With virtually no questions asked, an undercover ABC News team was able to purchase a half ton of one of the world's most dangerous bomb-making materials and move it into a storage shed only a few miles from the White House and the U.S. Capitol. Despite its use in the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building, there are still no federal laws restricting the purchase of ammonium nitrate, a chemical fertilizer, widely sold at farm supply stores.
The ABC News undercover team made the purchases, in cash, at farm supply stores in North Carolina and Virginia and were never once asked for any valid ID.
Legislation requiring buyers of ammonium nitrate to be registered by the federal government have been blocked by the agricultural industry, according to the Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Congressman Pete King (R-NY).
The results of the ABC News investigation are "a wake-up call that the American people and the Congress needs," King said. A law requiring sellers to record purchases has passed King's committee and is awaiting a vote by the full House.
Brian Ross' full investigative report will air Monday on World News with Charles Gibson and as part of an ABC News Special Report on the fifth anniversary of 9/11. (10pm EST/9pm Central)
