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American Morning

Coast Guard To Start Inspecting Containers At Point Of Origin

Aired January 18, 2002 - 08:13   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: And from the nation's airports to its seaports. Last year, 5.7 million cargo containers came through the 361 ports around the country. But here is an amazing statistic for you: fewer than two percent of those containers coming from overseas were actually inspected.

This week, the Coast Guard announced new rules calling for cargo containers to be inspected at their points of origin. And just yesterday, the head of the U.S. Customs Service, Robert Bonner, said the U.S. has to take steps to prevent weapons of mass destruction from being brought into the U.S. in a cargo container. Saying, quote, "We must do everything in our power to establish a means to protect the global sea container trade, and we must do it now before some devastating event occurs."

And Commissioner Robert Bonner, who spoke the words yesterday, joins me now from Washington.

Commissioner, I think this is your first appearance on AM. Welcome, good to have you with us this morning.

ROBERT BONNER, U.S. CUSTOMS COMMISSIONER: It's good to be here, Paula.

ZAHN: So, Commissioner, I guess you would agree, when the American public hears this statistic for the first time, it's pretty shocking that less than two percent of these containers coming from overseas actually get checked. If that's the case, how vulnerable are we to another potential terrorist attack?

BONNER: Well, I don't even think that's the right question. I mean, because it's not really a matter of just randomly taking one out of fifty containers and searching it. Actually, the U.S. Customs Service has had a very sophisticated system in which we gather data and input it -- by which we identify whether the high-risk containers, or those containers that might potentially carry or conceal a weapon of mass destruction or drugs, it's those containers that we inspect and look at.

So we sort out. We have a system -- a sophisticated system -- that sorts out the high-risk containers from those that really aren't at risk and we don't need to look at. We also have some very sophisticated technology, where we can do these inspections and do them very rapidly. Now that's not to say that we don't need some more of this technology and some -- and some more people to support an increased number of inspections, but the -- just the number of inspections is important as making sure that we're smart about what we inspect.

ZAHN: OK, so you've made it clear that, although you have some of this sophisticated technology in place, you're not satisfied with the level of security. Now tell us how your plan would improve things if you get everything you're asking for.

BONNER: Well, first of all, one of the things that -- one of the parts of the strategy that I suggested yesterday is that, you know, every nation in the world, including the United States, inspects cargo containers when they're coming into their countries. But what we need to start thinking about is prescreening these containers before they move out to the United States or in the system. And the reason is, that we need to make sure that we have a security system with respect to ocean-going sea containers, in which about 90 percent, about 90 percent of the world trade, moves by containers.

We need a system of security that protects against a weapon of mass destruction, for example, being concealed in one of those containers. And so we want to sort of reverse this process, where we're prescreening, let's say, at Rotterdam or Singapore, where the containers are being shipped out to the United States and not waiting until they get here to do it.

And we're talking about building a system that really is in the interest of every country that has a, you know, a large container port to be part of the system so we have a secure system in place. And so the global trading system that moves by ocean-going sea container is secure against a terrorist threat.

ZAHN: But, Commissioner, at a time when you're talking about tightening up the system post September 11th, and 2,700 reservists, I guess, were called up by the Coast Guard in anticipation of a potential attack, some of them have been called back. Is that acceptable?

BONNER: Well, you know, I can't speak for the Coast Guard. The U.S. Customs Service has the -- clearly has the primary responsibility for screening and inspecting sea containers that are coming into the United States. And, obviously, that's an issue that we're very concerned about. We're working, of course, very closely with the U.S. Coast Guard and -- because it has some significant responsibilities to protect the security of the seaports of the United States itself.

But, no, what concerns me is that if we had a weapon of mass destruction, for example, that might be concealed in a container and it were detonated, what concerns me is the -- it could have a devastating impact in terms of the whole global trading system that moves by ocean-going sea containers because they would stop just like the airlines stopped after September 11th. And what we need -- and the impact that would have on not just the U.S. economy, but the world economy, and the impact it would have on all of the major ports of the world, because everything would just stop. So what we want to do is to get a better system in place of securing these containers before they move from one port to the United States or to any other port.

ZAHN: Right.

BONNER: And we also want to do something about securing the container itself. Having a smart and secure container box that would have some technology -- some seals on it that would detect if they've been tampered with and that kind of thing.

ZAHN: All right, Commissioner, we've got to leave it there this morning. We appreciate your coming along to tell us a little bit more about your proposal of yesterday. Thank you again for joining us on AM.

BONNER: You bet.

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