Posted on 03/07/2006 4:47:40 PM PST by Tulsa Ramjet
In Washington today, House Republicans vowed to defy President Bush's effort to have a Dubai company take over six major U.S. ports. But ABC News has learned about a port threat from within — a major security breach at the ports of New York and New Jersey.
The two ports handle millions of tons of cargo, with scores of cruise ships passing through each year. Truckers who transport much of the cargo are issued ID cards, which give them access to all areas of the port.
ABC News has learned that the cards, given to thousands of truckers by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, were issued with virtually no background checks. The Department of Homeland Security recently investigated the New York and New Jersey ports, and found stunning gaps in security.
The new DHS report, obtained by ABC News, shows that of the 9,000 truckers checked, nearly half had evidence of criminal records. More than 500 held bogus driver's licenses, leaving officials unsure of their real identities.
"We have no idea who's in the ports. And many of the folks who come in to service the ports, that drive the trucks back and forth, are people who don't have very distinguished backgrounds. May have criminal backgrounds," said Stephen Flynn, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonpartisan think tank.
The intelligence report found truck drivers had been convicted of homicide, assault, weapons charges, sex offenses, arson, drug dealing, identity theft and cargo theft.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
"According to the report, a review of incident logs involving truck drivers at the Newark Seaport in late 2005 revealed one who was identified as an MS-13 gang member. MS-13 has been described as one of the most dangerous gangs in the United States. The logs also highlighted an incident involving "four cabs without containers [which] exited the terminal without stopping at the red light and ignored verbal commands to stop."
I feel safe already. LET THE PORT DEAL ROLL!! :)
Who's running the ports now?
And where are the prosecutions?
More Stephen Flynn doofishness. He must be writing another fluff book. He's made vulnerability exposure a source of income for himself.
How could DP World do a worse job than that?
He buckled when Congress demanded it.
Bush's first choice was the correct one.
Another example of a Congressional creation foisted on the executive in which Congress will blame yet never accept responsibility.
Great gig if you can buy it.
Maybe we ought to turn the entire port operations all over America to the US government. The TSA does such a great job.
Eh. What's the worst that could happen?
Yeah, I'll bet a sizable number of truckers on the docks are ragheads.
Not suprising. To crack down on terror, we will have to crack down on all of the criminals here first.
You do understand, of course, that the guys who really run the docks in New York and New Jersey are the mob.
What does this have to do with the DPW contract? They don't issue passes to truck drivers.
ping
Last time I looked the main characters were still coming from the old families and they're all from the hills outside of Palermo, or up in Reggio de Calabria. In the US, the people known as Albanian mafia are identified more correctly as Albanian Roma.
Shoot the messenger
Can't blaim Hillary for this one. Maybe a mob thing though, you know Teemsters, Trucker.
The new DHS report, obtained by ABC News, shows that of the 9,000 truckers checked, nearly half had evidence of criminal records. More than 500 held bogus driver's licenses, leaving officials unsure of their real identities.
HILLARY, SCHMUCKIE, MENENDEZ OVER HERE, READ THIS!
Can you say Unions???
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