TSA Asking Civilian Travelers to Sneak “Fake” Bombs Through Airport Security Checkpoints

October 21st, 2007

Do you get it yet?

Via: USA Today:

When covert agents test how well airport security screeners find homemade bombs, they pack a detonator, timer and battery inside a cluttered toilet kit, stuff it into a suitcase and carry it through a checkpoint.

Agents also hide fake sheet explosives in briefcase linings. They stash watch timers inside hollowed-out books. They cram detonators in back braces and smear plastic explosives on shoelaces.

The Transportation Security Administration’s special operations division devised the testing to raise the stakes for airport screeners and test whether they can spot bomb parts hidden as a terrorist might try to get them on an airplane, according to a classified TSA report obtained by USA TODAY.

At San Diego International Airport, tests are run by passengers whom local TSA managers ask to carry a fake bomb, said screener Cris Soulia, an official in a screeners union. “It’s nobody we would ever expect,” Soulia said.

Related: Terror Exercise Held on the Same Morning as the London 7/7 Bomb Attack

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