Cargo Containers Pose Security Threat

Sept. 7, 2004 -- Three years after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has done a great deal to make the country more secure, but America is, and may always be, a nation at risk.

For one thing, the country's transportation system is still perilously exposed.

The United States has been a leader in trying to make world trade open and efficient, inexpensive and reliable.Much of the world's commerce moves in cargo containers — 18 million containers are constantly on the move in the world, with 7 million cargo containers arriving in the United States every year.

In most circumstances, Homeland Security officials don't know much about the origins or the contents of the containers.

"We have no idea who often stuffed a container or loaded a container," said former Coast Guard Cmdr. Stephen Flynn. "We don't know how it got from its originating point to a seaport, how it got loaded, and under what conditions."

Last year, for example, ABC News tested port security by loading depleted uranium into a container in Indonesia and shipping it successfully through the port of Los Angeles.

"The risk is that virtually anyone on the planet can get [a container]," Flynn said. "You can fill it with up to 32 tons of [hazardous] material, and it's off to the races. There are very few safeguards to check it."

Flynn was the lead author on a major task force that investigated homeland security. He calls cargo containers "terror in a box."

"The real concern is not that [it] would go off and people would be harmed in the immediate vicinity, it is that it raises a question about every other container that's moving into our ports," said Flynn.

He added: "The likely response for the U.S. government today would be to shut down U.S. seaports to sort things out. But, if they close our seaports, for a period of two to three weeks, we essentially shut down the global trade system. We shut down our manufacturing and retailing sectors. You go to Wal-Mart, there's nothing on your shelves. You go to a factory, there's no job because you can't do assembly."

Two simultaneous attacks targeting different ports of entry in different parts of the country would simply multiply the terror and the chaos.

Better Security Since 9/11

There has been some progress in terms of cargo container safety since 9/11, however.

U.S. customs is now able to examine boxes in several overseas ports, including Hong King, Singapore and Rotterdam in the Netherlands, before they are loaded for shipment to the States.

The tracking system for containers is getting better, but Flynn thinks more can be done with existing technology.

"It seems to me the most promising tech is a radioactive portal combined with an image of what's inside the container, and that way you can see it's bananas and not some big black object," he said. "So that's something that should tell you that even though the radiation may be quite low, that is something you should be very worried about."

It would not be impossible, Flynn said, to build a monitoring sensor in every legitimate container moving in the world today. Over the typical life of a container, he said it could add only $5 to the price of most shipments.

Peter Jennings filed this report for World News Tonight.