Coast Guard girds to hunt for weapons of mass destruction
The Coast Guard plans to play a growing role in preventing illicit delivery of weapons of mass destruction into the United States, its top officer said yesterday. The force is undertaking specialized training, acquiring detection equipment and introducing tighter screening procedures for vessels headed for U.S. ports, he said.
With new focus on homeland defense-half of its resources are expected to be dedicated to the mission-the Coast Guard now places the threat of weapons of mass destruction at the top of its list of threat priorities, Adm. Thomas Collins said at a forum sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The Coast Guard, the nation's maritime safety and security force, will be moved from the Transportation Department into the proposed homeland security department under current Bush administration plans.
Security officials consider the maritime domain as highly vulnerable to terrorist activities, including the illicit delivery of chemical, biological, nuclear or radiological materials. It is also a means of entry for terrorists themselves, while ports make an attractive target because of their economic value. The United States is placing heavy emphasis on improving its monitoring of its 95,000 miles of shoreline, with a primary objective of identifying what is entering the country.
"Containers are an indispensable but vulnerable link in the chain of global trade; approximately 90 percent of the world's trade moves by container," according to the administration's homeland security strategy, published last month. "Each year, nearly 50 percent of the value of all U.S. imports arrives via 16 million containers. The U.S. must "establish security criteria to identify high-risk containers; pre-screen containers before they arrive at U.S. ports; and develop and use smart and secure containers."
An estimated 90 percent of all imports in the United States enter by sea and Collins outlined a series of new initiatives he said the Coast Guard has undertaken or will soon implement to strengthen its ability to prevent catastrophic weapons from being smuggled into the United States or used to disable a major U.S. port of entry.
Collins said the Coast Guard plans to cooperate with the Border Patrol and Customs Service-both of which are also expected to be folded into the new homeland security department-in "pushing the borders out" so threats can be neutralized "as far from our shores as possible."
One way it is doing that is through what Collins called "controlled movement of high-interest vessels." As part of its homeland security efforts, the Coast Guard has already begun screening all seagoing vessels over 300 gross tons, requiring them to provide crew and passenger lists and at least 96 hours notice before arriving at a U.S. port of entry. Other measures include more frequent boarding of vessels farther from U.S. shores.
Collins said the Coast Guard is also acquiring a variety of chemical, biological and radiological equipment and personnel highly trained in such areas, including purchasing detection equipment to be used when boarding ships at sea and at port facilities, currently being considered for nationwide security standards and regulations in the Port Security Act now being considered in Congress.
The Coast Guard has already re-trained its three so-called strike teams, located on the east and west coasts of the United States and one responsible for the Gulf of Mexico, so they can shift from environmental protection missions to weapons of mass detection at ports of entry and along U.S. shores.
The Coast Guard may also make changes to its Deepwater Project, a multibillion-dollar investment in ships, aircraft and upgraded communications over the next decade and beyond. "We may have to do some tweaking in terms of chemical, biological and radiological" capabilities, Collins said of the Deepwater effort.
The Coast Guard is particularly suited for the weapons of mass destruction mission, according to Collins, because of its dual role as a domestic maritime security force and member of the armed force in times of war. Terrorist activity is one place where both missions intersect, he said.
Collins added that Coast Guard's expanded role in intelligence-it is now included in governmentwide deliberations-will sharpen its expanded homeland security duties.
"We can add value as an [intelligence] collector," Collins said.
Still, the Coast Guard will have to defend the homeland while fulfilling its numerous other responsibilities, Collins said, including national defense, maritime safety, maritime mobility, and protection of natural resources.