You a TSA employee, or just happy to see me?

US Government Accountability Office investigators who conistently fooled the TSA are recommding more pat-downs and physical seraches of air traveleers:

WASHINGTON — Federal investigators testifying before Congress on Thursday said that more physical searches of passengers would be needed to reduce the chances that a terrorist can sneak a bomb onto an airplane. But air safety officials resisted the suggestion, saying American passengers dislike intrusive pat-downs.

The investigators smuggled the components of potentially devastating liquid bombs past checkpoints at 19 airports nationwide earlier this year, they testified. In the covert tests, they carried the elements of an improvised explosive device and a firebomb in carry-on luggage or on their bodies. - LA Times

Some in Congress are not pleased with the TSA’s performance:

“The problem is that the news is the same — it’s not getting better — and that’s unacceptable,” said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), chairman of the Government Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which held the hearing.

Waxman called the TSA’s record on screening “embarrassing and dangerous” and warned (TSA head Kip) Hawley that the committee would ask the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, to conduct a similar test next year. He went on to chastise Hawley for seeming to “pooh-pooh” the results of the GAO investigations.

“You’re on notice,” Waxman said. “I want you to take this one seriously. I didn’t feel you took the first one seriously.”  - Read the entire LA Times story here.

USA Today’s account of the hearing provides no comfort:

Hawley downplayed (the report) that showed investigators were able to smuggle liquid explosives and detonators past security. He said some bomb components investigators brought on airplanes this year are too weak to blow up a plane.

“Frankly, some of the stuff we saw here is not a concern. Some of it is a concern,” Hawley said after GAO officials played a videotape of the bomb parts they used in the probe being detonated in cars.

John Cooney, the GAO’s assistant director for forensic audits and special investigations, said the bomb parts “placed in an appropriate place on an aircraft could possibly do catastrophic damage.”

Lawmakers from both parties criticized the TSA and revealed that during another series of covert tests in 2006, GAO investigators slipped bomb parts past screeners in each of their 21 attempts.

“That’s an embarrassing and dangerous record,” said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which held Thursday’s hearing.

“This is unfortunately a record of failure,” said Rep. John Mica, R-Fla.

The maddening thing is that the TSA’s incompetence is going to lead to more hassle - pat-downs and who-knows-what-else. Wouldn’t it be better to start over and design an effective system of security screening rather than just add to the existing regimen - which is undoubtedly what they’ll do?  I appreciate the diffuculty of the task and I’m glad we’ve had no more serious incidents, but government tends to perpetuate and add to its way of doing things rather than (pardon the pun) blowing them up and starting over.