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ABC Tests U.S. Border Security
Fri Sep 6,10:18 PM ET
By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/news?tmp...1&u=/ap/20020907/ap_en_tv/tv_smuggled_uranium
NEW YORK (AP) - While some news organizations have tried to sneak material through airport screeners, ABC News thought bigger: the network smuggled depleted uranium into New York.
ABC conducted its operation to test how authorities are guarding against the possibility of a nuclear "dirty bomb" attack. Correspondent Brian Ross' investigation will air as part of ABC's Sept. 11 anniversary coverage next week.
Federal authorities are angry that they've had to spend time on ABC's experiment.
"The U.S. Customs Service is engaged in a deadly serious business," said its spokesman, Dean Boyd. "The American public wants us to focus on real threats, not fake ones."
The story comes amidst controversy over stories in the New York Daily News and on CBS this week about how journalists tried to test airport security by trying to pass items that should have set off alarms.
ABC said it borrowed 15 pounds of depleted uranium from an environmental group, the Natural Resources Defense Council, to send on its journey. The network said it consulted with experts to make sure it was safe; the Customs Service said such material has less radiation than a typical chest X-ray.
Boyd noted that depleted uranium is used widely for commercial purposes such as counterweights in elevators and in aircraft.
Ross carried it by train from Austria to Istanbul, Turkey. The contents clearly marked, it was packed in a container with wooden horse carts and terra cotta vases and shipped overseas to New York. Through it all, the depleted uranium went undetected.
"Seven countries, 25 days and 15 pounds of uranium," Ross said, "and not a single question."
The network was careful to obey all laws, federal and international, he said. The route and manner of transport followed a path outlined in court documents by an Osama bin Laden associate, who was investigated for his role in a plot to smuggle nuclear material, he said.
"One of our big concerns going into this was that we didn't want to teach terrorists something they didn't already know," he said.
ABC sent the container from Istanbul, a known smuggler's hotbed, to an address that had never received overseas shipping before because, in both cases, that should have made authorities suspicious, he said.
ABC and Customs differ on how authorities responded to a potential threat.
Of 1,139 containers on the vessel, the ABC package was one of fewer than a dozen identified for closer inspection before the ship even reached port, Boyd said. It was inspected by X-ray equipment and a separate device that tests for radiation and was found to pose no threat, he said.
Ross said, however, that the suitcase of depleted uranium would emit about the same radiation as live uranium would if it had been shielded in a lead-lined case. The container should have been opened and checked, he said.
"They missed it," he said. "They could say that it was no danger, which is true because we made sure there was no danger. But I think that misses the point."
Boyd insisted inspectors have ways to determine without opening the container whether the uranium was live or not.
"It was a fake threat that we were forced to divert resources and manpower to address," he said.
Responded Paul Friedman, executive vice president of ABC News: "When did they divert any resources? They didn't catch a thing."
Friedman said the press plays an important role in testing how well government is protecting its citizens.
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Related news report:
Reporters smuggle knives onto 14 airline flights during Labor Day weekend
Wed Sep 4,10:46 AM ET
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020904/ap_on_re_us/airlines_smuggling_2
NEW YORK - Reporters investigating airport security were able to smuggle small knives and pepper spray through checkpoints at 11 U.S. airports during the U.S. Labor Day holiday weekend, a newspaper reported Wednesday.
The reporters carried utility knives, rubber-handled razor knives, a pocket knife, a corkscrew, razor blades and pepper spray through every airport security checkpoint they encountered, the Daily News newspaper said.
CBS News crews also tested security screeners last week, although they did not attempt to smuggle banned items through checkpoints. They carried bags lined with lead to block X-rays and sailed past about 70 percent of screeners at several airports nationwide.
"They're impossible to miss, and yet they just continually let it go," said Steve Elson, who used to check security for the Federal Aviation Administration and helped with the CBS investigation.
The Daily News said guards X-rayed and hand-searched its reporters' bags, asked them to remove their shoes and checked photo identifications, but did not find the banned items.
The airports included the four at which the terrorists boarded flights on Sept. 11 last year: Newark International, Boston's Logan International, Washington Dulles International and Portland International Jetport in Maine, the News said.
The other airports were New York's La Guardia and Kennedy airports, Chicago's O'Hare, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Santa Barbara, Calif.
"We have a lot of work to do," Leonardo Alcivar, a spokesman for Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, told the News.
Chris Nardella, a spokeswoman for United Airlines, told the newspaper: "That is a violation of federal law that you guys knowingly took those items on an airline."
David Steigman, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration, could not immediately say Wednesday whether charges were expected against the reporters.
A call to the FBI was not immediately returned.
The reporters disposed of the pepper spray before boarding to ensure it would not discharge during a change in cabin pressure; the other items were never removed from the bags once inside airport secure zones, the newspaper said.
