Terrorism XTs I/L: Ports are key

Seaports targeted by terrorists

The events of 11 September 2001 in New York City and Washington, D.C., abruptly changed the focus of U.S. maritime security. What was a focus on theft, drug trafficking, and illegal immigration immediately shifted to a focus on terrorism. A seaport is inherently vulnerable to, and a prime target for, terrorist attacks due to its geographic size, economic importance, generally open accessibility by water and land, location in areas of dense population, and its proximity to transportation links to other locations. Containers moving through ports can be used by terrorists to deliver weapons of mass destruction, which can lead to the destruction of major aspects of the transportation system, high loss of life, and severe economic consequences.

Ships transporting nuclear material susceptible to capture

Nincic, 2002 (Donna J. Nincic, Professor and Director of the ABS School of Maritime Policy and Management at the California Maritime Academy, California State University and worked at the US Department of Defense, “Sea Lane Security and U.S. Maritime Trade: Chokepoints as Scarce Resources” kms1.isn.ethz.ch, SZ)

One of the greatest concerns regarding maritime terrorism stems from the transport of nuclear material at sea. Twenty-two countries possess or control a worldwide estimated total of 1,000 metric tons of separated plutonium in various forms for use in both military and civilian applications. The strategic value of plutonium gives rise to fear that nuclear terrorists might hijack ships carrying nuclear materials. Such ships could be used for blackmail, where terrorists threaten to blow up the ship unless their demands are met.

U.S. Ports are threatened by nuclear terrorism

Rugy, 07. (Veronique de Rugy, senior research fellow at George Mason University, November 2007. “Is Port Security Funding Making Us Safer?” http://web.mit.edu/cis/pdf/Audit_11_07_derugy.pdf) AZ
The most terrifying security threat to security experts and the public alike is nuclear proliferation. Once the figment of Hollywood imagination, the ultimate nightmare scenario that is discussed by some as inevitable is the detonation of a nuclear device on American soil. The majority of experts believe that the most likely way weapons of mass destruction (WMD) would enter the United States is by sea, hence a focus on port security. Ports offer terrorists vast opportunities to inflict damages. As the primary mode of transportation for world trade goods, maritime commerce is essential to America’s economic vitality. Every year approximately nine million cargo containers—26,000 a day—arrive at U.S. ports from all over the world. The U.S. maritime system includes more than 361 sea and river ports with more than 3,700 cargo and passenger terminals and more than 1,000 harbor channels along thousands of miles of coastline.

I/L: Supply Chain

Long Beach, Oakland, and Los Angeles Ports are 3 large ports that are a major significance to US’s economy. They are vulnerable to terrorist attacks, and if one of the ports are disabled, there will be serious implications to the region’s economic health.

Haveman and Shatz 06 (Jon D., founding principal of Beacon Economics, and Howard J., author of Highway Infrastructure and the Economy, Protecting the Nation’s Seaports: Balancing Security and Cost, 2006, http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/report/r_606jhr.pdf, AJ)
With this report, Protecting the Nation’s Seaports: Balancing Security and Cost, PPIC tries to shed some light on how one significant element of these global security imperatives is affecting Americans and Californians. California is home to three large seaports that are of major significance to the nation’s economy—Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Oakland. The authors in this volume inform us that all California ports are vulnerable to a terrorist attack and that disabling any of the big three could have serious implications for the economic health of the region, as well as for lives and property in the immediate vicinity. This volume is comprehensive—it describes and analyzes what could happen if a terrorist attack on a port were to occur, what can be done to deter such an attack, the characteristics of U.S. port security programs, what factors stand in the way of an adequate port security policy, and some alternative methods for financing that policy. Most important, this multiauthored volume is not alarmist—it is a thoughtful and balanced look at a major problem and its context: how the global economy has fostered huge increases in international trade and how terrorists could exploit the vulnerability of this massive global goods movement
Terror attack on just one port would crush the US economy

ERA, 12 (Shipping Port Security, July 16, 2012, http://www.epa.gov/radtown/port-security.html, R.C)

