TSA warns TSA to be on the lookout for anti-terror agents

The LA Times has an article about undercover federal agents smuggling bomb materials past TSA airport screeners to test security.

My favorite part is how the TSA warns its screeners to focus on identifying and stopping undercover federal investigators whose job it is to test the TSA's effectiveness:

Release of the GAO report follows a hearing Wednesday in which Hawley vehemently denied that screeners had been tipped off about covert security tests, even as lawmakers brandished an e-mail from TSA headquarters that not only warned employees of testing, but described the methods and appearance of those conducting the probes.

"There was no intent to tip off, there was no cheating," Hawley insisted. He said that the e-mail was sent not to tip off screeners, but because a TSA official thought the tests might really be an Al Qaeda operation.

Democratic lawmakers were openly incredulous. "If you want me to believe that, I find that's a stretch," said Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-N.J.).

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