Archive for August, 2006

Busy Seattle terminal closed for hours

By PAUL SHUKOVSKY AND JOHN IWASAKI
P-I REPORTERS

There were plenty of anxious moments on Seattle’s waterfront when a bomb-sniffing dog suddenly “alerted” on a pair of cargo containers shipped from Pakistan, prompting a rare cargo terminal shutdown.

No explosives or radioactive materials were found when the Port of Seattle bomb squad searched the containers. One was loaded with new textiles, such as shirts and pants. The other was filled with old textiles that would likely be made into rags.

A port officer and a dog walk the area around Terminal 18 as authorities check containers after “anomalies” were found during an inspection of two containers that originated in Pakistan. Dozens of workers were evacuated as the terminal was locked down.
But for several hours Wednesday afternoon, busy Terminal 18 on Harbor Island was a possible terrorism target — locked down behind a 300-yard security perimeter staffed by police. Dozens of employees were evacuated.

Ripples from the scare quickly reached the nation’s capital, where Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and other members of Congress called it a “wake-up call” for tighter port security on both coasts.

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The consequences of one nuclear bomb smuggled into a port in a container

A RAND study says that a 10-kiloton nuclear explosion at the Port of Long Beach could kill 60,000 people instantly, expose 150,000 more to hazardous radiation, and cause ten times more economic loss than the 9/11 terrorist attacks

A RAND Corporation study concluded that a nuclear explosion at the Port of Long Beach, California, could kill 60,000 people instantly, expose 150,000 more to hazardous radiation, and cause ten times more economic loss than the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The Santa Monica, California-based think-tank’s study examines the human casualties and infrastructure effects of terrorists detonating a 10-kiloton nuclear bomb in a shipping container after being unloaded onto a pier in Long Beach, which shares a waterway with the Port of Los Angeles.

RAND released the findings following a bomb scare at the Port of Seattle earlier this week: A bomb-sniffing dog mistakenly indicated that textiles inside the containers could contain explosives.

Southern California ports did not wait for the chilling RAND study to tighten security. Last September the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles received the second- and third-largest grants, $12.7 million and $11.4 million, respectively, from DHS. Efforts are under way to design new technology into a command center at the Port of Long Beach. It will give port officials better means to inspect suspicious cargo and communicate with the Port of Los Angeles and Coast Guard. The project goes out for bids toward the end of the year. The Port of Long Beach has also begun installing gamma ray scanning systems. Security experts say that if cost issues are solved, then one of the more reliable solutions would be for shipping operators to install radiological and biochemical sensors inside the containers.

Nearly four million cargo containers, averaging 40-feet long, go through the Port of Long Beach annually.

Some technology experts think checking for explosives, especially nuclear explosives, inside a container once it reaches U.S. soil is too late. If a nuclear bomb makes it, say, to New York harbor, it may well be too late to do much about it.

Source: www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com

Full Report: Rand – Considering the Effects of a Catastrophic Terrorist Attack

“We are quite vulnerable in our ports and they need a tremendous amount of attention,” Giuliani said. But, he said, “You can’t be free and not be vulnerable.”

With the coming anniversary of the attacks that leveled the World Trade Center in New York City, Giuliani said he is prepared for the renewed attention on him, his role as mayor during the attacks, the pain Americans continue to suffer, and the nearly five-year-old war on terrorism.

It’s not difficult, he said, because 9/11 is always with him, personally and politically. He’ll forever be the so-called “America’s Mayor,” who rallied his city, and by extension, the country.

“I came to terms with that quite a while ago,” he said. “I do think about it every day. I do. And some days, it’s very sad, and sometimes it’s very difficult.”

Thursday’s announcements about the uncovered terror plot in the United Kingdom comes one month before the fifth anniversary of September 11th. Since then our law enforcement officials have changed the way things are done here to make us safe.

That extends to the U.S. Coast Guard. Before the terror attacks, port security wasn’t a priority, but now it’s the guard’s top concern. In the following report, NY1′s Solana Pyne takes a closer look at how this maritime unit, now part of the Department of Homeland Security, is protecting our ports from terrorism.

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WASHINGTON, Aug. 9 (UPI) — Many companies are competing for more than $168 million in U.S. government grants for port security.

