TSA Experiences

[Andrea]

TSA employee at DIA brought loaded gun to work

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/tsa-agent-at-dia-brought-loaded-gun-to-work

Denver7 has confirmed a TSA employee at Denver International Airport was detained after bringing a loaded handgun to work.

Denver police were called in to question the worker at approximately 5:45 a.m. Tuesday, said police spokesman Doug Schepman.

At this point, the employee has not been charged. A decision could came later this week, pending further investigation, Schepman said.

A TSA spokesperson sent Denver7 the following statement:

“While conducting security measures established to mitigate the potential insider threat at airports, TSA discovered a loaded handgun in the possession of an employee. TSA takes the potential for insider threats at airports very seriously. At this moment, there is no reasonable cause to believe that the employee who was found with a handgun in his backpack prior to his shift had any ill intentions. The case is currently with local law enforcement and the employee has been suspended until the investigation is completed.

TSA administers employee security checks at airports prior to accessing sterile areas. TSA will continue to closely partner with local law enforcement on this investigation and, where possible, will use the findings from the investigation to improve current processes.”

TSA said the worker was hired in 2002 and works in a support role, but officials would not release any more information about that support role.

Andrea: TSA workers are not required to go through screening (even metal detector) so it will be interesting to learn how this was discovered.

[Andrea]

Canadian YouTube star Jus Reign forced to remove turban to board flight

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/programs/metromorning/jus-reign-turban-1.3460092

Jasmeet Singh, better known as comedian and YouTube star Jus Reign, travels a lot for work. As a Sikh, he also wears a turban.

Normally those two details about Singh are not in conflict. But at the San Francisco airport on Monday, he was forced to remove his turban in order to board a flight back to Toronto, an ordeal he called "insensitive."

A similar issue sprang earlier this month when Sikh actor Waris Ahluwalia was also barred from a flight because he refused to take off his turban. Singh told Metro Morning this is a result of growing paranoia about travel, but also a general lack of education about what a turban is among security authorities.

It started when Singh was asked to go through an extra layer of security before boarding his flight on Feb. 22.

"I'm at the airport, and go through security and did one of those full body scans where you have to do a freeze jumping jack pose. So I went through that and did a pat-down and a metal detector was run over my turban, and everything cleared," he said.

"And then at one point, one of the security officials told me I had to go into a room to get extra search done," he said. "I said sure, we can do that. But I soon as I stepped into the private room, they told me to remove my turban."

The turban, or dastaar, is mandatory for all men in the Sikh religion. It is not appropriate to remove it in public.

So Singh respectfully declined to remove his turban, he said, and asked to speak to a manager. Some time later, when the manager arrived, he was given an option of rebooking a flight with another airline or removing the turban.

Wanting to get back to Toronto, he removed the turban.

It passed all other security inspections.

But when he asked for a mirror to put the turban back on, security directed him to a public washroom at the other side of the terminal, he said. That forced him to walk through the airport without the sacred religious headpiece.

"It's an embarrassing and really insensitive ordeal," he said, calling it like asking someone to remove their underwear in public.

"A turban is not a shoe, and it is not a hat," he said. It can take up to 10 minutes to put back on, and requires two hands a mirror to tie it into his hair.

As his alter ego Jus Reign, Singh has removed his turban in public before, when he filmed a YouTube instructional video on how to tie it. But it was still not a pleasant experience.

There are many Sikhs who would not have been able to walk in public without the spiritual cloth turban.

Singh said airport security asking Sikhs to remove their dastaar in public is becoming more frequent.

In fact, he said he has Sikh friends who remove their turbans when they fly in order to make it an easier process in security.

On Feb. 8, Waris Ahluwalia, a familiar face from Wes Anderson films and Deepa Mehta's Beeba Boys, was barred from boarding a flight home to New York after he refused to remove his turban in public.

Both Ahluwalia and Singh put details of their security check on social media, where they've received both support and criticism.

Singh said there is a lack of understanding about what the turban is, how it's taken on and off, and why some Sikhs refuse to be seen in public without it. He said his situation would've been avoided or at least alleviated had security at San Francisco's international airport know more about the Sikh garb.

He also blames a changing public sentiment.

"That same tension and that same paranoia that happened directly after 9/11 seems to be stemming up again," he said.

"I don't want to have to be given the option of not wearing a turban to feel more comfortable."

