Border fails the test of undercover U.S. investigators

[CBC News]

Undercover American investigators who snuck duffel bags across the U.S.-Canada border have concluded that a smuggler could easily carry radioactive material or other contraband from one country to the other.
The Government Accountability Office, an investigative branch of the U.S. Congress, sent out investigators to test how hard it would be to transfer large red duffel bags at unguarded and unmonitored spots along the 8,000-kilometre border.
The tests were done from four northern states, which were not identified. The exercises were videotaped and photographed.
The details of the investigation were outlined in a 13-page report that will be given to Congress.
During one of the tests, a citizen noticed the unusual activity and alerted a border official, but by the time authorities came to the scene, they could not locate the undercover investigators.
"Our work shows that a determined cross-border violator would likely be able to bring radioactive materials or other contraband undetected into the United States by crossing the U.S.-Canada border at any of the locations we investigated," the accountability office report states.
Investigators determined that the Canadian border with the United States "presents more of a challenge" than the U.S.-Mexico border.
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Is this a Canadian problem or an American issue?


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[Twila]

I use to work for a company that did work for the airports. We use to get an "exceptions" report twice a month. This was a security report on the screening process. The types of exceptions that were most common were people getting onto the tarmac without authorization, suspicious items in luggage that would make it past the screeners and disappear.

This was after 9/11 and I'd hate to think how large the exceptions report would have been then!

 

[Dreadful Nonsense]

smugglers...yeah right ..like you are going to be able to control this ever...anywhere ....people constantly got in and out of Berlin after the Berlin wall...put there by the most paranoid and efficient police force on the planet....

 

[JoeSchmoe]

Why unmonitered spots? I've been through the border a zillion times and they rarely even do a cursary check of the vehicle. Sometimes they poke their head in the vehicle to take a look. And even more rarely do they open any of the luggage.

We do need more security.... but that's not the border that needs it. It's too big and too busy to scrutinize everyone carefully enough.

The ports, coasts and air traffic coming in to North America needs to be much more secure. Then there won't as much worrying about the (un-securable) border.

However, more dangerous than some fictional nuclear material going to the Paranoid States of America is the flow of guns from the USA to Canada. Somehow Canada needs to make the border much less porous to ACTUAL illegal activity....

 

[Unforgiven]

Doesn't a hunk of Plutonium have a huge image on sensing equipment? If so wouldn't it be difficult to obtain some, move it around to a nice quiet area to cross the border and then into an area to construct it, then set it off?

Or are they just worried about BC Bud?

 

[Nuggler]

Doesn't a hunk of Plutonium have a huge image on sensing equipment? If so wouldn't it be difficult to obtain some, move it around to a nice quiet area to cross the border and then into an area to construct it, then set it off?

Or are they just worried about BC Bud?

Isn't plutonium the most poisonous substance on earth, Unf? By the time you smuggled it across you'd probably be glowing, and dead shortly thereafter. To smuggle it in a "safe" container would require too much bulk>>>>>>>>?? dunno.

Course if you're some kind of derka derka, death would set you free, and give you a crack at a bunch of virgins...........which, apparently, there is a dearth of in the mid East..............

But, you're right. That would be the way to go............:glasses11::glasses11:......smuggle smuggle.......boom.

Chances are they'd get lost, walk in a circle and blow up Thunder Bay, or Moose Squat Sask.

:sad1:d'oh..............(probably worried about the bud)

 

[Sal]

This is the news item that had me arguing with an American in my other forum. He went into a diatribe about us being American hating losers who were going to split apart piece by piece starting with Alberta and Quebec etc. That parts of Canada would join the States starting with Alberta and they would basically then have complete access to the tar sands.

....snarl.... The debate got pretty ugly.

But funny too. Another American poster said all Alberta would have to do to convince themselves what a mistake it was would be to meet an arrogant s.o.b like him and they would change their minds.

 

[hermanntrude]

we've been having some debate recently about anti-american bias being shown by some members. It's cases like yours that inspire the anti-american feeling in some. My advice is try to remember he's just one vocal idiot in a sea of unheard sensible people

 

[#juan]

we've been having some debate recently about anti-american bias being shown by some members. It's cases like yours that inspire the anti-american feeling in some. My advice is try to remember he's just one vocal idiot in a sea of unheard sensible people

Shortly after 9/11, Hillary Clinton was on the TV news blaming Canada for our leaky border.....It has since been shown that most, if not all the hijackers had been living in the U.S. for some time....Some even took flying lessons in that country. Good old Hillary never did apologize for that gaff....nor did Bush for his...faux pas....:smile::roll:

 

[hermanntrude]

yes well that's the american government for you.

I suspect that even amongst those ranks you might find a few decent people

 

[#juan]

yes well that's the american government for you.

I suspect that even amongst those ranks you might find a few decent people

I'm sure you're right. :smile::smile::smile::roll:

 

[missile]

We have to somehow convince them to cover every inch of our border, to protect them from us,of course:smile: And, because we are so untrustworthy..we don't deserve the benefits of good old American commercialism, so they have to close down all the American outlets here[also for their protection].