Friday, November 16, 2007

Managing Director of Forensic Audits and Special Investigations with the United States Government Accountability Office



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I got really lucky with this get. When I came in to class, I really only had a vague notion of what I wanted to do as my phoner, but it got approved so I set to work on it. Finding someone to talk to wasn't as easy as it had been in the past. At two o'clock I still didn't have an interview. However, when Greg Kutz called back, I was very excited.

Greg Kutz testified before congress this morning regarding his findings about the holes in airport security. It was a little frustrating talking to him, because he really couldn't tell me anything juicy because he said it was a matter of national security.

One thing that I wish I had time to include in my wrap was what this Government Accountability Office does. Kutz said the role of the office was to covertly test many different federal programs and systems and provide an independent report to congress.

I just thought this was very interesting, because only in dealing with airport security did I really know this office existed. Also, I think another interesting facet of my story is that the investigation into airport security has been going on for a year.

Which leads me to my next interesting point: The investigators tried to recreate the same terrorist attack that was stopped in Britain in Summer '06. They created a mock terrorist cell, found instructions to make bombs on the internet, and for $150 bought all the parts they needed. They tested they improvised bombs in government labs, then went to different airports to see if they could get the parts through security in their carry-on baggage and on their persons. It turns out that they could.

Kutz said after his investigation, he thought the united states was still extremely vulnerable to a suicide bomber.

1 comment:

Gino Wang said...

They did that??? Wow this is really interesting but also makes me really mad because I travel regularly, and it's always a pain, big pain, in the butt to go through the security gates. If people could sneak in with little separate bomb parts that easily, what's the point of the heavy duty security checking?