WASHINGTON — Americans face a high risk of terrorist activity along the U.S.-Canadian border, where less than 1 percent of the 4,000-mile stretch is adequately protected, according to a government report released Tuesday.
“To me, this report is absolutely alarming,” said Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent and the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, which released the report.
The report said the northern border, a quarter of which adjoins federal or tribal lands, poses a higher risk to public safety now than the U.S.- Mexico border. However, Rep. Rick Larsen, a Washington state Democrat whose district includes about 100 miles of the northern border, said it’s wrong to imply that the border “is just being left open for people to walk across with impunity — that’s just not the case.”
“To imply either that our border with Canada is undefended or unsafe does not at all recognize the cooperation that occurs every day between local, state and federal law enforcement and their partners in Canada,” he said.
The report criticized federal agencies for not doing enough to cooperate with one another. McClatchy Newspapers
