Transportation Security Administration officials responded to Newark inspectors’ failure to find bombs planted on security testers this way: We tried, but it’s really hard.

“It’s not like they’re using a cartoonish bundle of dynamite with an alarm clock strapped to it,” Bob Burns with the TSA’s Blog Team posted on the agency’s website on Wednesday, as reported by The New York Post. “The items are extremely hard to spot.”

His comments came in response to the TSA’s failure to identify a fake bomb that was being carted Feb. 25 by a tester at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. The tester was able to pass through two separate security lines and ultimately was given access to board the plane, the Post reported. The TSA tester had placed the fake IED down his pants.

Mr. Burns also said on the TSA blog that “this specific covert test was only testing one of the 20 layers of security.”

TSA head John Pistole is set to speak to Homeland Security subcommittee members on Thursday, the Post reports.

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