Although the impostors said they were armed, they actually carried no weapons. Their counterfeit identification was created with easily available computer software, CNN was told. The GAO investigators, many of them former Secret Service agents, did not try to breach security at the White House or the U.S. Capitol building, because some of them had recently done security work in both locations and would have been recognized. They were also allowed to drive their rental van into the Justice Department's interior courtyard parking lot without a security inspection. At the airports, the investigators made it as far as the jetway unchallenged before turning back.
People believe what they see or what they think they see.
The Pentagon, FBI and Justice Department all said they had tightened security based on the GAO findings and recommendations. Guards outside the building will verify visitors' picture identifications and which FBI employee they are visiting, rather than waiting to do that when the visitors reach an escort desk inside the J. Edgar Hoover Building. Some of the precautions will also be applied to other FBI locations as well. Visitors to the popular FBI Tour will not be required to have an appointment with an FBI employee, but they will continue to pass through a metal detector, have their packages searched and be escorted inside the building. This policy is now under review, Flood said.