CBP says it reviews data on all incoming containers
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), part of the Department of Homeland Security, has described as 'myth' any assertion that 95 percent of containers that come into U.S. ports are not inspected — an allegation made repeatedly by Sen. John Kerry, most recently in the second presidential debate last Friday.
'The 95-percent figure is misleading and falsely implies that we do nothing to inspect cargo containers arriving at our seaports. We use intelligence to review information on 100 percent of cargo entering our ports, and all cargo that presents a risk to our country is inspected using x-ray and radiation detection equipment,' CBP said in a statement.
'Security measures now in place allow us to rule out 94 percent of the cargo (containers) as potential threats prior to its arrival. Six percent of total cargo containers were identified this year as potential threats and were physically inspected immediately upon arrival,' CBP said.
Customs and Border Protection did not specify the exact nature of the intelligence used to review information on all incoming containers. 'Under the leadership of President Bush,' CBP's statement said, 26 major international seaports have become part of the Container Security Initiative (CSI).
CBP also cited the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT), saying, 'approximately 40 percent of all cargo headed for the U.S. is transported by C-TPAT partners and is therefore better secured.'
'Dramatically increasing physical inspections (of containers) after arrival is a waste of resources that will not appreciably increase our national security,' CBP said.
'While it is possible to secure a nation by closing its borders and inspecting everything and everybody that enters, doing so would render us obsolete,' CBP said.
In addition to radiation portal monitors, isotope identifiers and personal radiation monitors, CBP said that, for the first time, it was 'also using chemical and explosive detector dogs to inspect cargo.'