Bomb smugglers: border security woes.ACCORDING TO the Government Accountability Office The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is the audit, evaluation, and investigative arm of the United States Congress, and thus an agency in the Legislative Branch of the United States Government. (GAO), the Department of Homeland Security Noun 1. Department of Homeland Security - the federal department that administers all matters relating to homeland security Homeland Security executive department - a federal department in the executive branch of the government of the United States has fallen far behind in its effort to install portal monitors and handheld radiation detection equipment at points of entry into the United States. That's too bad "That's Too Bad" is the debut single by Tubeway Army, the band which provided the initial musical vehicle for Gary Numan. It was released in February 1978 by independent London record label Beggars Banquet. , because in a recent spot check of radiation-detection equipment at the Canadian and Mexican borders, the machines were the only things that seemed to work. GAO investigators created fake Nuclear Regulatory Commission Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), an independent U.S. government commission, created by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 and charged with licensing and regulating civilian use of nuclear energy to protect the public and the environment. (NRC NRC abbr. 1. National Research Council 2. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Noun 1. NRC - an independent federal agency created in 1974 to license and regulate nuclear power plants ) documents to purchase radioactive materials from commercial suppliers, then attempted to bring in enough material to build two dirty bombs. Equipment at both borders detected the radioactive material, and Customs and Border Patrol agents waved the GAO inspectors aside for further inspection. In both cases, the agents were allowed to bring their radioactive materials into the United States. The GAO makes several recommendations, among them that suppliers of radioactive materials be required to do more due diligence Research; analysis; your homework. This term has caught on in all industries, because it sounds so "wired." Who would want to do analysis or research when they can do due diligence. See wired. , that the NRC counterfeit-proof its documents, and that the Border Patrol be given better tools for verifying paperwork. But the striking part of the report is that even in the absence of these reforms, border agents apparently pay only slightly more attention to gamma ray-emitting materials than they would to your "J'[heart] Montreal" t-shirt or stack of Tijuana bibles. The good news is that the Border Patrol's machines are working fine. The bad news is that its people are working like machines. |
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