Lack of Security at Federal Buildings, According to GAO
COLLINS: Updating you on a story we first told you about yesterday here in the CNN NEWSROOM. An investigation found a serious lack of security at some federal buildings across the country. In ten of them, undercover investigators were able to get bomb components past the guards and put them together in a bathroom. CNN's Brian Todd has more.</s>BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A jolting blast in the trunk of a sedan. The detonator for this was smuggled into U.S. government buildings that were supposed to have security levels just below the White House. This video shows an undercover agent from the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, sneaking bomb components past security at a federal building. The investigators were able to take the components into bathrooms and other areas, assemble the bombs and walk freely around government buildings with the bombs in briefcases. We spoke to the GAO official who oversaw the investigation. (on camera): But some of these components -- could they be considered normal items like a screwdriver, a bottle of water, things like that a guard might not necessarily be attuned to saying, "Wait, stop that"?</s>MARK GOLDSTEIN, GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE: There are a number of items that might have been normal kind of things, but a number of things were not normal, were not things the public had any business bringing into a federal building.</s>TODD (voice-over): Mark Goldstein couldn't say what those components were or which buildings they snuck into. But he says investigators were able to pull off these stings at ten government buildings in four cities. (on camera): They including lawmakers' office, facilities connected to the Justice Department and even the Department of Homeland Security, the agency responsible for overseeing security at the very same buildings. (voice-over): The problem, according to the GAO's report, poor management by the Federal Protective Service of privately contracted security guards, like this one caught sleeping, the GAO says, after taking the sedative Percocet. The head of the Protective Service, called to account by Congress, says this.</s>GARY SCHENKEL, DIRECTOR, FEDERAL PROTECTIVE SERVICES: We are coming up with some fairly, I think aggressive -- I don't think fairly, I think very aggressive means to address these problems and, in particular, training of our contract security guards. Literally going back out to retrain them.</s>TODD: Gary Schenkel says they also increased the number of inspections at guard posts, but he also says they have only 600 inspectors responsible for checking 9,000 government buildings. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.</s>COLLINS: I'm Heidi Collins. CNN NEWSROOM continues with Tony Harris.