[Wish I could remember or find the movie dialogue.]
Posted on 12/15/2004 4:22:33 PM PST by Sarajevo
Baggage screeners at Newark Liberty International Airport spotted and then lost a fake bomb planted in luggage by a supervisor during a training exercise.
Despite an hours-long search Tuesday night, the bag, containing a fake bomb complete with wires, a detonator and a clock, made it onto an Amsterdam-bound flight. It was recovered by airport security officials in Amsterdam when the flight landed several hours later.
"This really underscores the importance of the TSA's ongoing training exercises," said Ann Davis, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration, the agency responsible for screening passengers and baggage for weapons and explosives. "At no time did the bag pose a threat and at no time was anyone in danger."
Earlier this month, French authorities lost a bag containing real explosives that were being used to train bomb-sniffing dogs. The incident at Newark Liberty International was only the latest embarrassment for screeners at one of the airports from which some of the September 11, 2001 hijackers took off.
In October, The Star-Ledger of Newark reported that screeners missed one in four fake explosives and weapons in secret weekly tests conducted throughout the summer by TSA agents. In Tuesday night's test, a TSA supervisor secretly placed the bomb, which was designed to resemble the plastic explosive Semtex, inside a bag that was put through screening machines, Davis said. A baggage screening machine sounded an alarm, but workers somehow lost track of the bag, which was then loaded onto a Continental Airlines flight.
Despite the incident, no flights were delayed and the terminal remained open. Davis said the TSA is still investigating how screeners lost track of the bag. "It was an error that the bag was not intercepted before it was loaded," she said, adding it was too soon to say if anyone would be disciplined for the failure.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
The very agency which is known for harrassing the traveling public, frisking grandmothers, young children, and bemedaled war heros, the same agency which was found to be in collusion with baggage handlers who would steal articles from a passengers' luggage, is now found to be on the same level as the French, who managed to lose a similar type of "training aid".
How long will it be until an innocent is accused of terrorism because of an incompetent/overzealous TSA employee packs a "training aid" into their luggage and loses track of said "training aid"? How long will it be until the TSA is infiltrated by those very people whom we call our enemy who are more than willing to take advantage of such a weak point?
The TSA is operating under the guise of national security, but this is a national security which we can ill afford. The competence level of the TSA is hardly above what it was when the original hijackers passed through the screening process enroute to their destinies.
OH? How So?
Was anyone Fired? No? Didn't think so.
We also have only their word that it was detected and THEN lost. Seems much more likely it was detected THAT it was lost and we come off looking as dumb as the French.
Maybe there should be a TSA training film with Three Stooges. It could even be a documentary.
Somebody set us up da bomb.
(Sorry, always wanted to do that)
Were these the same screeners the Democrats insisted we make Federal employees (and thus render them un-dismissable union workers)?
But...it wasn't a bomb. Chill.
Reason # 12 why I don't fly anymore.
The Frenchification of America begins!
"This really underscores the importance of the TSA's ongoing training exercises," said Ann Davis, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security AdministrationWhew! For a minute there I thought it underscored the failure of "TSA's ongoing training exercises".
Thanks, Ann, for setting me straight. I feel a lot safer now.
Good luck with that.
I have yet to find in life any organization staffed by human beings that is 100 percent perfect 24/7.
Maybe you can enlighten me as to where these perfect people work, thanks.
Negative on the BCS, Walkin Man. We're advocating increased competance vs. stupidity. I don't want some fascist placing a "training" device into my luggage or on any aircraft I may be flying on.
No organization staffed by humans is or will be 100% perfect. The problem lies in the fact that some organizations go out of their way to prove exactly how obnoxious they can be.
I wish people would stop dumping on the poor unionized TSA workers.
Thanks to their courage and vigilance, no plump Latvian grandmothers using walkers have smuggled explosive devices hidden in their bras unto airplanes.
Jolly Good job chaps!
"At no time did the bag pose a threat and at no time was anyone in danger."
Thank God that nobody got stuck on the "bomb" wires sticking out of the bag. Dropping the bag on somebodys foot also would have been less than helpful.
bump
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