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CNN Live At Daybreak

Nation's Seaports Still Have Security Problems

Aired March 05, 2002 - 06:17   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well after the terrorist attacks last fall, we reported on the concerns surrounding security at the nation's seaports.

Congress immediately began working on legislation aimed at increasing security, but as CNN's Peter Viles reports, there are still some problems.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Port of Long Beach, California, a huge gateway of goods from Asia. Each day, more than 7,000 of these shipping containers enter the port. And as is the case throughout the United States, very few -- about two percent -- are singled out for a thorough physical inspection. Local officials say security is more important than ever, but the movement of goods is also important.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our main concern is trying to get these containers with the goods to the marketplace.

VILES: Which leads to the biggest fear about port security, that one of those millions of containers could contain a bomb or an agent of chemical warfare.

ED KELLY, AMERICAN MARITIME OFFICERS: I'd say about 90 percent of the time they have no idea what's in the container. The people sailing on the ships have no idea what's in the container. And the only one that has any idea what's in the container are the people that are loading the container.

VILES: The Customs Department decides which containers to thoroughly inspect by using risk management software that tracks the manifest, the port of origin, the shipping company.

AUDREY ADAMS, U.S. CUSTOMS: And we look for the anomalies for those shipments that perhaps we haven't seen before, where there might have been an unusual routing. Where something suspicious awakened the suspicions of the inspector supplemented by the automated targeting.

VILES: No one really knows how vulnerable the nation's ports are, because unlike airports, no single federal agency coordinates their security. STEPHEN FLYNN, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: Our airports are a virtual Fort Knox compared to our seaports. It's night and day. Our seaports are wide open, there is no -- right now -- coherent leadership of who is in charge of security in a port.

VILES: A bill passed by the Senate would establish federal security guidelines for seaports, would mandate that the 50 busiest ports have security plans approved by the Department of Transportation, and would provide $1.2 billion in federal funding. But that would not end concerns about what exactly is inside those millions of containers. The Customs Department believes the United States cannot solve that problem alone.

(on camera): Customs is now trying to initiate a global tracking system that would link information from the world's busiest ports; a system that now exists for the airline industry, but not on the high seas.

Peter Viles, CNN Financial News, Newark New Jersey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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