Security Briefs - May 15 - May 21
The Latest Headlines:
- Trucker Was Told He Was Carrying Explosives
- Ridge: Checks of Airport Screeners Will Be Completed
- Port Security Funds May Be Shifted
- Government Tests Air Mail Plan
- Experts: Vehicle Bomb Attack Most Likely Scenario
- Ridge: Checks of Airport Screeners Will Be Completed
Trucker Was Told He Was Carrying Explosives
Two men in a car playing a prank led a trucker to believe he was carrying explosives Monday on the Capital Beltway near Washington, D.C., the Washington Post reported.Sgt. J.R. Braun of the Virginia State Police said the men pulled up next to the trucker and told him if his truck slowed below a certain speed, it would explode.
The trucker called 911, and police directed him onto the more secluded George Washington Memorial Parkway, where trucks are normally banned, the article said.
Ridge: Checks of Airport Screeners Will Be Completed
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said his department is taking action to complete criminal background checks on all airport security screeners, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.Last week the Post reported that at least two dozen screeners on the job at Los Angeles International Airport and 50 screeners at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport have been found to have criminal histories.
Airport security is important to trucking because trucks transfer cargo to and from cargo and passengers airliners.
Ridge told the House Select Committee on Homeland Security on Tuesday that the Transportation Security Administration was under pressure to hire 55,600 security screeners for the nation's 429 commercial airports and suggested that a private contractor might be to blame for "sloppiness," according to a hearing transcript. Transport Topics
Port Security Funds May Be Shifted
A $58 million program to track cargo containers entering ports serving New York, Los Angeles and Seattle has been delayed as government officials consider redirecting the money, the Associated Press reported.The program, called Operation Safe Commerce, would increase security at the nation's three largest regional ports, which take in about 75% of cargo containers entering the United States every year, AP said.
Transportation Security Administration spokesman Robert Johnson told AP that it is "faced with some tough challenges" to achieve security objectives while closing a significant budget shortfall.
Mick Shultz, a spokesman for the Port of Seattle, said money from Operation Safe Commerce would be used to develop technologies to track containers from foreign ports to their final destination. Transport Topics
Government Tests Air Mail Plan
The government is testing a plan to resume transporting priority mail by commercial aircraft that would use dogs that sniff for explosives, the Miami Herald reported Friday.The experiment marks the first time since the 9/11 terrorist attacks that mail weighing a pound or more is being allowed on passenger planes.
Previously, mail was delivered by cargo planes only. Trucks are used to transport this mail on the ground.
The Transportation Security Administration and local law enforcement agencies are using the dogs at cargo warehouses at 12 major airports, where millions of pounds of mail are handled daily, the article said.
The dogs do not look for money or drugs. Transport Topics
Experts: Vehicle Bomb Attack Most Likely Scenario
Terrorism experts believe if there are attacks in the United States, it would likely resemble to the synchronized deadly vehicle bombings earlier this month in Saudi Arabia, USA Today reported.Since the 9/11 attacks, there have been concerns that terrorists could use trucks loaded with explosives to cause destruction.
Conventional weapons such as bombs and guns are easy to get and use, and U.S. officials admit it is virtually impossible to keep terrorists from getting such weapons, the article said.
During the past 20 months, investigators have learned about dozens of terrorist plots from captured al-Qaeda operatives and seized evidence. Nearly all of the plots involved bombs. Transport Topics