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Fri Sep 6,10:18 PM ET
By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/news?tmp...1&u=/ap/20020907/ap_en_tv/tv_smuggled_uranium
NEW YORK (AP) - While some news organizations have tried to sneak material through airport screeners, ABC News thought bigger: the network smuggled depleted uranium into New York.
ABC conducted its operation to test how authorities are guarding against the possibility of a nuclear "dirty bomb" attack. Correspondent Brian Ross' investigation will air as part of ABC's Sept. 11 anniversary coverage next week.
Federal authorities are angry that they've had to spend time on ABC's experiment.
"The U.S. Customs Service is engaged in a deadly serious business," said its spokesman, Dean Boyd. "The American public wants us to focus on real threats, not fake ones."
The story comes amidst controversy over stories in the New York Daily News and on CBS this week about how journalists tried to test airport security by trying to pass items that should have set off alarms.
ABC said it borrowed 15 pounds of depleted uranium from an environmental group, the Natural Resources Defense Council, to send on its journey. The network said it consulted with experts to make sure it was safe; the Customs Service said such material has less radiation than a typical chest X-ray.
Boyd noted that depleted uranium is used widely for commercial purposes such as counterweights in elevators and in aircraft.
Ross carried it by train from Austria to Istanbul, Turkey. The contents clearly marked, it was packed in a container with wooden horse carts and terra cotta vases and shipped overseas to New York. Through it all, the depleted uranium went undetected.
"Seven countries, 25 days and 15 pounds of uranium," Ross said, "and not a single question."
The network was careful to obey all laws, federal and international, he said. The route and manner of transport followed a path outlined in court documents by an Osama bin Laden associate, who was investigated for his role in a plot to smuggle nuclear material, he said.
"One of our big concerns going into this was that we didn't want to teach terrorists something they didn't already know," he said.
ABC sent the container from Istanbul, a known smuggler's hotbed, to an address that had never received overseas shipping before because, in both cases, that should have made authorities suspicious, he said.
ABC and Customs differ on how authorities responded to a potential threat.
Of 1,139 containers on the vessel, the ABC package was one of fewer than a dozen identified for closer inspection before the ship even reached port, Boyd said. It was inspected by X-ray equipment and a separate device that tests for radiation and was found to pose no threat, he said.
Ross said, however, that the suitcase of depleted uranium would emit about the same radiation as live uranium would if it had been shielded in a lead-lined case. The container should have been opened and checked, he said.
"They missed it," he said. "They could say that it was no danger, which is true because we made sure there was no danger. But I think that misses the point."
Boyd insisted inspectors have ways to determine without opening the container whether the uranium was live or not.
"It was a fake threat that we were forced to divert resources and manpower to address," he said.
Responded Paul Friedman, executive vice president of ABC News: "When did they divert any resources? They didn't catch a thing."
Friedman said the press plays an important role in testing how well government is protecting its citizens.
**************************************************
Related news report:
Reporters smuggle knives onto 14 airline flights during Labor Day weekend
Wed Sep 4,10:46 AM ET
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020904/ap_on_re_us/airlines_smuggling_2
NEW YORK - Reporters investigating airport security were able to smuggle small knives and pepper spray through checkpoints at 11 U.S. airports during the U.S. Labor Day holiday weekend, a newspaper reported Wednesday.
The reporters carried utility knives, rubber-handled razor knives, a pocket knife, a corkscrew, razor blades and pepper spray through every airport security checkpoint they encountered, the Daily News newspaper said.
CBS News crews also tested security screeners last week, although they did not attempt to smuggle banned items through checkpoints. They carried bags lined with lead to block X-rays and sailed past about 70 percent of screeners at several airports nationwide.
"They're impossible to miss, and yet they just continually let it go," said Steve Elson, who used to check security for the Federal Aviation Administration and helped with the CBS investigation.
The Daily News said guards X-rayed and hand-searched its reporters' bags, asked them to remove their shoes and checked photo identifications, but did not find the banned items.
The airports included the four at which the terrorists boarded flights on Sept. 11 last year: Newark International, Boston's Logan International, Washington Dulles International and Portland International Jetport in Maine, the News said.
The other airports were New York's La Guardia and Kennedy airports, Chicago's O'Hare, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Santa Barbara, Calif.
"We have a lot of work to do," Leonardo Alcivar, a spokesman for Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, told the News.
Chris Nardella, a spokeswoman for United Airlines, told the newspaper: "That is a violation of federal law that you guys knowingly took those items on an airline."
David Steigman, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration, could not immediately say Wednesday whether charges were expected against the reporters.
A call to the FBI was not immediately returned.
The reporters disposed of the pepper spray before boarding to ensure it would not discharge during a change in cabin pressure; the other items were never removed from the bags once inside airport secure zones, the newspaper said.
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