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Paper no. 3068 Admiral Sureesh Mehta, the Chief of the Naval Staff sounded a stern warning on 18th February 2009, about the possibility of nuclear weapons being smuggled in to the country through the ever increasing container traffic. The warning was issued at a seminar to discuss Port Development and related security issues. At one level, there is nothing new in the warning. Similar warnings were issued post 9/11 by US and other maritime analysts who expected the seas to be the next medium for transportation and manifestation of terror. It is this fear that prompted the US to examine...

President Barack Obama on Saturday laid out more pieces of an economic plan he says would add 3,000 miles of electrical lines, increase security at 90 ports and double the United States' renewable energy capacity within three years. It was the latest appeal from the new president for a massive spending bill designed to inject almost a trillion dollars into a flailing U.S. economy and to fulfill campaign pledges. As members of Congress consider an $825 billion plan and Obama woos them, his White House released a radio and Internet address directed at voters who want answers. ( ... )...

SNIPPET: "Two stowaways onboard a container ship were apprehended at the Port of Los Angeles." SNIPPET: "The Coast Guard had been notified that two stowaways were discovered on the LA-bound container ship Zenit during an earlier port call. The stowaways were reported to be Nigerian nationals"

With all eyes on the Big O’s Office of the President-elect, very few know that the Port of Los Angeles--the nation’s largest--is now effectively under the control of the Peoples Republic of China.

ABU DHABI — A leading Gulf firm in the United Arab Emirates whose plans to operate six U.S. ports was last year rebuffed by Congress, has been certified as a partner in a U.S. port security program. The state-owned Dubai Ports World has been certified as a partner in the Customs-Trade Partnership against Terrorism. DP World underwent a successful audit that determined the company met international ISO 28000 security standards required by C-TPAT. In 2007, DP abandoned plans to purchase a British company that operated six major ports in the United States, Middle East Newsline reported. Congress was opposed to...

More details have emerged about an apparent infiltration of Islamic terrorists through US ports during the past two months.Some of the men slipped through secuirty disguised as stevedores, according to Bob Graham Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.He said he had seen reports indicating that some extremists might have been wearing safety jackets and protective helmets to give the appearance of dockworkers.U.S. Coast Guard Officials have refused to divulge any information about the reports but Graham stressed: 'The American people have a right to know.'He said 25 extremists 'entered in a foriegn country, hid out in a container...

WASHINGTON: The specter of a nuclear bomb, hidden in a cargo container, detonating in an American port has prompted Congress to require 100 percent screening of U.S.-bound ships at their more than 600 foreign starting points. The Bush administration and shippers maintain the technology for scanning 11 million containers each year does not exist and say the requirement could disrupt trade. Current procedures including manifest inspections at foreign ports and radiation monitoring in U.S. ports are working well, they contend. Nonetheless, President George W. Bush signed the measure into law this month and praised its transfer of domestic money to...

Lost in Transit by: Bethany Stotts, July 25, 2007 With the recent revelation that the Department of Defense cannot locate more than 50,000 containers, concerns about the government's ability to equip soldiers on the battlefield prompted Senators Daniel Akaka (D-HI) and George Voinovich (R-OH) to call the fourth senate hearing on DoD supply-chain management since 2005. Many of the containers lost in transit are owned privately, and have simply disappeared. When asked if the containers were empty or full when they were lost, or if they made it to their destination, General Schwartz, Commander of the U.S. Transportation Command, replied...

May 11, 2007 U.S. Port Contractor Has Terrorist Ties A foreign company set to build a massive tunnel project at a major U.S. seaport has close ties to the government of a country that has long appeared on the State Department’s list of nations that sponsor terrorism. The French construction giant (Bouygues Travaux Publics) is the preferred contractor to build a $1 billion tunnel at the South Florida Port of Miami, the world’s top cruise ship terminal with nearly 4 million passengers annually and one of the country’s busiest cargo ports with about one million containers a year. It turns...

The television advertisement starts with an ominous warning about 9/11. Then it shows a nuclear explosion, followed by a photo of Osama bin Laden and a ship loaded with cargo containers. "Since 9/11, it is one of the greatest threats we face, a nuclear weapon in the hands of Osama bin Laden shipped through an American port," says the voice-over. Finally, the ad reveals its villain: an outfit based in Arkansas that has a network of 1.8 million workers around the world who operate at 3,900 locations in the United States. Its corporate name is Wal-Mart Stores Inc. What's the...

