The Government Accountability Office (GAO), Congress's oversight arm, released a report yesterday telling the public what they already know: TSA's bomb detection programs are all for show. Undercover agents posing as suicide bombers got through security with bomb components in 19 out of 19 airports tested. The Washington Post has some of the better commentary on the grim subject, as well as some choice quotes. 

"These findings are mind-boggling," said the committee chairman, Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.). "In spite of billions of dollars and the six years TSA has had to deploy new technology and procedures, our airlines remain vulnerable. This is unacceptable. The American public deserves better."

"Two years ago, TSA officials said they needed more time, more resources and better technology to provide adequate security," Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (Va.), the panel's ranking Republican and former chairman, said in a written statement. "Unfortunately . . . TSA still cannot consistently detect or prevent prohibited items from being carried onto aircraft." 

TSA Spokeswoman Ellen Howe's response included this shameful analogy: 

"It's [i.e. Homeland Security/aviation security] like a combination lock. If you get through one layer of security, it doesn't mean you get through all layers of security." 

Howe's analogy is shameful because it assumes all passengers are stupid, or not paying attention, and don't realize the obvious: that TSA's security checkpoint for bombs is the last line of security. After that, you're on the plane! Perhaps Howe was trying to suggest the country's ever-dwindling number of Air Marshals (approximately 2,000 for some 25,000 flights a day) might be a useful bomb-detection tool? But then Howe hasn't brushed up on Air Marshal protocol, or is at least hoping that you haven't either. Air Marshal's can't deploy "unless there is an actual event." And in the case of a bomb built in an aircraft bathroom and detonated, the "event" makes it a little too late for an Air Marshal to deploy.

If you'd like to read about what happens when a group of mala fide travelers gets through all layers of security (State Department: bogus P-3 visas; ICE: expired visas; FBI: tagged in system as mala fide airplane travelers but allowed to fly; TSA: tagged in system as mala fide travlers but allowed to fly; Air Marshals: too many missteps to list here) please read my book "Terror in The Skies, Why 9/11 Could Happen Again."

The state of aviation security was volatile when I boarded a plane with my family and 13 Syrians posing as musicians back in 2004. And, billions of dollar later, aviation security remains just as volatile today.

As for today, President Bush took to the podium to talk about a "Thanksgiving express lane" for airplanes, one previously reserved for the military. Perhaps he's trying to deflect passengers' concerns away from the the real issue: that 27 million people are about to take to the skies for the Thanksgiving holidays — starting tomorrow. And GAO studies have shown us the grievous truth: that the bomb parts have been cleared for boarding.

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