Congressional report slams security gaps at US airports

A new Congressional report has said that the systems in place to vet the nearly one million people who work within US airports are insufficient.

The House Homeland Security subcommittee report found inconsistent screening of airport employees, insufficient access of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to intelligence information used to vet individuals and inadequate control of access to sensitive areas of airports, CNN reported on Tuesday.

"The disturbing reality is that it takes just one individual with the right access to cause catastrophic harm," the report warned, though it also noted progress on many fronts following years of devastating reports.

 

The report cited a slew of headlines from media reports on times people with security clearances smuggled guns or drugs in airports or were associated with militant groups like Islamic State (IS).

In addition to summarising its own investigation, the report referred to many previous government and media reports about startling shortcomings in airport security.

Among them was the mention of a leaked government watchdog report showing a 95 per cent failure rate from covert tests of the TSA screening process. Almost all banned items made it through airport security in that report from 2015.

The subcommittee cited this glaring failure in the main public function of the TSA as one of several reasons for more covert tests.

The subcommittee recommended tightening the process for granting airport workers credentials and instituting regular reassessments, as well as airports and air carriers look at the "costs and feasibility of expanding the physical screening of employees".

The report also repeatedly called for increased cooperation from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) with the Department of Homeland Security leading the way as different government organisations monitor the nation's airports.

The authors of the report said they were "concerned" about the FBI's slowness to involve other agencies and said it had not been "forthcoming" to the Homeland Security Committee.

The subcommittee called for airports to implement the FBI's RAPBack programme, a background check database that constantly monitors and updates employers on the criminal backgrounds of employees.

The report cited specific progress in the vast increase in "physical employee screenings" for the TSA and said, "88 per cent of domestic airports have reduced their total number of access points."

--IANS

sm/vm