[ISN] Park Police Bomb Their Terrorism Test

From: InfoSec News (isn@private)
Date: Wed Jan 14 2004 - 03:53:33 PST

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    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11312-2004Jan12.html
    
    [Click on the link for the photo.  - WK]
    
    
    By Richard Leiby
    Tuesday, January 13, 2004; Page C01 
    
    In broad daylight on Sept. 11, 2003, somebody deposited what could 
    have been a "dirty bomb" at the Washington Monument. U.S. Park Police 
    never noticed. 
    
    It wasn't a real bomb, just a suspicious-looking black plastic bag 
    stuffed with garbage. And the culprits weren't terrorists, but 
    investigators from the Interior Department's Office of Inspector 
    General, out to demonstrate the monument's vulnerability on that 
    infamous anniversary. 
    
    As documented in photos and a memo obtained by The Reliable Source, 
    the feds left the bag at the rear of the obelisk for 20 minutes, then 
    moved it near a security checkpoint where tourists lined up to enter 
    the landmark. "Again, the unidentified bag sat there, undisrupted and 
    unnoticed, for roughly 15 minutes," wrote Inspector General Earl E. 
    Devaney in the memo, citing his "grave concerns for the security and 
    public safety at these facilities." 
    
    No Park Police could be seen on patrol, except for one in an unmarked 
    car who "appeared to be sound asleep," Devaney wrote. 
    
    The memo, now in the hands of the House Select Committee on Homeland 
    Security, has some staffers in stitches. But Rep. Jim Turner (D-Tex.), 
    ranking committee member, is outraged. "Without a doubt, if there had 
    been a terrorist attack on the Washington Monument on Sept. 11, 2003, 
    hundreds of tourists could have been killed," Turner told us 
    yesterday. "Usually when we say someone was asleep at the wheel, it is 
    just an expression, but this time, the Park Police were literally 
    asleep at the wheel. . . . Someone needs to be held accountable for 
    this." 
    
    The memo increased controversy surrounding Park Police Chief Teresa C. 
    Chambers, whom the National Park Service moved to fire last month 
    after she publicly called the 620-member force overstretched and 
    underfunded. Chambers, placed on leave and under a gag order from her 
    bosses, can't comment. But supporters say she ordered an 
    investigation, confirmed the lapses and tried to fix them -- all while 
    under attack from what her attorney calls "internal terrorists." 
    
    Tomorrow: deeper inside the Washington Monument "sleeper cell." 
    
    [...]
    
    
    
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