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The containers (like those pictured) are usually painted olive drab and are unmarked except for indistinguishable numbers/letters probably for inventory, routing, etc. Reader Don sent this in recently: Jim – I passed a convoy of olive drab unmarked 40 foot tractor trailers each with four 10 yard ammo bunker boxes chained to them and unmarked armored Hum-Vee’s heading north on I-95 in Brevard County, Florida this past Thursday morning. The “govt” is positioning these ammo storage boxes, I have been told, in strategic places in population centers around the country. They are usually painted olive drab and are unmarked except...

The Obama administration has failed to meet a legal deadline for scanning all shipping containers for radioactive material before they reach the United States, a requirement aimed at strengthening maritime security and preventing terrorists from smuggling a nuclear device into any of the nation’s 300 sea and river ports. The Department of Homeland Security was given until this month to ensure that 100 percent of inbound shipping containers are screened at foreign ports. But the department’s secretary, Janet Napolitano, informed Congress in May that she was extending a two-year blanket exemption to foreign ports because the screening is proving too...

NEW DELHI: A Pakistan-bound cargo vessel carrying a "huge quantity" of explosives and other weapons has been detained by the authorities at a harbour in eastern India, police said on Saturday. The vessel was heading for the Pakistani port city of Karachi and was detained Friday on an intelligence tip-off at Diamond Harbour, 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Kolkata, capital of the West Bengal state, police said. "The Indian Coast Guard and navy personnel have found a huge quantity of explosives, rocket launchers, anti-aircraft guns and some bombs in two large containers," West Bengal police director general Bhupinder Singh...

Keetwonen, 1000 shipping containers from China modified into student housing in Amsterdam, is the largest shipping container housing development in the world. It has been praised for its innovation, cost effectiveness and design. For students, living in modified shipping containers is actually better than it sounds on paper. Each unit addresses many of the common concerns for students living in student housing such as privacy and cleanliness, while retaining the social aspects of living in dorms. Each unit includes amenities such as private bathroom, kitchen, separate sleeping and study room areas, ventilation, heat, hot water heater, large windows and even...

Paper no. 3068 Admiral Sureesh Mehta, the Chief of the Naval Staff sounded a stern warning on 18th February 2009, about the possibility of nuclear weapons being smuggled in to the country through the ever increasing container traffic. The warning was issued at a seminar to discuss Port Development and related security issues. At one level, there is nothing new in the warning. Similar warnings were issued post 9/11 by US and other maritime analysts who expected the seas to be the next medium for transportation and manifestation of terror. It is this fear that prompted the US to examine...

SNIPPET: "Two stowaways onboard a container ship were apprehended at the Port of Los Angeles." SNIPPET: "The Coast Guard had been notified that two stowaways were discovered on the LA-bound container ship Zenit during an earlier port call. The stowaways were reported to be Nigerian nationals"

ISLAMABAD, July 10: The Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA) is looking into two unclaimed containers of radioactive material found buried on the premises of an Oil and Gas Development Corporation Limited (OGDCL) workshop in Karachi. The discovery of the containers has sparked fears that more such material could be in the vicinity and a search has been launched. It is suspected that the neutron source material was of Soviet origin and could have been lying there for decades. The PNRA believes that during this period neither the employees working at the facility nor the general public were exposed to radiation...

The television advertisement starts with an ominous warning about 9/11. Then it shows a nuclear explosion, followed by a photo of Osama bin Laden and a ship loaded with cargo containers. "Since 9/11, it is one of the greatest threats we face, a nuclear weapon in the hands of Osama bin Laden shipped through an American port," says the voice-over. Finally, the ad reveals its villain: an outfit based in Arkansas that has a network of 1.8 million workers around the world who operate at 3,900 locations in the United States. Its corporate name is Wal-Mart Stores Inc. What's the...

Excerpt - Bomb squads are responding to Terminal 18 on Seattle's waterfront after a canine bomb team found possible explosives in a container, the Coast Guard said this afternoon. ~ snip ~

The nation's defense against nuclear terrorism took a major step Friday, federal officials said, following the award of contracts worth $1.2 billion to install advanced sensors at U.S. ports of entry to screen for radioactive cargo. The Department of Homeland Security plans to install 1,400 advanced detection systems at 370 border crossings and ports under the program, which has been in development at federal laboratories for several years. The sensors, which cost $350,000 to $600,000 each, will allow inspectors to scan rail cars, trucks and shipping containers with greater accuracy and fewer false alarms, said Vayl S. Oxford, director of...

