The Department of Homeland Security has just made a shocking admission – it has only been performing daily security checks on employees at three airports nationwide. And critics say this means it would be very easy for terrorists (or just crazed, long-wolf attackers) to infiltrate the system.
Judicial Watch is reporting that DHS officials at a Senate Commerce Meeting earlier this week testified that only three airports — Atlanta, Miami and Orlando — require their employees to go through security checks before work.
This is increasingly alarming due to the fact that employees are also not properly vetted. The Horn News previously reported that 73 private employees at nearly 40 airports nationwide were flagged for potential ties to terrorism.
The Senate Commerce meeting was scheduled due to increased security concerns following the Belgium terrorist attacks. Robert Neffenger, head of the Transportation Security Administration, acknowledged that improvements must be made to the nation’s airports, but provided no explanation as to why employees are not properly screened.
A 2015 report by the Aviation Security Advisory Committee revealed the alarming fact that airports allegedly can’t afford daily employee screening.
The report also attempts to argue that daily screening of employees “is incapable of determining a person’s motivations, attitudes and capabilities to cause harm, among other limitations.”
This absurd argument undermines the importance of airport security all together and isn’t the only criticism airports have come under for their poor security.
Lawmakers on Tuesday say they will push proposals to boost security at airports, as well as train stations and other transportation hubs in response to attacks by the Islamic State in Brussels and elsewhere.
The initiatives outlined would double from 30 to 60 the number of government “viper teams” that stop and search suspicious passengers in public areas before screening, often using bomb-sniffing dogs. They also want more federal grants to train law enforcement officers in how to prepare for and respond to shootings at vulnerable targets such as transportation hubs and other “soft targets.”
“What happened in Europe must serve as a wakeup call for the United States,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York.
Lawmakers plan to add the ideas to an aviation policy bill under consideration in the Senate, along with a bipartisan measure to tighten the screening of workers who have access to airport restricted areas.
The screening bill, passed by the Senate commerce committee in December, would give the TSA ready access to additional terrorism-related databases maintained by the intelligence community when vetting airport workers. It also would let TSA conduct real-time, continuous criminal records checks through the FBI and expand the list of criminal convictions that would make a potential airport worker ineligible for security clearance.
Another bill passed by the House and the commerce committee last year with bipartisan support seeks to expand the number of passengers enrolled in TSA’s expedited clearance programs by giving the agency the ability to vet more people. It also is expected to be offered for inclusion in the aviation bill.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson endorsed the proposals. He said the U.S. has no intelligence to indicate violent extremists are plotting a Brussels-style attack in the U.S., but it is important to remain vigilant against “self-radicalized lone actors” at public places and events.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
It’s not asking too much to subject the TSA agents to the same type of security screening that the public must face.
yes
It’s not a stretch to say that employees have a “super-express” check, either. Even folks who fly “frequently” don’t spend as much time in airports as employees do. Plenty of time to note what constitutes “normal” for an employee and when they might be hiding something, unlike passengers, who are almost always strangers to the folks manning the checkpoints. I don’t see that there’d be a whole lot of difference in catching malcontents between daily screenings and random, unannounced screenings, except in cost to the TSA, and therefore, the taxpayers.
All employees should be screened. No exceptions!
Well said Deidre! I wholeheartedly agree.
OH Not to Worry… Jeh Johnson is ON TOP OF THINGS at DHS!!!…….after all he is an Administration typical JOHNSON”
Screen all employees daily! What a no-brainer. Becoming an employee would be the absolute easiest way to perpetrate
an act of terrorism. TSA is always a day late and a dollar short, as are all government agencies. Always solving the last problem and fighting the last war.
Daily screenings are costly and give the bad guys multiple opportunities to observe the system in action and figure out how to circumvent it. Random, non-daily screenings with rotating focus use less manpower (therefore, less money) and don’t give the bad guys a chance to predict and develop countermeasures for them.
