TSA screeners allow fed agent with fake bomb to pass through security at Newark Airport

An undercover TSA inspector with an improvised explosive device stuffed in his pants got past two security screenings at Newark Airport — including a pat-down — and was cleared to get on board a commercial flight, sources told The Post yesterday.

The breach took place Feb. 25, when the Transportation Security Administration’s special operations team — the agency’s version of internal affairs — staged a mock intrusion at the airport.

Good thing it was a fake bomb and a fake terrorist.

“This episode once again demonstrates how Newark Airport is the Ground Zero of TSA failures,” a source said.

Newark is pretty much Ground Zero for every kind of failure. But I digress.

“He did have a simulated IED in his pants,” the source said. “They did not find it.”

“Say buddy, is that an IED in your pants or are you just excited about flying?”

So, an inspector from the TSA uses a technique that is already known to have been used at least once by a terrorist and the genius screeners missed it?

Only one member of the TSA’s terror team was stopped at the checkpoint — a female agent “carrying a simulated IED inside her carry-on that was inside a child’s doll,” the source said.

It had “wires sticking out” and was obviously suspicious and she was pulled aside, sources say.

Apparently the only thing that she didn’t have was a sign that said “Bomb on board”. I wonder if they would have found it if the wires weren’t sticking out? That’s a rhetorical question.

“Due to the security-sensitive nature of the tests, TSA does not publicly share details about how they are conducted, what specifically is tested or the outcomes.”

Let me run this one through the bureaucratese translator for you.

“We don’t want the public to know how much we suck at our jobs, so we hide behind “national security” to prevent you from reading the reports. If you knew how much we sucked, you’d demand that the whole TSA be disbanded and we’d all have to go back to Mickey D’s and asking if you want fries with that?”.

Newark Airport, which has 1,400 screeners and supervisors, has long struggled with security.

Understatement. Of. The. Year. Decade.

Last year, 52 baggage and traveler screeners were fired and another 19 disciplined for major security lapses and thefts.

Newark Airport was where a screener left a note saying, “Get your freak on, girl,” after finding a vibrator in the bag of a Manhattan attorney in 2011.

And it was where, in 2010, an airport “Romeo” was able to walk unticketed and unscreened into a secure area so he could kiss his girlfriend goodbye.

As secure as a screen door in a submarine.

Despite the security woes, the TSA this week declared it would soon allow travelers to carry non-locking knives up to 2.36 inches in length and a half-inch width onto airplanes.

Rest secured though, that elderly passengers in wheelchairs and wearing incontinent garments will still be thoroughly searched. Along with nubile teen age girls.

I wonder how long it would take me to drive to the Gulf Coast this summer?