'Dirty bomb' test caught US police napping

Police officers failed to spot what could have been a “dirty bomb” planted in the heart of Washington, a report by US government investigators revealed today.

A “suspicious package” was positioned at the base of the famous Washington Monument, near the White House, on the second anniversary of September 11.

But police were busy chatting rather than patrolling the area and one officer positioned in an unmarked car appeared to be asleep.

The unpublished Department of the Interior (DoI) report, obtained by the Washington Post and CNN, concluded that there were “persistent and severe” security deficiencies.

The test by the DoI Inspector General’s Office was conducted at a time when the US was supposed to be on high alert against the threat of a terrorist attack.

The fear that al Qaida could detonate a radioactive dirty bomb is so great that weapons specialists were sent out to major cities with radiation detectors hidden in briefcases and golf bags during the New Year celebrations.

According to the Inspector General’s Office report a black bag was placed at the rear of the Washington Monument by investigators who expected police to quickly treat it as a suspect package.

But after 20 minutes it was still there.

“There was not a single security or law enforcement official who, in that time, came around to the rear of the monument,” the report said.

“It was readily apparent that, due to the lack of security in this specific vicinity, the rear of the monument poses as a definite vulnerability.”

So the investigators decided to move the bag closer to officers, placing it next to a security point where tourists line up to view the monument.

But again the bag sat unnoticed, this time for about 15 minutes.

“Throughout this time, there was no visible park police presence,” the report said.

“There was, in fact, an unmarked car parked down by the street entrance of the memorial. However, the individual behind the wheel appeared to be sound asleep,” it said.

So bad were the US Park Police (USPP) lapses that they caused the investigators to “question their value and purpose”, the report concluded.

“It was particularly disturbing to find these vulnerabilities on a day when security and awareness should have been heightened, given the anniversary of one of America’s most horrific and tragic attacks,” it added.

A spokesman for the National Park Service said in a statement that tighter security measures were put into effect in October 2003.

“More effective security measures and a strict monitoring system by USPP now provide greater security than previously,” he said.

Democratic Congressman Jim Turner told the Washington Post: “Without a doubt, if there had been a terrorist attack on the Washington Monument on September 11, 2003, hundreds of tourists could have been killed.

“Usually, when we say someone was asleep at the wheel it is just an expression, but this time, the Park Police were literally asleep at the wheel.”

The report came to light on the same day a Pentagon-funded study concluded that a dirty bomb attack on a US city could expose hundreds of people to potentially lethal amounts of radiation.

The Centre for Technology and National Security Policy at the National Defence University, also said in the report that such an attack could lead to massive financial losses – perhaps even greater than those caused by the September 11 attacks.

The clean-up operation could take years, the report said.

“The threat of a radiological attack on the United States is real, and terrorists have a broad palette of [radiological] isotopes to choose from.

“It could cause tens to hundreds of fatalities under the right circumstances, and is essentially certain to cause great panic and enormous economic losses,” it said.

Previous studies have suggested that there would be just a handful of initial casualties from such an attack, with most fatalities coming some time after the explosion, as the result of radiation exposure.

The report called for the stockpiling of medicines to treat survivors of such an attack.