one discovered the
materials.

NBC News briefed former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean, chairman of the 9/11
commission, on the results.

"I'm appalled," he said. "I'm dismayed and, yes, to a degree, it does
surprise me. Because I thought the Department of Homeland Security was
making some progress on this, and evidently they're not."

Investigators for the Government Accountability Office conducted the tests
between October and January, at the request of Congress. The goal was to
determine how vulnerable U.S. airlines are to a suicide bomber using cheap,
readily available materials.

Investigators found recipes for homemade bombs from easily available public
sources and bought the necessary chemicals and other materials over the
counter. For security reasons, NBC News will not reveal any of the
ingredients or the airports tested. The report itself is classified. But Lee
Hamilton, the vice chairman of the 9/11 commission, says the fact that so
many airports failed this test is a hugely important story that the American
traveler is entitled to know.
[...]


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