Archive for January, 2006

Report: (NY) State vulnerable to terrorist attack or natural disaster

By MARK JOHNSON
Associated Press Writer

January 30, 2006, 3:48 PM EST

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York state remains vulnerable to terrorist attack or natural disaster even four years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, according to a state Senate report released Monday . . .

“Our findings show that a storm cloud is brewing over New York state, exposing major vulnerabilities in our homeland security and emergency response systems,” Balboni, a Long Island Republican, said in the report. “While New York has made tremendous strides in protecting our citizens since Sept. 11, 2001, major weakness still exist.”

While noting the state’s actions on several fronts to improve security, the report concluded that much needs to be done to make the state more secure . . .

“We agree that port security is an area that needs to be addressed immediately,” said Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

One of the major shortcomings, he noted, was a lack of federal funding. Since Sept. 11, 2001, the authority has received less than $10 million in federal security money while spending more than $60 million of its own funds, he said.

Full Story

SYLVAN LAKE, MI — (MARKET WIRE) — 01/27/2006 — Wave Dispersion Technologies (WDT) http://www.whisprwave.com, a global leader in maritime security, announces the company has doubled its production capacity due to increased global demand for the WhisprWave® line of maritime barriers and buoys. The increased capacity was brought on line in early January 2006. The Company recently announced several recent port security contracts in the US and globally and the expanded manufacturing production will ensure delivery and installation of the WhisprWave® products.

Company C.E.O. Dennis Smith clarified a recent quote in an interview where the company’s production capability was misreported. “I can assure you, Wave Dispersion Technologies has not ‘turned away’ any new business. The recent growth in demand for our products has required us to accelerate our planned increase in production capacity. We are always capable and willing to grow our pipeline of new business. Most of our projects require long lead-times due to requirements for review and permitting by various regulatory agencies and extensive planning by client companies and governments. There is usually a planning period between an inquiry and purchase order that can vary between one month and two years. With knowledge of the potential order flow and because of the nature of our technology we can expand our production relatively easily. We intend to satisfy all our clients’ requirements in a timely and satisfactory manner to best serve their needs.”

Article of Reference:

Exxon, Shell in Nigeria facing ‘growing threat’

Direct link to the article: http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=70210&version=1&template_

Published: Thursday, 26 January, 2006

Excerpt:

“Wave Dispersion Technologies, the world’s biggest maker of floating security barriers, was contacted by Exxon Mobil during the last week of December about surrounding Nigerian platforms with barriers designed to halt boats, said Dennis Smith, the company’s president and founder. Chevron also inquired recently.

Smith said the request was turned away because the Summit, New Jersey, company’s manufacturing plant is already at full capacity to supply the US Navy, Coast Guard and Army.

Wave Dispersion makes 34-sided polyethylene polygons that can be linked in a chain to secure a port or surround an offshore installation.”

The company developed the WhisprWave® Technology line of Maritime Intrusion and Exclusion Barriers and Warning Buoys for Homeland Security and Force Protection. The Marine Security Sign Buoys (“MSSB”) are highly visible demarcation devices capable of withstanding harsh marine environments, yet lightweight for easy deployment and recovery.

The Small Craft Intrusion Barrier™ (“SCIB™”) creates a Line of Demarcation, maritime force protection barrier. The SCIB™ was designed for the most adverse marine conditions, including winds of 80+ knots. Loads are carried by stainless steel cables encased in 2 inch EPDM rubber connecting cables. These same stainless steel cables create a significant maritime port security barrier to intrusions and/or entry by unauthorized, stray or threatening vessels.

About WDT: http://www.whisprwave.com/
The Global Leader in Maritime Homeland Port Security Barrier & Buoy Protection Systems

Wave Dispersion Technologies, Inc. (WDT) has developed the patented WhisprWave® floating articulated breakwater technology to afford erosion control protection to shoreline beaches, coastal marinas, anchorages, and other areas subject to destructive erosion wave / wake forces. The Company’s previous customers include US Army Corp of Engineers (USACE), US Navy (USN) and the US Coast Guard (USCG).