[Andrea]

The TSA Releases Data on Air Marshal Misconduct, 7 Years After We Asked

https://www.propublica.org/article/tsa-releases-data-on-air-marshal-misconduct-7-years-after-we-asked

Seven and a half years ago, as a new reporter here, I filed a Freedom of Information Act request for all reports of misconduct by federal air marshals.

It had been several years since the U.S. government rapidly expanded its force of undercover agents trained to intervene in hijackings after 9/11. And a source within the agency told me that a number of air marshals had recently been arrested or gotten in trouble for hiring prostitutes on missions overseas.

I knew the FOIA request would take a while — perhaps a few months — but I figured I’d have the records in time for my first ProPublica project.

Instead, I heard nothing but crickets from the Transportation Security Administration.

Finally, last Wednesday, an email popped into my inbox with the data I had been fighting for since my fourth day at ProPublica.

The saga to get the air marshal data reveals a lot about the problems with FOIA, which is supposed to guarantee the public’s access to government records, as well as what happens when an agency decides to drag out the process.

Even though the Federal Air Marshal Service insists it has taken steps to build an agency steeped in professionalism with no tolerance for misconduct, it continues to face the same issues it was battling when I filed my FOIA request in 2008.

While waiting for the data, I found dozens of air marshals who had been arrested for crimes ranging from aiding a human trafficking ring to attempted murder. One air marshal used his badge to smuggle drugs past airport security while another used his to lure a young boy to his hotel room, where he sexually abused him.

Air marshals had hired prostitutes in Barcelona and gotten into a fight with security guards after patronizing a brothel in Frankfurt.

Another marshal’s in-air behavior concerned flight attendants so much that they reported it to the agency, saying “I can’t believe he is able to carry a gun!” (That officer was later convicted of bank fraud for trying to cash a $10.9 million check that he said was a settlement after he was a scratched by a friend’s cat.)

As time passed, the problems continued.

Last year, several other news outlets published troubling reports about air marshals that sound remarkably similar. A few selections: Air marshals accused of hiring prostitutes in Europe and recording the sex on their phones. Air marshals describe a “party-hearty” atmosphere. Air marshal kicked off plane after throwing a fit when he was offered only one dinner choice instead of three.

Oddly, when the TSA finally responded to my seven-year-old request, it included its own analysis of the data along with an unsolicited statement.

“The vast majority of FAMs [federal air marshals] are dedicated law enforcement professionals who conduct themselves in an exemplary manner,” it said. “TSA and FAMS continually strive to maintain a culture of accountability within its workforce.”

The statement also said the agency saw a “significant reduction” in misconduct cases in 2015 as a result of its initiatives. But notably, the agency only provided data through February 2012, even though in my last email exchange with the office last month I requested the entire database.

This has become standard practice for many agencies. By delaying FOIA requests for years, the TSA gets to claim the data it releases is old news. (The agency made the same claim back in 2008, which — because of the data we received recently — we now know wasn’t true.)

So what did the data tell us about misconduct by air marshals?

For starters, air marshals were arrested 148 times from November 2002 through February 2012. There were another 58 instances of “criminal conduct.”

In addition, air marshals engaged in more than 5,000 less serious incidents of misconduct, ranging from 1,200 cases of lost equipment to missing 950 flights they were supposed to protect.

Is that a lot or a little? It’s hard to say because the number of air marshals is classified and the estimates of the size of the force don’t include turnover.

The TSA says the misconduct represents just a “handful of employees.” But concerned air marshals I spoke with said they should all show sound judgment, given that air marshals are allowed to carry guns on planes and must make split-second life-and-death decisions.

Some other highlights found in our analysis of the data:

250 air marshals have been terminated for misconduct; another 400 resigned or retired while facing investigation.
Air marshals have been suspended more than 900 times, resulting in more than 4,600 days lost to misconduct.
The Washington field office had the most incidents with 530 cases, followed by New York with 471, Chicago and Dallas with 373 each and Los Angeles with 363. There were 85 cases at air marshal headquarters, highlighting that in some cases, misconduct has extended to the top brass.

After our story ran in late 2008, Robert Bray, the director of the air marshal service at the time, vowed to create a “culture of accountability” within the agency and raised the penalty for drunk driving arrests to a 30-day suspension.

We now know the number of misconduct cases remained fairly steady, about 600 a year, in the years before and after our investigation.

It’s unclear if the agency got tougher or weaker. Before the story ran, only 4 percent of air marshals who had been arrested received a suspension of 14 days or longer. After the story ran, that number jumped to 20 percent. But at the same time, a much higher percentage of arrested air marshals got off with minor discipline such as a letter of reprimand, a warning or no action at all.

