Report: Undercover agents slipped through fake bomb, knife WINDSOR LOCKS, Conn. (AP) =97 Federal undercover inspectors slipped through= =20 Bradley International Airport security twice with a fake bomb in carry-on=20 luggage, while one agent passed through with a knife taped to her leg, The= =20 Hartford Courant reported in Tuesday's editions. The inspectors were able=20 to smuggle the objects through the new federal baggage screeners at the=20 airport during a surprise security test in November, the newspaper=20 reported, citing airport sources it did not identify. The fake bomb was loosely modeled on an explosive disguised as a radio that= =20 was used to blow up Pan Am 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, the=20 newspaper reported. Sources also told The Courant that a female inspector=20 with a large knife taped high on the inside of her thigh set off metal=20 detectors twice, but made it past screeners who checked her with=20 metal-detecting wands without the knife being found. Security managers told= =20 screeners about the failed tests on the next day, Nov. 19, during early=20 morning roll calls, sources told the newspaper. Dana Cosgrove, the federal security director at Bradley, would neither=20 confirm nor deny reports of the failed tests. The screeners who reportedly= =20 missed the fake bomb and knife at Bradley are employees of the federal=20 government's newly formed Transportation Security Administration, created=20 after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Among the TSA's first=20 priorities was to toughen qualifications for airport security jobs to=20 improve safety. But a report last summer by the General Accounting Office,= =20 the investigative arm of Congress, found that surprise inspections=20 nationwide turned up security flaws. "Recent TSA testing found that=20 screeners at 32 of the nation's largest airports failed to detect fake=20 weapons (guns, dynamite or bombs) in almost a quarter of the undercover=20 tests at screening checkpoints," GAO inspector Gerald L. Dillingham told a= =20 Senate transportation committee on July 25. Belated discoveries of guns,=20 knives and other potential weapons on passengers who had passed security=20 checkpoints prompted evacuations of 124 airports since the TSA took over=20 aviation security responsibilities last February, Dillingham reported. In=20 those cases, 631 flights had been called back to terminals so passengers=20 could be re-screened. Dillingham said in an interview last week that he doesn't have more recent= =20 data on the performance of TSA screeners, but that he believes they are=20 doing a better job than previous employees. "Airport security wasn't very=20 good before 9/11, it's getting better, but there's still a way to go," he=20 said. A federal screener at Bradley, speaking on condition of anonymity,=20 questioned the effectiveness of the new screening system, The Courant=20 reported. "We're good at taking away scissors and tweezers from little old= =20 ladies, and pocket knives from 80-year-old men going to Florida," the=20 screener said. "But when it comes to the real deal, quite frankly, I don't= =20 know that we're any better than the former screeners." It is not clear=20 whether any of the TSA employees at Bradley who failed to detect the fake=20 bomb and knife will be disciplined. In a change from past practice, the TSA= =20 does not release to the public any information about the performance of=20 airport screeners. TSA spokeswoman Chris Rhatigan refused to confirm=20 whether the agency is conducting such tests at all. "What I can tell you is= =20 that we are a security agency with highly qualified, highly trained people= =20 who are doing a great job," Rhatigan said. Jalal Haidar, who works for Virginia-based airport security consulting firm= =20 Aerospace Services International, said the TSA is unwilling to discuss the= =20 tests for fear of alerting its own employees to the techniques being used=20 to measure their performance. "So many of the current screeners were hired from the incompetent, useless= =20 companies we had before," Haidar said. "They (TSA officials) do not want to= =20 warn the useless element to be alert for a few days, then go back to their= =20 old form." One former Bradley screener, who was working an X-ray machine on= =20 Nov. 18 when word began to spread about federal inspectors in the=20 airport, said his boss gave him a heads up. "He said to look for a tall=20 blond man, and a short, fat woman with dark hair," the former screener told= =20 The Courant, who did not identify the man. The fake explosives passed by security screeners in two checkpoints at=20 Bradley, terminal A Gates 1-10, which serve US Airways and Continental, and= =20 terminal B Gates 1-10, which serve American Airlines and Delta, the=20 newspaper reported. Thomas Hartwick, chairman of the National Research Council's committee=20 reviewing aviation security technologies, said that because such tests=20 often focus on a single step in the security process, such as the X-ray=20 machine, failing one doesn't necessarily mean the whole system is weak. "If= =20 you had a passport from Afghanistan and you had that bomb, it would be=20 picked up," Hartwick said. "If you were a frequent flyer and you had that=20 bomb, you might get through. 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