MIAMI - The Port of Miami was hit by its second terrorism scare in two days Monday when a package that was to be loaded onto a cruise ship tested positive for plastic explosives. Authorities later determined it was harmless. The package was initially tested six times, and each time it came back positive for the military-grade explosive known as C4, the Coast Guard said. The package was then destroyed, and a Miami-Dade County police bomb squad determined it contained sprinkler parts, said Zach Mann, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Miami.

MIAMI Jan 8, 2007 (AP)— A package that was going to be loaded onto a cruise ship at the Port of Miami tested positive for plastic explosives Monday, the Coast Guard said. The package was tested six times and each time it came back positive for C4, said Petty Officer James Judge. Miami-Dade police were examining the package to confirm whether explosives were present. The developments came a day after three Middle Eastern men in a cargo truck sparked a brief terrorism scare at the port. After a bomb squad search, authorities concluded that the men were carrying automotive parts...

Bush signs law on security for US ports, ban on online gambling President George W. Bush signed a law designed to bolster security at US ports and prevent terrorists from smuggling in nuclear weapons. The law also included an unrelated provision inserted by lawmakers in Congress to severely restrict Internet gambling, prompting gaming companies abroad to close down their US operations. Hoping to retain control of Congress in legislative elections on November 7, lawmakers in Bush's Republican party adopted the measure two weeks ago to persuade voters that they are better able to prevent another terrorist attack. The Republicans rode...

DUBAI DUETS Late Friday, Department of Justice lawyers in the Office of Legal Counsel were attempting to determine if former President Bill Clinton had registered as an "Agent of a Foreign Principal." Federal statute requires that anyone -- even a former President -- doing political or public affairs work on behalf of a foreign country, agency or official must register with the Department, and essentially update his status every six months. It was not clear the Clinton had done so. If his status is less clear, here is what we do know: If Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton did not know...

NORFOLK, Va. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is endorsing U-S Senator George Allen's re-election bid. Giuliani joined Allen today for a briefing on port security in Norfolk and a private fundraising luncheon in Virginia Beach. It is the second time in two weeks that Allen has appeared with a possible rival for the 2008 G-O-P presidential nomination. Giuliani is best known nationally for his leadership following the terrorist attacks on New York City five years ago. He has been traveling around the nation speaking on behalf of Republican candidates. Allen brought the popular former mayor with him to Hampton...

Excerpt - Bomb squads are responding to Terminal 18 on Seattle's waterfront after a canine bomb team found possible explosives in a container, the Coast Guard said this afternoon. ~ snip ~

The nation's defense against nuclear terrorism took a major step Friday, federal officials said, following the award of contracts worth $1.2 billion to install advanced sensors at U.S. ports of entry to screen for radioactive cargo. The Department of Homeland Security plans to install 1,400 advanced detection systems at 370 border crossings and ports under the program, which has been in development at federal laboratories for several years. The sensors, which cost $350,000 to $600,000 each, will allow inspectors to scan rail cars, trucks and shipping containers with greater accuracy and fewer false alarms, said Vayl S. Oxford, director of...

LONDON (Reuters) - The threat of an al Qaeda attack from the sea remains an "absolute concern" and could intensify as operations on land are countered, the U.S. Navy's top commander in the Gulf told Reuters on Monday. Since the September 11 attacks on the United States, governments and security experts have repeatedly voiced fears about the vulnerability of the maritime industry, which carries more than 90 percent of the world's traded goods. "I don't think there is any question that as we thwart their attacks and disrupt their operations on land, that we should expect them to turn to...

To counter terrorists, you need to think like one. That will be the case to thwart terrorists who want to match, if not exceed, the devastating September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. September 11 came from the sky in a somewhat unconventional way. Terrorists turned fully-fueled airplanes with passengers into cruise missiles, crashing them into the symbols of U.S. economic and military strength: the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In their desire to at least match the destructive effect of those attacks, terrorists will look for another "creative," unconventional approach. This time, it could come from the...

<p>Adam Housley reports a ship from Guatemala had written in the hold "This Nitro is for you George Bush."</p>

PORT HUENEME, Calif. -- A Southern California port was closed off Monday afternoon while authorities investigated a possible terrorist threat on a cargo ship, a port official said. A dock worker at the Port of Hueneme in Ventura County discovered a possible threat written in the cargo hold of a ship carrying bananas from Guatemala, said Will Berg, the port's marketing director. Berg said the message, scrawled in marker on a metal pillar in the ship, read: "This nitro is for you Mr. George W. Bush and your Jewish cronies." Federal authorities, including the FBI, and local officials were investigating,...