TSA although since 911 are federal employees, but the same flunkies airlines hired. They are lax in security and I have proved it time after time inadvertently.
When carrying guns, I always check them in my luggage.
However my computer bag with many secret pockets. If not carrying that, it was a duffle bag.
They were always checked for guns and never had them at the airport.
The duffle bag had been through 19 airports, yet on my way from Laguaria, tea comes up to me and said we have a problem” He had found a box of bullets I knew nothing about. So 19 other airports ever caught this. Well, a big deal was made. I told him if I knew they were there, I would have thrown them out. The NYPD got there and made a big deal threatening to lock me.up. I have them my concealed carry and was told it meant nothing there. It means I wasn’t criminal! I supplied my PI license. Again no good there. They decided to let me on the plane, but yet watched me for NY to Chicago.
All for a box of bullets! What was I going to do? Throw them at people?
Happened again in Miwaukee. I had two loaded magazines on my computer bag. Simple mistake, but with all the sirens and cops, I thought I would l d have won something!
Cop walked me over to my checked baggage. I opened it up and got to my gun case. I opened the gun case, showing cop it was unloaded. I put the magazines in the gun case.
I was written up and investigated by the feds over a 2 month timeframe. Yet, inadvertently, I have traveled with 9″ picks and nothing was ever said.
TSA is as worthless as it always has been !
You sir don’t seem to comprehend the issue. You obviously can’t figure out that using your bullets in another person’s firearm could happen. Those with your viewpoint would have us looking for already built ied’ s while each person carries a component through. This whole story is about screening airport employees, not your attempts to foil security. Airport employees enter through so many multiple places. Are you planning to monitor every doorway, gateway, and every inch of perimeter fences? As for flunkies, you currently have the highest trained and underpaid staff possible. People apparently don’t recall how un-customer friendly privatized pre-911 security was. STOP blaming people you call “flunkies” and look at the executives and administrators that set the policy. Do you get tested monthly resulting in dismissal if you don’t perform 100% of the time?
The whole point of the TSA…..doesn’t have a thing to do with our, or anyone else’s safety….the point is to get the American public ready for a dictatorial society….by you giving up your rights , as a free individual, to ..the omnipotent government. A government that will soon be grouping you in the train stations, bus stations, supermarkets, and yes even on street corners, all for your safety of course….yeeesss soon, very soon you won’t have the right to even protect your very life!
give it a break! you sound as freaked out and paranoid as the left wingers! Sure we’ve got problems, but linking TSA to the NEW WORLD ORDER is a bit of a streeeeeeeeetch!
Whether you believe it to be an objective of a background organization (like the Illuminati) or a force of nature (like gravity) doesn’t really change the fact that stuff like this is having the end result of a population for whom the Constitutional intention of our forefathers is not only alien, but quickly becoming incomprehensible.
CLOSE THE BORDERS! NO MORE OPEN DOORS FOR ISLAM, MUSLIMS! AND, I’M SURE THE FEW GOOD MUSLIMS ALREADY HERE WOULDN’T MIND THIS POLICY, SINCE IT WOULD PROTECT THEM FROM GETTING CAUGHT IN “FRIENDLY BOMBING”! GOOD AMERICANS DON’T MIND BEING SEARCHED IN THE INTEREST OF SAFETY…….FORGET THE B.S. POLITICAL CORRECTNESS CRAP!
Automate: program computers with sensors to sense explosive materials, guns, ammo etc.
& reduce TSA staff by 100 per airport.
& place said ASS: Automated Screening Stations at Airports, Bus ports, Cruise Line ports, nationwide.
Hire new employees then.
Change TSA regs for hiring.
My son in law works at an airport and when he reported things that were wrong. like going through check bags and taking jewelry and money out of them and putting a smoke bomb in the baggage are of a plane he was fired as he knew it was happening and did nothing to stop it. He told his supervisor I saw what was happening and came to you. He was thrown out of the airport and he lost his job