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This came up under google news for today- from PHX news: Interesting, it was under " a message to Democrats."

"Terror strike at key harbor could cripple the U.S. economy"
Posted by PHX

- Sen. Jon Kyl on Sunday February 8, 2004
Admittedly, it's a worst-case scenario: a rudimentary nuclear device is successfully smuggled into Los Angeles harbor and detonated. Thousands, even millions are killed instantly or severely sickened by radiation poisoning. All commercial traffic into L.A is halted for an uncertain period - at least weeks, but perhaps much longer. The shockwaves from such an attack panic millions of Americans and cripple our economy.

It is for just this kind of "doomsday scenario" that our new Department of Homeland Security and federal law enforcement officials must be prepared. And the federal government's effort to inspect cargo and protect our nation's seaports from such an attack was the subject of a recent hearing I held as chairman of the Senate subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security.

I called this hearing for several reasons. For one, I wanted the Coast Guard to address concerns raised about security at key U.S. harbors. The Los Angeles Chief of Police went so far as to claim that L.A. harbor was "wide open" for a terrorist strike. Just as important, I wanted to see what more Congress could do to help the Coast Guard, FBI, and other relevant agencies ensure that all that can be done is being done to prevent a terrorist strike of such a horrific magnitude.

Currently, the federal government inspects just 5.4 percent of the more than six million containers that enter America's roughly 370 seaports. And, in almost every case, all of these inspections occur after the containers arrive. As was pointed out at our hearing, just one such container can contain up to 60,000 pounds of explosives - more than 10 times the amount used by Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma City. A single container could be used to explode a key bridge, carry a radiological "dirty bomb," or spread infectious and deadly disease.

No matter how well-equipped we are, it's simply impossible to inspect every single container without crippling economic activity and commercial travel. Federal resources are finite; homeland security officials must therefore make difficult decisions on how best to deploy funds and personnel to address what they deem the most serious threats to our homeland.

With that in mind, I was encouraged by the level of seriousness with which officials from the Department of Homeland Security, Coast Guard, and FBI take the threat of a terrorist attack. As one FBI witness noted at our hearing, ports are very vulnerable and terrorist groups are looking for any holes in the port security system to exploit. Recently discovered al-Queda training manuals explicitly mention attacking seaports.

Working with local port authorities, federal officials have spent a considerable amount of time since 9/11 on upgrading security at harbors, increasing inspections of cargo, and conducting more thorough checks of those seeking entry into seaports. Their efforts were greatly aided by seaport security legislation signed by President Bush in 2002.

Nonetheless, I believe we can - and should - do more. For this reason, I am cosponsoring legislation that improves physical security at our seaports; implements minimum federal security standards at all American seaports, including restrictions on access to private terminal areas; and requires customs inspectors to have personal radiation detection devices.

Though we cannot inspect every container entering the U.S., we can ensure that we improve our profiling systems used to conduct random searches. Our legislation establishes a risk assessment plan for the Customs Service that focuses on high-risk cargo and containers and increases fines and penalties for those supplying inaccurate or false information about ship manifests. We would require high security seals and a universal tracking number on all containers coming into the U.S. and mandate that all U.S ports provide space to Customs officials for non-intrusive inspection technology.

Lastly, we would increase penalties and close loopholes related to terrorist acts at seaports.

Of course, it's an immutable fact of life that smugglers will continue to try to traffic goods and weapons into the United States, just as they have since the dawn of our Republic.

But the war on terror doesn't give us as much margin for error; we can't afford to allow al-Qaeda or other terror groups to be lucky even once. Taking action now will help turn the odds in our favor and protect our country from a catastrophe of unimaginable magnitude.

At last count I think AQ had about 29 ships, don't know how we keep track of them or even if we can. It seems as though all the ships coming into the harbor would be checked by their registry. But, that doesn't stop anyone from putting something in cargo which for the most part is not checked.

"Currently, the federal government inspects just 5.4 percent of the more than six million containers that enter America's roughly 370 seaports. And, in almost every case, all of these inspections occur after the containers arrive."

To bad we import all this stuff. Too bad we don't make our own stuff anymore. It would save all of this trouble. We could still import an inspectable amount of stuff. Globalism is a bad deal for a nation like ours in more than one way.