Featured Articles

Constructing LNG Port Facilities in Urban Areas?

An Issue of great concern to port security in the United States is an attack on a liquified natural gas (LNG) facility or tanker in an urban area. Currently LNG deliveries are handeled by seven terminals in the United States, only one, at Everett, Massachusettes, is situated in a highly populated area. With the possibility that a sucessful attack on a LNG ship or port terminal could be on the scale of a small atomic bomb, why would someone want to build such a port in a highly populated area? Yet thirty-six percent of the proposed LNG terminals that are being considered for contruction would be built in highly populated areas. Again the the debate of efficiency vs security comes to the surface.

Technology in Focus- Cargo Inspection Targeting: Time for a New System?

At ports across the United Stated one of the most daunting tasks of US Customs agents is to decide which containers are safe and which ones they should inspect. A tool the Customs agents use is the rules-based Automated Targeting Sytem or ATS. Yet the ATS may not be the most effective tool for the job since it laks key elements of risk management and is not fully consistent with key modeling practices. Is it time for a new system? Breakthroughts in evolutionary computation may be the answer to the Customs agents' needs.

Environmental Security - Getting Ready for the IMO Ballast Convention.

In Chicago, an intake pipe from Lake Michigan is continually getting clogged by mussels with stripes on them. Fishermen from Sochi, Russia are going out of business because a strange jellyfish has caused the devastation of fish stocks. Along the coast of Australia, reef life is being snuffed out by thousands of carnivorous seastars. These are only a few examples of the invasive species, most likely introduced by ballast water from ships. The water drawn into ships to fill ballast tanks can be full of aquatic life, such as plankton, crabs, mollusks, small fish, and pathogenic germs. It is possible that on any given day, 10,000 or more species are being carried across the world's oceans in ballast tanks.

Terrorism in Focus- Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines

The Abu Sayaf Group (ASG) is an Islamic separatist organization that has gained a reputation for ruthlessness and sophistication. Operating in the southern Philippines , ASG has ties to the al-Qaeda and Jemmah Islamiya terrorist organization. ASG has been extremely active in the maritime environment which makes them dangerous not only to maritime interests in the Philippines but also because they have the possibility of passing their tactics along to other terrorist groups that will use them in other parts of the world.

Book Review- Dangerous Waters by John S. Burnett

When many people are asked to describe pirates, they conjure up visions of long haired and bearded men with a patch over one eye, a parrot on a shoulder, and walking about on a peg leg. You won't find any pirates of that sort in John S. Burnett's Dangerous Waters. Instead Burnett tells us the tales of the modern day pirate, equipped with machine guns and rocket launchers. Instead of swinging from masts to overtake a sailing ship, these pirates climb up ropes onto supertankers to claim their prize. And the prizes are not chests of gold and jewels but most likely the ships safe and many times the cargo and the ship itself.

Port and Maritime Security Online