Maritime Port Security Buoys and Barriers:
To facilitate the security needs of the US Navy, US Coast Guard, US Army, US Army Corps of Engineers, other government agencies and commercial interests, the company has developed the WhisprWave® Technology line of Maritime Intrusion and Exclusion Barriers and Warning Buoys for Homeland Security and Force Protection. The unique characteristics of the WhisprWave® Homeland Defense Products include mobility, marine grade design and off-the-shelf availability for Homeland Security maritime zone demarcation applications.

WDT is a Listed Private Company on http://www.homelanddefensestocks.com/ and a Featured Company on http://www.investorideas.com/

Contact:
Jonathan B. Smith, President & CFO – Sylvan Lake, MI
248-229-9010 [email protected]

Media / Investors:
Dawn Van Zant, http://www.homelanddefensestocks.com/
[email protected]

Press Release on MarketWire

Blog Tags: Floating Security Barrier, Small Craft Intrusion Barrier™, SCIB™, WhisprWave®, Maritime Security, Port Security, Force Protection

FDLE Urges Security Upgrades For Florida Seaports
By KEVIN BEGOS [email protected]

TALLAHASSEE – Florida seaports still have gaps in security and public safety and are ideal targets for terrorist attacks, Florida Department of Law Enforcement officials said Wednesday.

A radical group that aimed to spread fear and cause significant loss of life “could find no better place to attack tourists than at a cruise terminal,” said Nevin Smith, FDLE seaport security administrator.

And someone seeking to deliver a blow across the entire state “could find no better place to have widespread economic effect across multiple industries” than at a seaport, Smith said in presenting a report to the House Domestic Security Committee.

Exxon, Shell in Nigeria facing ‘growing threat’

CHICAGO: Exxon Mobil Corp, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and other oil companies face a growing threat to their operations in Nigeria, the fifth-biggest oil supplier to the US, as militants launch bolder attacks. Two years of escalating conflict are forcing producers to seek better protection, said Terry Hallmark, director of political risk and policy assessment at IHS Energy, a consulting company.

Exxon and Chevron Corp last month contacted a maker of floating barriers that could be used to protect offshore rigs, according to the potential supplier, Wave Dispersion Technologies Inc.

The kidnapping of four workers on January 11 from a supply boat near a Shell platform off the Nigerian coast was a more significant attack than had seen previously, according to Joseph Bennett, chief accounting officer at New Orleans-based Tidewater Inc, the vessel’s owner. The kidnappings and a pipeline blast the same day cut the country’s oil output by as much as 10%.
“Before, you’d be dealing with individual tribes or villages who were demanding some food or a well be drilled’’ for water, Bennett said. “This time it was different because they came way offshore to reach us and they were shooting up in the air and into the water.’’

Oil prices jumped to $68.35 a barrel last week in New York, $2.50 shy of the all-time high, because of threats to supplies at a time when producers have little spare capacity to make up for any shortfall.

The Nigerian violence and concern about rising tension with Iran, Opec’s second-biggest producer, over its nuclear programme boosted oil prices 6.9% last week, the biggest weekly gain in five months.

Nigerian production, key to supplying US refiners such as Philadelphia-based Sunoco Inc, has been disrupted at least 10 times since March 2003 because of bombings, kidnappings and shootings.

“The intensity of these latest attacks is something new,’’ said Joanna Spear, a researcher at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. “The groups of armed youth appear to be better organised than in the past, and they are stepping up the pressure.’’

All four hostages communicated with Tidewater on January 19 in a phone call arranged by the kidnappers, said Stephen Dick, executive vice president of North American operations for the New Orleans-based company. In a separate e-mail, the kidnappers said they had no intention of killing the captives.

