Protecting the Port of Oakland a rising concern

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Jan 5, 2004 | by Sean Holstege, STAFF WRITER

An average of 36 ships enter the Panama Canal each day. An attack that forces the canal's closure might compel many import-dependent U.S. firms to abandon just-in-time inventory management. Companies could end up spending billions of dollars extra just to keep enough inventory in stock.

By targeting the Strait of Malacca -- a bottleneck for Middle Eastern oil bound for Japan -- terrorists could force ships to take costlier, roundabout journeys between Asia and Europe. About 11 percent of Oakland's imports come from Southeast Asia.

Coordinated attacks on two or more maritime chokepoints could have a devastating global impact.

Security is about to tighten in the new year.

Next month, Europe Container Terminals, or ECT, will add radiation detectors at its Maasvlakte wharves, making Rotterdam one of the first ports outside the United States to hunt for "dirty" radiological bombs.

Dutch customs officers, like their U.S. counterparts, study shipping manifests for containers that are still at sea to decide which ones should be X-rayed or inspected upon arrival.

"If you have a shipload of bananas coming from Iceland, that raises questions," said port spokesman Tie Schellekens.

Under U.S. pressure, the International Maritime Organization -- the U.N. agency that monitors shipping safety -- is requiring port facilities, stevedoring companies and owners of ships larger than 500 tons to make detailed plans for responding to a terrorist threat. This International Ship and Port Facility Security Code, announced last December, is the shipping industry's biggest anti-terrorist effort so far.

Still, some industry officials and security experts argue that too few companies and maritime authorities are doing enough to meet the new security code's July 1 deadline. The Panama Canal Authority, for example, has yet to hire consultants to begin assessing shortcomings at the Western Hemisphere's busiest strategic waterway.

"There will be quite a few ports, particularly in the Third World, and ships as well that won't be in compliance by July 1," said Roger Mortimer, a director of the British firm Maritime & Underwater Security Consultants.

The risk of a maritime terrorist strike isn't just hypothetical. Suicide attacks killed 17 sailors on the American destroyer USS Cole in Yemen in 2000 and a crewman on the French oil tanker Limburger off Yemen's coast in October 2002.

Terrorists tried and failed to attack another U.S. destroyer before succeeding against the Cole, and authorities in Singapore and Morocco have recently foiled similar plots.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact Sean Holstege at sholsteg@angnewspapers.com .