After the story, I continued to talk to air marshals and pursue the FOIA request. Inspired by the Obama administration’s memo on transparency, and armed with new information that there was a specific misconduct database, I filed a second FOIA request in 2010.

This was perhaps a mistake. Rather than respond to my first request, the TSA merged it with my new request.

In 2012, the agency responded. But the TSA only released two columns — one showing allegations against air marshals, the other listing disciplinary actions taken in response. Notably, there were no dates, which would have allowed us to check if the agency’s “culture of accountability” was working.
Jason Leopold, ‘FOIA terrorist,’ vs. the United States

VICE News reporter Jason Leopold spoke with ProPublica's Eric Umansky about tips for filing FOIA requests, his most surprising finds and more. Listen to the podcast.

I immediately appealed. In addition, I filed another FOIA request for the entire database — “all columns and rows.”

Two more years passed. Meanwhile, air marshal director Bray himself became embroiled in a misconduct investigation. A supervisor was accused of obtaining free and discounted guns from the air marshals’ weapons supplier and providing them to top officials, including Bray, for their personal use. In 2014, Bray retired.

Around that time, I partially won my appeal. But the data was still incomplete.

After nearly six years, I had pretty much given up.

Until late December. That’s when an email arrived from TSA telling me my request from 2012 had been sitting in a backlog and wanting to know if I was still interested.

Indeed I was. (The TSA had asked me this question a few times during my pursuit of these records.)

A month later, I had the information I had been seeking. It only took seven years, seven months and 29 days.

Andrea: Bolding mine

[Andrea]

Former LAX Baggage Handlers Accused Of Trafficking Cocaine

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2016/04/04/former-lax-baggage-handlers-accused-of-trafficking-cocaine/

Two former Los Angeles International Airport baggage handlers were arrested Monday on cocaine trafficking charges.

Adrian Ponce, 27, and Alberto Preciado Gutierrez, 26, both of South Gate were arrested by investigators looking into the usage of LAX employee credentials to breach airport security. Both men are charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and are expected to make their first court appearances in federal court Monday.

According to an affidavit written by a detective with Los Angeles Airport Police, Ponce and Preciado — who was working as a supervisory baggage handler for Swissport International at the time — facilitated third-party couriers who used commercial airlines to smuggle kilogram “samples” of cocaine from Los Angeles to drug customers on the East Coast.

During the investigation into former baggage handlers, detectives seized a kilogram of cocaine in Preciado’s possession on Dec. 16, 2015 just as he was delivering it to a courier who had a ticket for a JetBlue flight to New York, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The next day, Ponce admitted in a written statement that “on multiple occasions,” he and Preciado used Preciado’s supervisory status as an LAX employee to smuggle drugs to out-of-state drug customers by using third-party couriers, according to the affidavit.

In another statement, Ponce admitted to working with a large-scale drug supplier and supplying couriers who had already passed through normal airport security. According to the affidavit, Ponce said if East Coast customers liked the cocaine “sample,” then large shipments – more than 100 kilograms – would be delivered by driving the drugs across the country. Federal prosecutors say Ponce also admitted to driving such drug-laden trucks in exchange for payment.

“These defendants are charged with abusing their privileged access on behalf of drug dealers,” said United States Attorney Eileen M. Decker. “This case is yet another example of employees associated with airports assisting drug traffickers.”

[Andrea]

Wedgie, noogie, pushup: Life inside TSA’s intelligence office

https://www.revealnews.org/blog/wedgie-noogie-pushup-life-inside-tsas-intelligence-office/

An accusation of a wedgie. Forced motivational push-ups. Speculation about what a cohort looked like naked. Exile for reporting misconduct. Even a noogie for a job well done.

This is not 1950s fraternity-house hazing or high school locker-room Tom Foolery. These are accounts of life inside the intelligence office of the Transportation Security Administration.

Since the March 22 airport and subway bombings in Brussels that killed 32, the top U.S. transportation security official has scrambled to quell fears about the risk of similar attacks on domestic soil by highlighting the agency’s intelligence-driven approach to security.

Already facing multiple congressional inquiries into senior-level misconduct, internal complaints of retaliation and the ire of the aviation industry over hour-long security checkpoint delays, TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger earlier this month told reporters that the “vast national intelligence network” helped bolster transportation security. His comments came days after he testified to a Senate commerce committee that under his leadership TSA has enhanced how it shares threat information.

