Jeff Johnson, CNSNews.com
Friday, Aug. 9, 2002

The move comes just three days after an inspector general's audit at the Justice Department found more than 200 weapons and 400 laptop computers missing from the FBI.

An audit by the inspector general of the Treasury Department, which oversees the Customs Service, was also completed Monday, but was immediately classified "law enforcement sensitive" protecting it from Freedom of Information Act disclosure to the media and other citizens.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who requested the audits from both the Justice and Treasury Departments last summer, was not happy with that decision.

"If releasing any of this information really would compromise national security, then I understand keeping it confidential," Grassley said. "But it's not right to keep a lid on information just because it's embarrassing to the agency."

The first Justice Department audit of the Immigration and Naturalization Service was released last year. Audits of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and the U.S. Marshals Service were released Monday.

"The audits of the Justice Department agencies were made public just this week, making untenable the Customs Service position that the information should be kept secret," Grassley added.

The Justice Department's inspector general found that the FBI had more than 200 weapons and 400 laptop computers that were lost or stolen during a two-year period. Based on non-classified data Grassley was able to obtain from the Treasury Department, he says the situation appears "much worse" at the Customs Service.

Grassley said that, for the last three fiscal years, the Customs Service cannot account for as many as 2,251 agency computers, approximately 5 percent of the total inventory.

In addition, 72 weapons have been lost or stolen during the same time period. One of those weapons, he said, was used in a "gang-related drive-by shooting."

Concealing such problems from the public behind the label "law enforcement sensitive," Grassley says, is "simply untenable.

"If Customs has trouble with inventory, it needs to face the problem and fix it," he argued. "This information should be disclosed to the public in full, or at least in a redacted form."

Calls to the U.S. Customs Service seeking comment on Grassley's complaint were not returned.

Copyright CNSNews.com

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