Report: DoD misled Congress on NORAD attack threatThe Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jun 17, 2008 5:32:28 EDT
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — In a report to Congress, the Pentagon understated the vulnerability of the nation’s air and space defense command to an attack before the command moved to its new location at Colorado’s Peterson Air Force Base, a newspaper reported Monday.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command moved from its longtime cave-complex home inside Cheyenne Mountain to Peterson in May. On March 3, military leaders reported that an assessment of a building at the air base that serves as the nation’s homeland security nerve center found “several physical security problems.”
But the Colorado Springs Gazette obtained a classified document stating that the assessment found “the existing security system at Peterson AFB ... would fail if attacked by even a low level threat.”The assessment was contained in a draft report by the Government Accountability Office as part of an ongoing GAO review of the March 3 report to Congress. That report never informed Congress whether security measures could ensure a maximum level of security at Peterson, as required.
The Peterson command center where NORAD started operating on May 28 requires a Protection Level 1, reserved for “those assets whose loss, theft, destruction, misuse or compromise would result in great harm to the strategic capability of the United States,” the Gazette reported.
Rest of article at:
http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/06/ap_norad_attackthreat_061608/