But the agency’s own Office of Intelligence and Analysis, plagued by near-constant turnover at its top levels and often in turmoil, has struggled to reach its potential, insiders say. The office’s track record includes leadership battles that have fostered a toxic culture, produced intelligence that frequently is of little value and mishandled classified information that jeopardized the agency’s direct access to useful intelligence, interviews with current and former intelligence officials, court records and other documents show.

One internal photograph, obtained by Reveal, even shows an employee held in a headlock, getting a noogie from a senior government executive at an awards ceremony.

The office has repeatedly mishandled sensitive information, including a leak related to the Boston Marathon bombing investigation. That has rankled intelligence agencies, which in turn temporarily restricted TSA’s access to classified records.

These issues and others are likely to arise during a House oversight committee hearing Wednesday as lawmakers continue to investigate management practices and misconduct at TSA amid concerns about security gaps in the nation’s transportation systems.

Mark Livingston is one of three current TSA managers the oversight committee has called to testify. He was the intelligence office’s deputy assistant administrator from July 2013 until October 2014, when he was reassigned after raising concerns about discrimination against women and inappropriate behavior. In an interview, Livingston described a culture of harassment and retaliation for reporting misconduct. TSA has major management challenges that result in the agency’s failure to perform effectively, which poses a risk to national security and economic stability, he said.

“The culture of any organization is shaped by the worst behavior of its senior leaders. I keep seeing these examples – there seems to be no bottom to this failed leadership abyss,” he said. “The environment at TSA among senior leaders is like ‘Lord of the Flies’ – either attack or be attacked. Even with changes in leadership I haven’t seen a change.”

Livingston said he refused to brush aside another top official’s inappropriate comment directed at his female assistant. He also reported a manager who hazed employees, including women wearing skirts, by making them do pushups in the office. He made those claims and others in a discrimination lawsuit filed recently in U.S. District Court.

“We ask the public if they see something to say something, but we can’t ask our employees,” Livingston said, referring to the Homeland Security Department’s campaign motto to report suspicious activity. “No one is safe at TSA who reports issues. I am concerned that employees fear their supervisors more than they fear a potential terrorist threat.”

Lax security protocols for handling classified or sensitive information shook the broader intelligence community’s confidence in the agency. Livingston said he reported some of these security blunders. While he did not face retaliation for calling attention to those incidents, others did not fare as well, he said.

“Intel is happening in spite of leadership, not because of it,” he said. “TSA needs intel professionals running the intelligence office, not program managers or specialists.”

TSA declined an interview request. In a written statement emailed to Reveal, an agency spokesman said the agency recently was given expanded access to a sensitive terrorist identity database and regularly meets with officials from intelligence agencies and the aviation industry.

“TSA currently has complete and immediate access to the intelligence it needs to effectively conduct its counterterrorism mission,” the spokesman wrote.

Debra D’Agostino, a Washington-based attorney who represents multiple TSA employees, said the TSA intelligence office’s type of mismanagement is “juvenile, frat-boy nonsense.”

“This is not what one would expect to hear of an office that has such an important role in our nation’s security,” D’Agostino said. “It’s been very disappointing to hear about what is going on in that office.”

D’Agostino has fought the agency over false allegations, hostile work environment and retaliation. One of her female clients who works in the intelligence office was accused of giving a male employee a wedgie, among other allegations of inappropriate conduct. The accused woman denied she had ever pulled or even attempted to pull his underwear up his buttocks. She did not even know what a wedgie was, and had to look up the definition of the word, D’Agostino said.

The agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility nonetheless investigated and proposed removing the woman from her job, which she challenged, D’Agostino said. The woman admitted that she had called an employee a vulgar word, albeit in jest, and later apologized. Instead of removing her, the agency gave her a letter of counseling.

Livingston, D’Agostino and others say the agency shuffles senior leaders who come under fire, rather than addressing the underlying problems. That creates even more issues, especially when top managers don’t have the relevant experience to lead. Intelligence officials say that continues to be the case in the office.

The harassment extends to gender discrimination and sexually offensive language, according to several current and former employees. Raechell Bailey, a former executive advisor to Livingston and others, said that several women tried to speak to TSA’s top leaders about specific issues, but were largely ignored.

In one instance, a male manager wondered aloud to a female employee what another co-worker looked like undressed. In another example, Bailey, who served in her role from 2013 to 2015, said a supervisor spread a false rumor while she was on maternity leave that her newborn daughter looked like her boss. She said she left TSA when she saw little support from top officials in addressing the harassment issues.

