Our Ports are so vulnerable, it isn't even funny and the Bush Administration still has yet to fund anything close to realistic in order to help our Nation's Ports get their security up to a sufficient level of security. Thus far, all we have gotten out of the Bush Administration and Homeland Defense is a lot of "tough" talk, and that is all that it has been . . . TALK! We have 361 Ports to protect, 95,000 miles of navigable waterways to defend and 20,000 oceangoing vessels to keep an eye on. The Coast Guard is focusing on what it considers the nation's 11,700 most likely maritime targets of a terrorist attack. About 3,200 of these targets are on shore: Oil refineries, nuclear power plants, liquid natural gas facilities and hundreds of other hazmat type sites. The 8,500 others are on the water: Public ferries from Seattle to New York, barges and cargo ships that crisscross U.S. harbors and inland waterways, oceangoing tankers and freighters, etc. Nevertheless, the federal government has been spending about seven to 10 times more on aviation security than maritime security. For 2004, Congress has authorized the federal Transportation Security Administration to spend $3.8 billion on airport security and less than a half-billion for port security. The disparity is obviously because cargo containers on a ship do not vote, but this difference just doesn't seem to equate the risk. Besides, a nuclear device is not going to get into this country via an airplane. It's gonna come in via ship. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/02/07/BUGMD4R6M91.DTL
I personally hope ta hell the current administration gets voted out of office, before they have a chance to fuck up our water ways, as bad as they have our airways. There is plenty of coasties on the job now, all the authorities has to do is re focus their attention from the WAR on drugs, to the WAR on ? American citizens sailing in and out of our harbors? Where is the THREAT? Nuclear? Wmds? Oh Christ, there's so many WARs going on now, I can't keep them separate.
Don't you think that maybe its time that we changed our foreign policy and then just maybe we wouldn't have to worry about all this terrorism.
And what change in Foreign Policy would that be??? The INS has already proved itself to have been asleep at the wheel when it came to the hijackers ( most of whom were Saudi Nationals ) on 911.
If I was running for president my platform would include a promise to the american people that we would provide no further aid to Israel until the problems between them and the Palestinians are resolved peacefully. This was something that should have been done many years ago.
Revisit our own domestic policy first. Eliminate all bans, laws against all drugs in all forms. a limit on the quantity of a particular drug makes sense. The fed. gov. should only be concerned with animate items that we all share in commonality. ie.. air quality, water quality, national defense. There is NO place in gov. for religion of any kind. This includes marriage. ( What a cluster fuck that is!) We need a better way to fire elected officials, when the need arises Reinstate the draft. Non citizens should NOT have the same rights as citizens. This is just a start.
Are you out of your mind? You would stop aid to the only democracy in the middle east? And you think this would bring about peace? LOL. OK man, you think what you want. If we pulled out of there I can guarantee you it would only be a matter of time before not only war broke out, but nuclear holocaust. What a terrific idea. Where do I sign up?
Yeah I agree. I mean who cares if we have a 9/11 type event every couple of years. It keeps us humble. What a joke.
WHEN was the last time a boat layden with explosives flew into a building ? what a moronic koncept. tally ho. JaCk
Are you a complete moron? How do you think that a "dirty" bomb or a nuclear weapon will get into the USA via terrorists? Duh.