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DATE=5/25/2000 TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT TITLE=CONGRESS/SECURITY (L) NUMBER=2-262821 BYLINE=PAULA WOLFSON DATELINE=CAPITOL HILL CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: Congressional investigators have evidence of new security problems at key government offices and two busy American airports. They include buildings housing the Departments of Justice, State, Energy and Defense, as well as the F-B-I and the Central Intelligence Agency. V-O-A's Paula Wolfson has details. TEXT: Armed investigators posing as law enforcement officers were able to bypass security checkpoints. They carried fake credentials, and were simply waved in. They easily entered secure areas without screening - - sometimes getting close to the offices of top government officials. ///Hast tease act//// Our undercover agents were 100 percent successful in penetrating 19 federal sites and two commercial airports. (Reagan National and Orlando Airport) ///end act//// Robert Hast is an official with the General Accounting Office, the investigatory arm of the U-S Congress. He released the G-A-O's findings to members of the House Subcommittee on Crime. ///Hast act//// At no time during the undercover visits were our agents' identification challenged by anyone. ///end act /// The subcommittee requested the probe. The panel asked the General Accounting Office to focus on the security risk posed by fake law enforcement credentials. Florida Republican Bill McCollum is the subcommittee chairman: ///McCollum act/// I've been concerned with the fact that stolen and counterfeit police badges are readily available on the internet and from other commercial sources and that they can be used by criminals, terrorists and foreign intelligence agents for illegal purposes. ///end act/// Mr. McCollum says the fake identification cards used in the investigation were created on a computer with a common graphics program. ///second McCollum act/// They are not perfect counterfeits by any means. They were not intended to be perfect copies of the real thing. That fact alone is very disturbing. What these agents did, a lot of people could do. ///end act//// Affected federal agencies were informed of the results of the General Accounting Office probe before they were made public. The Justice Department immediately tightened building security. The Department has always offered easy access to its headquarters as a courtesy to state and local law enforcement officers. Now, they too must go through a security screening before entering the building. (Signed) NEB/PW/ENE/PT 25-May-2000 17:11 PM EDT (25-May-2000 2111 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .