Airport-security system in U.S. riddled with failures [View All]

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Sunday, July 11, 2004 - Page updated at 12:18 A.M.

Airport-security system in U.S. riddled with failures

Copyright 2004, The Seattle Times Company

By Cheryl Phillips, Steve Miletich and Ken Armstrong
Seattle Times staff reporters

The TSA was supposed to be the fix.
But more than 2-1/2 years after it was created, the Transportation Security Administration itself needs a fix.

As Sept. 11, 2001, grows more distant, airline passengers complain more about long lines than feeling vulnerable. Yet lax security and low morale seep through the federal agency responsible for protecting them, The Seattle Times has found.

Management memos, as well as firsthand accounts of more than 100 screeners and supervisors interviewed by The Times, depict an agency in crisis.

Even as government officials warn of another attack, TSA is ill-prepared to meet that threat.

In Seattle, airlines were caught loading unscreened luggage onto planes. In Los Angeles, a supervisor waved around a passenger's gun, sending one screener running for cover. And in Houston, one lapse so alarmed screeners they complained to Congress.

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