WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) today released a statement in response to the results of the security exercise conducted by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration on October 19. The findings indicated undercover American agents successfully smuggled firearms, fake explosives and other illegal items onto airplanes at Newark Liberty Airport 20 out of 22 times.

“Like all New Jerseyans I was terribly disappointed to see the results of the Transportation Security Administration’s recent undercover security exercise at Newark Liberty Airport. It is alarming to believe that five years after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, American agents had a 90 percent success rate of smuggling firearms and other incendiary devices onto American airplanes. More disturbing, is the Bush administration’s response to these findings – a nonchalant, dismissive attitude in the face of flagrant incompetence.

“President Bush is fond of saying America has to be right 100 percent of the time and the terrorists only have to be right once. In this instance, the terrorists would have been right 20 times and America would have only been right twice. Had these been terrorists and not American agents, the amount of carnage and destruction they could have wrought is chilling.

“While the Bush administration and Republican Congress continue their usual rhetoric and pandering on homeland security issues, there is something that can be done. I have consistently joined with Senator Lautenberg in calling on the Republican Congress to lift the nationwide cap on airport screeners to ensure we have the adequate personnel screening passengers. Unfortunately, Washington Republicans continue to support this arbitrary cap – a policy that fails to properly protect our airways and our homeland.

“I will continue to work with Senator Lautenberg and other lawmakers to ensure we staff our security checkpoints with an adequate number of screeners and that we receive a full accounting of TSA procedures.”

# # #