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Security in the trucking system is woefully inadequate, according to a report by the General Accounting Office submitted to Congress before the Sept. 11 attacks, the New York Times reported.

The GAO found the lapses in the system for shipping military explosives around the United States by truck were so serious that they posed substantial security or public safety risks, the Times said.

The Defense Department makes some 40,000 shipments of explosives each year, with about 20% of them involving items like cruise missiles and handheld rockets.

The Defense Department often hires private trucking companies to move the weapons, the GAO report said.

Under the military contract, trucking companies are allowed to leave trucks loaded with weapons in the commercial carrier terminals. However, the accounting office, said the Times story, found few safeguards to keep deadly weapons away from intruders and are often near residential areas.

At one terminal, investigators found keys to the gates hanging on a wall, while a security guard watched television in a main building. A shipment of Hawk missiles was sitting in the yard in temporary storage.

Investigators told the Times they were allowed full access to missiles and rockets when they flashed bogus credentials that appeared to be from the Defense Department.

They said they then signed in using different names than those on the credentials but no one noticed.

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