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Scan cargo ships, but how?

A new law requires 100 percent screening, but the technology to make it happen doesn't exist.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published August 24, 2007

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 White House and shippers maintain that the technology for scanning 11-million containers each year doesn't 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 Bush earlier this month signed the measure into law, praising its shift of funds to states and cities at higher risk of terrorism attack.

Scanning containers at their point of origin is a highlight of the law, intended to fulfill recommendations of the 9/11 Commission.

"If a terrorist manages to conceal a weapon of mass destruction in a shipping container, it must be discovered long before that container reaches our shore," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.

Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., a chief proponent, said the costs and complexity involved in the new system pale beside the threat. "The truth is, we cannot afford not to do it."

The White House issued a statement opposing the scanning requirement, saying it was "neither executable nor feasible." Opponents warned that it could cause huge backlogs at seaports, which handle some 95 percent of incoming goods.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says "it would be wonderful" if all containers were inspected before they left foreign ports. "But it's got to be done in a way that reflects reality."

Democrats, in arguing for the scanning provision, said that if the United States could put a man on the moon within the same decade that John F. Kennedy challenged the nation, it can come up with effective nuclear warning technology.

[Last modified August 23, 2007, 23:18:46]