SUMMARY: In our 'NewsHour Shares' moment of the day: A surprisingly popular Instagram account. The Transportation Security Agency is not typically considered a source of entertainment. But TSA's social-media feed of photographs is attracting a huge following of people entranced by the mix of confiscated contraband and explosive-detecting dogs.
SUMMARY: The U.S. Senate took a hard look at airport security after a damning report found that fake explosives, weapons and other banned items went unnoticed in 67 of 70 tests, while another report found that the TSA failed to identify 73 employees with unspecified links to terrorism. Judy Woodruff discusses the lapses with Jack Riley of RAND National Security Research Division.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): The U.S. Senate took a hard look at airport safety today and two new accounts questioning the effectiveness of the Transportation Security Administration.
MAN: This Senate hearing will come to order.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The Senate hearing came a week after the leak of a damning report on the TSA’s failures. The federal Department of Homeland Security, TSA’s parent agency, found fake explosives, weapons and other banned items went unnoticed in 67 of 70 tests.
Today, Nebraska Republican Senator Ben Sasse questioned John Roth, the inspector general who wrote the report.
SEN. BEN SASSE, R-Neb.: Do you think it’s possible that TSA really could really have not understood how grave their problem was before last week’s leaked report?
JOHN ROTH, Inspector General, Department of Homeland Security: You know, it’s something that we think about all the time. I mean, do they truly understand the nature of the risk that they face? Candidly, I worry about that.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Others said they’re worried that a push for reduced airport wait times has actually harmed security.
Rebecca Roering is assistant TSA director at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport.
REBECCA ROERING, Assistant Federal Security Director, Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport:TSA is handing out pre-check status like Halloween candy in an effort to expedite passengers as quickly as possible, despite self-admitted security gaps that are being created by the process.
HARI SREENIVASAN (Newshour): And now back to that attack at LAX yesterday. For more about its possible repercussions, we’re joined from Washington by Rafi Ron, he’s a security expert and the former director of security at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv.
So Mr. Ron, I think the first thing most people are asking this morning is, “What did we miss? How could we have stopped this?”
RAFI RON: Well, I think that, uh, for the last 12 years, uh, we have focused tremendously on the security of the aircraft, or the flight. And we paid relatively little attention to the security of the airport facility. Um, we, uh, obviously, uh, seem to have forgotten about some of the experience that the European airports have suffered way back at the peak of attacks against aviation in Europe – way back in the 70s and 80s – where most of the major airports in Europe, including Paris, Munich, Zurich, and others were attacked on the ground, leaving many casualties behind.
HARI SREENIVASAN: But one of the things people are considering is arming the TSA. Good idea? Bad idea?
RAFI RON: No, I think it’s a bad idea actually because we need to keep in mind – we’re looking at about over 50,000 screeners that were not selected on the basis of their ability to carry a weapon.
I am Retired U.S. Navy (22yrs) and a Vietnam Veteran. After my Navy retirement I was in the computer related industry, now retired. In 2000 I was a registered Republican and voted for George W. Bush. Six months of having Bush in the Whitehouse forced me to re-evaluate my political stance. I had always thought of myself as a Moderate Republican, but was a Republican by "default" NOT because of close examination of the GOP. Due to what has happened in America since 2000, I now consider myself a progressive, and registered as a Non-Affiliated voter.
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