ANDRIA HALL, CNN ANCHOR: A congressional committee hears a disturbing report today on security breaches at several top federal government buildings. The breaches were discovered during an investigation by the General Accounting Office using undercover agents with phony IDs. Details now from CNN Justice correspondent Pierre Thomas.</s>PIERRE THOMAS, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Congressional investigators posing as police officers and federal agents were able to penetrate 19 of Washington's most secure buildings. Among the sites breached by investigators for the General Accounting Office: the Justice Department, FBI headquarters, the CIA, the State Department, and the Pentagon. Escorts were required at the FBI, CIA and the State Department, but at other locations, including the Energy Department and NASA, the impostors, who used fake IDs, were able to move about the buildings freely.</s>BRIAN JENKINS, TERRORISM EXPERT: The results of the probe are disturbing, but they are not surprising. People believe what they see or what they think they see. Deception and disguise often work.</s>THOMAS: According to a GAO report, undercover agents could have carried in weapons, listening devices, explosives, and chemical- biological agents. The undercover team said they were armed but they were never searched, and neither were their briefcases and bags. Security at government agencies has been receiving increasing attention, in part because of major deficiencies discovered at the nation's nuclear weapons labs, and breaches at the State Department, where the Russians were able to plant a sophisticated listening device on the same floor as Secretary Albright's office.</s>THOMAS: And now more embarrassment: The impostors were actually able to visit the suite of offices of Attorney General Reno and those of Defense Secretary Cohen. I'm Pierre Thomas, reporting live at the Justice Department.</s>BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Pierre, thanks you.
Congressional Investigators Breach Security at 19 Washington Federal Buildings