WASHINGTON When the storm erupted several months ago over plans by a United Arab Emirates-based company to take over management of half a dozen American port terminals, one voice resonated in Washington. Stephen Flynn, a retired Coast Guard commander and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, repeatedly told lawmakers and reporters that domestic ports were so vulnerable that terrorists could easily sneak a radioactive device into something as innocuous as a shipment of sneakers. And he offered a solution: a cargo inspection system in Hong Kong that scans every container, instead of the fraction now checked in the...

LOS ANGELES -- Illegal immigration is a hot button political issue these days, but a knowledgeable insider from the Customs and Border Protection agency told NBC4's Kelly Mack that his superiors are increasingly cool to the idea of stopping illegal immigation at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. (Following is a verbatim script from the on-air report.) Kelly Mack: Undocumented aliens slipping across our borders! Politicians are demanding a crackdown. But when it comes to this avenue of illegal entry, one insider tells us, the door is wide open. Whistleblower: The security in the port is extremely lacking...

Under intense pressure from shipping companies concerned about costly delays, the Coast Guard is tipping off some large commercial ships about security searches that had been a surprise, high-ranking Coast Guard officials have said. The searches began after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as part of a major revamping of the Coast Guard and its new anti-terrorism mission. But shipping companies say the surprise boardings at sea cause unnecessary delays, costing up to $40,000 an hour. “We're trying to facilitate commerce and keep the port secure – and sometimes the two conflict,” said Capt. Paul Wiedenhoeft, who is in...

WASHINGTON Answering criticism about security gaps at U.S. seaports, the Bush administration said Tuesday it will conduct background checks on an estimated 400,000 port workers to ensure they do not pose a terrorist threat. Names of employees who work in the most sensitive areas of ports will be matched against government terror watch lists and immigration databases, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said. Additionally, the Homeland Security Department will issue tamper-free identification cards to roughly 750,000 workers _ including truckers and rail employees _ who have unrestricted assess to ports.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the U.S. has developed a sophisticated system of nets to catch dangerous foreign cargo before it gets into the U.S. The problem, critics say, is that the nets are full of holes. Those holes allowed a cargo container holding 22 Chinese stowaways to land April 4 at the Port of Seattle, unloaded from the M/V Rotterdam. The container likely would have sat for several days before anyone inspected it, said Mike Milne, a Seattle spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the agency in charge of such inspections. Of course, long before that, in...

X-ray images of the contents of 1.5 million shipping containers, ripe for intelligence analysis, are sitting on a computer server in Hong Kong unused. The imagery has been collected over the past year in a pilot program run at the Port of Hong Kong, the busiest in the world. It is a program that a shipping executive said Monday proves every container coming in or out of a port can be screened for contraband, narcotics, humans and weapons without slowing down global trade. It could be a treasure trove of data for U.S. Customs, the Defense Department, the Homeland Security...

22 smuggled Chinese arrested at the Seattle seaportICE launches probe into human smuggling scheme SEATTLE - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are continuing to piece together the details this morning of a human smuggling scheme that resulted in the arrest of 22 Chinese nationals at the Seattle seaport overnight. Several of the Chinese were initially spotted by private port security personnel wandering in a cargo area at around 1:00 a.m. today. The port personnel contacted the Department of Homeland Security and ICE agents and officers from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) responded. This morning, ICE agents...

SEATTLE (AP) - Twenty-two Chinese nationals were in custody Wednesday after they apparently let themselves out of a 12-metre cargo container that had been used to smuggle them from China, officials said. The 18 men and four women, all believed to be in their 20s and 30s, seemed to be in good physical condition after about two weeks in the container, said Michael Milne, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Port of Seattle security guards spotted the group about 1 a.m. Milne said there was no evidence of "any real criminal or terrorist activity . . . just...

Scare at the Sub Base GROTON -- Police and fire units have set up a perimeter at the Groton Sub Base. Bomb-sniffing dogs have been also called out to the scene. Navy authorities are providing very limited information as to what happened Monday morning. Crystal Lake Avenue and the military highway road along the river have been blocked off by local police. This provides access to Gate #1 where the incident involving a truck took place. A spokesperson for the sub base tells Eyewitness news that at 6:30 a.m. Monday a Navy dog trained to sniff for explosives sensed something...

