Port Workers to Undergo Background Checks (Chertoff-tamper-free)

[rodeodance]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/port_security;_ylt=AvsAmZ76gCqI8UhakKwqqGms0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--

Port Workers to Undergo Background Checks

By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer 1 minute ago

WASHINGTON - Answering criticism about security gaps at U.S. seaports, the Bush administration said Tuesday it will conduct background checks on an estimated 400,000 port workers to ensure they do not pose a terrorist threat.


Names of employees who work in the most sensitive areas of ports will be matched against government terror watch lists and immigration databases,
Homeland Security Secretary
Michael Chertoff said. Additionally, the Homeland Security Department will issue tamper-free identification cards to roughly 750,000 workers — including truckers and rail employees — who have unrestricted access to ports.

The added scrutiny, however, will not immediately include a criminal background check for workers, although Chertoff said that might happen in the future. The Transportation Security Administration — and not the
FBI — will conduct the background checks, he said.

"We may expand the number of databases," Chertoff said. "Our first step is to do terrorists watch lists and immigration status."

The new safeguards are part of what Chertoff called a "ring of security" around U.S. ports.

[rodeodance]

1. at the press conf. this am. Dems said they try to secure the containers

but Repugs always vote it down.

[rodeodance]

2. more data bases for Chertoff.

"We may expand the number of databases," Chertoff said. "Our first step is to do terrorists watch lists and immigration status."

The new safeguards are part of what Chertoff called a "ring of security" around U.S. ports.

"We're going to focus on those who could potentially be the greatest risk to our security," he said at a news conference in Washington.

The Bush administration has been under fire for months about what critics call gaping holes in security measures at ports, which were highlighted after a Dubai company's purchase of a British firm gave it control of six American ports. An outcry in the Congress led the Dubai company, DP World, to decide to sell the U.S. operations to an American firm.

[maddezmom]

4. there probably isn't a repub company to give the contract to

yet? :shrug:

[madrchsod]

5. walmart is against the increased container inspections-

the costs gut into their bottom line. it`s all about the money

[maddezmom]

3. hmm, glad they are finally getting around to it

What's that phrase, everything has changed since 9/11. I guess that means everything except port security. Or should I say if it doesn't add to the bottom line to Halliburton and all the * cronies nothing has changed. :eyes:

[xxqqqzme]

6. More of those new-fangled

'tamper proof cards' raisin brain talked about yesterday. As if a 2' x 3 1/4' plastic card will be the cure for all the problems the neo-cons have promoted.

[Kagemusha]

7. Unfortunately everything that can go wrong with this, will

Once you start digging into the pasts of large numbers of Americans, many faults will become apparent. What happens when the government or management wants to start firing unionized people because of perceived security risks? There's a reason past governments have run away from taking on the port workers gratuitously.

[DBoon]

8. they'll use to to "screen out" union activists

I will bet

[Bridget Burke]

9. Then the Unions can speak up.

The non-Unionized have NO voice.

I live near the Port of Houston--the Ship Channel winds miles of petrochemical plants to docks not far from Downtown. I'm more concerned about what might arrive in a container than who might swim the river.

But more inspection would cost the Big Guys too much money.

[lovuian]

10. Port Workers to Undergo Background Checks

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/redir.php?jid=4c0dd01381c07513&cat=c08dd24cec417021

Seaport workers will undergo background checks for links to terrorism and to ensure they are legal U.S. residents, the Bush administration said Tuesday.

The announcement came after months of scathing criticism about security gaps at the nation's ports.

The heightened scrutiny - which will begin immediately - drew praise from some lawmakers and port associations that said the checks were long overdue. Others jeered the security measures as either too weak or too invasive of workers' privacy rights.

Names of an estimated 400,000 employees who work in the most sensitive areas of ports will be matched against government terror watch lists and immigration databases, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said. They will be among roughly 750,000 workers - including truckers and rail employees - who have unrestricted access to ports and will be required to carry tamper-resistant identification cards by next year.




"What this will do is it will elevate security at our ports themselves so that we can be sure that those who enter our ports to do business come for legitimate reasons and not in order to do us harm," Chertoff said. He called the safeguards part of a "ring of security" around U.S. ports.

more...

Talk is cheap seeing is Believing!!!

[NYC]

11. So for all these years, they didn't bother with background

checks? I would expect that to be standard procedure.

Perhaps I don't fully understand "background check".

[flashdebadge]

12. bout time. We need to know who's granting access and to who.

[leesa]

13. Oh, that's reassuring...like Jeff Gannon Official WH Hooker?

[dg10348]

14. Does a Bushco Crony

company get the contract to conduct the checks? It is Homeland Security Dept but likely someone else will get the "contract" to actually do it. Choicepoint?

[Ilsa]

15. About frickin time.

The state is requiring nurses who've been licensed for decades to undergo background checks. You'd think an employer would do that.

[grasswire]

16. hey, they let male prostitutes into the WH press room...

....without so much as an eyeblink, so why bother with dock workers?

[High Plains]

17. More security hysteria--background checks on 400,000 workers

I wonder how many of these blue collar guys are going to lose good jobs because a 20-year-old felony pops up.