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GAO report details security gaps along border | 03.28.2006 | 08:25:09 | Views: 4781 | ID: March 28 '06: A federal report released Monday detailed two undercover government investigators who were able to cross the border into the United States from both the northern and southern borders smuggling enough radioactive material to make at least two dirty bombs - weapons containing radioactive material which is sent into the air as a poisonous cloud after an explosion, CNN reported Tuesday. "The investigators purchased a 'small quantity' of radioactive material from a commercial source," the cable news channel reported. The findings were reported in a Government Accountability Office report which was prepared for the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations GOP Chairman Norm Coleman from Minnesota. The report was joined by two other papers written by the GAO "on the subject of smuggling and detection of nuclear materials" CNN continued. Government officials said that technical challenges in regards to limitations "of some of the equipment, a lack of supporting infrastructure at some border sites and corruption of some foreign border security officials," were making detection of harmful material crossing the border difficult, CNN continued. One senior subcommittee staffer told CNN, "It's just an indictment of the system that it's easier to get radiological material than it is to get cold medicine." A third paper cites "unrealistic" and "uncertain" goals in securing port security and equipment but that the Department of Homeland Security "has made progress in deploying radiation-detection equipment at US ports" CNN reported.
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