Special Ops boarding ship to search for Nuclear Material off the NJ shore

Fox News Alert | 9/12/02 | Brytani

[Brytani]

Fox News just broke in with an alert. Special Op's are now searching a Liberian flagged ship 8 miles off the coast of NJ looking for nuclear material. More information to follow.

[piasa]

If that's the case then we have to check the whole waterway- if that ship followed the coast as the line's route seems to indicate, and there really was a device on board or material for same, there are a lot of targets along the way. It's a possibility a device could have been dropped in an important location overseas too, a place where our fleet may call or an important narrow straight.

Wasn't the alert supposed to be related to a person we captured from the far east?

And did you hear about Japan raising that North Korea ship? The thing had a three-engine small boat in it to get in closer to shore or ships. The thing was armed pretty good too.

[Jim Noble]

I don't know-but I think NEST scrambles are relatively rare, are they not?

[crypt2k]

When the ship arrives? At that point, wouldn't it be to late?

It may take time and many incremental shipments for terrorists to assemble a viable device.

[Lazamataz]

"I have signed legislation outlawing the rest of the world, the bombing begins in 5 minutes." President Lazamataz, just before his weekly radio address. "Whatsamatta, can't you people take a f***ing joke?" President Lazamataz, just after the press hyperventilates over the above remark.

"You know, I felt sorry about 9/11 until I realized the New York Times operates out of Manhattan. And you a**holes can PRINT THAT!!"

[CWOJackson]

"...they also need to check every single place in the US that ship has been for about the last year or so and search them."

Not necessary...it is probably a "container" that is hot, not the ship. That container could have been carried on any other ship prior to this trip. What you want to do is identify the container then track it (good luck).

[swarthyguy]

Pakistan's nukes are the greatest threat because its army and security/intelligence service (ISI) guarding them are infested with Islamic fanatics who for years had an overt alliance with Al Qaeda to gain control of the Pakistani government, plus further Pakistani interests in Afghanistan and Kashmir. This alliance still exists concerning Kashmir, and that's not all.

The ISI's then chief, General Mahmud Ahmad, was in Washington on 9/11. That might have been coincidental, Al Qaeda's attempt to "dirty" the ISI, or evidence of misuse of diplomatic immunity to provide C3I for the 9/11 attacks. But the Times of India reported last October that General Ahmad had ordered payment of $100,000 to WTC attacker Mohammed Atta, and that he was fired as ISI chief when the US learned of this. ---

From Strategypage quoting Timesof India,but this is why i say Pakistan' true role in 9/11 has not seen the light of day.

[piasa]

ONe report said it hadn't been to the US in years and was way overdue for a safety inspection.

[Lazamataz]

The laws of search and seizure are quite diffrent on the sea. The Coast Guard, or any other LEA can board and inspect without the cause for a warrant.

Kewl.

[r9etb]

I suspect that any radioactive contraband was tossed over the side on entering the bay.

That wouldn't make sense. They'd know they had to be inspected, and would have been hoping to slip through. To just toss it overboard would have ruined the mission.

IMHO, any jettisoning would have been seen and noted.

[harpseal]

Just so you realize what precisely the situation is. The CG when they decided to bring the vessel into port for a detailed inspection was most concerned about stowaways. It was while searching for stoways that the radiation alert was sounded. Now if there were stoways then and there are none now??? The possibility of an underwater hatch is not all that remote.

Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - yorktown

[aristeides]

The package hijacker Jarrah sent to his girlfriend in Turkey right before 9/11 contained documentation of his flying and diving lessons.

[seeker41]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. authorities are still investigating a freighter on which low traces of radiation were detected, a Coast Guard spokesman said Thursday.

The freighter, which is under Liberian flag, but owned by a German company, remained 6 miles off the coast of New Jersey, where agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Customs Service, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the U.S. Department of Energy were investigating.

"It is probably going to take some time as it is a fairly large ship," an FBI spokesman said.

While checking for stowaways on the "Palermo Senator" on Wednesday at Port Newark, New Jersey, Coast Guard agents detected low levels of radiation and ordered the ship out to sea.

Ole Sweedlund, deputy managing director of the North American arm of shipping giant Hanjin, which chartered the vessel before subletting it to German company DSR/Senator Lines, said there were no radioactive materials listed on the ship's manifest.

"We are working with government authorities to solve the situation and hopefully we will have a resolution within a day or so," Sweedlund told Reuters.

The ship's last port of call was Valencia, Spain. Before that, it stopped at various ports in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. It was scheduled to offload 655 containers in Port Elizabeth, New Jersey.

Officials declined to provide additional details on the cargo and Sweedlund said the containers could contain any type of cargo originated in the Mediterranean, although he could not say for sure that some of it was not loaded elsewhere.

The managing owner of the ship, Reederei F. Laeisz of Reederei F. Laeisz in Rostock, Germany, said in a statement the investigation "is under way and will be completed by Sept. 13, 2002. The charterers of the vessel confirm that no illegal cargo has been loaded."

The Coast Guard raised its safety and security procedures as the United States went on high state of alert for the one- year commemoration of the attacks last year on Washington and New York.

The United States has for months spearheaded a campaign to tighten up security at international ports, as it is worried that one day it could receive a "dirty bomb" -- a crude nuclear device -- concealed in a shipping container and loaded overseas in a port with lax security.

[Jim Noble]

>>One method would be to drop a nuke in a welded watertight capsule from the bottom of a ship when it was in a US port with a timer or other detonation device. Such a nuke could already have been dropped while the ship was in harbor<<

Remember the flak a few months ago about Islamakazis buying or renting nonrebreathers for deep diving?

I wonder why they wanted that stuff?

[crypt2k]

on MSNBC just said there are 650+ containers on the ship and it will take time searching them....so it sounds like they are going to go thru each one of them.

Remember late last year they discovered someone from the middle east traveling in a container in an Italian port - I'll try to find the reference.

[Travis McGee]

An underwater drop would be simple to do.

Heck, a few years ago we found a damn 100+' SUBMARINE being built high up in Colombia for shipping cocaine to the USA! It was built in segments for road transport and assembly at the coast and was almost ready. A SUBMARINE.

Getting WMD into the USA is a joke. One 40 foot shipping container could be the equivalent of 20 OKC bombs, and set with a GPS trigger to detonate when crossing a certain bridge, or when being trucked across a city. (98% of containers are offloaded by automated cranes and never looked at inside until they reach Walmart etc.)

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

The possibility of an underwater hatch is not all that remote.

And it might jibe with those warnings issued several months back about scuba shops and kayaks.

[aristeides]

Gen. Musharraf addressed the UN today. A nuclear event in NYC today could take him out, along with lots of other world leaders.

[r9etb]

It was while searching for stoways that the radiation alert was sounded.

Short of there being a standard search for radioactive stowaways, this doesn't explain how/why they happened to detect the radioactivity in the first place.

I'm ignorant here: does customs usually search for radioactivity?

[Hatteras]

Oooh, that hurt. "Concocted" right down the road in New Bern, Pepsi has always been my first choice. With Coca-Cola, I can feel it eating away the enamel on my teeth as I drink it. But, I do keep a bottle of Coca-Cola in my garage for when I need to clean my truck's battery terminals... ;-)

[spunkets]

I don't know why they'd toss anything over the side. Customs and other harbor folks always board the boats, so what would make them toss it. They just didn't hide it well enough, or the stuff they were carrying was dropped off in Egypt for ME engagement. It's probably dirty bomb stuff.