Thursday, November 16, 2006

PEOPLE WHO WANT THE TERRORISTS TO WIN

They worked for Bush and Tom Ridge:

Security checkpoint managers at San Francisco International Airport were warned when undercover inspectors came to test how well screeners detected fake bombs and weapons, a government report said Tuesday.

The report, obtained by The Associated Press, confirms allegations brought in February 2005 by a whistleblower who formerly worked for Covenant Aviation Security.

...The Transportation Security Administration, which is in charge of airport security, asked its watchdog agency to investigate the charges by the former worker, Gene Bencomo.

"We confirmed the allegation," said the report by the Homeland Security Department's inspector general, Richard Skinner.

The report said the company used surveillance cameras to track testers as they made their way through the airport, and told the screeners before the testers arrived at the checkpoints.

The inspector general concluded that activity took place between August 2003 and May 2004...


The whistleblower was fired by Covenant after making his allegations:

... [CNN'S JEANNE] MESERVE: ... Bencomo was a supervisor for Covenant. In a wrongful termination lawsuit, he alleges the company's security is full of holes.

BENCOMO: Individuals who are not certified by the federal government are sitting at X-ray machines, walk-through metal detectors, working explosive trace detection machines. I can remember a small chain saw made it through one of our checkpoints, icepicks, firearms, knives, box cutters.

MESERVE: But Bencomo's most explosive allegation, that when undercover federal auditors with concealed weapons showed up to test screener performance, Covenant cheated.

BENCOMO: It would take physical descriptions of the auditors at the airport, for example, what they were wearing, how tall they were, were they blonde, did they have blue eyes? The rest of the checkpoints throughout the airport were tipped off to look for these individuals....


Covenant still has the security contract at San Francisco International. Everything's fine now, we're told.

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