If you can’t trust a convicted terrorist, who can you trust?
Two angry US senators want to know why the Transportation Security Administration allowed a woman who admitted she planted bombs under police cars in the 1970s to join a program that lets selected passengers board planes with less rigorous screening than other fliers.
A TSA screener recognized Sarah Jane Olson, 67, boarding a flight at Minneapolis-St. Paul airport in June 2014, and asked a supervisor why she had been allowed into the PreCheck program, according to a report by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general.
The supervisor ignored the complaint — after which a whistleblower contacted the inspector general. The IG also found that Olson should have been ineligible for the program because of her police record.
People in the program have a faster line — and do not have to remove belts and shoes. It’s unclear whether Olson is still in the program.
Olson, who was a member of the California-based Symbionese Liberation Army, was arrested in 1999 in St. Paul, Minn., after 25 years on the lam. She pleaded guilty to attempted murder and was paroled after seven years in prison.
John Thune (R-SD) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), of the Commerce, Science and Technology Committee, wrote to acting TSA Administrator Melvin Carraway, calling the Olson case “unacceptable.”
They cited “troubling reports detailing potential security gaps.’’
Passengers can join the PreCheck program if they pay $85 and answer a series of questions.
A TSA official insisted, “All passengers, including those with TSA PreCheck . . . are subject to a robust security approach that employs multiple layers of security, both seen and unseen.”