“We talked to everybody and they all talked about the bad water, bad food and a lot of mosquitoes,’’ Dick said. The hostages include the supply boat’s captain, Patrick Landry, of Houston, Texas, and fellow Tidewater employees Milko Nichev from Bulgaria and Harry Ebanks of Honduras. The fourth, Nigel Watson-Clark, works for the oilfield-services company Ecodrill, a subsidiary of UK-based Expro International Group Plc.

The militants, who call themselves the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, said they are planning new attacks against oil companies in the Niger River delta. The group demanded the Nigerian government release Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, the former governor of Bayelsa state, who was impeached and arrested on money laundering charges, and Mujahid Dokubo Asari, a militia leader who is in jail on treason charges. The militants also called on Shell to pay $1.5bn to the Ijaw people as compensation for environmental damage and loss of life caused by company operations in the Niger River delta.

Exxon, Shell, Chevron and other producers pumped 2.46mn bpd in December, or 2.9% of global supply. Shell, based in The Hague, is the third-largest publicly traded oil company after Exxon and BP Plc. Chevron is fourth.

“Nigeria is the riskiest country in the world for the oil companies to do work right now,’’ Hallmark at IHS said. “There’s been a perceptible tick upward in violence in the last two years. For the oil industry, it’s really a matter of trying to minimize their losses.’’

Wave Dispersion Technologies, the world’s biggest maker of floating security barriers, was contacted by Exxon Mobil during the last week of December about surrounding Nigerian platforms with barriers designed to halt boats, said Dennis Smith, the company’s president and founder. Chevron also inquired recently.
Smith said the request was turned away because the Summit, New Jersey, company’s manufacturing plant is already at full capacity to supply the US Navy, Coast Guard and Army.

Wave Dispersion makes 34-sided polyethylene polygons that can be linked in a chain to secure a port or surround an offshore installation. Exxon spokeswoman Susan Reeves declined to say whether it had contacted Wave Dispersion or discuss security measures at the company’s offshore facilities. – Bloomberg

Full Story

Gulf Times

Blog Tags: Antiterrorism, Counterterrorism, Force Protection, Homeland Security, Maritime Security, Port Security

By Matt Roush

Sylvan Lake-based Wave Dispersion Technologies Inc. said it had completed installing four of its Marine Security Sign Buoys, and 280 linear feet of its WhisprWave Small Craft Intrusion Barrier for the United States Army’s Reserve Facility at Mare Island, Calif. The center, on the western edge of San Francisco Bay in Northern California previously received a similar sized barrier in 2004. The new barrier doubles the size of the protected area and complements the original installation by providing warning sign buoys for the exclusion zone. Wave Dispersion’s system uses large hollow plastic blocks connected by stainless steel cables encased in rubber to break up waves and provides security for ports and marinas. More at www.whisprwave.com.

Press Release:

http://www.whisprwave.com/press-releases/usarmy-mare-island-2nd.htm

Blog Tags: Floating Security Barrier, Small Craft Intrusion Barrier™, SCIB™, WhisprWave®, Maritime Security, Port Security, US Army, United States Army, Force Protection

Further Refinements Needed to Assess Risks and Prioritize Protective Measures at Ports and Other Critical Infrastructure

Highlights of GAO-06-91, a report to Congressional Requesters

What GAO Recommends

The three DHS components GAO studied varied considerably in their progress in developing a sound risk management framework for homeland security responsibilities. The varied progress reflects, among other things, each component’s organizational maturity and the complexity of its task (see table below). The Coast Guard, which is furthest along, is the component of longest standing, being created in 1915, while IAIP came into being with the creation of the Department of Homeland Security in 2003. IAIP, which has made the least progress, is not only a new component but also has the most complex task—addressing not just ports but all types of infrastructure. The Coast Guard and ODP have a relatively robust methodology in place for assessing risks at ports; IAIP is still developing its methodology and has had several setbacks in completing the task. All three components, however, have much left to do. In particular, each component is limited in its ability to compare and prioritize risks. The Coast Guard and ODP can do so within a port but not between ports; IAIP has not demonstrated that it can do so either within or between all infrastructure sectors.

