So, big jakey, you spend your day going around stalking AS.
So can we assume you're okay that after 5 years, American airports are still not safe from a terrorist getting on board with explosives; how about the raising of the debt ceiling to nearly $9 trillion, or that the Gulf mess has been mishandled so badly. How about the Iraq war.....does the killing and maiming thousands of Americans and the spending of billions cause you any concern???
What do you all care about? Its a mystery.
Airline screeners fail government bomb tests
21 airports nationwide don’t detect bomb-making materials
•By Lisa Myers, Rich Gardella & the NBC Investigative Unit
NBC News
Updated: 8:00 p.m. ET March 16, 2006
WASHINGTON - Imagine an explosion strong enough to blow a car's trunk apart, caused by a bomb inside a passenger plane. Government sources tell NBC News that federal investigators recently were able to carry materials needed to make a similar homemade bomb through security screening at 21 airports.
In all 21 airports tested, no machine, no swab, no screener anywhere stopped the bomb materials from getting through. Even when investigators deliberately triggered extra screening of bags, no one discovered the materials.
NBC News briefed former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean, chairman of the 9/11 commission, on the results.
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"I'm appalled," he said. "I'm dismayed and, yes, to a degree, it does surprise me. Because I thought the Department of Homeland Security was making some progress on this, and evidently they're not."
Investigators for the Government Accountability Office conducted the tests between October and January, at the request of Congress. The goal was to determine how vulnerable U.S. airlines are to a suicide bomber using cheap, readily available materials.
Investigators found recipes for homemade bombs from easily available public sources and bought the necessary chemicals and other materials over the counter. For security reasons, NBC News will not reveal any of the ingredients or the airports tested. The report itself is classified. But Lee Hamilton, the vice chairman of the 9/11 commission, says the fact that so many airports failed this test is a hugely important story that the American traveler is entitled to know.
NBC News asked a bomb technician to gather the same materials and assemble an explosive device to determine its power. The materials for the bomb that exploded a car's trunk fit in the palm of one hand. NBC News showed the results to Leo West, a former FBI bomb expert.
"Potentially, an explosion of that type could lead to the destruction of the aircraft," said West.
msnbc.msn.com |