The firms are seeking to get into the marketplace the funding will create for infrastructure enhancements,

Logistics Online reported Tuesday.

Many of the competing firms will make presentations at the 5th North American Cargo Security Forum in Washington, DC, to be held next month, which will discuss federal funding, Logistics Online said.

The forum,, entitled “Supply Chain Security” is intended to provide security specialists with regulatory updates. Both public and private sector experts will be making presentations, the report said.

At the end of September the Department of Homeland Security will announce the designation of over $168 million in grants to its Port Security Grant Program. The program is intended to protect critical port infrastructure from terrorist attack.

In all the DHS will award approximately $373 million in grants for fiscal year 2006 for its infrastructure protection program.

Among the forum speakers will be Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a member of the Senate Transportation Appropriations subcommittee and a co-sponsor of the GreenLane Maritime Cargo Security Act; Starbucks Coffee Company partner and asset protection manager Sean Dettloff ; Motorola, Inc. global security manager Robert Bullington and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Michael Palermo.

Maritime attacks: detecting underwater terrorist threats

By Joe Charlaff

Although waterside port security includes threat platforms found above the water – such as fast boats, jet skis, swimmers and canoeists – it is just as important to examine the potential threats posed by divers, submersibles and underwater scooters. Underwater swimmers can serve as an ideal means by which to covertly deliver explosives or a chemical or biological weapon, and those with propulsion assistance can carry as much as a 100 kg payload.

In February 2005, the US Coast Guard, which is the federal agency with primary responsibility for waterside security at US sea ports, unveiled a weapon to help it defend marine facilities. The Underwater Port Security System can detect, track, classify and intercept intruders, and allows for the inspection of hulls and pier structures. Due to its modular and portable design, it is capable of being deployed nationwide on short notice. The system is now being deployed to Coast Guard maritime safety and security teams throughout the country.

Improvements in underwater security in the US arguably still lag behind those initiated in several other countries, including Singapore and Israel, which defend important installations against terrorist attack using a combination of patrols and randomly placed depth charges. Working with the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, one of the world’s largest ports, a local company, Stratech Systems, has developed what it calls a vessel image-processing system, which brings together cameras, radar and underwater sonar, and automatically detects, identifies, tracks and predicts the movement of vessels passing through a waterway.

Israel’s Rafael Armaments Development Authority, meanwhile, has developed two systems for the Israeli navy against the threat of diver intrusion. Both are incorporated into Rafael’s Harbour Defence System and are currently being evaluated.

Joe Charlaff is a freelance journalist who specialises in homeland security issues.

Security barriers will no longer be mandatory for oil tankers at Port Everglades

By Scott Wyman
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted August 3 2006

Security barriers in the water around the docks at Port Everglades no longer will be regularly used to protect oil tankers from a seaborne terrorist attack like the one that damaged the USS Cole in 2000.

County commissioners, who are in charge of the port, say the change never was discussed with them. They, along with port businesses and security experts, are raising questions about the move.

Port administrators ended a $900,000-a-year deal with a local maritime company to open and close the special fencing in the water around the petroleum docks each time a tanker enters and leaves. The fencing has been removed and will be used only if the nation’s terror-alert level is raised.

By Stew Magnuson
Source: www.nationaldefensemagazine.com

TAMPA, Fla. — While the Department of Homeland Security begins efforts to strengthen the nation’s land borders, less publicized work continues on building a so-called virtual wall along U.S. coasts.

As the defense communities and lawmakers debate what policies need to be implemented to protect ports, coastal waters and the seas approaching the United States, technological solutions are out there.

“If somebody could write me a check today, we could build it,” Guy Thomas, Coast Guard maritime domain awareness program science and technology advisor said, referring to a system that would allow legitimate commerce through, while keeping bad guys out.

Once the Gordian Knot of interoperable communications and seamless information sharing is untied, the technological part of the problem is relatively easy, Thomas said at the Coast Guard’s annual innovation conference and exhibition.

Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen said the need to protect the nation’s coasts should be a top priority. “Given the inherent vulnerabilities in the maritime transportation system and along our coastlines, I think what we need in this country is a maritime security regime that truly reflects the needs of a coastal nation state,” he told reporters.

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