The 9/11 Commission Tenth Anniversary Report: TSA & Homeland Security still with serious deficiencies

The National Security Preparedness Group, co-chaired by Thomas Kean, Chairman, and Lee Hamilton, Vice Chairman of the 9/11 Commission, has issued their Tenth Anniversary Report Card: The Status of the 9/11 Commission Recommendations. The report acknowledges some successes, but at the same time offers some stinging criticism of TSA (Transportation Security Administration) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The Anniversary Report reviewed the 41 recommendations the 9/11 Commission made in 2004. The Group found that 9 of the 41 recommendations have either not been implemented at all, or inadequately implemented.
Three of the failings reported by the Group, in the report, directly affect air travelers. The failings have to do with the way TSA attempts to detect weapons and explosives on travelers, their full-body scanners, and ID issues, I’ve been writing about for some time.
Among the conclusions expressed in the report is

“While the TSA’s implementation of airline passenger screening against the ‘no fly’ and ‘automatic selectee’ lists is a major success, we are still highly vulnerable to aviation security threats.”

The report goes on to say,

“Our conclusion is that despite 10 years of working on the problem, the aviation screening system still falls short in critical ways with respect to detection.”

That sounds like a failing grade, to me, for TSA and DHS in the report.
Let’s examine some of the report in detail.

“With significant federal funding, TSA has deployed large numbers of enhanced screening equipment used at passenger checkpoints and baggage check screening. Unfortunately, explosives detection technology lacks reliability and lags in its capability to automatically identify concealed weapons and explosives.”

In February, in my column “Applause for TSA’s new full body scanner software misplaced” I pointed out, that tests have confirmed, if a terrorist hides an explosive material such as PETN, in its low density powder form, in clothing (like the Panty-Bomber), it’s highly unlikely full-body scanners will detect it, as its density is too close to that of clothing. Moreover, if explosives or weapons are hidden in a passenger’s body cavities (rectal or vaginal areas), the full-body scanners won’t detect them either.
In 2010 I further pointed out that full-body scanners, each costing as much $200K installed, are less able to detect explosives and weapons than “low tech” detection methods such as explosives sniffing dogs, and well trained security agents using standard pat-down techniques.
Explosive sniffing dogs have proved themselves reliable and capable of detecting such exposives as PETN (panty bomber), or even a small stick of C4 in a plastic bag located in a body cavity. A thin plastic bag of PETN powder taped to one’s chest, back, or around the waist or legs shouldn’t be able to get past a well executed police pat-down.
The report states,

“The next generation of whole body scanning machines … raise privacy and health concerns that DHS has not fully addressed.”

This has been one of my major complaints about both the backscatter x-ray, and MMW full-body scanners. While the new software being implemented addresses some full-body scanner privacy concerns there continues to be other privacy issues still unaddressed. Of far greater importance to me, are the scanner health issues raised by scientists and physicians.
In my column, TSA: Myths and Facts, I discussed the serious health issues of the full-body scanners alluded to in the report.
For example, Dr. John Sedat, Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California in San Francisco, has warned that radiation from the backscatter x-ray scanners has been dangerously underestimated and could lead to an increased risk of skin cancer.
A study by Boian S. Alexandrov at the Center for Nonlinear Studies at the Los Alamos National Laboratory showed terahertz waves, the radiation emitted by the MMW scanners, could “…unzip double-stranded DNA…”
Moreover, it’s been found that despite Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s statement that the full body scanners have been deemed safe by the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institute of Standards and Technology [NIST], and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, that Johns Hopkins UAPL repudiated that statement, and that the Electronic Privacy Information Center, uncovered documents via a Freedom of Information law suit, in which they found NIST didn’t test the scanners for safety.
It is for these health issues that I personally refuse to enter TSA’s full-body scanners.
The report also discusses the problem of TSA using standardized secure identifications.
Implementation of the “Real ID Act,” was discussed. So far it’s been a bust. I would take the report a step further.
TSA states about their ID Requirements for Airport Checkpoints that,

“Adult passengers (18 and over) are required to show a U.S. federal or state-issued photo ID in order to be allowed to go through the checkpoint and onto their flight.”

Then, immediately in the next paragraph TSA states,

“We understand passengers occasionally arrive at the airport without an ID, due to lost items or inadvertently leaving them at home. Not having an ID, does not necessarily mean a passenger won’t be allowed to fly. If passengers are willing to provide additional information, we have other means of substantiating someone’s identity, like using publicly available databases.”

So, if you give TSA a “song and a dance” that you lost your IDs, you can give them some other identification information, or maybe even a BJ’s or Costco card, and “act” cooperative, they’ll let you through their checkpoint.
If you really don’t need anything but your Costco card, what’s the point of “Real ID?”
We’ve read in the TSA Blog about how a man with a boarding pass with someone else’s name on it was able to pass through TSA security at JFK airport in New York.
If TSA isn’t going to consistently match your boarding pass with your “Real ID,” what’s the point of it.
We can only hope that Secretary Napolitano, and Administrator John Pistole will take the Group’s report seriously, and finally replace the security theater we find at our airports, with security measures that actually work, don’t put travelers’ health at risk, respect travelers’ privacy, and respect travelers’ Constitutional rights.