Airport Screeners Fail

Passenger screeners at Newark Liberty International Airport have received failing grades for their work. The Transportation Security Administration sent so-called secret shoppers to Newark observe screeners. Its report was obtained by the Newark Star Ledger, which published it yesterday. It says standard pat-downs were performed properly only 16 percent of the time. In no cases did screeners advise passengers of their rights to skip the pat-down and be screened by electronic scanners instead. The observations took place in June. Since then, the paper reports have been working their way up the Homeland Security Department chain of command.