WARGAME POINTS UP NEED FOR PUBLIC-PRIVATE PORT SECURITY ACTION
In a recently simulated 'dirty bomb' attacks through U.S. ports, business and government officials saw the crippling impact on trade and the nation's economy, and determined ways to reduce the ports' vulnerability.
The simulations were part of a two-day port security wargame in Washington, conducted in early October by consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton and The Conference Board, and included 85 officials from government agencies, port authorities, consumer goods manufacturers, insurers, technology providers and carriers.
In the wargame scenario, two identical radioactive dirty bombs were uncovered: one which passed through port security and fell off a truck at the port of Los Angeles; the other was delivered by truck from Canada and unpacked from a shipping container in Minneapolis. At the same time, three men were arrested by Georgia Port Authority police on suspicion of attempted cargo theft. One of the men was on the FBI watch list for suspected terrorists.
Participants in the wargame made decisions to shut down ever U.S. port for eight days, which resulted in a backlog of container deliveries that would require 92 days to be resolved, and would have an impact of $58 billion on the U.S. economy.
'We discovered that it is easy to close a port in the event of a crisis, but it is extraordinarily difficult to deal with the consequences of closing,' said Mark Gerencser, vice president of Booz Allen Hamilton. 'Even when working 24/7, port personnel are not prepared to deal with the backlog.
The group focuses on ways to improve detection before a weapon gets to a U.S. port and grappled with ways to balance security with maintaining an open and efficient flow of goods through U.S. supply chains.
Recommendations from the group included:
* Public-private partnerships and the local and national level.
* Port security starts at the point of origin, in programs such as U.S. Customs' Container Security Initiative.
* Security must be 'embedded, not bolted on.' Government agencies, port authorities, manufacturers, shippers and trade associations need to build in security to everyday processes, rethink logistics and supply chains, changing capacity, increasing routing alternatives and assessing the mix of domestic and offshore production.
* Federal leadership needs to be unified, and 'overcome organizational inertia and conflicting agendas.'
Business participants in the simulation included AIG, Chiquita, Maersk, Motorola, P&O Nedlloyd and Sara Lee Branded Apparel.