DHS Head Says Small Planes, Boats Could Carry WMD

By Jon Fox
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — Both noncommercial aircraft and small boats could be used to carry a nuclear weapon to U.S. shores, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said yesterday, while announcing a pair of programs that could be used to close those security gaps (see GSN, June 18).

Chertoff’s comments, made before the House Homeland Security Committee, come as both current and former Bush administration officials have begun to push for a radiation detection focus beyond scanning the millions of maritime shipping containers that arrive on U.S. shores each year (see GSN, June 13).

Vayl Oxford, head of the Homeland Security Department’s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, has described it as a shift away from a “port-centric” approach (see GSN, May 25).

Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, much legislative and media attention has been paid to the threat of a nuclear weapon or nuclear material arriving at a U.S. port inside an anonymous metal freight container.  By the end of 2008 nearly all sea cargo unloaded at “major” U.S. seaports is expected to be scanned for radiation, Chertoff said.  The radiation detection network at the end of 2009 would be extended to nearly all ports of entry including land crossings.

“While we’ve made some very significant steps in securing the homeland in these respects, I have to say there are some gaps that require attention, and we are moving forward with those,” he told lawmakers.

The United States has deployed radiation detectors widely and Homeland Security officials are backing a more than $1 billion effort to deploy more advanced detectors at commercial ports.  However, small planes and boats could pull an end run around those defenses, Chertoff suggested (see GSN, May 16).

“We do worry about the fact that someone could lease or occupy a private plane overseas and then use that as a way to smuggle a ‘dirty bomb’ or weapon of mass destruction into the United States,” he said.  “We do worry that having locked the front door, so to speak, against dangerous containers someone could simply put a dangerous cargo in a private oceangoing vessel and take it into a U.S. port.”

In Washington state, the federal government has begun equipping local officials with radiation detection equipment to launch a pilot program to scan small boats at “choke points” in Puget Sound leading to the Port of Seattle.

“It is possible to direct all of the traffic through a fairly narrow strait that brings you into the port,” Chertoff said.  The program is to include passive radiation detectors in both fixed and mobile positions, “essentially pushing the perimeter out a little bit,” he said.

The “West Cost Maritime pilot program” began in Puget Sound in July with initial assessment activities.  The Domestic Nuclear Detection Office is expected to invest roughly $10 in the three-year program which is also expected to soon be expanded to San Diego, according to the department.

The program “is one that we intend to roll out in other locations, including New York,” Chertoff said.

Regarding general aviation aircraft, Chertoff said he expects to soon unveil a plan to tighten security standards for planes traveling to the United States from overseas.  The steps could include a measure requiring private aircraft to submit a list of passengers and crew members to U.S. officials for vetting before flying to the United States, he said.

The plan would also involve tightening security standards for planes coming from abroad and working with “overseas allies and the private sector” to screen private aircraft for nuclear or radiological material before they enter U.S. airspace, Chertoff said.

Chertoff’s testimony came one day before the Government Accountability Office is expected to release a report critical of the Homeland Security Department, indicating the sprawling agency created in the wake of Sept. 11 has met fewer than half of its performance goals, the Washington Post reported today.

The department received poor marks in emergency preparedness and had made “moderate progress” in five of 14 areas — immigration enforcement, aviation, land and transportation security, securing critical infrastructure and property management, the Post reported.  Those were sectors in which the agency had taken action on meeting more than half of identified goals.

The report said substantial progress had only been found in one area — maritime and port security.

Despite the less-than glowing review expected today, Chertoff said, “I believe we are much safer than we were prior to 9/11.”

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