Specifically, you expressed concerns that such badges and credentials are readily available for purchase on the Internet and from other public sources and could be used by criminals, terrorists, and foreign intelligence agents to gain access to secure government buildings and airports. To address these concerns, you asked us to acquire fictitious law enforcement badges currently available to the public and to create fictitious identification to accompany the badges. In conducting our investigation, we collected background information from public sources on various federal government sites in the Washington, D.C., area and other geographical areas. We established a list of potential target locations based upon the sites involvement in national security, intelligence, and criminal justice and their symbolic or historic significance. We also included major commercial airports.
All sites require screening of visitors.
All sites appeared to have magnetometers and x-ray machines at the security checkpoints for screening visitors and valises, e.g., briefcases and baggage. We visited some of these sites as private citizens, i.e., members of the general public, to observe the screening procedures and conduct surveillance from public areas. We set out to determine if some sites employed additional security measures, such as outer-perimeter checkpoints, roving patrols, or countersurveillance teams. We also developed information about each site based on public source information, the Internet, and pretext telephone calls. We created multiple counterfeit sets of credentials representing local and federal law enforcement agencies.