Chartered cargo ships deemed vulnerable to terrorist attacks

Norfolk Virginian-Pilot ^ | Dec. 3, 2003 | Dale Eisman

[Al B.]

WASHINGTON — Dozens of cargo ships chartered by the U.S. military to carry supplies and equipment to American forces worldwide are vulnerable to terrorist attacks while visiting ports in the Caribbean Sea, South America, Europe and Africa, a congressional watchdog agency has concluded.

The General Accounting Office said officials in the U.S. Southern Command and the U.S. European Command generally do not require the chartered ships to submit detailed port security plans. Warships and cargo ships owned by the military must submit such plans.

The GAO also reported that at least some chartered ships transiting the Mediterranean Sea and other European waters are allowed to stop at ports not included on a safe list prepared by the European Command.

The U.S. military has divided responsibility for its worldwide operations between five regional commands.

European Command is responsible for Europe and much of Africa, including the waters around them; Southern Command is responsible for Central and South America and nearby waters, including the Caribbean.

In a pair of reports, one issued Monday on port security in the Southern Command and the other released last month on the European Command, the GAO asserted that: None of the 84 “voyage charters” — ships under one-trip contracts to the military to carry supplies — passing through Southern Command’s jurisdiction between September 2002 and July 2003 had an approved force protection plan. Southern Command leaders had not been informed of the ships’ presence in the area.

Neither Southern Command nor the Military Sealift Command, the agency that handles the charters, has defined responsibilities for security of the voyage charters.

Though four of the ships carried military helicopters, Sealift Command officials told the GAO that they generally do not place sensitive equipment on the charters and so no extra security is needed.

European Command does not require force protection plans for cargo ships chartered for six months or less. The GAO said the command has “begun implementing new initiatives that may address the gaps we have described” but has “no specific time frame” for reaching an agreement with the Military Sealift Command to “address the lack of routine antiterrorism planning” for chartered ships.

While the Sealift Command screens crew members of chartered ships to identify potential terrorists, the process “is based on personal information provided by the crew members and can be falsified.”

Adding to the danger, the chartered ships are allowed to dock close to U.S. warships and “critical infrastructure.”

While host nations often assist the U.S. military with port security, even such staunch allies as Italy and Spain have declined to allow armed guards on piers or in patrol boats operating around U.S. ships in their ports.

The Pentagon has been especially sensitive about the security of American ships overseas since terrorists blew a hole in the side of the destroyer Cole as it was moored for refueling in the harbor at Aden, Yemen, in October 2000.

A pair of investigations after the Cole attack found gaps in security planning for port visits by U.S. ships. A Sealift Command spokeswoman said Tuesday that only a relative handful of the ships chartered each year by her agency are based in Hampton Roads.

The agency avoids placing “critical gear” on chartered ships or those flying foreign flags, the spokeswoman said, but given the limited availability of ships and the importance of keeping troops supplied “we have to take what we can get from time-to-time.”

“Are we concerned? Absolutely. Do we take protective measures? Yes. Some of them we’re not talking about,” the spokeswoman said.

[First_Salute]

Bump.

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Something to be concerned about for sure!