Detained Ship Ordered Back to Sea While Feds Examine Cargo for Radioactivity

The Associated Press ^

[TheOtherOne]

Detained Ship Ordered Back to Sea While Feds Examine Cargo for Radioactivity
The Associated Press
Published: Sep 11, 2002

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - A ship detained after traces of radioactivity were detected in its cargo was temporarily ordered back to sea, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.

The Liberian-flagged container ship, the M/V Palermo Senator, was ordered to stay in a security zone six miles offshore while the inspection continues.

The ship was directed to Berth 92 at the Port Newark/Elizabeth Marine Terminal after a Coast Guard team boarded the vessel Tuesday. Team members heard suspicious sounds in several of the ship's cargo holds, but they could not determine their source.

While no evidence of stowaways was found, they determined that the ship's cargo posed a potential risk to public safety.

Officials would not provide any details about the cargo.

Capt. Craig Bone, the Coast Guard's top official at the port, said in a statement that the boat will remain offshore "until the condition of its cargo can be ascertained and safely offloaded."

The FBI and Coast Guard wouldn't comment further on the investigation.

AP-ES-09-11-02 1503EDT

[MattinNJ]

Holy Shytsky. I work 20 miles from Newark. I'm outta here.

[Robert357]

I saw this in our local paper and passed it around the office. Sort of makes you wonder what they will find and if we will ever hear anything more about this interesting situation. 6 miles is a bit far to swim, kind of far away for convensional explosives (i.e. associated with a dirty bomb), but way to close for radioactive fall out, depending on the wind directions.

Very interesting.

[Lucas1]

Also posted here http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/748717/posts

[Tacis]

Probably nothing more than the residual radioactivity from a prior cargo. This may have been one of the ships that dropped the nukes/nuclear material in Havana. From there, it goes to Mexico and then, across the border into the US. The Mexican military, if paid enough, will move anything north, drugs, currency, illegals, or nukes. We don't give a big rat's a** about the dangerous material coming north, why should we care what goes into Newark?

[andy_card]

Holy Shytsky. I work 20 miles from Newark. I'm outta here.

Unless you work on a floating island out in the Atlantic, you'd be safe even if this turned out to be a 100 megaton nuke, which it won't be.

[Diogenesis]

Why should there be residual radioactivity, unless
the ship previously held a neutron source? or if some radioisotope
was STILL present.

Good job picking this up. Who put the cargo on board?

[gridlock]

Strong wind blowing offshore today. It's a beautiful thing!

[TheOtherOne]

Thanks for the cross-link

I searched 'radioactivity' & 'detained' nothing came up.

[toupsie]

but way to close for radioactive fall out, depending on the wind directions.

It is super windy today in NYC coming from the west. It knocked off building material from the AOL/Time Warner building and killed a woman today.

[cva66snipe]

I searched 'radioactivity' & 'detained' nothing came up.

These are two different sourced articles and not repost of the same article. You were well within bounds posting it. Even {John Haung} the King of Ping does this.

[Lion's Cub]

Good job picking this up. Who put the cargo on board?

See the link in #7. Itinerary discussed there.

[rmlew]

TRust me, a barrage of radioactive mist would not be pretty.
Of course, if someone were going on a suicide mission with a nuke, they would ignore teh coast guard cutter and have some armed men on the ship to repel borders.

[thmiley]

Those Coast Guard machine guns are hard to ignore.

[The Person]

So what happened to this investigation?