Port security breach raises alarm: Staff "rebriefed" after allowing reporter in
U.S. Plants: Open To Terrorists
Possible security holes found at nuclear plant
"Oh, it's OK, officer. Ahmed and and I just wanted to leave this package at the base of one of those bridge supports. Hey, would you like a doughnut??""
A drive along the Port of Houston's docks by two Houston Chronicle employees and a security consultant -- despite a heightened national terrorism alert -- brought strong warnings to security guards and law officers from the port police chief.
"The security people who allowed it to happen were not having a merry Christmas," port spokeswoman Argentina James said Friday.
Russell Whitmarsh, police chief in the nation's second-busiest port, said he has strongly reminded the security staff that only essential personnel are to enter in view of the code orange terrorism alert issued Sunday by federal officials.
Whitmarsh said he met with security supervisors Wednesday to go over "what went wrong, what error was made" in allowing a Chronicle reporter and photographer, along with a security consultant, to drive along the docks earlier in the day.
The three drove past several ships and warehouses, heavy equipment and bridge supports after showing their driver's licenses to security guards.
Port Executive Director Tom Kornegay described the breach of what was supposed to be a heightened alert status as simply a "bust in procedure."
Port employees and longshoremen wear ID badges and may enter the docks, he said, but nonessential personnel and visitors may not.
Interesting, isn't it, that you have to provide everything short of a DNA sample in order to border an airplane, but so little attention is devoted to things like bridges, freeway overpasses, chemical plants, and the like? Is it really going to take someone blowing up a chemical plant and spreading death and destruction over an entire metropolitan area before the Department of Homeland Insecurity realizes what is at risk here? I realize that 9.11 put the risk of attacks involving airplanes at the forefront, but flying an airliner into an office building is not a simple thing to accomplish. There are many other types of attacks that are simply, potentially far more deadly, and much less logistically complex.
One bomb on a bridge support on the Houston Ship Channel bridge during rush hour could make 9.11 look like child's play- and it would be much easier to commit such a heinous act than you might think. We need to recognize and understand that the next attack may not involve something as involved as hijacking several airliners and flying them into buildings. It may be something as simple as someone walking up to a bridge support, leaving a package, and then walking away. Are we to wait until that happens before we react?
