An overseas news service stated yesterday that US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano admitted defeat in the face of 100 per cent cargo screening of shipping cargo following trials of import freight at five US ports and blamed it all on lack of technological advances and logistical problems of intermodal containers. According to Secretary Napolitano, the complexity and sheer overwhelming scale of stopping and scanning every container would ultimately impact overseas governments export traffic and would require an additional cost of approximately $ 8 million per entry route, specifically calculated by the DHS at an amount per container of $ 16,800 annually.

Ms. Napolitano should check out our commentary of February 14th, 2005 (Vol. II, Art. 19). First we quoted Senator Robert Byrd in his effort to defeat the proposed Homeland Security bill:

“This is one of the most far-reaching pieces of legislation I have seen in my 50 years. I will have been in Congress 50 years come January 3rd. Never have I seen such a monstrous piece of legislation sent to this body. Our poor staffs were up most of the night studying it. They know some of the things that are in there, but they don’t know all of them. It is a sham and it is a shame … To tell the American people they are going to be safer when we pass this is a hoax. We ought to tell the people the truth. They are not going to be any safer. I was one of the first in the Senate to say we need a new Department of Homeland Security. I meant that. But I didn’t mean this particular hoax that this administration is trying to pander off to the American people, telling them this is Homeland Security.”

… and then we discussed the benefits of our patented shipboard storage and retrieval design:

– “Our shipboard systems: Although this website is dedicated to terminal operations, if ultimate security is ever required, it can be obtained by means of our shipboard storage and retrieval system. Our ‘Chronology’ page makes reference to U.S. Patent Number 5,860,783, Granted on Jan. 19, 1999, and Entitled: CARGO CONTAINER STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEM AND METHOD INCLUDING ON DECK CARRIAGE ASSEMBLY. This shipboard system makes it possible to retrieve, or store, any single container, regardless of its location aboard the vessel, without handling any other container. As an added advantage, the system allows for the scanning/inspection of every container while the vessel is en route to our shores. The procedure can be completed in one week’s time, and prior to arrival at our ports, every safe container will be granted clearance, and any suspect containers may well be jettisoned. The threat to ‘deepsix’ offenders will be enough to discourage terrorists and any others who would wish to gain illegal access into our country. [Checkmate!!]”

We’d be killing two birds with one stone by revitalizing our shipyards in a new Emergency Shipbuilding Program. First of all, we would be creating millions of job opportunities and bringing our rapid economic decline to a halt. Secondly, we would be providing the 100 percent scanning that our learned officials now say is an impossible achievement. See anything wrong with that?