US ports still seen vulnerable to terrorism

All coastal ports in the United States are still vulnerable to terrorist attacks despite ongoing efforts to safeguard the maritime industry, security experts said late on Thursday. Stephen Flynn, a Jeane Kirkpatrick senior fellow in national security studies at the Council of Foreign Relations, said port security measures should focus on the ability to isolate the potential terrorist attack problem and protect the U.S. shipping system.

At a conference titled "Port Security and the Challenges & Implications for the U.S.," Flynn stressed the importance of keeping the system running amid a potential security breach, making it unattractive as a terrorist target. "The system has to be resilient enough to take a punch," he said, adding ship unloading in New York Harbor was delayed for a few days after the September 11 terrorist attack.

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Gary Gilbert, head of security at Hutchison Port Holdings, said that the United States could achieve the screening of 85 percent of the 12 million incoming containers each year. Hutchison Port Holdings is one of largest port developers and operators in the world, handling 51.8 million 20-foot-equivalent units in 2005. Currently, only 5.5 percent of these cargoes are screened overseas before arrival at U.S. ports. "If we screen all U.S.-bound containers at all operational CSI (Container Security Initiative) ports around the world, we would cover about 85 percent of the containers coming in," he said.

CSI, which was launched by U.S. Customs after September 11, 2001, ensures the screening of high security risk containers at 26 overseas ports. The CSI port in Hong Kong screens about 8,000 containers a year, compared with a total of about 45 million containers handled by Hong Kong and other ports in South China, he said. The speed of the container screening process could be improved if the scanners could scan the containers on the trucks without disrupting the transfer process, Gilbert said. He also suggested the installation of a tracking device on containers.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060609/us_nm/transport_port_security_dc

was quietly finalized after the "45 day cooling off period" . . .

point in regards the possibility of random attacks. Any enhanced screening would be a benefit. I like the idea of a screen as the container semis are brought in for offloading onto the ships coupled with adequate security checks on port personnel, public or private.

when you talk about border security and find outrage over the ports. Now we thoroughly sliced and diced Congress and the administration over that ports deal, but mention the borders and you get excoriated. I don't understand the inconsistency.

Maybe both the border and the ports are a bunch of hysterical security hype.

You can't have security that no one pays for.

the danger from terrorism.

We could use some new levees in Louisiana and along the Gulf Coast region.