I post this because I’m so tired of going over the ’evils of depleted uranium’. ABC has pointed out the risk of shipping something with less background radiation than common lead, all while they are not looking at the millions of undocumented and illegal border crossings done every day.
For a second year, U.S. government screeners have failed to detect a shipment of depleted uranium in a container sent by ABCNEWS from overseas as part of a test of security at American ports. "I think this is a case in point which established the soft underbelly of national security and homeland defense in the United States," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who has been urging the Bush administration to do more to enhance port security.
| Either that, or a demonstration of the fact that DU doesn't represent a threat in and of itself... Nah. That couldn't be it. |
The ABCNEWS test was criticized by officials at the Department of Homeland Security, who assigned agents in at least four cities to investigate ABC personnel and news sources involved. "I think you’re a news reporter that is trying to carry out a hoax on our inspectors," Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Asa Hutchinson told Brian Ross, ABCNEWS’ chief investigative correspondent, for a report to be broadcast Thursday on World News Tonight and PrimeTime Thursday.
| Could be right, Asa. But you have to watch that leveling of charges stuff. Next thing you know, ABCNews will be pointing out that you've been a raving heterosexual for some time... |
Shielded by a steel pipe with a lead lining, 15 pounds of depleted uranium was packed in a suitcase that sailed through customs. The ABCNEWS project involved a shipment to Los Angeles of just under 15 pounds of depleted uranium, a harmless substance that is legal to import into the United States.
| So why should they have picked up on it? Because it was shielded? |
The uranium, in a steel pipe with a lead lining, was placed in a suitcase for the shipment. "If they can’t detect that, then they can’t detect the real thing," explained Tom Cochran, a nuclear physicist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, which lent the material to ABCNEWS for the project.
| Oh, so the problem wasn't depleted uranium, it was uranium of any type whatsoever. Why didn't you say so? I think I'll go back to school and become a nuclear physicist so that I can say stoopid things and people will think I'm really smart... |
Cochran said the highly enriched uranium used for nuclear weapons, would, with slightly thicker shielding, give off a signature similar to depleted uranium in the screening devices currently being used by homeland security officials at American ports. The ABCNEWS suitcase containing the uranium was placed in a teak trunk along with other furniture put in a container in Jakarta, Indonesia, a city considered by U.S. authorities to be one of the most active al Qaeda hot spots in the world. The container was shipped to Los Angeles in late July, just one week before the bombing of the Jakarta Marriott Hotel that killed 12 people.
"Boys, somebody's gonna blow up a Marriott in Jakarta next week. Keep a close eye out for phoney fissile material coming through here in Los Angeles!"
"Will do, chief! |
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge has claimed major improvements in port security, in part because of enhanced vigilance overseas. "So that our borders become the last line of defense, not our first line of defense," Ridge said in a speech last week. He said the United States was increasing security "thousands of miles away, long before a container is first loaded on a ship."
| Okay. That's what they're trying to do... |
But in Jakarta, ABCNEWS producers David Scott and Rhonda Schwartz found that the chest in which they had placed the depleted uranium was never opened or inspected before being sent on to Los Angeles. "It took us only a few days to find a shipper willing to send a container to America with almost no questions asked," said Scott. "We did not tell the company about the depleted uranium," said Schwartz, "and they never asked." The shipment was handled by Maersk Logistics, part of the giant Maersk shipping company based in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Note to self - is Copenhagen the hive of european terrorism?
Maersk company officials say their procedures do not require their agents to inspect containers loaded outside of the pier area. Maersk provided what it calls "door-to-door service," which allowed the container to be loaded at a furniture store. "We rely on screening of government authorities to validate shipping contents," said Maersk security official John Hyde.
| Any idea how many individual containers come into the country every day? Me neither. I actually saw the figures once, and my mind boggled at it. Maybe I should give up my cunning plan to become a nuclear physicist. Large numbers frighten me... |
In a statement, Maersk said the ABCNEWS findings had caused it to investigate and review its procedures overseas.
"Any important deviations from normal procedure will be rectified immediately," the statement said. Furthermore, "Security procedures will be reviewed again in order to evaluate whether any adjustments should be made." The container arrived at the Port of Los Angeles on Aug. 23 and, given its origination in Jakarta, was targeted for screening by homeland security agents. "The system first passed the test because we did target this shipment," said Hutchinson. But homeland security officials say the radiation pagers and X-ray scanners used by inspectors did not detect anything suspicious or harmful.
| Except for the lead tubing... |
Scientific experts say the only way they could know that was to open the container. "The only way to know whether this is the real thing or depleted uranium is to actually open the container and take a look," said Cochran.
| That would imply that they're also going to open Grandmaw's teak wood chest when she ships it back from her tour in Singapore. And Uncle Bob's mahagony chest that he's shipping back from Manila. Personal shipments are owned by someone, and being human beings they resent inquisitive gummint inspectors pawing through their stuff. Now, my personal opinion is that they should STFU because tomorrow's 9-11 and it's not my fault their attention span is less than two years long. But I don't have to pay the court costs when they sue for invasion of privacy because rather than containing depleted uranium it held Grandmaw's collection of crotchless underpants and Uncle Bob's collection of Playboys dating from 1954 to the present. Damn that Patriot Act! |
When the ABCNEWS container was released from the port, it still had the same metal seal that had been put on in Jakarta, meaning it had not been opened.
| Meaning either than both Maersk and the Department of Homeland Security hadn't done their jobs or that Grandmaw's and Uncle Bob's privacy had been respected, or both... |
"The test that you put to them, which looks to me to be a fair test, they fail," said Graham Allison, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense and now director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. "What indeed is the most likely way that a nuclear weapon would be delivered by a terrorist to the U.S.?" asked Graham. "The most likely way is in a cargo container ship."
Ok Kids! Repeat after me : THE ONLY RISK FROM DEPLETED URANIUM IS WHEN ITS COMING AT YOU AT 3600 FPS.!!! IT HAS NO MORE RADIOACTIVITY THAN SIMPLE LEAD DOES!!!! |