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke just told Congress that “the [US] Treasury security is viewed as the safest and most liquid security in the world, and the notion it would become suddenly unreliable and illiquid would throw shockwaves through the entire global financial system.” He added that the largest credit ratings agencies might even downgrade America's credit rating even if the US does not default and Congress agrees to raise the debt level in order to continue servicing its loans. Coinciding with Bernanke’s warning, Moody's Investors Service credit rating agency announced that it is reviewing the US’s financial malaise and related problems as part of a possible downgrading of its current AAA credit rating on US credit worthiness. Moody's said it saw a "rising possibility that the statutory debt limit will not be raised on a timely basis, leading to a default on US Treasury debt obligations.” Moody's is the first of the big three credit rating agencies to review America’s triple-A r ating. A reduced US credit rating by any of the big three credit rating companies could provoke possible mayhem in financial markets around the planet and vastly escalate borrowing costs for the federal government and businesses, which would have a directly negative impact on public finances and further depress the nation’s overall economy. “So you can understand why Al Qaeda, or any other terrorist organization motivated by the jihadist ideology, would see that America is highly vulnerable right now – perhaps more than it’s ever been - to an attack or attacks the impact or direct effect [of which] would be further depression of the US’s economy,” one of the counterterrorism officials said. The other officials interviewed agreed. One explained: “Al Qaeda probably has never had a better point in time for attacking us in a way that would hit us hard economically.” “And what’s scary is that that it can be any kind of attack," the official continued. "Certainly a catastrophic, mass casualty attack would have a dramatic impact on the economy, but so, too, would a coordinated small cell attack with automatic weapons at major amusement parks across the country.” “Can you imagine what would happen if Disney’s amusement parks in Florida were attacked” asked Laura Hains, a ranking Customs and Border Protection officer when she retired in 2008. “Florida’s economy would collapse.” An authority in seaport security specializing in port security/intelligence, cargo, commercial vessel, container and cruise ship security who designed, implemented and supervised two port intelligence units, Hains added that California – which also has an important amusement park industry – would also suffer economically if terrorists were to attack theme parks there, too. But it’s not just amusement parks, Hains said. She stressed that attacks at just one or two major US ports not only would close these ports, but many other US ports potentially would be closed as authorities worked to determine if they were subject to attack. “Closing just one port would Shave a devastating impact on the nation’s economy,” Hains said, noting that the recovery could be long and painful depending on how long the port or ports were closed. And some ports could be closed for quite some time if they were substantively destroyed by a powerful explosive, like a liquefied natural gas, or LNG, container ship in port.

Ports are key to the economy-terror attack would devastate the US economy

Lundquist, 11 (Edward H, communications director for Anteon Corporation’s Center for Security, Strategies, and Operations, International Port Security Program, Defense Media Network, March 17, http://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/international-port-security-program/, AJ)

America pays close attention to maritime security. The nation’s Marine Transportation System, which includes our ports, waterways, and vessels, handles more than $900 billion in international commerce every year. Shut down our ports and you shut down our economy. The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) knows that port security at home depends on secure ports with our trading partners abroad.¶ “The Coast Guard employs a holistic layered approach to maritime security that is designed to detect, deter, and prevent the methods of terror and terrorists as early as possible in the event chain,” said Adm. Robert J. Papp, the commandant of the Coast Guard. “An example of a ‘far-from-the-homeland’ element of this layered security system is the International Port Security (IPS) Program, which verifies that effective anti-terrorism measures have been instituted in foreign ports to help reduce the risk to U.S. ports.”¶ The Maritime Transportation Security Act (MTSA) of 2002 mandates the USCG to assess anti-terrorism measures in foreign ports. From that congressional mandate the IPS Program was born and became responsible for assessing and in some cases strengthening port security in the ports of the United States’ foreign trading partners. “Our area of responsibility encompasses all of the world’s maritime trading nations – roughly 150 countries. We are the foreign port component of the United States’ global supply chain security efforts,” said Lt. Cmdr. Bryan Ulmer, who works from the IPS Program’s Atlantic Area office.¶ The Coast Guard began conducting port security assessments in 2004. Since then, security assessments have been completed in more than 150 nations that conduct maritime trade with the United States. In fact, most of these countries have actually been formally assessed more than once and visited several times by IPS Program personnel. “We attempt to visit the country to observe the security conditions,” said Cmdr. Tanya Schneider of the IPS Program’s program management office in Washington D.C., “We meet with the people who are responsible for port security for our maritime trading partners and verify that their ports comply with international security regulations.”¶ After 9/11, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) amended the 1974 International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea to include new “Special Measures to Enhance Maritime Safety.” This included the International Ship and Port Facilities Security Code (ISPS Code), which provides a framework for governments, agencies, and the shipping industry for conducting risk management between potential threats and vulnerability of ships and port infrastructure.¶ The ISPS Code requires that governments carry out security assessments to “identify and evaluate important assets and infrastructures that are critical to the port facility as well as those areas or structures that, if damaged, could cause significant loss of life or damage to the port facility’s economy or environment.” It also requires security plans to be prepared to address a variety of issues involving the protection of the ship-port interface. The ISPS Code applies to “passenger ships and cargo ships of 500 gross tons and upward, including high speed craft, mobile offshore drilling units, and port facilities serving such ships engaged on international voyages.” Because it is the internationally accepted standard, the ISPS Code is the primary benchmark against which the Coast Guard measures effective anti-terrorism measures in foreign ports.¶

Directory: file -> view
view -> Western Europe after wwii
view -> Author study: paul fleischman
view -> Qpa1 7ela study Guide
view -> Arctic Oil/Gas Neg
view -> November 1970 Approximately 150,000-500,000 deaths Bhola Cyclone Bangladesh
view -> Grade Level: 6 Unit of Study: Caribbean glce
view -> Citation: Duffield, Katy
view -> Table of Contents Lesson #
view -> Chinese Wind Energy Disad

Download 292.56 Kb.

Share with your friends: