security beat

SEPTEMBER 2007

Secure Shipping Containers Remain an Elusive Goal

By Stew Magnuson and Grace Jean

The goal of finding a device that detects when a shipping container has been tampered with “still lies just beyond our grasp,” said Customs and Border Protection Commissioner W. Ralph Basham.

For six years, the Department of Homeland Security agency has been working on the problem. The fear is that a terrorist could break in and hide weapons of mass destruction or their components in a shipping container without the owner’s knowledge.

“The perfect technology is probably a long way off and may prove to be far too expensive,” he said at a Center for Strategic and International Studies panel discussion.

Requirements for a “smart box” or “container security device” will be published “soon,” Basham said, but he declined to be more specific. If CBP finds a device that meets the requirements, it will complete operational tests within 60 to 90 days, he said. The devices should be able to remotely alert customs officers when a container has been breached.

Although considered one of the top priorities for improving shipping container security, the alarms have proven to be a difficult technological hurdle, DHS and industry sources have said. The devices must be rugged enough to withstand extreme jostling and the corrosive sea environment, they must be inexpensive — a few dollars per container per shipment — and they must have low false alarm rates. Any more than 1 percent would slow down commerce.

With about 12 million containers entering the United States every year, a 1-percent false alarm rate would force agents to physically inspect more than 3,000 units per day.

“Although I expect that there will be relatively few false positives, still we will need to figure out how we will deal with them,” Basham said.

Even if CBP succeeds in finding an acceptable solution, installing such devices will be voluntary for shippers, Basham said. The financial motivation for taking on the added expense of installing the devices would be quicker and more predictable customs clearances, he added.

Three Companies Vie for Next Generation Airport X-Ray Machines

Three of the top x-ray machine manufacturers are being given a chance to prove their technologies’ worth at airport security checkpoints this year in a competition that could be worth several million dollars.

The Transportation Security Administration is paying three companies $1.4 million each to lease their most advanced multi-view and high definition x-ray machines. L3 Communications, Smiths Detection and Rapiscan Systems are supplying seven machines apiece. One or more of the companies will be chosen and the program expanded, according to the TSA.

TSA hopes the new generation of x-ray machines will give screeners clearer and more detailed images. It also wants the systems to easily accommodate software upgrades, have low-maintenance costs and be smaller than current units.

TSA’s test and evaluation department has been busy this summer. It also carried out operational tests at the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport on the controversial “backscatter” scanner, which peers underneath clothing to detect weapons or other potentially dangerous items.

TSA resolved privacy issues by converting the screen image into a “filtered” outline of the passenger’s body. A suspicious object appears on a “chalk outline” and will be interpreted in a separate room by a TSA officer who cannot directly see the person standing in front of the scanner.

U.S., European Experts Ponder the Threat of Homegrown Terrorists

As Western nations struggle to weed out potential terrorists attempting to pass through their borders or immigration systems to carry out attacks, the threat of so-called “homegrown terrorists” is a rising concern.

Both the United States and Europe have large Muslim immigrant communities where radicalization may take place, but these communities differ in many important aspects, experts note. And while European nations have uncovered a spate of Islamic terrorist cells that rose within their borders, the United States has produced some infamous examples of homegrown terrorists — notably Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and Olympic Park bomber Eric Rudolph — both non-Muslims.

Lidewijde Ongering, the Dutch deputy national coordinator for counterterrorism, told the House Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that part of the problem in Europe is the relatively low social class of Muslim immigrants. Many Muslims there, especially in the Netherlands, were brought in as “cheap labor” after World War II, she said. She defines homegrown terrorists as “young people who grew up in the Netherlands and became radicalized there.”

“A lack of education, huge cultural differences and difficulties in social integration were some of the most serious problems to beset this group,” she said.

Because of differences in immigration laws, the United States has been better able to “cherry pick” immigrants from a higher social class, who are less likely to resort to terrorism, said Marc Sageman, an expert on al-Qaida and related terrorist organizations.

“The United States allowed Muslim engineers, physicians, university professors and businessmen to immigrate. The result is that the Muslim American community is solidly middle class. On a socio-economic scale, we are dealing with very different communities: middle class in the United States and an unskilled labor pool in Europe.”

His testimony came only days before a group of well-educated doctors became suspects in a spate of attempted car-bombings in the United Kingdom, which points to the difficulty in profiling future terrorists.

Although the U.S. Muslim population is generally well-integrated into society, the growth of Islamophobia after the 9/11 attacks may make some U.S. Muslims more likely to support terrorism, Lynn Martin and Farooq Kathwari, co-chairpersons of the Task Force on Muslim American Civic and Political Engagement, told the committee.

“The present climate of mistrust and the lack of engagement threaten to marginalize and potentially alienate some elements among Muslim Americans,” they said.

National Guard Short Assault Runway Opens to Train C-17 Crews

CAMP SHELBY, Miss. — The Mississippi Air National Guard’s C-17 crews, who used to fly three hours every month from Jackson, Miss., to South Carolina for assault landing and takeoff practice, began training on home turf here on the Air National Guard’s first short assault runway — one of two in the world designed specifically for the cargo aircraft.

The 90-foot wide runway is 3,500 feet long, with 300-foot overruns on either end. An automated scoring system will record training sessions in real time to provide feedback to C-17 pilots back on base, said Lt. Gen. Craig McKinley, director of the Air National Guard.

Though the 172nd Airlift Wing is flying biweekly medical evacuation and supply missions out of Balad Air Base, Iraq, officials say the importance of having such a training facility at Camp Shelby extends beyond military needs.

“It also gives us depth in homeland security,” the commanding officer of First Army, Lt. Gen. Russell Honore, said at the airstrip’s ribbon cutting ceremony. Honore led the relief efforts during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Should another natural disaster hit the country, the runway could be used as a staging facility, said Maj. Gen. Harold A. Cross, adjutant general for Mississippi.

The Mississippi Air Guard plans to open the $10 million facility to all C-17 crews who require assault runway training in their half-million ton aircraft, Cross added.

“That runway and what it provides to train aircrews will be an essential crown jewel in our training situation here at home, because there just aren’t that many of them around,” said McKinley.

Critical Infrastructure Plans Making Progress, GAO Says

When the Government Accountability Office has something good to say about the Department of Homeland Security, it’s news.

A report on the department’s efforts to coordinate 17 national infrastructure protection plans, which are designed to integrate the private sector and government’s security efforts, gave the department generally good marks.

DHS got off on the wrong foot when it missed a congressionally mandated deadline to create the program’s framework. However, sector specific plans were delivered on time by the end of 2006.

The 17 critical infrastructure sectors each has a council with representatives from government and the private sector. They are charged with using risk management principles to prioritize protection activities, identify critical assets, assess the probability of terrorist attacks or other hazards and develop protective measures.

They must submit an annual report each September detailing potential security gaps along with action plans to address the shortfalls.

After examining nine of the sectors, GAO found that they generally met congressional requirements. Eight of the nine, however, did not address incentives the sectors would use to encourage owners to conduct risk assessments. The more mature sectors are generally further along in their plans, the report noted. For example, the drinking water and water treatment sector, which coordinates its efforts with the Environmental Protection Agency, has a 30-year history of protecting its assets and working with the government.

There was also concern among the private sectors that information submitted to DHS’ information clearinghouse, the homeland security information network, would be misused. HSIN is the department’s computer-based counterterrorism communications system designed to connect state, local and federal agencies.

Private sector partners “continue to fear that the information, such as information on security vulnerabilities, could be inadequately protected, used for future legal or regulatory action, or inadvertently released,” GAO said.

Please email your comments to SMagnuson@ndia.org

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