TSA Experiences

[*Anya*]

$1 Billion TSA Behavioral Screening Program Slammed as Ineffective “Junk Science”


The Transportation Security Administration(TSA) has been accused of spending a billion dollars on a passenger-screening program that’s based on junk science.

The claim arose in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which has tried unsuccessfully to get the TSA to release documents on its SPOT (Screening Passengers by Observation Techniques) program through the Freedom of Information Act.

SPOT, whose techniques were first used in 2003 and formalized in 2007, uses “highly questionable” screening techniques, according to the ACLU complaint, while being “discriminatory, ineffective, pseudo-scientific, and wasteful of taxpayer money.” TSA has spent at least $1 billion on SPOT.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported in 2010 that “TSA deployed SPOT nationwide before first determining whether there was a scientifically valid basis for using behavior detection and appearance indicators as a means for reliably identifying passengers as potential threats in airports,” according to the ACLU. And in 2013, GAO recommended that the agency spend less money on the program, which uses 3,000 “behavior detection officers” whose jobs is to identify terrorists before they board jetliners.

The ACLU contends SPOT uses racial profiling, even though TSA has a zero-tolerance policy for such singling out of people based on their ethnicity. The lawsuit says “passengers, as well as behavior detection officers themselves, have complained that this process results in subjecting people of Middle Eastern descent or appearance, African Americans, Hispanics, and other minorities to additional questioning and screening solely on the basis of their race.”

Furthermore, “there is no known instance in which these techniques were responsible for apprehending someone who posed a security threat” after years of using SPOT.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

http://www.allgov.com/news/where-is-...23?news=856031



To Learn More:

TSA Asked to Divulge Screening Techniques (by Adam Klasfeld, Courthouse News Service)

ACLU Sues TSA over Behavior Screening Program (by Bart Jansen, USA Today)

American Civil Liberties Union v. Transportation Security Administration (U.S. District Court, Southern New York) (pdf)

Request Under Freedom of Information Act/Expedited Processing Requested(American Civil Liberties Union) (pdf)

TSA Behavior Detection Technique Deemed Not Much Better than “Chance” (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)

[Andrea]

“there is no known instance in which these techniques were responsible for apprehending someone who posed a security threat” after years of using SPOT.

Not to be confused with there is no known instance where anything TSA has done has resulted in deterring a terrorist incident.

[Andrea]

Hundreds More Airport SIDA Badges Missing

New information to an ongoing NBC 5 investigation found hundreds of airport security badges, known as Secure Identification Display Area (SIDA) badges, are unaccounted for across the country.

Working in partnership with the NBC station in San Diego, NBC 5 Investigates found more than 270 SIDA badges missing at the San Diego International Airport in the last two years.

http://www.nbcdfw.com/investigations/Hundreds-More-TSA-SIDA-Badges-Missing-304485391.html

[*Anya*]

Investigators able to smuggle weapons past airport checks in 95 percent of tests

JUSTIN FISHEL, PIERRE THOMAS, MIKE LEVINE and JACK DATE via GOOD MORNING AMERICA

8:54 AM, Jun 1, 2015
27 mins ago

An investigation of the Transportation Security Administration revealed security failures at dozens of the nation’s busiest airports, where undercover investigators were able to smuggle mock explosives or banned weapons through checkpoints in 95 percent of trials, ABC News learned exclusively.

The series of tests were conducted by Homeland Security Red Teams who pose as passengers, setting out to beat the system.

According to officials briefed on the results of a recent Homeland Security Inspector General’s report, TSA agents failed 67 out of 70 tests, with Red Team members repeatedly able to get potential weapons through checkpoints.

In one test an undercover agent was stopped after setting off an alarm at a magnetometer, but TSA screeners failed to detect a fake explosive device that was taped to his back during a follow-on pat down.

Officials would not divulge the exact time period of the testing other than to say it concluded recently.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson was apparently so frustrated by the findings he sought a detailed briefing on them last week at TSA headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, according to sources. U.S. officials insisted changes have already been made at airports to address vulnerabilities identified by the latest tests.

