Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Port Security - Still Not Good Enough.

The Port of Hong Kong as we pointed out a couple of days ago inspects 100% of cargo.
A reader points out that King has port security legislation coming up. Too bad its not true.

There is a Port Security legislation proposal being heard in Kings Homeland Security Commitee H.R.4954 Security and Accountability For Every (SAFE) Port Act sponsored by California Rep. Dan Lungren, introduced on 3/14/2006 and co-sponsered by 63 House Members. None of them being Peter King.
What does King say about the need to check all cargo containers?
He tells Newsday "... the Democrats' plan is politically motivated and would slow port operations."
How is protecting our ports by checking ALL containers "politically motivated?" It's just common sense.
King didn't think that the questioning of the DP World deal was politically motivated. He jumped into that with both feet with Sen. Schumer.
The Port of Hong Kong has been checking all containers since 2004 and they are arguably one of the busiest ports in Asia and ranks as one of the busiest in the world. If they can do it, we can do it.
Sen. Schumer who exposed and led the fight for an investigation into the Dubai Ports World deal testified after a recent trip to Hong Kong "Hong Kong is more advanced than any American port I've seen, and we should be ashamed they inspect every container and we don't... The greatest danger is someone shipping a nuclear weapon in one of these containers and what are we doing about it? Why are we waiting?"

Indeed, why are we waiting?
A year ago H.R.478 United States Seaport Multiyear Security Enhancement Act was introduced and went no where. This year, HR 4954 was introduced and the issue of Port Security is now being taken seriously.



4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rep. Lungren is a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, which King chairs and where that bill orignated. King helped author the bill. Just because King didn't introduce it doesn't mean he didn't have anything to do with it. Its the same with the immigration bill which Rep. Sensenbrenner introduced and King helped author.

As far as Hong Kong checking every piece of cargo that comes in I'd like to see that technology. Not sure Schumer is telling the whole truth there.

J said...

1) King was a co-sponser of the immigration bill. he is not a co-sponser nor author of the port security bill.
2) So what if the bill was in Kings commitee? There is a similar bil in the transportation commitee.
3) The links to the Hong Kong stories are on the site. Chertoff is going to HK to see how they operate.
4) The technology is made in the US
5) King has been MIA on port security for years. When Scumer brought it up a couple of years ago, King sneered at the idea of more port security.

Anonymous said...

Come on everybody, this is the site of truth!! Johnny Rennhack and his whole mongrol family rely on it. If it is not on here it is not true.

Anonymous said...

The two of us can urgue about how involved KIng is on any issue or bill, but the fact is this year, an election year, he is in the lead on issues people care about port and border security and whether you believe he is doing the right thing or not, you would have to admit the majority of his constituents have to like what they are seeing. The no nonsense guy that isn't afraid to speak his mind and that's what they love about him. It doesn't matter how much dirt you bring up about his daughter or being on a terrorist watch list. They like that he willing take a chance and bow down to political or media pressure ie Hillary, who apparently is now in favor of King's immigration bill.