To understand the trade deficit, residents of Sandison Street do not need the help of world-class economists. They can just glance across the street at the mountain of faded brown cargo containers blocking the Wilmington sky. The equation is simple. As the deficit grows, the mountain gets higher. "It's getting taller; it's spreading out," said resident Maria Lopez, eyeing the pile that stretches for two blocks. Tens of thousands of containers sit empty today in Wilmington — stark testimony that America buys more from other countries than it sends overseas to sell. Millions of the 40-foot-long steel containers arrive in...

A bomb hidden in a container explodes in a Western port: that is the nightmare of police and terrorism experts, who are turning to new technology to combat the threat. While port security is at the heart of the row in the United States over the controversial proposal to hand over control operations at key US ports to a Dubai company, a consortium of big companies is testing a system which would allow continual checks on the contents and itinerary of a container and above all establish whether it has been opened illicitly. It involves a system of receivers installed...

Myth: Only a small number of the containers that come into the seaports are inspected. Summary of Reality: CBP uses intelligence to screen information on 100% of cargo entering our seaports, and all cargo that presents a risk to our country is inspected using large x-ray and radiation detection equipment. Following 9/11, the Administration developed and implemented a smarter strategy to identify, target, and inspect cargo containers before they reach U.S. ports. Anyone can secure a nation by closing its borders and inspect everything and everybody that enters. Closing the borders is not an option. None of the security measures...

Fact Sheet: Securing U.S. Ports The Administration has dramatically strengthened port security since 9/11. Funding has increased by more than 700% since September 11, 2001. Funding for port security was approximately $259 million in FY 2001. DHS spent approximately $1.6 billion on port security in FY 2005. Following 9/11, the federal government has implemented a multi-layered defense strategy to keep our ports safe and secure. New technologies have been deployed with additional technologies being developed and $630 million has been provided in grants to our largest ports, including $16.2 million to Baltimore; $32.7 million to Miami; $27.4 million to New...

How do you keep a terrorist from smuggling a radiation-filled "dirty bomb" or other weapon in one of the seven million-plus shipping containers that arrive at U.S. ports each year? That question has dogged policy makers, customs agents and counterterrorism experts ever since [9/11].... Customs and Border Protection has sought to secure global shipping by relying on intelligence and scrutinizing suspicious cargo manifests -- such as an unrefrigerated container full of "frozen fish" -- to identify potentially dangerous shipments long before they reach American shores. But critics say this method is flawed because the information on shipping documents if often...

AN Australian port could be attacked or a ferry hijacked by terrorists to transport weapons of mass destruction, because of gaps in the maritime border security net. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute has found a lack of awareness from states and the federal Government about the specific threats posed from the sea. "A determined and expert terrorist is still likely to have little difficulty in entering Australia by sea, and will probably only be defeated by advance intelligence of his movements," the institute says in a report titled Future unknown: the terrorist threat to Australian maritime security. "We have high...

Plugging the holes in shipping Federal, state and local officials work to secure ports Therefore, it is no surprise that port authority officials are relying significantly on various technologies, including intelligent surveillance systems and smart cards, to help protect the more than 1,000 acres the port sits on and the thousands of people who pass through its gates. Ports are increasingly using technologies, such as electronic seals on cargo containers, smart video camera systems and radiological detectors to improve information sharing and protect facilities and cargo.

PURPOSE The purpose of this hearing is to investigate the security of containers used to ship goods imported into and exported out of the United States by water. The Subcommittee will receive testimony from the Administration, cargo shippers, vessel operators, as well as freight terminal owners and operators. BACKGROUND Overview The United States’ maritime borders include 95,000 miles of open shoreline, 361 ports and an Exclusive Economic Zone that spans 3.5 million square miles. The United States relies on ocean transportation for 95 percent of cargo tonnage that moves in and out of the country. Each year more than 7,500...

A top Al Qaeda operative plotted to smuggle weapons into New York Harbor in the shipping containers of a Garment District firm, the Daily News has learned. Days before he was captured in Pakistan in March, suspected 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed met in Karachi with the owner of a W. 35th St. clothing importing company and his son, law enforcement sources said. Al Qaeda's No. 3 man offered to invest $200,000 in International Management Group in exchange, federal authorities now believe, for access to IMG's Port Newark-bound shipping containers, sources say. Mohammed "is obsessed with attacking the United States,...

WASHINGTON -- The Customs Service refused to let 13 sea containers destined for the United States be loaded onto ships at foreign ports because of insufficient details about their contents, a violation of a new federal rule. The agency says it needs timely and accurate manifest information to effectively evaluate and identify cargo that may pose a risk to U.S. security. With 5.7 million cargo containers entering U.S. seaports each year, Customs says it is critically important to prevent terrorists from using sea containers to smuggle nuclear, chemical, biological or other deadly weapons into this country.