Each component faces many challenges in making further progress. Success will depend partly on continuing to improve various technical and management processes that are part of risk management. For example, obtaining better quality data from intelligence agencies would help DHS components estimate the relative likelihood of various types of threats—a key element of assessing risks. In the longer term, progress will depend increasingly on how well risk management is coordinated across agencies, because current approaches in many ways are neither consistent nor comparable. Also, weaving risk-based data into the annual budget cycle of program review will be important. Supplying the necessary guidance and coordination is what the Department of Homeland Security was set up to do and, as the Secretary of Homeland Security has stated, what it now needs increasingly to address. This is a key issue for the department as it seeks to identify relative risks and take appropriate actions related to the nation’s homeland security activities.

Progress in Risk Management Is Affected by Organizational Maturity and Complexity of Risk Management Task

DHS component and degree of progress
United States Coast Guard (USCG): Furthest along in developing a risk management framework
Office of Domestic Preparedness (ODP): not as far along, but recent steps are good
Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection Directorate (IAIP): least far along

Organizational characteristics
USCG: Long-standing component; risk management activity began before September 11 attacks
ODP: Relatively new component transferred from Department of Justice to Department of Homeland Security in 2003
IAIP: New component established with creation of Department of Homeland Security

Complexity of risk management task
USCG: Difficult – must be able to prioritize risks not only within ports but among them
ODP: Difficult – must be able to prioritize risks not only within ports but among them
IAIP: Extremely difficult – must be able to prioritize risks not only among ports but among all sectors of the nation’s critical infrastructure

Resources

• Executive Summary
• Full Report

Blog Tags: Antiterrorism, Counterterrorism, Force Protection, Homeland Security, Maritime Security, Port Security

Unique, Patented Port Security Barriers and Buoys Deployed Globally at Multiple Locations

Sylvan Lake, MI – January 25, 2005 – Wave Dispersion Technologies (WDT) www.whisprwave.com, a global leader in maritime security, announces the recent delivery and installation of four Marine Security Sign Buoys and two hundred and eighty linear feet of WhisprWave® Small Craft Intrusion Barrier™ (SCIB™) for the US Army Reserve Facility at Mare Island, Vallejo, CA. The facility, located on the western edge of San Francisco Bay in Northern California previously received a similar sized barrier in 2004. The new barrier doubles the size of the protected area and complements the original installation by providing warning sign buoys for the exclusion zone. This installation follows several recent port security contracts received by WDT including the Port of Jebel Ali, Dubai for the USN and Coast Guard Island, Alameda, CA for the USCG.

The company developed the WhisprWave® Technology line of Maritime Intrusion and Exclusion Barriers and Warning Buoys for Homeland Security and Force Protection. The Marine Security Sign Buoys (MSSB) are highly visible demarcation devices capable of withstanding harsh marine environments, yet lightweight for easy deployment and recovery.

The SCIB™ creates a Line of Demarcation, maritime force protection barrier. The SCIB™ was designed for the most adverse marine conditions, including winds of 80+ knots. Loads are carried by stainless steel cables encased in 2 inch EPDM rubber connecting cables. These same stainless steel cables create a significant maritime port security barrier to intrusions and/or entry by unauthorized, stray or threatening vessels.

About WDT: http://www.whisprwave.com/
The Global Leader in Maritime Homeland Port Security Barrier & Buoy Protection Systems

Wave Dispersion Technologies, Inc. (WDT) has developed the patented WhisprWave® floating articulated breakwater technology to afford erosion control protection to shoreline beaches, coastal marinas, anchorages, and other areas subject to destructive erosion wave / wake forces. The Company’s previous customers include US Army Corp of Engineers (USACE), US Navy (USN) and the US Coast Guard (USCG).