“There may be intel issues but more importantly to me there are people issues and they are not concerned about remedying it,” she said. “We’re saying women are being sexually harassed at all levels – directors to analysts – every day. Every other branch of government has a zero tolerance policy for sexual harassment. TSA does not enforce that policy.

“Behind the SCIF doors is a boys’ club, and they know it,” she added, referring to intelligence jargon for Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, a secure area where classified information is stored and handled. “It’s a stretch to call TSA ‘intelligence-driven’ based on how they manage people.”

For some career intelligence officials, several of whom came from the National Security Agency, the office became a government career graveyard if they fell out of favor with top leaders, current and former officials said.

When it came to mishandling sensitive information, instead of identifying the breakdown that caused the errors, senior leaders instead went looking for a scapegoat, several officials said.

Cindy Farkus, who ran the office after decades at the National Security Agency, refused to fire one official, Andrew Colsky, who was blamed — wrongly, she and others said — for one such mishap. Farkus was then reassigned to another unit of the Homeland Security Department, and eventually left government.

“I’ve seen weird things in the intelligence community over the years … but I’d never seen anything like that,” she said.

Although the TSA intelligence office had made progress, the intelligence community reportedly balked at TSA after that incident. Instead, the nation’s spymasters saw the TSA office as clowns with whom they didn’t want to share any information, said Michelle Farr, who quit as Farkus’ deputy after her reassignment. After leaving TSA Farr consulted for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. She now works in private industry.

But with the Brussels attacks, Neffenger, the TSA administrator, has a new opportunity to put the office back on the right track. Otherwise, the traveling public – and the director of national intelligence – should be concerned, she said.

“People die when we’re not all (working) together,” Farr said. “To be intel-driven, you have to have a good intel shop.”

[Andrea]

Minnesota T.S.A. Manager Says He Was Told to Target Somali-Americans

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/28/us/politics/minnesota-tsa-manager-says-he-was-told-to-target-somali-americans.html

A Transportation Security Administration manager here said he was instructed by his supervisor to provide the names of Somali-American leaders visiting the agency’s local office so they could be screened against national security databases for terrorist ties, a disclosure that quickly drew accusations of racial profiling.

In a midyear performance evaluation, David McMahon, the supervisor of Andrew Rhoades, an assistant federal security director, wrote that he had advised Mr. Rhoades to check potential visitors to the agency’s offices with the field intelligence officer to determine “if we want them in our office space or meet elsewhere.”

Mr. McMahon, a deputy federal security director, wrote that he “reminded employee that with our current world affairs that we need to be mindful of those we interact with.”

Mr. Rhoades, who works with Somalis in the Twin Cities area, said he considered the remarks racial profiling and reported the incident to the T.S.A.’s Office of the Chief Counsel and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. He has also contacted members of the Minnesota congressional delegation and the Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency that protects federal employees from reprisal.

“I have never been asked to give the names of anyone else who visited the office to the intelligence officer,” Mr. Rhoades said.

The Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties said Tuesday that it had opened an investigation into the allegations.

In a statement, the T.S.A., an agency in the Department of Homeland Security, said it did not tolerate racial profiling.

“We are reviewing this complaint and will take appropriate action if there is evidence that any T.S.A. officer acted inappropriately,” the agency said. “However, it would be unfair and irresponsible to infer or conclude that profiling is a common T.S.A. practice based upon a single interaction between one employee and his supervisor.”

The disclosure by Mr. Rhoades has prompted accusations of racial profiling from some members of the Somali community, who say they have a long history of mistreatment by T.S.A. at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. It also threatens to undermine efforts by the Obama administration to fight against the recruitment of Somali youth in the United States by the Islamic State and other extremists groups.

Dozens of young men have left Minnesota to join terrorist groups, according to law enforcement officials. Several men who were accused of trying to leave the country to join the Islamic State were indicted by a federal grand jury here in October.

Somali leaders acknowledge that the arrest of young men trying to join terrorist groups like the Islamic State is a cause for alarm, but they say that law enforcement agencies should not use that as an excuse to subject the entire community to additional scrutiny.

Minneapolis is one of several pilot cities for the Obama administration’s programs to counter violent extremism by providing money and training to help communities whose youth are targeted by terrorist groups.

Jeh Johnson, the secretary of Homeland Security, visited the city in 2014 and met with Somalis to discuss, among other things, the issue of racial profiling. Many shared stories of their experience while traveling through the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport.

