WASHINGTON, D.C. – The same day Edmund “Kip” Hawley, the head of the Transportation Security Administration, declared TSA airport security “the best in the world,” a new Government Accountability Office report found that investigators were able to smuggle liquid explosives and detonators past airport security on more than a dozen occasions. Representative Edward J. Markey (D-MA), a senior member of the House Homeland Security Committee and the chief advocate of improved screening for explosives in air cargo transported on passenger planes, called for answers from Homeland Security officials.
“This report is a scathing indictment of the TSA’s passenger screening program. Coming just months after a report detailing major problems with the TSA’s screening for cargo containers carried on passenger planes, this new report adds to the clarion call for action. Homeland Security officials need to come up with much better answers about what’s going on here and how they’re going to fix an obviously broken system,” said Rep. Markey.
Rep. Markey is the primary author of a provision in Public Law 110-53, the law to implement the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, which requires – within three years – the screening of all cargo carried on passenger planes at a level of security commensurate to the security applied to airline passengers’ checked bags.
“When the TSA screening system for passengers has so many weaknesses, I am extremely concerned that some of the same weaknesses will undermine the new air cargo screening system’s effectiveness. TSA says it will conduct more internal testing, but the integrity of these tests was recently called into question when TSA tipped off airports that testers were on the way. These screeners have a tough job, but it seems like TSA is not providing the training to do the job.”
| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 15, 2007 |
CONTACT: Jessica Schafer, 202.225.2836 |
