http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=4357823
Canada Still Open to Terror Attacks Says Official Report "PA" Canada's borders are still vulnerable to terrorists due to "serious weaknesses" in the nation's public security system, despite billions of dollars spent since the 2001 attacks in the United States, the country's auditor general says. "There can be abuse of the system," Sheila Fraser said in Ottawa after introducing her report on national security to Parliament. "There are too many weaknesses and risks are heightened because of those weaknesses." Airport screeners let some "threat objects" such as fake bombs and guns, slip through mock security checks, but the results from the tests were classified, Fraser said, making it impossible to determine how serious the breaches may have been. Washington announced yesterday that Americans would need passports to re-enter the US from Canada by 2008. Canada's public safety minister Anne McLellan countered that Americans may also be required to use passports to cross the border into Canada. Yet Canada's Passport Office, Fraser said, was plagued by inadequate watch lists, outdated technology and poor record-checking. Some examiners operate without security clearances, criminal watch lists lacked key police and immigration data, and passport officers were not supplied with basic tools, such as magnifying glasses. The Passport Office, she said, had been swamped with an increase in applications. "Now they really need to turn their attention to security," she told CBC TV. The security review also said the federal Public Safety Department still did not know who would take the lead in the event of a national disaster. "Last year, I said September 11, 2001, changed our perception of how safe we are and led to higher expectations for our security," Fraser said. "The government still has work to do to meet those expectations." The report said improvements have been made in marine security, but "serious weaknesses" remained in emergency preparedness and air transport security. The report also said training for first responders - the police officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians who would be the first on the scene of a chemical, biological or nuclear disaster - "was progressing very slowly". The government estimated that it needed to train 6,000 emergency personnel, but only 200 are fully prepared to handle a major attack. Among other shortcomings, the report said the government still had no emergency plan in place for major power failures like the one that plunged much of Ontario and north-eastern US into darkness nearly two years ago. Despite the 2003 blackout, officials were "unable to provide us with plans to address energy shortages," the report said. Latest News: http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Give underprivileged students the materials they need to learn. Bring education to life by funding a specific classroom project. http://us.click.yahoo.com/FHLuJD/_WnJAA/cUmLAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
