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http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2009/07/gao_finds_major_security_flaws.html
Federal Eye
By washingtonpost.com Editors
Staff writer Spencer S. Hsu contributed to this report.
July 7, 2009
The police agency in charge of protecting thousands of federal buildings
nationwide has failed to keep bomb-making materials out of several
high-security facilities in the past year, according to Congressional
testimony provided by Senate aides. In the past year, investigators
successfully smuggled bomb-making materials into ten high-security
federal buildings, constructed bombs and walked around the buildings
undetected, exposing weaknesses in security provided by the Federal
Protective Service.
More than one million government employees work in 9,000 facilities
guarded by FPS around the country, including at least 350,000 in the
Washington region. The revelations come as the Obama administration
prepares to reorganize the agency in the coming weeks.
Investigators carried liquid explosives and low-yield detonators --
materials investigators note are not normally carried into federal
buildings. The GAO said security concerns prevent it from revealing the
exact locations or cities of the affected facilities, but that eight of
them were government owned, while two were leased. They included offices
of a U.S. senator and House member, as well as offices for the
departments of Homeland Security, Justice and State, the GAO reported.
In one instance, the GAO obtained a building security tape showing an
investigator walking through a security checkpoint with bomb making
materials.
[...]
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