(Senator) Collins: Screen all cargo

[MaineDem]

WASHINGTON — All cargo containers arriving at U.S. ports would be screened for radioactive material, and companies that permit inspections overseas would get an expedited channel into this country under legislation proposed Monday by Sen. Susan Collins. "Our goal is to make sure that we know from the factory door to the retail store floor how the cargo has been handled at each step of the supply chain," said Collins, R-Maine and head of the Homeland Security Committee.

She introduced the bill with Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a member of the appropriations subcommittee for homeland security. The bill would authorize $835 million in spending for port security in each of the next five years, which lawmakers argued would be a bargain compared with lost economic activity after a terrorist attack.

The economic impact of an attack that shut down ports was hinted at in a West Coast labor dispute in 2002, which cost $1 billion a day in halted commerce. A terrorist attack is projected to close the country's 360 ports for four months.

"It would absolutely cripple our economy," Collins said.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/060307collins.shtml

[napi21]

1. I have a few questions about that proposal.

First, what exactly are we looking for? If we're looking for neuclear bomb materials, they would show up on a scanner, but what about other things, like weaponized anthrax, or some other poisonous materials? They would NOT show up on any scanner if burried in the center of a container load of some other legal products.

Second, it is unrealistic to assume we can manually inspect the contents of every container! The volume is just too BIG, and there's no way to accomplish that! What other method exists to inspect ALL containers and still keep commerce moving in and out of the ports?

So far, nothing I've heard sounds like a realistic solution!

[rodeodance]

2. band-aid approaches never work (think of our health care 'system")