WASHINGTON -- A terrorist wanting to smuggle radioactive material from Canada into the United States probably would find it easy to do, a new report from congressional investigators said.
Government investigators were able to cross from Canada into the United States carrying a duffle bag with contents that looked like radioactive material and never encountered a law enforcement official, according to a report released Thursday by investigators from the Government Accountability Office. "Our work clearly shows substantial vulnerabilities in the northern border to terrorist or criminals entering the United States undetected," the GAO's Greg Kutz testified Thursday at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on the topic. "Although the southern border appears to be substantially more secure, we did identify several vulnerabilities on federally managed lands where there was no CBP [Customs and Border Protection] control."
The investigators made crossings from Canada into the United States three times in fall 2006, the report said. In one of those instances, the GAO said, the Customs and Border Protection agency reported an alert citizen notified authorities of the suspicious activity of the undercover investigators and described their vehicle. However, the report said the Border Patrol was not able to locate the rental vehicle.
The GAO's task was to perform what it called a "limited security assessment to identify vulnerable border areas." The focus was on border ports where the U.S. government does not maintain a manned presence 24 hours a day and has no apparent monitoring equipment in place. The study was meant to simulate how easy it would be to cross the border with radioactive material or similar items.
Excerpted
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/27/border.security/index.html
Teenage Muslim found guilty of having ‘terrorist’ manual
Thursday, September 27, 2007
LONDON: A London court on Monday found a teenage Muslim guilty of illegally having a manual detailing how to make homemade bombs and was warned he could face jail. The manual — said by prosecutors to be a “step by step guide to the manufacture and production of viable, improvised explosive devices” — was found at the family home of Abdul Patelel’s wife in a police raid in August 2006.
Patel, 18, from London, was also said to have had close links to an alleged Islamist extremist. A jury at London’s Central Criminal Court convicted him of having a document “likely to be useful for an act of terrorism”. He was cleared of an alternative charge of having a document “for an act of terrorism”.
Judge Peter Rook told Patel he was keeping “all options open” for sentencing, which would take place on October 26. Patel was released in the meantime on conditional bail. Prosecutor Peter Wright had told the jury that Patel was “part of a web of radicalised young Muslim men in which his possession of the explosives manual was not innocent. It was entirely deliberate. It was available for use if called upon. It was in the custody of a young man who was ready, willing and able to assist in a cause he believed in.” He added, “In the wrong hands, the information contained in this manual can have catastrophic consequences — including causing explosions of the most terrifying kind in the UK and abroad.””
Patel denied being an Islamist extremist and claimed in his defence that the manual was in one of two boxes that had been left in the house by a man known to his father. He said he had asked the man to take the boxes away after discovering their contents. Also in one of the boxes was a CD labelled “Love Songs” containing an Islamist address apparently aimed at US military personnel.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007/09/27/story_27-9-2007_pg7_21
KABUL: The main spokesman for the extremist Taliban movement, Yousuf Ahmadi, has been arrested in southern Afghanistan, the interior ministry said Thursday.
Ahmadi was arrested with his brother on Wednesday in volatile Helmand province, where the Taliban are in control of several districts, the ministry said in a statement. He is the third Taliban spokesman to have been arrested since the hardline Islamic movement began their insurgency after being toppled from government by US-led forces in late 2001.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=29844
“The study was meant to simulate how easy it would be to cross the border with radioactive material or similar items.”
Paging Mr. Chertoff
Patel is guilty.
Thank you for that udpate, Oorang.
Thanks for the ping.