The TSA, that most loathsome of federal agencies; inventors of the "half-naked hop-scotch" (technical term) that you are required to do at every airport; have given us yet another reason to hate them. Remember those full-body scanners that made everyone freak out because they put your junk on display? Turns out they don't even work that well. An undercover agent recently got a loaded handgun through scanners on FIVE SEPARATE OCCASIONS.
The agent was able to beat the scanners merely by tucking the gun in her underwear. Full-body scanners are supposed to use high-end x-ray imaging technology to provide an unprecedented look at what passengers are hiding; but it turns out the humans tasked with screening these devices are still pretty lazy.
Quoth the incompetent:
Our security officers are one of the most heavily tested federal workforces in the nation. We regularly test our officers in a variety of ways to ensure the effectiveness of our technology, security measures and the overall layered system. For security reasons, we do not publicize or comment on the results of covert tests, however advanced imaging technology is an effective tool to detect both metallic and nonmetallic items hidden on passengers.
"Security," "officers," psssh. The TSA's failing in this particular way is especially disconcerting, given that the very security incident that precipitated the deployment of full-body scanners in the first place was perpetrated by one Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab-- aka The Underwear Bomber.