T.S.A. officials here say they try to strike a balance between properly screening for security threats while at the same time avoiding the perception of racial profiling.

Officials said they have hosted Somali elders at the airport to explain how the agency carries out its mission and attended community meetings to resolve grievances. T.S.A. officials say they have also recruited Somalis as screeners and for other jobs. And the agency has assigned people like Mr. Rhoades to help address problems like people having trouble getting on a flight, or those who feel they have been singled out for extra screening.

Somali leaders give the agency credit for its outreach, but they say the instructions by a T.S.A. manager to pass on the names of those seeking redress at the agency’s offices to an intelligence officer is a setback.

“Why would you want to check the terror watch list for people who are coming to your office to seek help?” said Sheikh Sa’ad Musse Roble, president of the World Peace Organization in Minneapolis, who has spoken at the White House and serves on several local law enforcement task forces to counter violent extremism, including one led by the United States attorney for Minnesota, Andrew M. Luger. “You are assuming that they have done something wrong.”

Other leaders say the disclosure will only fuel the anger many Somalis feel toward law enforcement agencies. And, they say, it will create even more skepticism about the federal government’s multimillion-dollar community outreach programs to fight terrorist recruitment.

“It’s damaging,” said Jaylani Hussein, a Somali-American who is executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “They want Somali leaders to be a part of task forces and have conversations about countering extremism, but they treat everyone like a suspect.”

Minnesota’s growing Somali-American population has received increased attention from law enforcement and intelligence agencies in their counterpropaganda battles with the Islamic State, which has aggressively recruited young Somalis.

Representative Keith Ellison, Democrat of Minnesota, the first Muslim elected to Congress, said he found troubling the local T.S.A.’s suggestion to potentially screen people who visit its office seeking help. He has written a letter to Mr. Johnson calling for an investigation.

“The Somali-American community, and all Minnesotans, deserve to know if T.S.A. officials are engaging in racial, ethnic or religious profiling,” Mr. Ellison said.

The Minneapolis episode is not the first time the T.S.A. has been accused of racial profiling by employees. In 2012, more than 30 federal officers at Logan International Airport in Boston told officials that a behavioral detection program intended to spot potential terrorists by observing their mannerisms had relied on racial profiling, targeting not only people from the Middle East but also blacks, Hispanics and other members of minority groups.

The latest accusations come as the T.S.A. is under fire from Congress for retaliating against whistle-blowers at the agency who have spoken out about security lapses at a number of airports. Dozens of employees have been reassigned, demoted, investigated or fired for reporting lapses or misconduct by senior managers, charges that were later upheld by whistle-blower protection agencies, records show.

On Wednesday, the House Oversight Committee held a hearing to examine misconduct at the agency. The committee has spoken with several former and current T.S.A. staff members and has requested hundreds of documents. Mr. Rhoades was one of three T.S.A. officials who testified.

While most of the hearing covered security lapses, long airport lines, and alleged retaliations against whistle-blowers, several members of the committee, including Representative William Lacy Clay, Democrat of Missouri, raised the issue of racial profiling by T.S.A. personnel.

In Minnesota, Mr. Rhoades is being praised by some Somalis for making the exchange with his supervisor public.

“It is what many of us have long suspected,” said Omar Jamal, a community activist. “Now we have confirmation.”

[Andrea]

TSA at MSP Airport failed 9 of 12 tests by undercover Red Team

http://www.fox9.com/news/134259040-story

On Monday, a Homeland Security undercover unit called Red Team tested passenger screening at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. It did not go well.

Source tells Fox 9, TSA agents failed 9 out of 12 tests, passed two tests and one test was inconclusive. Sources say the inconclusive test involved the full body scanner, the one where passengers lift their arms, known as Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT). Those sources say the machine wasn’t calibrated properly and failed detect simulated explosive material that was strapped to an undercover agent’s leg.

A separate Red Team tested MSP cargo, and MSP passed both tests.

What the Red Team found at MSP wasn’t unusual. In June 2015, a classified Inspector General’s report revealed that undercover testers at some of the nation’s busiest airports were able to get weapons past TSA agents in 67 out of 70 tests – a 95 percent failure rate.

The Red Team test at MSP is believed to be the first since passenger screening was reconfigured with consolidated screening at the north and south end of the ticketing concourse. The redesign led to 90-minute wait times during the spring break travel season and calls by Minnesota Congressional leaders to improve wait times.