The feds wasted “hundreds of millions’’ of dollars on the TSA’s widely hated full-body airport scanners — even though officials have known for years the pricey machines couldn’t stop a fanatic wearing an underwear bomb.
Only hours after The Post reported that the latest underwear explosive would have gotten past the controversial scanners — which are virtually useless against devices that do not contain metal — the House Oversight and Transportation committees underscored the problem in a 21-page report.
The agency “rushed to install’’ the machines “without clear evidence of effectiveness . . . despite lingering passenger health concerns and uncertainty that [the scanners] would have detected the weapons used in the December 2009 underwear bomber incident,’’ the report said.
Transportation Committee Chairman Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) angrily said at a Capitol Hill hearing, “I do not think any of the advanced-imaging technology was properly vetted. In fact, I know it wasn’t properly vetted.
“TSA continues to demonstrate its penchant for bungling aviation security and wasting taxpayers’ money,” Mica fumed.
He added, “Somebody needs to get aware of this. This is hundreds of millions of dollars of equipment.’’
The Transportation Security Administration paid more than $122 million for 500 machines it purchased after the failed 2009 Christmas Day underwear bomb attack over Detroit.
After that first round, TSA acquired another 378 and plans to buy nearly 1,000 more in the next two years.
Previous studies, dating as far back as 2010, showed the scanners didn’t work as advertised, according to the new report.
Congressional investigators now want Homeland Security officials to have new screening machines “reviewed and approved by an independent group of scientists.’’