Port
security: U.S. fails to meet deadline for scanning of cargo containers
By ,
The Department of Homeland Security was given until this
month to ensure that 100 percent of inbound shipping containers are
screened at foreign ports.
But the department’s secretary, Janet
Napolitano, informed Congress in May that she was extending a
two-year blanket exemption to foreign ports because the screening is proving
too costly and cumbersome. She said it would cost $16 billion to implement
scanning measures at the nearly 700 ports worldwide that ship to the United
State
Navy confirms American vessel fires on boat off
Dubai in possible mistaken threat; 1 dead
By , 12:45 PM
Lt Greg Raelson, a spokesman for the Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th
Fleet, says sailors aboard the USNS Rappahannock issued a series of warnings
Monday before resorting to lethal force using a .50-caliber machine gun.
Cassi Creek:: there
was no rain evident this morning. Daily
hike with Mike resumed. We managed to
complete the trek before the heat of the day set in. I also managed to mow the major portions of
the yard that can be mowed. Gloria came
back from a lab draw and shopping trip in time to provide string trimmer
support with the electric trimmer. The
gas-powered string trimmer is too likely to damage some of the valves and pipes
from the pool and pool heater. There is
some trimming that should be done along the driveway and road, and some around
the well. For now, it will hold. For a
cooler day, perhaps later in the week.
The failure
to implement effective cargo screening for nuclear weaponry and radioactive
materials is disturbing. There is no
valid excuse for this administration to drop the ball on such screening, just
as there was no valid excuse for the Bush administration to fail at
implementation. Congress was quick to
pass resolutions and bills that demand additional safety measures during the
post 9-11 days. Congress is also adept
at refusing to fund such measures.
16 billion
dollars estimated as the cost of implementing screening for such weapons at
foreign ports is a very small sum compared to the cost of allowing a single
nuclear device to be detonated in a major American port city. But the necessity for increasing tax revenues
in order to pay for such security will continue to prevent the teavangelists
voting to levy such taxes.
It seems that
the GOP/teavangelists would rather see a major U.S. port city covered with
green glass than to see bi-partisan compromise and the increased taxation
applied toward national security necessities.
There is no glamour in applying expensive scientific detection devices
to eliminate the risk of being attacked by Islamic terrorists or Iranians
intent upon suicide. Voting to fund such
technology will not impress the majority of the anti-intellectual voter base,
and it will not please that incomparable dweeb, Norcrist, who has most of the
GOP/teavangelist members of Congress by the balls.
We’ve ignored
the necessity of applying money and science to provide national security and
they will likely emulate the British marching on Concord.
Also defining
national security, the USNS Rappahannock http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USNS_Rappahannock_(T-AO-204)
responded to the too-close approach of a
small craft in the Persian Gulf by opening fire with .50 caliber firearms,
killing one person and injuring others, after the small craft had ignored
various warnings to stand off. The USNS Rappahannock
is a non-commissioned auxiliary vessel, configured to provide underway
replenishment (un-rep) delivering fuels and dry cargo to other vessels in the
fleet without necessitating a port call.
She is owned by the Navy, crewed mostly by civilians, and carries an
on-board Navy defense team during operations in a combat theater. It was such a team that acted today to
defend the ship.
There will be
complaints and denials by Iran, and perhaps other regional nations. There was no legitimate reason for any small
craft to approach a U.S. Navy vessel underway in the Persian Gulf. Refusing to stand off was sufficient reason
to defend the ship.
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