By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
The CIA left explosive material in the engine compartment of a school bus for special-needs students after a bomb-sniffing exercise.
The exercise last week took place at Briar Woods High School, which is about a half hour from the CIA’s headquarters in northern Virginia. Students were on spring break at the time.
The explosive material was found by a mechanic during a routine maintenance check on Wednesday, Richmond.com reports.
The live explosives were left behind because the CIA lost track of them.
Dean Boyd, a CIA spokesman, confirmed the training team left behind “explosive material used as a training device for K-9s. This material is commonly used by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to train K-9s in explosives detection.”
The agency “has taken immediate steps to strengthen inventory and control procedures in its K-9 program to prevent such incidents from happening again,” Boyd said, noting that the CIA has done a full inventory of explosive material used in the training program. “CIA is a part of the Northern Virginia community and we will do whatever it takes to prevent this from happening again.”
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I recommend the CIA bring in an outside agency to review its inventory controls and storage practices. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)regulates the explosives industry and sets standards for storage of explosive materials, so ATF would be the logical choice for this job.