Entering US with nuclear bomb is no problem

Quote:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Four years after the September 11 attacks, investigators were able to easily enter the United States with enough radioactive material to make two so-called dirty bombs, according to a report on a government undercover investigation obtained on Monday.

Two teams made simultaneous entries at the U.S.-Mexican border and the border with Canada carrying radioactive material in their vehicles in December 2005, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in the report on its investigation.

The congressional watchdog agency said the test was designed to examine potential weaknesses related to radiation monitors that have been installed at U.S. border ports of entry, the GAO said.

(...)

As part of the GAO undercover test, investigators easily bought a small amount of radioactive material from a commercial source by telephone, the agency said.

The purchase was not challenged because suppliers are not required to determine whether buyers have a legitimate reason for acquiring such material and are not required to ask for an NRC authorization document when small quantities are purchased, the GAO said.

"We could have purchased all of the radioactive sources used in our two undercover border crossings by making multiple purchases from different suppliers... using false identities, and had all of the radioactive sources conveniently shipped to our nation's capital," the letter said.

Source: reuters.com

Shocking? Frightening? Do you think there be consequences? How are things like this allowed to happen in the first place? I mean, random people are able to buy radioactive material legally no questions asked? How is this even possible?

Cool. Let's keep bringing it up in national news reports. The afghanis will never know.

And the fact of the matter is, theres no way to make the US completely secure, and frankly, the US as a whole is overly paranoid about security. There are much better ways to ensure the US doesn't get plastered with a nuclear bomb than simply building a virtual wall around the country.

You mean, like, better customs?

Canada's greatest threat, apparently, comes from fruit.

Doesn't suprise me at all. Soon we'll see the results of the terrorist's investigations!

Originally Posted by Minion

Cool. Let's keep bringing it up in national news reports. The afghanis will never know.

You DO realize that our enemies are pretty damn smart, and that anything we publish is already known by them 99% of the time, right? =\

I recall ABC News doing something similar to this a few years ago. They transported some radioactive material that was indeed legal to transport and they were never questioned as to what it was for. After that the FBI investigated ABC for it, probably because ABC made them look stupid.

It's not this that bothers me; it's that our rights (specifically privacy, as has been revealed in the past several months) are being shat upon in the name of security, yet the actual level of security remains the same.

One or the other, please; but not both.

Originally Posted by Murdercrow

You DO realize that our enemies are pretty damn smart, and that anything we publish is already known by them 99% of the time, right? =\

Okay, they're smart. That doesn't mean we should be disseminating any and all information because "aw hell, they probably already know anyway."

So you would support the government hiding everything from us because "we don't want the terrorist to find out what we're doing?"

Right. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't one of the reasons for your opinion that Congress should be dissolved and replaced with a pure democracy is the closed-door sessions? No, really, I'm curious here. I think you said something to this effect, but it was pre-crash so I can't tell.

Originally Posted by Murdercrow

So you would support the government hiding everything from us because "we don't want the terrorist to find out what we're doing?"

Right. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't one of the reasons for your opinion that Congress should be dissolved and replaced with a pure democracy is the closed-door sessions? No, really, I'm curious here. I think you said something to this effect, but it was pre-crash so I can't tell.

Umm that really wouldn't help matters much... all it would do would take our already slow government and turn it into a snail that needs a walker to snail crawl around :/

...what?

Look, if you're talking about the whole dissolve Congress thing (which I think you are), take it up with Minion in another thread/PMs. It's not my idea.

Quote:

So you would support the government hiding everything from us because "we don't want the terrorist to find out what we're doing?"

There is a difference between not shouting from the rooftops whenever a security issue is discovered and hidding everything from us. We don't need to know things like this. It's not information you can use, but it is potentially dangerous if some people find out. I sincerely hope that all of these security issues are just elaborate baiting schemes used by our government to lure terrorists into a trap.

And mentioning what I said about congress is moot, since we're talking about another branch of goverment. What I want from congress is different from what I want from the president.

You'll have to agree that sometimes, things have to be made public to have an impact.

I also think it's a good way of showing the apparent failures of the current administration. Now they're under pressure and have to react. Who knows if they would even have cared if the report was presented to them exclusively?

Right because the general public has no idea that the Bush administration has ever failed at anything before this happened.

Originally Posted by Eleo

It's not this that bothers me; it's that our rights (specifically privacy, as has been revealed in the past several months) are being shat upon in the name of security, yet the actual level of security remains the same.

Same here in Europe. Won't be much of a way of life left to defend in a couple o' years.

Come on buddy, drop the bullshit attitude.

It's stupid easy to get ANYTHING through customs. Hell, I just flew a plane between Canada and the US, and when we landed in the states, NOONE even came out to look at the plane, we called a number on a cellphone from inside the plane (when we were on the ground), and they gave us a number to copy into the logbook. And then we were free to go wherever we wanted - we had just cleared customs.

They did another test similar to this where they tried getting explosives onto a plane. 21 out of 21 times, they succeeded.

All the money the US gov't is dumping into things, hasn't increased the thouroughness of security - it was just the money required to make a fascade of thouroughness.

hmmm. i sort of think that they are doing this, intentionally to let the afghanis know, and then they'll prolly have a trap waiting.