U.S. Panel Calls for Improved Port Security, Cargo/Port Security Director

By Dave Gradijan

December 20, 2006 — CSO —

As part of the ongoing war on terrorism, a task force composed of U.S. government and business leaders on Monday called for improved security at U.S. ports that receive goods from foreign locales, and the group said the parties shipping the products or materials should foot the bill, Reuters reports.

The panel represented the United States’ roughly 360 commercial ports, and in addition to the port security boost suggested, it called for the creation of a national director of port and cargo security, according to Reuters. That director would be appointed by President George W. Bush and would report to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Michael Chertoff, Reuters reports.

The group also said federal laws should be enacted to make sure all cargo that arrives in the United States is adequately inspected, and it suggested that each port under regulation set up risk-assessment strategies and plans, Reuters reports.

Anthony Coscia, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey chairman and the person who assembled the task force, said, “The federal government must realize the vulnerabilities that our ports face and work with us to identify new ways to reduce risk,” according to Reuters.

The recommendations were meant to help prevent cargo ships from being used to transport weapons or other potentially dangerous goods—like nuclear materials—into the United States. Earlier this month, DHS and the Department of Energy announced a program, dubbed the Secure Freight Initiative, under which some $60 million will be dedicated to setting up radioactive-material-detection systems for cargo containers destined for the United States from ports in Pakistan, Honduras, and South Hampton, England. Some cargo containers headed for the United States from locations like Korea, Singapore and Oman will also be scanned for radioactive materials.

The group of government and business leaders was initially assembled in March after United Arab Emirates-based Dubai Ports World (DPW) purchased the management operations of a number of U.S. ports from British port operator P&O, sparking concerns on the part of lawmakers and the American public regarding an Arab firm running U.S. ports, according to Reuters. To alleviate such concerns, DPW eventually agreed to sell off it U.S. ports management operations, which New York’s AIG, an insurance firm, recently purchased.

Related Links:

• Secure Freight Initiative: U.S.-Bound Container Ships to be Scanned for Nuclear Materials
  
• N.Y.’s AIG to Buy DP World’s U.S. Ports Division
  
• Dubai, or Not Dubai?
  
• Selling U.S. Ports to Dubai: Bad Security or Just Bad Politics?

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-Compiled by Al Sacco

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