'Dirty Bombs' Crossed U.S. Borders

[Diogenes]

I'm surprised nobody's brought this shit up yet...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060328/ap_ ... s_security

'Dirty Bombs' Crossed U.S. Borders in Test By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 12 minutes ago



WASHINGTON - Undercover investigators slipped radioactive material — enough to make two small "dirty bombs" — across U.S. borders in Texas and Washington state in a test last year of security at American points of entry.

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Radiation alarms at the unidentified sites detected the small amounts of cesium-137, a nuclear material used in industrial gauges. But U.S. customs agents permitted the investigators to enter the United States because they were tricked with counterfeit documents.

The Bush administration said Monday that within 45 days it will give U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents the tools they need to verify such documents in the future.

The Government Accountability Office's report, the subject of a Senate hearing Tuesday, said detection equipment used by U.S. customs agents to screen people, vehicles and cargo for radioactive substances appeared to work as designed.

But the investigation, carried out simultaneously at both border crossings in December 2005, also identified potential security holes terrorists might be able to exploit to sneak nuclear materials into the United States.

"This operation demonstrated that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is stuck in a pre-9/11 mind-set in a post-9/11 world and must modernize its procedures," Sen. Norm Coleman (news, bio, voting record), R-Minn., said Monday in a statement.

The NRC, in charge of overseeing nuclear reactor and nuclear substance safety, challenged that notion.

"Security has been of prime importance for us on the materials front and the power plant front since 9/11," commission spokesman David McIntyre said in an interview.

The head of the Homeland Security Department's Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, Vayl Oxford, said the substance could have been used in a radiological weapon with limited effects.

A Senate Homeland Security subcommittee, which Coleman leads, released details of the investigation and two GAO reports on radiation detectors and port security before hearings on the issues this week.

The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, also found that installation of radiation detectors is taking too long and costing more money than the U.S. expected. It said the Homeland Security Department's goal of installing 3,034 detectors by September 2009 across the United States — at border crossings, seaports, airports and mail facilities — was "unlikely" to be met and said the government probably will spend $342 million more than it expects.

Between October 2000 and October 2005, the GAO said, the government spent about $286 million installing radiation monitors inside the United States.

To test security at U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada, GAO investigators represented themselves as employees of a fake company. When stopped, they presented counterfeit shipping papers and NRC documents that allegedly permitted them to receive, acquire, possess and transfer radioactive substances.

Investigators found that customs agents weren't able to check whether a person caught with radioactive materials was permitted to possess the materials under a government-issued license.

"Unless nuclear smugglers in possession of faked license documents raised suspicions in some other way, CBP officers could follow agency guidelines yet unwittingly allow them to enter the country with their illegal nuclear cargo," a report said. It described this problem as "a significant gap" in the nation's safety procedures.

Jayson Ahern, the assistant customs commissioner for field operations, said a system for customs agents to confirm the authenticity of government licenses will be in place within 45 days. Ahern noted the radiation detectors had sounded alarms.

"We're pleased when a test like this is able to demonstrate the efficacy of our technology," Ahern said.

False radiation alarms are common — sometimes occurring more than 100 times a day — although the GAO said inspectors generally do a good job distinguishing nuisance alarms from actual ones. False alarms can be caused by ceramics, fertilizers, bananas and even patients who have recently undergone some types of medical procedures.

At one port — which investigators did not identify — a director frustrated over false alarms was worried that backed-up trains might block the entrance to a nearby military base until an alarm was checked out. The director's solution: simply turn off the radiation detector.

_____

Associated Press writer Ted Bridis contributed to this report.

While you're installing that moat on the souther border, don't forget the clowns to our north.

[poptart]

This is good news.

I'd rather we all die in one BIG BANG rather than endure the slow death our United States is dying due to the unabated influx of illegals into the country.

[RadioFan]

BIG BANG

Heathen.

I'm glad they're doing these trial runs, though the timing of the release of this report is questionable, at best.

[Diogenes]

Maybe we could just crack down on those who supply illegals with fake papers instead.

1 year incarceration at hard labor per SS card, birth cirtifiucate, etc, to run consecutivly. Illegals found with said documents who don't want to rat out their suppliers, get the year for them, then get kicked the fuck out. There's your agricultural workers for you, good old fasioned chain gang. Then go after the employers. You won't need a barbed wire fence, takns on the border or a fucking moat.



Or we could all just go along with Ted Kennedy and John McCain.

[Diogenes]

Jobs Americans Won’t Do?

[Diego in Seattle]

Jobs Americans Won’t Do?

Holy shit! A Dio post that I have to rack!

[Jack]

Why can't they clean the M*ther F*ckin Bombs before they bring them into our Country??

[LTS TRN 2]

On the one hand, Cheney might be feeling the real need for another lil' Reichstag Fire to throw off the hounds. But of course it's total bullshit in light of the REAL "dirty bomb" engendered by way of Chenron's systematic rollback of environmental protections, regulations, and fines that might at least slowdown the toxic waste poisoning of our nation and planet by various industries. A special "heck of a job" shout out to Gail Norton, indicted stooge, who kept the James Watt flame burning steady.