Senators get lesson in Charleston port security

Senators pushing legislation to beef up security in the nation’s ports took a crash course Tuesday in how things are done in Charleston, watching Customs inspectors scan shipping containers with million-dollar gamma-ray machines and a local Navy unit demonstrate a tiny unmanned boat that might someday be used to thwart a waterborne terrorist attack.

The demonstrations were part of a daylong Senate Commerce committee hearing, which also featured testimony from high-ranking federal officials and respected port security experts.

Customs Commissioner Robert Bonner testified that global trade would be thrown in turmoil if a terrorist group used shipping containers to launch an attack.

Addressing U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings, chairman of the committee, Bonner said, “Senator Hollings, you have called seaports a gaping hole in the nation’s security, and I couldn’t agree with that statement more.”

Bonner said that because huge volumes of cargo are moved in standard-sized shipping containers, world trade would grind to a halt if terrorists used containers to smuggle weapons of mass destruction into the country.

“This is a profoundly urgent and important issue,” Bonner said.

Dr. Stephen Flynn, a senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations, added: “Seaports and the intermodal transportation system are America’s Achilles heel.”

Hollings and Louisiana Sen. John Breaux held Tuesday’s hearing to prod House lawmakers to take up the port security banner.

Last year, the Senate passed a port security bill that would give $703 million in grants to U.S. ports and Customs for new security equipment and inspectors. It also would require each U.S. port to develop its own port security plan.

The hearing also provided a platform for Charleston waterfront officials to show off what they’ve been doing to make the port safer.

Beginning with a tour of Charleston Harbor, local Coast Guard officials told the senators how they are working with local and state law enforcement agencies to establish harbor patrols and create a “port intelligence team.”

Customs showed off its Vehicle and Cargo Inspection System, which zaps containers with gamma rays and detects in a few seconds whether drugs or a nuclear weapon are hidden inside. A team from the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center also demonstrated an unmanned personal watercraft that could be used for surveillance and other purposes.

The cooperation seemed to impress the senators. “The port of Charleston is much more advanced than some of the other ports we’ve seen,” Breaux said. Hollings added, “They’re not waiting on Washington here.”

Later, during the hearing’s testimony phase at the Charleston Maritime Center, senators discussed new strategies to improve security at U.S. seaports.

Several top officials talked about how the country must redefine the concept of what makes a national border.

“Customs should know everything about a container that’s heading to the Port of Charleston before it leaves Rotterdam or Singapore,” Bonner said. “This simple concept represents a revolutionary change in how customs personnel operate throughout the world.”

Bonner said that in a few weeks, U.S. Customs inspectors will be dispatched to the Canadian ports of Halifax and Vancouver to target and screen U.S.-bound cargo.

The goal is to protect the entire global transportation system from attack. He also announced that_ the local Customs office will_receive 30 new inspectors over the_next two years, doubling its _staff.

“I think we should recall that one of the express goals of terrorist organizations is to target not only American lives but American livelihoods – literally the American economy. Osama bin Laden stated just that notion in his last diatribe from his cave in Afghanistan.”

He added that X-ray and gamma-ray devices that scan entire containers also should be stationed in foreign ports to help pre-screen containers, and that U.S. ports should screen exports. “It needs to be reciprocal.”

Admiral James Loy, commandant of the Coast Guard, echoed Bonner’s comments, testifying that “the border of the future must be pushed outward … We need to press our borders all the way to the cargo’s origin.”

Some of the strongest words came from Flynn of the Council on Foreign Relations, whose ideas on port security have been embraced in recent months by Bonner and other policymakers.

Flynn told the senators that he fears “you are racing against a return to complacency. Rather than recognizing Sept. 11 as a harbinger of how warfare will be waged in the 21st Century, it appears that many Americans are choosing to see it as an aberrant event … I hold the opposite view.

“I would argue that we are at greater risk precisely because of the example of the catastrophic terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.” He said al Qaida “made it look easy.” Citing another security expert, he added that “terrorism is like the flu – there will always be a new strain each season.”

He concluded that despite “extraordinary efforts by federal, state and local officials since 9-11, (security at seaports) is only marginally better.

Seaports remain the only international boundaries that receive no federal funds for security infrastructure – something the Hollings bill properly aims to correct.”

During the hearing, officials discussed several other port security issues and ideas:

• Coast Guard Commandant Loy said that U.S. officials are trying to persuade the International Maritime Organization to require electronic transponders on all cargo ships that visit U.S. ports. He said one proposal calls for the transponders to be installed by 2008. “But that’s not soon enough.” He said the Coast Guard wants them installed by 2004 and is trying to iron out technical wrinkles so that can happen.

• Some government leaders are calling for a nationwide port worker identification system that would require port users to go through criminal background checks. The SPA supports a national ID system for truckers, said Bernard S. Groseclose Jr., SPA president and chief executive officer.

“To have a trucker stop at each port to get a port ID is too time-consuming, and to have him undergo a background check at each port would clog the police systems and be an unfair expense to the driver or his company.” But a national ID system shouldn’t be applied to longshoremen, he said. “A worker at one port does not automatically have a reason to enter another port.”

• Bonner said Customs is pushing for electronic seals on shipping containers that would immediately notify shippers and Customs if someone is tampering with a box. World Shipping Council President Christopher Koch said his group also wants better seals on containers and documentation when someone breaks the seals.

• Douglas Brown, vice president for business development and programs at Ancore Inspection Technologies, said his company makes a neutron scanning device that’s more advanced than gamma and X-ray machines now being used. He described the inspection technology as a “breakthrough comparable to the significant advance offered by Magnetic Resonance Imaging in medical diagnostics.” He said the machines could be deployed within a year.

“The world is different since 9-11,” Breaux said. “It’s clear every port in the United States is a potential target for terrorism.”