I’m catching up on a Washington Post article from May 22 today, titled “Contracting Rush For Security Led To Waste, Abuse”. It basically documents how DHS and TSA got about $100 million in value for every billion it spent. The following really jumped out at me:

The contract for airport bomb-detection machines ballooned to at least $1.2 billion from $508 million over 18 months. The machines have been hampered by high false-alarm rates…. After the bomb-detection machines were put in airports across the country, some of them began to register false alarms. Screeners were forced to open and hand-check bags. Lines backed up, infuriating passengers and airline managers. The false-alarm rates have since come down, according to counter-terrorism experts and government scientists familiar with the machines. They say the reason is that the machines have been calibrated to be less sensitive, cutting the false alarms but also making the machines less effective. “When used the way they’re supposed to be used, they’re almost as good as a dog,” said a government technology expert intimately familiar with the machines, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

Okay. The article doesn’t say how many machines were purchased for $1.2 billion, but it seems to me that if they’re almost as good as a dog at their best, somebody might have asked how much a dog costs.