NPR: GAO: Canadian Border Presents Security Concerns

GAO: Canadian Border Presents Security Concerns

A threat from the Great White North, eh?

A Government Accountability Office report, presented today to the Senate Finance Committee, says there are too many vulnerable spots along the 5,000-mile-long U.S.-Canadian border where someone could smuggle radioactive materials into the United States.

CongressDaily reports that on three separate occasions GAO officials "probed apparently unmonitored and unmanned sections of the northern border, finding that they could sneak from Canada into the United States undetected even while carrying a red duffel bag to simulate the smuggling of radioactive materials or other contraband." A GAO video shows agents going back and forth across the border.

A Customs and Border Protection spokesman downplayed the findings and hinted that officials might have been aware of what the GAO was doing but determined it wasn't a threat. CBS reports that border officials still believe the border with Mexico is a far greater threat.

3:57 PM ET | 09-27-2007 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

We may need to be reminded that the US Customs Service is charged mainly with looking at people coming into the country, and to a very much lesser extent, with people leaving the country. Their Canadian counterparts have the same mandate and focus. Neither organization pays as much attention to people leaving their respective jurisdictions as they do people seeking to come in.

The GAO probe therefore reveals a failure of the US Customs Service, one which based on the evidence collected, cannot fairly be laid at the feet of their Canadian counterparts.

Surely this is just one of many failures that need to be addressed in various aspects of cross-border security and commerce. It will not help us make real progress in cooperation if the incomplete, unanalyzed and misdirecting information in this report is typical of American reporting. I would have expected that NPR, at least, could rise above that standard.

Sent by Bob Hilchey | 9:49 PM ET | 09-27-2007

So border officials think terrorists crossing our border with Mexico is a greater threat? Hmmmm ... I seem to recall that a certain member of Al-Qaida was busted coming across the Canadian border with a trunk full of explosives for bringing the New Year's Day 2000 celebration in with a bang at LAX. Let's face it, no one is talking about a fence across that border and it's no secret that the atmosphere is considerably more relaxed about the threat from up north in general. If I was Al-Qaida, why not try it again, since all eyes seem to be pointed south? The fact that so many people view the border with Mexico as the greater threat, when there's significant evidence to the contrary leads to an obvious conclusion. Racism is alive and well in America. Somehow a country with more brown people than white people just seems more threatening to ... white American people, of course.

Sent by John R. Otten | 6:43 PM ET | 09-29-2007

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