Your point illustrates perfectly that you don't understand this.
Control of the terminals just means that you control the unloading of stuff at that terminal. You don't control what enters the port in the first place, because its obviously been loaded overseas.
So now this ship with a nuke hidden on board comes steaming into New York Harbor, and detonates. That's your scenario, right?
At that point, does who is unloading the ships even matter? At all?
%%%%%
People just did not want to open their eyes to this fact. Even though we human beings go through examinations Before we get on an airplane - not when we get off the plane. DPW bought the contracts to handle "baggage" and thought that they could do it efficiently enough to earn a profit.
Would a dirty bomb exploded at a gate close the gate or the entire airport?
This could happen anywhere today, without any particular ownership of any area. Yesterday a 150ft barge loaded with rock broke away from its moorings in the Severn River near Annapolis, Md, and floated up alongside 2 pylons of the massive Interstate 50 bridge over that river. Until the barge could be moved and the damage could be assessed, all traffic on this bridge and one just downstream was instantly stopped. All those people driving along attending to their own business were unavoidably detained! Stuck! This could happen on any bridge or tunnel in America as a result of terrorist action, should a terrorist so desire. That does not mean that we stop using bridges and tunnels. It does not even mean that we put armed guards at every bridge in America. We just get on with life.
The amount of hysteria and ignorance of port operations in our country has really depressed me.