New Technology To Defeat Terrorism In Our Ports

New Technology To Defeat Terrorism In Our Ports

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Story Published: Mar 15, 2004 at 3:10 PM PDT

Story Updated: Aug 31, 2006 at 1:26 AM PDT

By Tracy Vedder

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TACOMA - Right now, ships are steaming toward Puget Sound ports with the newest in anti-terrorism technology.

It's a $30 million test called "Operation Safe Commerce," designed to find the best way to keep cargo containers, and our communities, safe.

In less than two weeks, cargo containers from Malaysia and Japan will arrive in Tacoma with a guarantee no other containers have: that they are safe from terrorist tampering.

"This is the key right here," says a representative from one of the contractors as he holds up a small, black, innocuous-looking device. It has an antenna, a pressure sensor, a radiation detector, and a bunch of other gizmos that, when attached to a cargo container, will protect that container from terrorist tampering.

Put that little black device together with state of the art GPS tracking and you have the newest technological wave in homeland security.

It's all about protecting our ports.

"I was concerned that a terrorist attack launched on or at our ports could shut down commerce for days or weeks and could have immense costs," said Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) who spearheaded this effort, called Operation Safe Commerce.

She helped secure $30 million to test out these new technologies to find which works best. Now the test hits the water.

Over the next several months, shippers bringing in goods from Malaysia or China or several other ports will actually use these devices on about 2,000 cargo containers.

If the test works well, Senator Murray plans to push the administration to pay for an expanded program.

"I think we all know that terrorists are terribly creative and ingenious and are determined and we have to do everything we can to stop them," Murray said.

No one could tell us how much it would cost to protect all the cargo containers coming into the U.S. or who would pay for it.

The first shipment, carrying electronics from Malaysia, will unload at the Port of Tacoma next week.

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