U.S. border fails GAO tests in June

WASHINGTON--In testimony before the House Subcommittee on International Terrorism and Nonproliferation, in San Diego, July 5, the U.S. Government Accountability Office's Gregory D. Kutz, managing director of forensic audits and special investigations, detailed the GAO's ability to illegally get "enough radioactive sources to make two dirty bombs" into the United States. While Customs and Border Patrol agents correctly identified the radioactive material and questioned the GAO investigators, they did not identify the investigators' identification and documentation as counterfeit. The GAO posed as a fictitious company, had the material mailed to them in small enough amounts that documentation from the federal government wasn't required, then consolidated the material to bring it across the border in two locations, simultaneously. "GAO investigators were able to successfully represent themselves as employees of a fictitious company, present a counterfeit bill of lading and a counterfeit [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] document during the secondary inspections at both locations. The CBP inspectors never questioned the authenticity of the investigators' counterfeit bill of lading or the counterfeit NRC document." The GAO reported these findings to the subcommittee as part of an ongoing investigation testing border security. The GAO characterized the "dirty bombs" that could be potentially created from what they transported as "weapons of mass disruption," rather than weapons of mass destruction.