Grupo Resilient International Inc (GRUI)

[Minddoc7]

Any idea which company's scanner is being used? TIA
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj--portssecurity-scr0224feb24,0,7391928.stor....

Officials demonstrate port security to ease fears over Dubai deal


By WAYNE PARRY
Associated Press Writer

February 24, 2006, 2:08 PM EST


NEWARK, N.J. -- A red warning light flashed at a checkpoint as the truck eased through a scanner at Port Newark, indicating that something deep within the corrugated steel walls of the shipping container it was hauling was emitting radiation.

Immediately, a team of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents swarmed around the vehicle, telling the driver to pull aside for a closer inspection. Agent James Askin took out a hand-held radiation analyzer about the size of a loaf of bread, and passed it up and down along both sides of the container, which had just been taken off a ship from India.

The device buzzed and whirred, indicating within minutes that the radioactive isotope inside was potassium-40. Because the container's manifest listed its contents as granite _ a known source of naturally occurring, harmless potassium-40 radiation _ the alarm was ended and the truck was allowed to continue on its way to a warehouse in Edison.

Scenes like this play out more than 200 times a day in Port Newark, which handles 5,000 containers a day, according to Kevin McCabe, the port's chief of seaport enforcement. McCabe added that the sophisticated detection gear and detailed security arrangements in place at 42 foreign ports will continue to ensure safety here, no matter who controls operations at the port.

The customs department, part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, gave a media briefing and tour Friday at Port Newark to try to ease concerns over the pending sale of the port operator, London-based Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co., to a firm owned by the United Arab Emirates government.

"Regardless of the operator, the Department of Homeland Security controls all security operations in the seaport," McCabe said. "That's our job."

He said 100 percent of all cargo headed for the U.S. is screened in advance by examining data submitted by the shipper, such as what is inside, where it is coming from and where it is headed.

About 7 percent of all cargo coming through Newark is designated as high-risk, using a complex formula that officials won't fully describe to avoid revealing security secrets to terrorists. That amounts to about 350 containers a day, each of which are x-rayed, screened for radiation and examined to make sure seals have not been broken or tampered with.

Of those 350, an average of 31 a day are subjected to full unloading and manual inspection. Thus far, agents have not found any nuclear, chemical or biological weapons at the port, McCabe said, crossing his fingers afterward.

Still, not everyone is convinced. A short distance from where officials were showing off the radiation detectors, a group of dock workers was protesting the pending sale of part of Port Newark's operator to Dubai Ports World.

Some of the Sept. 11 hijackers used the United Arab Emirates as an operational and financial base, and critics contend the country was an important transfer point for shipments of smuggled nuclear components sent to Iran, North Korea and Libya by a Pakistani scientist.

"We're over in Iraq fighting a war to stop terrorism from coming over here, and we're letting it walk right in," said Dominick Volpe. "It's like dead-bolting your front door and leaving your back door open."

Co-worker Carlo Commesso added, "Do they need another 9/11 to realize that this is wrong?"

Of the 5,000 containers that leave the seaport each day, 98 percent pass through radiation detectors like the ones that flagged the shipment of Indian granite.

Customs officials now get details on inbound ships at least 24 hours before the vessels are loaded, and get information on crew members four days before they arrive here. If U.S. authorities are suspicious about a certain container, they have the authority to prevent it from being placed aboard a U.S.-bound vessel.

In addition, officials have amassed a 25-year database on shippers and their histories around the world, helping spot anomalies that can raise suspicions.