U.S. Will Monitor Foreign Seaports

The New York Times ^ | 6/11/03 | PHILIP SHENON

[Pro-Bush]

The Bush administration has decided to place teams of American inspectors at major seaports in Muslim nations and other smaller, strategically located foreign ports to prevent terrorists from using cargo containers to smuggle chemical, biological or nuclear weapons into the United States, senior administration officials said.

[Charlotte Corday]

Obviously not a TSA initiative, or else they'd be checking the ports in Finland, Corsica, and Easter Island.

[doug from upland]

It is about freaking time.

[Pro-Bush]

Obviously not a TSA initiative, or else they'd be checking the ports in Finland, Corsica, and Easter Island.

The first phase focused on 20 large container ports in Europe and Asia, none of them in countries with predominantly Muslim populations.

Officials said the Department of Homeland Security planned to place teams of inspectors that would remain indefinitely in Dubai, the Persian Gulf emirate that is a crucial transhipment point for containerized cargo in the Arab world; Malaysia; Turkey and other Muslim nations. Al Qaeda is believed to have a sizable presence in both Dubai and Malaysia.

Pure speculation on your part. Who is to say that we are not?

[Charlotte Corday]

(sigh......) </irony>

[orlop9]

Pure speculation on your part. Who is to say that we are not?

The USCG has been doing this for years but until now, nobody has had the stupidity to mention it.