The acting director of the Transportation Security Administration
has been reassigned after an internal investigation revealed security
failures at dozens of the nation’s busiest airports, where undercover
investigators were able to smuggle mock explosives or banned weapons
through checkpoints in 95 percent of trials.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson
said in a statement Monday that Melvin Carraway would be moved to the
Office of State and Local Law Enforcement at DHS headquarters “effective
immediately.”
Officials close to the secretary said the decision was made based on the
findings in the Homeland Security Inspector General’s report, in which a
series of tests were conducted by the department's Red Teams who pose
as passengers. It found that TSA agents failed 67 out of 70 tests, with
Red Team members repeatedly able to get potential weapons through
checkpoints, according to officials briefed on the report.
In one case, agents failed to detect a fake explosive taped to an
agent’s back, even after performing a pat down that was prompted after
the agent set off the magnetometer alarm, according to officials briefed
on the report.
Johnson on Monday also released a six-point memo outlining actions he’s
taken in wake of the security failures, including directing TSA
leadership "to immediately revise its standard operating procedures for
screening to address the specific vulnerabilities identified by the
Inspector General’s testing."