[Beckwith]

I'm reading a lot of paranoid stuff in this thread.

There is no point in any of our security systems that is, by itself, secure. But our security systems are layered.

At each point in the shipping chain, inspections are carried out and the results documented. At each inspection point, inspectors and/or workers perform their checks.

Even if one, two or three agents were to be placed in the shipping chain, there is not a whole lot they could do insure a particular container were routed around foreign port inspections, at sea inspections and off-shore and US ports inspection.

You would need a huge conspiracy to do that.

Beyond that, these inspections are taking place in the Bahamas. Those same containers are subject to inspection once they hit our ports.

It's just another layer of security, it seems to me.

As far as getting a nuke into the country, a container would be the last tool I would use. I can think of a number of ways to get a nuke into the country that would end-run all inspections.

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

Beyond that, these inspections are taking place in the Bahamas. Those same containers are subject to inspection once they hit our ports. It's just another layer of security, it seems to me.

I am PRO-DPW. But here is the key problem with this port deal:

b>"The fact that foreign workers would have access to how the United States screens various containers for nuclear material and how this technology scrutinizes the containers — all those things allow someone with a nefarious intention to thwart the screening."

It is not a matter of manipulating the equipment or getting something through the Bahamas. It is a matter of deliberately sending "things" through the equipment to test what kind of shieldings will defeat it. (What fails can just "disappear".) That information can then be sold or used to defeat the same equipment at any port. My 81-year-old MOM understood the possibilities in a minute when I explained it and she has no nuclear knowledge (I do.)

[B4Ranch]

"I can think of a number of ways to get a nuke into the country that would end-run all inspections."

By God, you can think how to end-run all the inspections. Amazing, I didn't think you had it in you.

I can think how half a dozen men working in a shipping terminal could shut it down for a year. No outside help needed, just determination is all that's required. Yet we leave those doors open for them as if we are asking for trouble.

Well when it comes I will not be surprised.

[B4Ranch]

"Even if one, two or three agents were to be placed in the shipping chain, there is not a whole lot they could do insure a particular container were routed around foreign port inspections, at sea inspections and off-shore and US ports inspection."

Wrong, wrong and wrong. It is obvious you have never been around container shipping.

[GladesGuru]

"Those same containers are subject to inspection once they hit our ports."

By the time a nuke gets to the port, the port IS NOT.

"As far as getting a nuke into the country, a container would be the last tool I would use. I can think of a number of ways to get a nuke into the country that would end-run all inspections."

Only a container offers the possibility of sneaking a missile into America, and on it's own launcher, too. If the Commies control the port, just place the container in a clear area and let 'er rip!

America needs to get ALL its nukes back on a first strike survivable status and so inform the crazies.

If the Bush concept "If you support a terrorist you are a terrorist" is to be enforced, it is time to deal with places like Syria.

Of course those lovable examples of the 'People of Peace' following their 'Religion of Peace', the Palestinians would be given the option of joining the civilized world of departing from a land of fused rock on their way to their afterlife.

In short, bring back deterrence. The Muslim understands best power and vengeance. Time we learned to speak their language.

We must be multi-cultural, after all.

;-)

[Right Wing Assault]

Those same containers are subject to inspection once they hit our ports.

Too late. They would blow the nuke up when if was unloaded and before it was inspected. Do it in NYC and it's a mess. We shouldn't be looking at how good we think our systems are. We should be thinking like terrorists as someone else said.