Maritime Port Security Buoys and Barriers:
To facilitate the security needs of the US Navy, US Coast Guard, US Army, US Army Corps of Engineers, other government agencies and commercial interests, the company has developed the WhisprWave® Technology line of Maritime Intrusion and Exclusion Barriers and Warning Buoys for Homeland Security and Force Protection. The unique characteristics of the WhisprWave® Homeland Defense Products include mobility, marine grade design and off-the-shelf availability for Homeland Security maritime zone demarcation applications.

WDT is a Listed Private Company on http://www.homelanddefensestocks.com/ and a Featured Company on http://www.investorideas.com/

Contact:
Jonathan B. Smith, President & CFO – Sylvan Lake, MI
248-229-9010 [email protected]

Media / Investors:
Dawn Van Zant, http://www.homelanddefensestocks.com/
[email protected]

Press Release on MarketWire

Blog Tags: Floating Security Barrier, Small Craft Intrusion Barrier™, SCIB™, WhisprWave®, Maritime Security, Port Security, Force Protection

Israel Navy Boosts Layers Of Anti-Terror Defenses
By BARBARA OPALL-ROME, TEL AVIV

Undersea Barrier

In another layer of coastal defense, the Navy is constructing a two-stage anti-infiltration barrier off the southern tip of Gaza that runs 3 to 10 meters deep and extends 1 kilometer into the Mediterranean Sea. Construction of the first stage — a 150-meter-long wall of steel plates, embedded 3 meters into the sea floor — began in late May and was completed a few months later, around the time of Israel’s Gaza withdrawal.

The Navy official said work has just begun on the second phase, a 10-meter-deep floating fence of steel piles tethered in place by concrete bolts in the sea bed. The entire effort is projected to cost less than $4 million.

“Those floating nets operate like a kind of cage and are capable of holding a lot of energy. It can even hold a vessel traveling at 50 knots,” said the senior Navy officer.

Deployment of the undersea barrier not only provides near-total control of shallow waters bordering Gaza, he said, but it allows the Navy to distinguish innocent fisherman who unwittingly cross Israel’s virtual no-go lines from those seeking to infiltrate for terrorist or criminal purposes.

“Since the fixed portion runs 3 meters deep at the shore and the floating portion extends a kilometer out to sea, anyone wanting to wage an attack on our pipeline or other points in the area either has to walk right up to the beach or venture a kilometer into the sea,” he said. “Either way, the threat comes to me where I’m more capable of working the problem.”

He noted that a similar though less robust undersea roped barrier is deployed some 2,000 yards into the Mediterranean along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.

Full Story

Additional Resources:

• Israel Navy building fence off Gaza coast
• Israel Building Underwater Wall
• Israel Building ‘Underwater Wall’ To Defend Against Insurgents

Blog Tags: Antiterrorism, Counterterrorism, Force Protection, Homeland Security, Maritime Security, Port Security

Underwater security garners more cash & new technologies

By Martin Edwin Anderson – Government Security News

A growing number of security experts say that, if America’s seaports are, in the recent words of one U.S. senator, the “soft underbelly” of U.S. homeland security, then underwater security at those ports is the most tender spot in that yawning vulnerability, called by one the “soft underbelly of the soft underbelly.”

Full Story

Blog Tags: Antiterrorism, Counterterrorism, Force Protection, Homeland Security, Maritime Security, Port Security

As seen in Oakland Business Review, January 12-18, 2006

WhisprWave Installed at California Coast Guard base

Sylvan Lade-based Wave Dispersion Technologies, Inc. completed its largest contract, the company said last month, an installation of the WhisprWave Small Craft Intrustion Barrier at the U.S. Coast Cuard Integrated Service Command at Alameda, Calif.

The total contract was in excess of $900,000

The patented floating marine barrier encloses a security zone of 2,400 feet and incorporates two swinging gates of 725 feet and 825 feet to allow for movement of Coast Guard Cutters into and out of the exclusion zone.

Alameda is on a small island in San Francisco Bay.

Blog Tags: Antiterrorism, Counterterrorism, Force Protection, Homeland Security, Maritime Security, Port Security