A good thing to delay - 100% scanning

Back in January 2009 I said scanning containers will not make us safer.
I stand by that statement.

Although the U.S. has not changed their position on this matter, at least it has become so difficult to implement it probably won't happen.

WASHINGTON -- Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Wednesday that Customs and Border Protection is not likely to meet a 2012 deadline for scanning all U.S.-bound containers.

"My initial view is that the 2012 deadline is not going to work. We're going to have to work on what we do beyond that," Napolitano told the House Homeland Security Committee. "To do 100 percent scanning requires agreements with many countries. There are lots of issues with that. There is a difference between screening and scanning in the lexicon of the cargo world, and I believe we are close to 100-percent screening now."

Remember Homeland Security?

Although Dick Cheney said last week the U.S. was in danger of another attack, I really doubt this is foremost on people's minds.

The withering U.S. and world economies have taken first place.

The possibility of an attack is not in the top 10 list of concerns for most people. Not even for New Yorkers on Wall Street, who were only blocks away from the World Trade Center on 9/11.

In the recent publication of American Shipper magazine, James Carafano, senior research fellow of Heritage Foundation is quoted regarding all the new procedures being put in place by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

"We live in a country of infinite vulnerabilities and if you want to spend $100 billion to take one type of vulnerability off the table, well, let me do the math. Infinity minus one."

All of the so called "security measures" passed by congress impact first and foremost the international shipping community. The 10 + 2 rule has gone into it's initial phase. This is the one which requires more data on the shipping manifest.

The other big, stupid, initiative was the call for 100% screening of imported ocean containers. What I did not know until now, is this wasn't even one of the recommendations by the 9/11 commission. I can only guess that someone who sells the X-Ray equipment had a good lobbyist.