Are Our Seaports Safe?

The Department of Homeland Security has handed out a new round of federal grants to improve security at some of the nation’s ports, but some critics are saying the money isn’t enough to keep us safe.

According to an article by Vanessa Ho in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the funds came the same day Mic Dinsmore, Port of Seattle’s chief executive, published a critical guest editorial in the Washington Post saying the government is not doing enough to boost maritime safety.

In the editorial, Dinsmore said, “reviewing the threats to our transportation network, I have to conclude that when it comes to aviation security, we may have overreacted. And when it comes to maritime security, we haven’t done nearly enough.”

He wrote that 21,000 containers enter the country’s ports a day, and that currently screeners only have the ability to verify the contents in four to six percent of those containers. “It would require only one rogue container to bring commerce to its knees,” he wrote.

Ho says Suzanne Mercer, director of the Office of Domestic Preparedness, part of the DHS, said much of the screening is done offshore, including high-risk containers headed for U.S. Ports. She told Ho it would be “great” to screen all containers on arrival, but “we have to manage expectations.”

To read Ho’s article, click here: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/191432_portsecurity18.html