In case you needed more evidence that all the brou-ha-ha about national security is so much bull:
Guards say Homeland Security HQ is insecure
WASHINGTON (AP) - The
agency entrusted with protecting the U.S. homeland is having difficulty
safeguarding its own headquarters, say private security guards at the
complex.
The guards
have taken their concerns to Congress, describing inadequate training,
failed security tests and slow or confused reactions to bomb and
biological threats.
For
instance, when an envelope with suspicious powder was opened last fall
at Homeland Security Department headquarters, guards said they watched
in amazement as superiors carried it by the office of Secretary Michael
Chertoff, took it outside and then shook it outside Chertoff's window
without evacuating people nearby.
Maybe the "superiors" should be informed of the Center for Disease Control's rule #1 for handling a suspicious package or envelope:
Do not shake or empty the contents of any suspicious package or envelope.
Moving on...
The scare,
caused by white powder that proved to be harmless, "stands as one
glaring example'' of the agency's security problems, said Derrick
Daniels, one of the first guards to respond to the incident.
"I had
never previously been given training ... describing how to respond to a
possible chemical attack,'' Daniels told The Associated Press. "I
wouldn't feel safe nowhere on this compound as an officer.''
[...]
Former guard Bryan
Adams recognized his inadequate training one day last August, when an
employee reported a suspicious bag in the parking lot.
"I didn't have a clue about what to do,'' he said.
When in doubt, grab a cone.
Adams said
he closed the vehicle checkpoint with a cone, walked over to the bag
and called superiors.
Perfect place to make that call.
Nobody cordoned off the area. Eventually, someone
called a federal bomb squad, which arrived more than an hour after the
discovery.
"If the
bag had, in fact, contained the explosive device that was anticipated,
the bomb could have detonated several times over in the hour that the
bag sat there,'' Adams said.
The bag, it turned out, contained gym clothes.
Beware the stench bomb!
Some
guards who continue to work at Homeland, who would speak only on
condition of anonymity because of fear of losing their jobs, said they
knew of two instances in which individuals without identification got
into the sensitive complex.
Another
described how guards flunked a test by the Secret Service, which sent
vehicles into the compound with dummy government identification tags
hanging from inside mirrors. Guards cleared such vehicles through on
two occasions, this guard said, and one officer even copied down the
false information without realizing it was supposed to match
information on the employee's government badge.
Doyle, the
agency spokesman, said such tests are conducted routinely and "I can
assure you that if people fail the test they are let go.'
They're sure to be replaced by someone more competent.