LONDON -- European Union regulators today approved A.P. Moller-Maersk's $2.8 billion takeover of P&O Nedlloyd (schedules). In return, Copenhagen-based Maersk has agreed to sell P&O Nedlloyd's Europe-South Africa operations and withdraw the Dutch carrier from several liner conferences and consortia. The European Commission, the EU's executive agency, said it was particularly concerned about the impact of the merger on the transport of refrigerated products from South Africa to Europe where the two merging carriers have a market share of more than 50 percent.

PORTSMOUTH — Entering the Virginia Port Authority’s three marine cargo terminals soon will involve a technology similar to the Smart Tag toll collection system. Officials say the new system will better secure the port. E ven with such improvements, many in the maritime industry think the nation’s 360 seaports remain unnecessarily vulnerable to attack because a national transportation worker identification card still has not been developed by the federal government, despite four years of efforts .When the entry system debuts in about a month at Portsmouth Marine Terminal, truck drivers will proceed to an unmanned entry gate. There they will...

Given the extraordinary amount of petro-dollars that Dubai has spent in recent years, much of it with US companies, transforming itself from a desert fiefdom into a centre for tourism, media, technology and finance, the tiny state's commercial interests are inextricably aligned with the West rather than the Jihadis. Dubai's Internet City has attracted leading US technology companies, such as Cisco Systems, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard. American designers are behind the $1bn Burj Dubai development, which includes the world's tallest building. Boeing has been selling fleets of aircraft to Dubai's Emirates airline.

A bomb hidden in a container explodes in a Western port: that is the nightmare of police and terrorism experts, who are turning to new technology to combat the threat. While port security is at the heart of the row in the United States over the controversial proposal to hand over control operations at key US ports to a Dubai company, a consortium of big companies is testing a system which would allow continual checks on the contents and itinerary of a container and above all establish whether it has been opened illicitly. It involves a system of receivers installed...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Dubai's government may formally subscribe to the Arab boycott of Israel, but a state-owned company at the center of a controversy over its bid to take over some U.S. port operations says it routinely works with Israeli firms. It's a contradiction increasingly apparent in the region: Several Persian Gulf states, especially ones entering international markets, mostly ignore the boycott even though they haven't formally ended it and don't recognize Israel. Countries like the United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is a part, have also ended secondary boycotts, meaning Israeli products not shipped directly from Israel...

Myth: Only a small number of the containers that come into the seaports are inspected. Summary of Reality: CBP uses intelligence to screen information on 100% of cargo entering our seaports, and all cargo that presents a risk to our country is inspected using large x-ray and radiation detection equipment. Following 9/11, the Administration developed and implemented a smarter strategy to identify, target, and inspect cargo containers before they reach U.S. ports. Anyone can secure a nation by closing its borders and inspect everything and everybody that enters. Closing the borders is not an option. None of the security measures...

A friend, usually most interested in a newspaper's business section, e-mailed his take on the Dubai Ports World issue and asked, "Is this the international equivalent of driving while black, only shipping while Arab?" Though the ongoing debate is a complex intersection of foreign investment, homeland security and government secrecy issues, it is hard to ignore the suggestion of racial profiling or the wider implications for American policy in the Middle East. After all, 80 percent of the ports in the United States are managed by foreign companies. A stevedorer partially owned by the Chinese government runs operations at Long...

Fact Sheet: Securing U.S. Ports The Administration has dramatically strengthened port security since 9/11. Funding has increased by more than 700% since September 11, 2001. Funding for port security was approximately $259 million in FY 2001. DHS spent approximately $1.6 billion on port security in FY 2005. Following 9/11, the federal government has implemented a multi-layered defense strategy to keep our ports safe and secure. New technologies have been deployed with additional technologies being developed and $630 million has been provided in grants to our largest ports, including $16.2 million to Baltimore; $32.7 million to Miami; $27.4 million to New...

On the off chance that you missed C-Span's "Washington Journal," here are excerpts from an appearance by Jayson Ahern, Assistant Commissioner for Customs and Border Protection, and Coast Guard Rear Admiral Thomas Gilmour on that program, which were helpfully forwarded by the White House: HOST: Jayson Ahern, ... There are more than 300 ports of entry in the U.S., are they safe? CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER JAYSON AHERN: I believe they are. Certainly, we're on a path of continuous improvement, but the many layers we've put in place since the 9/11 tragedy I think has strengthened our port...

