Ships, ports called vulnerable to terrorists

New merchant marine policies are needed to bring ships owned by U.S. corporations under the American flag while allowing ships entering U.S. ports to be subject to effective anti-terrorist scrutiny, such as checks on the identities of crews, legislative leaders said Thursday.

House Armed Services Special Merchant Marine Oversight Panel Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., said at a hearing he plans to propose measures to lure ship owners away from the notoriously lax "flag of convenience" system used by most of the world's commercial fleet.

A new merchant marine policy, Hunter said, could include a flat tax on tonnage instead of regular corporate income taxes. Denmark and the United Kingdom have increased their merchant fleets by 40 percent by this and other measures.

The hearing was sparked by reports that al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden has used merchant ships to ferry arms and operatives.

Over the past two decades, the U.S. ship owners have followed those in other advanced nations ands registering their vessels with flag of convenience states such as Panama and Liberia.

Less than 10 percent of freight that arrives or leaves U.S. ports is carried in ships registered in the United States, so it is difficult for authorities to trace crews, operators and cargos of the vast majority of ships that make 51,000 calls to U.S. ports annually.

At a hearing of his Special Oversight Panel on the Merchant Marine of the House Committee on Armed Services Committee, Hunter questioned Coast Guard officials about whether they can detect chemical, biological or nuclear weapons entering U.S. waters.

Hunter also asked if terrorists masquerading as crew members then could commandeer ships carrying flammables and use them as weapons.

Rear Adm. Paul Pluta, assistant Coast Guard commandant, gave no guarantees. U.S. authorities decide which ships are suspect based on information they provide 96 hours in advance; checking foreign crew members' identities is a "flawed process," he admitted.

Other witnesses said it would be hard to assure that ships entering U.S. waters are terrorist-free without also cleaning up the entire merchant marine industry.

Peter Morris, chairman of the watchdog International Commission on Shipping, charged the industry is "built on deception, fraud and abuse." His group and others have has tried to assure that crewmembers are not "slave labor" and are properly trained. For example, Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., a member of the panel, charged that shipmasters' licenses could be bought on the black market in some countries for $2,000.