IN RECENT WEEKS, multiple news outlets (including this blog) have cited numbers that suggest that screeners from America's Transportation Security Administration (TSA) detect less than 30% of the knives and guns that officials try to sneak through security in tests. On Friday, the TSA's Blogger Bob attempted to counter those reports. According to Bob, the 30% number (or 70% failure rate) is based on a report released in 2006, which was itself based on tests conducted in 2004 and 2005. He says that "[s]ince 2004-2005, TSA has implemented new security measures and deployed enhanced technology, which reflect TSA's evolving approach to aviation security." Bob is suggesting the publicly reported numbers are outdated and TSA's actual failure rate could be or is lower than reported.

There's definitely some confusion here. The ABC News report Gulliver linked to last month didn't rely on 2004, 2005, or 2006 numbers—it referenced "a person briefed" on "the latest tests" who said they have a failure rate of 70%. And earlier in December, TSA administrator John Pistole told the press that some airports let every test gun, knife, and bomb part through. Here's a key excerpt from another ABC News article:

"We've had a series of reports actually going back several years from the inspector general, from the General Accounting Office, and our own TSA Office of Inspection, where they do, as you describe, covert testing," Pistole acknowledged to George Stephanopoulos last month during an interview on Good Morning America. "And unfortunately, [undercover testers] have been very successful over the years."

The TSA is clearly still doing this sort of testing. There are legitimate reasons that the government might want to keep the results secret. On the other hand, if screeners are doing better, agency officials would certainly be within their rights to release the results and brag about them. But the agency can't have it both ways. If TSA officials are going to imply that the situation has improved since the last inspector general and GAO reports were leaked to the press, they should prove it.

The TSA doesn't seem willing or able to release its current failure rate. Fine. But in the meantime, agency public affairs officers should be very careful about attacking the press for reporting what information is actually available. Surely if TSA screeners were doing much better in covert testing, the agency would be eager to release the data. That hasn't happened. You don't have to be a cynic to think that the current, unreleased numbers might not be quite as impressive as the agency would like.