Bomb parts smuggled into U.S. buildings

WASHINGTON, July 8 (UPI) -- Plainclothes investigators smuggled bomb components into 10 U.S. government buildings in a security test, a report released Wednesday said.

The report, by the Government Accountability Office, found investigators were able to use bathrooms to assemble bombs and enter offices without being questioned, CNN reported.

The GAO conducted the test to measure the effectiveness of the Federal Protective Service, part of Homeland Security. The service has about 1,200 federal law enforcement officers overseeing 13,000 private security guards.

GAO investigators videotaped a security guard asleep and an undercover agent smuggling the parts of a bomb into an unidentified building, CNN said.

The GAO used actual bomb components, not simulated ones used in some other tests.

The buildings, in four cities, housed offices of federal lawmakers and agencies that are part of the departments of State, Justice and Homeland Security. The buildings each had at least 450 government employees and a "high level of public contact," CNN said.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Ind-Conn., the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, called the test results "simply unacceptable."

"We knew that the FPS was a troubled agency, but that GAO could penetrate security at these buildings and make bombs without detection is truly shocking," he said.