How Secure Are U.S. Borders?

Sept. 11, 2003 — -- For a second year, U.S. government screeners have failed to detect a shipment of depleted uranium in a container sent by ABCNEWS from overseas as part of a test of security at American ports.

"I think this is a case in point which established the soft underbelly of national security and homeland defense in the United States," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who has been urging the Bush administration to do more to enhance port security.

The ABCNEWS test was criticized by officials at the Department of Homeland Security, who assigned agents in at least four cities to investigate ABC personnel and news sources involved.

"I think you're a news reporter that is trying to carry out a hoax on our inspectors," Undersecretary for Border and Transportation Security Asa Hutchinson told Brian Ross, ABCNEWS' chief investigative correspondent, for a report to be broadcast tonight on World News Tonight and PrimeTime Thursday.

The ABCNEWS project involved a shipment to Los Angeles of just under 15 pounds of depleted uranium, a harmless substance that is legal to import into the United States. The uranium, in a steel pipe with a lead lining, was placed in a suitcase for the shipment.

"If they can't detect that, then they can't detect the real thing," explained Tom Cochran, a nuclear physicist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, which lent the material to ABCNEWS for the project.

Cochran said the highly enriched uranium used for nuclear weapons would, with slightly thicker shielding, give off a signature similar to depleted uranium in the screening devices currently being used by homeland security officials at American ports.

Chest Never Opened in Jakarta

The ABCNEWS suitcase containing the uranium was placed in a teak trunk along with other furniture put in a container in Jakarta, Indonesia, a city considered by U.S. authorities to be one of the most active al Qaeda hot spots in the world. The container was shipped to Los Angeles in late July, just one week before the bombing of the Jakarta Marriott Hotel that killed 12 people.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge has claimed major improvements in port security, in part because of enhanced vigilance overseas. "So that our borders become the last line of defense, not our first line of defense," Ridge said in a speech last week. He said the United States was increasing security "thousands of miles away, long before a container is first loaded on a ship."

But in Jakarta, ABCNEWS producers David Scott and Rhonda Schwartz found that the chest in which they had placed the depleted uranium was never opened or inspected before being sent on to Los Angeles.

"It took us only a few days to find a shipper willing to send a container to America with almost no questions asked," said Scott.

"We did not tell the company about the depleted uranium," said Schwartz, "and they never asked."

The shipment was handled by Maersk Logistics, part of the giant Maersk shipping company based in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Maersk company officials say their procedures do not require their agents to inspect containers loaded outside of the pier area. Maersk provided what it calls "door-to-door service," which allowed the container to be loaded at a furniture store.

"We rely on screening of government authorities to validate shipping contents," said Maersk security official John Hyde.

In a statement, Maersk said the ABCNEWS findings had caused it to investigate and review its procedures overseas. "Any important deviations from normal procedure will be rectified immediately," the statement said. Furthermore, "Security procedures will be reviewed again in order to evaluate whether any adjustments should be made."

Targeted for Screening, But Chest Wasn’t Opened

The container arrived at the Port of Los Angeles on Aug. 23 and, given its origination in Jakarta, was targeted for screening by homeland security agents.

"The system first passed the test because we did target this shipment," said Hutchinson.

But homeland security officials say the radiation pagers and X-ray scanners used by inspectors did not detect anything suspicious or harmful.

Scientific experts say the only way they could know that was to open the container. "The only way to know whether this is the real thing or depleted uranium is to actually open the container and take a look," said Cochran.

When the ABCNEWS container was released from the port, it still had the same metal seal that had been put on in Jakarta, meaning it had not been opened.

"The test that you put to them, which looks to me to be a fair test, they fail," said Graham Allison, a former assistant secretary of defense and now director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

"What indeed is the most likely way that a nuclear weapon would be delivered by a terrorist to the U.S.?" asked Allison. "The most likely way is in a cargo container ship."

Homeland Security: Not a Danger

Homeland security officials scoffed at the ABCNEWS test, saying its screeners had passed the test because the harmless depleted uranium did not represent a valid replica of weapons-grade uranium.

"We targeted it, we inspected it, we confirmed that it was not a danger to America," said Hutchinson.

Homeland security officials did not realize the depleted uranium had successfully gone through its screening devices until the truck driver hired by ABCNEWS became concerned that customs officials had missed something important.

ABCNEWS personnel had identified themselves to the driver and told him the nature of the shipment.

"This container went through an exam and so we were wondering about that, how come customs didn't get this," said Cesar Melgar, the president of the trucking company used by ABCNEWS.

Maersk called the FBI in response to concerns raised by the trucking company.

Security Test Prompts Federal Inquiry

On the night the shipment left the Los Angeles port, on Sept. 2, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security began a weeklong investigation of ABCNEWS personnel and others involved in the project, suggesting possible violations of felony smuggling laws.

A Homeland Security official said any decision on whether to prosecute would be made by the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., a critic of the Bush administration's port security plans, says the behavior of the federal agents "is not only against the American ethos, but will hurt our safety."

"This 'kill the messenger' strategy does not make our nation one bit safer," Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., a member of the Commerce Committee which oversees port security, wrote in a statement today, calling on the Bush administration to "cease and desist" its investigation of ABCNEWS.

Federal agents showed up outside the gates of the ABCNEWS bureau in Los Angeles at midnight on Sept. 2 demanding access to ABCNEWS personnel and the depleted uranium, which had already been shipped back to New York at the time.

"Agent Susan Lane of U.S. Customs said she was there on the authority of the U.S. Department of Justice," said ABCNEWS editor Ursula Fahy. "They wanted our people and they wanted the package."

ABCNEWS later voluntarily turned over the depleted uranium for inspection by homeland security lab technicians, who confirmed the material was harmless depleted uranium.

U.S. agents also sought, without warrant or subpoena, to obtain ABCNEWS field tapes. Two agents showed up at night at the San Diego home of a freelance cameraman, Jeff Freeman, who worked on the project.

"They first identified themselves as FBI agents, which it turns out they weren't," said Freeman. "They wanted to know if I still had the tapes I had shot for ABC and if I could turn them over."

The tapes had already been shipped to ABCNEWS in New York and were not turned over to the government.

On Saturday morning, two U.S. Customs agents showed up unannounced at the Washington, D.C., home of nuclear physicist Cochran, blocking his driveway as he and his wife were about to go shopping, Cochran told ABCNEWS.

"They pulled up and blocked my driveway so that I couldn't pull the car out," said an angered Cochran. "They didn't call me up, they didn't knock on my door, they just swooped in and stopped my exit from the driveway."

Cochran says he told the agents to come to his office during business hours when his attorney would be present.

In a letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft and Ridge, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said he was concerned about "a chilling effect on legitimate investigative reporting" in the ABCNEWS case.

"If my neighbor told me my barn was on fire, my first instinct would be to thank my neighbor and get some water for the fire. I worry that the government's first instinct is to pour cold water on the neighbor," Grassley wrote.

Today, a top official at the Department of Homeland Security told ABCNEWS that truck-sized radiation detectors will soon be up and running, able to detect even small amounts of shielded depleted uranium.