The strengthening of physical security measures to prevent possible terrorist strikes, particularly by Al Qaeda and the International Islamic Front (IIF), against means of public transport such as civil aviation, ports and shipping services and underground and other railway stations has been one of the important homeland security measures taken by the US and other countries in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist strikes by Al Qaeda in the US homeland. The successful terrorist strikes by suspected Al Qaeda elements in Madrid in March 2004, and in London in July last year underlined the importance of such measures and the...

Forget Dubai-based DP World poised to run commercial operations in six leading American ports, it’s the players in the chess game called Port Security that Congress members should be losing the most sleep over. While it’s true that port security falls under the jurisdiction of Coast Guard and U.S. customs officials, agents of both entities will need a program just to recognize all the players. Port Security International (PSI) is an international partner’s network composed of an array of financial, strategic, technological and in-country port industry related companies.

My friends, there is an organized disinformation campaign going on in the discussion of the Dubai Ports World deal. Draw whatever conclusions you wish about whether the deal is worthwhile, but please do not buy into these blatant misrepresentations, and please don’t spread them in your discussions.

Ports in a Storm By ZACHARY KARABELL February 23, 2006; Page A16 The current dust-up over the proposed purchase of the British port company Peninsular & Oriental Steam by Dubai World Ports is like a fun-house mirror -- distorting our national politics, and our understanding of and engagement with the global economy. [SNIP] There are at least three issues here. One is the specific concern about the deal itself; another is disquiet over the administration's approach to homeland security; and the last is a larger pattern of American unease about the changing global economy. What the potential deal highlights most...

Grant the President this: There is more than a little anti-Arab sentiment in the uproar over a Dubai firm purchasing the British operating company running terminals at six major American seaports. Otherwise, how do you explain the LACK of concern over Chinese companies running terminals at two major West Coast ports and New Orleans, the locus of much of our energy imports? Or about the original British company when there are probably as many jihadists in Britain today as there are in Dubai? Yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security was still trying to figure out the ownership of terminal management...

For the past several years, I've been condemned as an "extremist" for advocating nationality profiling -- unapologetically applying stricter scrutiny to terror-sponsoring and terror-sympathizing countries in our entrance, immigration and security policies.

George W. Bush can't understand why so many people don't take the war against Islamist terrorism as seriously as they should. Nobody quibbled with FDR when he took us to war against the Nazis and the gentlemen of Japan. The president's frustration with the Nervous Nellies is grounded in reality. The threat from the Islamic nutcakes eager to bomb and behead in the name of Allah, and soon to be armed with nuclear weapons, is a real and present danger. But what George W. does speaks so loud sometimes we can't hear what he says. The border with Mexico leaks...

Now, mirabile dictu, some of the same Democrats who have routinely lambasted such profiling are rushing to the floors of Congress and in front of TV cameras espousing these very same policies. The impetus: the White House's boneheaded insistence on ramming through a $7 billion deal giving United Arab Emirates-owned Dubai Ports World control over significant operations at six major American ports in New York, New Jersey, New Orleans, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Miami....

 Little noticed in the kerfuffle over the takeover of major US ports by Dubai Ports is the key role being played by former Democratic Party leaders. Lobbying firms associated with ex-Democratic Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and Madeleine Albright (Clinton’s Secretary of State) have been working (paid subscription only link) to secure approval of the purchase by Dubai. One would think that our leaders, even when out of office, would care more about their nation than their bank accounts.This hopefully will give impetus to a bill (drafted by Republican Congressman Mike Rogers of Michigan) working its slow way through Congress that would bar...

Commandant United States Coast Guard 2100 Second Street, S.W. Washington, DC 20593-0001 Staff Symbol: G-ICA Phone: (202) 366-4280 FAX: (202) 366-7124 DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY U. S. COAST GUARD STATEMENT OF REAR ADMIRAL CRAIG BONE ON THE MARITIME TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ACT IMPLEMENTATION BEFORE THE COAST GUARD AND MARITIME TRANSPORTATION SUBCOMMITTE U. S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JUNE 29, 2005 Introduction Good morning Mr. Chairman and distinguished Members of the Subcommittee. It is a pleasure to be here today to discuss the Coast Guard's role in securing our ports in order to facilitate the safe and efficient flow of commerce. On...

U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, is once again attempting to do an end run to the right of any and all potential Republican opponents she might face for the presidency in 2008. Of course, when you are vying to be the first female president, it never hurts to appear as tough as possible on national security issues, either.