Declaring a nuclear or radiological attack one of the greatest terrorism threats facing the United States, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced Friday that the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach would soon be equipped with large radiation detection portals to screen all international containers entering the nation's busiest port complex.
Wrapping up a two-day visit to Los Angeles, Chertoff said the radiation monitors would begin operating at three terminals within the Port of Los Angeles by the end of the month. Ninety of the towering detection devices would be in place at the Los Angeles/Long Beach complex by the end of the year, he said.
Just weeks ago, the Port of Oakland became the first in the nation to be outfitted with the radiation monitors, which are large enough for container trucks to drive through.
"We all know that one of the greatest threats we face in this country is the possibility of a nuclear or radiological attack, which would be devastating in its consequences," Chertoff said at Fire Station 112 in San Pedro. "Obviously, one of our top priorities at the Department of Homeland Security is to prevent that kind of attack. And a key element of that strategy is detection. We have to know that something is coming in so we can intercept it."
Chertoff said the detection portals would enable authorities to screen vehicles and containers entering the massive ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which handle more than 40% of the 9 million containers shipped into the U.S. each year.
Increasingly, national security experts have warned that the nation must do more to safeguard ports and inspect cargo shipments before they reach U.S. waters and docks.
"This is a major, major problem for the nation," Brian Jenkins, a counterterrorism expert at the Rand Corp., told an international conference at the think tank's Santa Monica headquarters Thursday.
A recent Government Accountability Office audit found significant shortcomings in cargo security procedures put in place after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
One homeland security program launched to inspect all U.S.-bound cargo at foreign ports had managed to cover only 65% of the shipments because the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency has not had enough staff at some overseas ports, the audit found.
Foreign governments asked to help in cargo inspections under another U.S. initiative failed to screen 28% of the containers forwarded to them, the GAO concluded.
