U.S. Coast Guard says it met deadline

U.S. Coast Guard says it met deadline The U.S. Coast Guard said it has met an April 1 deadline mandated by the SAFE Port Act of 2006 to track all large commercial vessels within U.S. waters.
   “Using the full range of classified and unclassified vessel tracking information available to the Coast Guard, we are meeting all vessel tracking requirements of the act,” said Adm. Thad Allen, commandant of the Coast Guard.
   “Beyond the SAFE Port Act, we need to focus our attention on closing other gaps in maritime security, including long-range tracking of vessels outside U.S. waters and coming to grips with potential threats posed by smaller vessels,” he added.
   Allen’s statement was in sharp contrast to a claim by U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer, who said last month the Coast Guard was “about to ignore the deadline for implementing a congressionally mandated long-range vessel tracking system to identify dangerous ships approaching our country.
   “Despite scores of ships from every corner of the globe entering the New York port every year, we still don’t have a comprehensive tracking system in place to closely monitor whether it’s a friend or a foe coming to our shores,” Schumer complained.
   The New York Senator said the Coast Guard was failing to incorporate available technology “to keep a vigilant watch over our ports. By failing to take advantage of this technology, the Coast Guard is poised to turn a blind eye toward the threat of terrorism on the high seas.”
   In a press release, Schumer and Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg complained the Coast Guard has not even started New York implementation of the long range portion of a National Automatic Identification System and that the    Coast Guard did not expect to complete the full system until 2014.