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Coast Guard works to protect US from terrorist attack (detailed info)
Fox ^ | Feb. 7, 2004 | AP

Posted on 02/07/2004 11:18:41 PM PST by FairOpinion

The U.S. Coast Guard has its work cut out for it, as it tackles its new mission of protecting America from terrorist attack.

The Coast Guard has 361 ports to protect, 95-thousand miles of navigable waterways to defend and 20-thousand oceangoing vessels to keep an eye on.

On July first, it must begin enforcing new anti-terrorism rules mandated by the federal government.

To comply with the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002, the Coast Guard is focusing on what it considers the most likely maritime targets of a terrorist attack. It's identified nearly 12-thousand of them.

About 32-hundred of them are on shore, things like oil refineries, nuclear power plants and other sites that use or store hazardous materials. 8500 others are on the water ferries, barges and cargo ships.

To do its new job, the Coast Guard it is counting in part on new technologies, including a sophisticated vessel tracking system. But it's already run into problems with that.

A radio frequency it needs to help monitor the movements of thousands of ships was sold to a private company in 1998, over the Coast Guard's objections.


TOPICS: Front Page News
KEYWORDS: coastguard; homelandsecurity
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To: FairOpinion
thank you.

The CG got 162.025 MHz, but they didn't get 161.975 MHz. Aww. That doesn't sound like much of a scandal.

Why can't they use some other frequency instead of 161.975 MHz?

This story sounds like a turf battle within the government over who gets to control allocation of the spectrum.
21 posted on 02/08/2004 1:13:39 AM PST by Khan Noonian Singh
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To: FairOpinion; Squantos; JustPiper; All

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22 posted on 02/08/2004 8:55:56 AM PST by 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub (Thank You Troops, Past and Present)
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To: FairOpinion
Ok, the story on the GPS tracking device is that the FCC sold the frequency to a private buyer at auction (over the objection of the Coast Guard) for something like 1.6 million and the private buyer will sell the frequency back to the Coast Guard for 20 million. Without the radio frequency in gov't control, anyone can buy a device to read the GPS and track the ships. It's kind of like Oliver North's book where the gov't hired a private firm to make their decryption device and the owner's of the company then sold it to the UN, where it was used against the US.
23 posted on 02/08/2004 12:18:42 PM PST by Eva
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To: FairOpinion
Thanks, I read your article after I posted. The only thing wrong about the article is that everyone knew how important it was for the Coast Guard to control this frequency, including the FCC. The Coast Guard made their objections to the sale very clear. The ship owners may be dragging their feet on security preparations because the GPS tracking, as it stands, makes the ships less secure instead more secure. They want the devices removed if the Coast Guard does not get the frequency back.
24 posted on 02/08/2004 12:24:50 PM PST by Eva
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To: Eva
Thanks for the info. This is worse than I thought.

Great -- now even the terrorists can just track our ships.

If people want to investigate, why isn't someone investigating why did the FCC under Clinton sell a frequency needed by the government, when the Coast Guard made them known that they needed it.
25 posted on 02/08/2004 1:01:14 PM PST by FairOpinion (If you are not voting for Bush, you are voting for the terrorists.)
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To: FairOpinion
My husband went to a meeting on this subject with the Coast Guard before Christmas.
26 posted on 02/08/2004 2:43:40 PM PST by Eva
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To: Eva
"My husband went to a meeting on this subject with the Coast Guard before Christmas."

===

Please keep us posted on any developments, which are OK to be released to the public.

I hope the government won't have to pay MariTEL the $20M. In a document (see my post 7) it said, that there was some clause in the original lease, that if MariTEL won't set up the network by 2004, then the government can cancel the least. I don't know, whether MariTEL did or did not set up the network - at the time of that documents, the author thought, that MariTEL doesn't have the financial resources to actually implement their plan and then the government can get it back for free, based on the original conditions.

Since your husband it going to meetings regarding it, I am sure he is better informed. I will be interested to find out, what finally happens. Will the stupidity of someone at the FCC in 1998 cost the government (i.e. us, the taxpayers) $20M?
27 posted on 02/08/2004 4:14:22 PM PST by FairOpinion (If you are not voting for Bush, you are voting for the terrorists.)
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To: FairOpinion
I'll let you know what goes on, but never underestimate gov't workers. It's not stupidity, it's probably greed.
28 posted on 02/08/2004 5:35:57 PM PST by Eva
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