[FedCom] Smoke & Mirrors Game!!!

[A10382]

The 'material' was depleted uranium.  It's so mildly radioactive that it
would only be detected by a hand-held counter held right next to the
material... Depleted uranium would not make a very good 'dirty' weapon at
all.  It would not be detectable by a dockside device.

Depleted uranium is used in 30MM armor piercing cannon shells because it is
so dense.  It hits the outside of the armored vehicle, like a tank, and this
causes very hot shrapnel made up of the inside of the tank break off and
bounce around - cooking off the tank's own rounds.

Other countries, like Australia, walk the holds of every ship that arrives
with hand-held counters... They declared themselves 'nuclear-free' - even
gave visiting US warships a lot of grief as the US Captain's canned response
is ALWAYS:  "Cannot confirm or deny if nuclear weapons are aboard" !!

Our problem is sheer volume.  Inspecting every container would mean that
they all would remain in customs bond for months.  It would also mean that
arriving air travelers would all spend 4-6 hours clearing customs (with ALL
bags searched)  -- something that Americans would not stomach.   Just look
at the noise level from domestic passengers having to wait 30 minutes to get
to the gate.  Travelers in many other countries (even Japan) are already
accustomed to this.

As to whether dirty materials have already been smuggled into the US:
============
We learned a lot of lessons about 9/11.  However, our government has not
acted on most of what they 'learned'.  One year later:

Our borders are still pretty much wide open
Our customs inspection efforts still only open less than 2% of all the
containers,
We still don't screen ALL checked luggage.
We still have an atrocious visa and immigration policy
Internal immigration enforcement is still non-existent

Basically, we still have all the security holes we had before.  The only
difference is we see some 'feel-good' things being done and some legislation
of the same coming down the pike.

Seems, the only thing we really learned is that nail-clippers are too
dangerous to allow passengers to carry onto a commercial flight.

What are our 'leaders' waiting for?  Another 'lesson' ?

=======
73
Frank


 ._._.
----- Original Message -----
From: "ken windyka" <ken.windyka@the-spa.com>
To: <fedcom@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2002 5:23 PM
Subject: [FedCom] Smoke & Mirrors Game!!!


> Did anyone watch the ABC news special last evening where ABC news was able
> to smuggle some radioactive material that what expects told them would
> simulate reading of shielded "dirty material" without detection by US
> Customs in the NY port area.
>
> The Customs Chief was very defensive stating that it just didn't fit their
> criteria.....
>
> ABC News wondered if nuclear material had already made it into the US
> without detection.
>
> Also there seem to be very strong concern that a ship would be the
delivery
> mechanism for some sort of nuclear device in the future.  So I would guess
> that after this expo that US Coast Guard will get additional funding.
>
> One senator has proposed the deployment of radiation detection devices
> across the US at a cost of $1 billion.
>
> Ken
>
>
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