“Upon learning the initial findings of the Office of Inspector General's report, Secretary Johnson immediately directed TSA to implement a series of actions, several of which are now in place, to address the issues raised in the report,” the DHS said in a written statement to ABC News.


http://www.newsnet5.com/news/nationa...rcent-of-tests

[*Anya*]

(Washington Post) – The inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday that he is investigating the leak of classified information from an undercover operation in which investigators were able to slip through airport security with weapons and phony bombs more than 95 percent of the time.

“We have started an investigation to determine where the leak was,” Inspector General John Roth told the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

The information received widespread attention in the news media and on Capitol Hill. Roth told the panel that he had briefed top officials about his findings without the information leaking to the public.

“I was as disturbed as anyone that this information got into the media,” he said.

He declined to discuss in Tuesday’s public hearing any aspect of the investigation, in which auditors from his department were able to carry weapons or bomb-like material through air­port-security checkpoints in 67 of 70 attempts this year.

Acting TSA Administrator Melvin Carraway was forced from the job last week after reports of the airport-security issues became public. U.S. Coast Guard Vice Adm. Peter Neffenger is awaiting Senate confirmation to become TSA administrator.

Asked whether security at any one airport proved to be more lax than at others, Roth said, “The results were consistent across airports.”

Former TSA head John S. Pistole said last week that some people assigned to test airport security might have had the upper hand because they were intimately familiar with checkpoint operations. He also said that unlike terrorists, intelligence-gathering networks don’t alert the TSA of their planned operations.

“The testers don’t have any special background or training in this area,” Roth said when asked whether his undercover operatives were particularly knowledgeable about overcoming security operations.

The hearing came five days after the release of an inspector general report that said the TSA did not identify 73 aviation industry workers whose links to terrorism should have raised suspicion. Those workers, who had badges that gave them access to secure airport areas, were not identified in the report, and the reasons they should have been flagged were not specified.

The report said, however, that the TSA was “generally effective in identifying credential holders with links to terrorism.” It said the agency had revoked 58 airport badges since 2003 because of security concerns.

“We remain deeply concerned about [the TSA’s] ability to conduct its core mission,” Roth said.

The hearing also focused on the TSA’s Pre-Check program, one of several initiatives that speed 40 to 50 percent of passengers through airport security without the thorough scrutiny that once was common for everyone.

Fliers become eligible for Pre-Check by providing the TSA with personal information and paying a fee. Under Pistole’s direction, other passengers selected at random were allowed to use the faster Pre-Check lines.

“TSA is handing out Pre-Check [privileges] like Halloween candy in an effort to expedite passengers as quickly as possible,” testified Rebecca Roering, a TSA administrator at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and a whistleblower who has revealed details of TSA operations.

She said the TSA was “well aware of the risk” in allowing passengers who have not gone through pre-screening to use the program.

Roering added, however, that the risk-based approach to security implemented by Pistole was appropriate.

“We need to focus on the passengers that really pose a risk,” she said.

Another whistleblower witness, Federal Air Marshal Robert J. MacLean, agreed.

“If Pre-Check is done right, it reduces the time screeners have to spend on non-risk passengers,” he said.

Although the TSA was not invited to participate in Tuesday’s hearing, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) spoke up on the agency’s behalf.

“As we all sit and pound the desk and say how bad the TSA is, we have to remember that we keep cutting their money,” McCaskill said.

View the original content and more from this author here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/...032_story.html

[Andrea]

http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2015/07/tsa-is-investigating-how-a-man-boarded-a-plane-at-dfw-airport-sunday-without-a-ticket.html/


"The Transportation Security Administration is trying to find out how a man was able to leave his car outside a Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport terminal, pass through a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint and board a flight without a ticket Sunday night."

[Andrea]

Poll: 87 percent of frequent flyers unhappy with TSA

http://thehill.com/policy/transportation/256026-poll-87-percent-of-frequent-flyers-unhappy-with-tsa

"Our survey respondents traverse security checkpoints multiple times each month and are in an excellent position to render a verdict on this subject," he continued.

Forty-five percent of the poll's respondents said they were dissatisfied with their airport security experience. Seventy-six percent said they had used TSA's PreCheck trusted traveler program, where passengers volunteer information about themselves and pay an $85 fee in exchange for five years of expedited airport screening.

Only 62 percent of the poll's respondents were satisfactied with the PreCheck program, down from 80.3 percent in 2013.