FMC TO CONTRIBUTE TO MARITIME SECURITY

FMC TO CONTRIBUTE TO MARITIME SECURITY    Harold Creel, the chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission, said that his agency will contribute to the maritime security effort in the U.S.
   Creel told a conference in Gwangyang, South Korea, that the FMC has been “involved from the outset.”
   “It is the responsibility of the FMC to license ocean transportation intermediaries, otherwise known as ocean
freight forwarders and non-vessel operating common carriers,” he said. “As part of the licensing process we investigate the applicant’s character. We intend to assist in the homeland defense effort by coordinating information we collect with information held by other agencies on suspect individuals and entities,” Creel added.
   Creel said that he hoped that the end product will be a database that is effective in screening any cargo that presents a threat to security.
   The FMC has been involved from the beginning, helping the agencies with primary responsibility for maritime security to develop the new security framework, Creel said. “We are prepared to use all of our existing authorities to address this serious threat and to take on any new responsibilities with which we may be tasked,” he commented.
   Creel said that the events of Sept. 11 “quickly catapulted the issue of maritime security to the forefront.” The Bush administration, the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Customs Service acted quickly to build a coalition of federal agencies responsible for maritime transportation to develop a new framework for security, he said.
   “Scenarios abound for how a shipping container might be used in a terrorist attack,” Creel said. “In one instance, for example, a suspected Al Qaeda member actually used a container as a passenger vessel. We can assume that terrorists have used containers to transport arms and other supplies. We can only imagine what would happen if a container was used to transport weapons of mass destruction.”
   Creel stressed that commerce by sea would be gravely impaired if such weapons entered the U.S. in a container.
   “Crucial to the United States effort to secure our ports, will be the accurate and timely flow of information,” Creel said. “Instead of clamping shut our borders, the fast transfer of manifest information by carriers to the port of entry in advance of the arrival of a vessel will mean that risks can be quickly identified and targeted without delaying transit of containers which pose little or no risk.”
   Creel believes that increased transparency from the point of container stuffing to the point of loading to the point of offloading is the best way to go about keeping U.S. ports open, efficient, and secure.
   “Needless to say, if our efforts are to be successful, the United States will need to rely on the support and cooperation of foreign governments and ocean carriers,” he said.
   Creel cited pending legislation introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives that would require the U.S. Coast Guard to conduct port vulnerability assessments for U.S. ports and to approve vessel and facility antiterrorism plans. The House legislation calls for the Coast Guard to assess antiterrorism measures at non-U.S. ports from which vessels depart to the U.S., and would give the Coast Guard “the authority to deny entry or prescribe conditions of entry for vessels coming from any foreign port that does not maintain effective security measures,” Creel said.