Maine Leads in Tightening Homeland Security and Maintaining Trade
WASHINGTON, April 25–Within two years, Maine’s 23 points-of-entry by land will boast a more efficient, more secure and more technologically advanced monitoring system. It will allow vehicles to cross the border from Canada into the United States more rapidly, and it is intended to ensure the safety of federal officials stationed at them.
The new system will cost the U.S. Customs Service $50 million to install. Among the improvements will be cameras that can detect contraband, biometric systems that identify people by their fingerprints and high-speed communication systems that allow guards – some working alone at virtually barren entry points – to contact help quickly in case of an emergency.
The system represents the federal government’s push to improve security throughout Maine, not just on the Canadian border, but also at the seaports sprinkled along the state’s long, rocky coast.
“Maine really is in the lead on this,” said Doug Doan, senior vice president of New Technology Management Inc., which has contracted with Customs to implement the new system. Refurbishing Maine’s ports-of-entry is a priority, Doan said.
Maine is at the forefront, literally, of the nation’s twin – and sometimes conflicting – missions of protecting its homeland and preserving its system of free international trade. There are “two competing ideas: free flow of goods and services, and at the same time keeping out the bad guys,” Doan said.
The enormity of the operation is a major obstacle to securing the U.S. homeland. “It is not possible to check every container that comes into this country.á That would kill the economy,” said Brian C. Nutter, Maine Port Authority administrator.
Because of its geographical location, Maine plays an important role as a throughway for trade. Maine felt the affects of Sept. 11 in unique ways, though only temporarily. In fact, economic prospects in the coming months look good. But homeland security experts say another incident of similar magnitude could seriously damage the economy, and that’s why there is a push to secure a better system of homeland defense in Maine.
Besides its unique geography – a porous, 611-mile border with Canada and a 1,000-mile coastline – Maine has been in the spotlight because it inadvertently played a role in the attacks of Sept. 11. Reports suggest that the some of the hijackers, who later drove two airplanes into the World Trade Center towers, initially and illegally crossed the Maine-Canadian border.
Almost eight months later, the U.S. government has employed New Technology Management. and other high-tech companies to improve homeland defense. But despite all of these technological upgrades for Maine’s numerous ports-of-entry, “perfect security isn’t ever possible,” Doan said.
How Maine fits into the equation
Maritime inspectors in the Italian port of Gioia Tauro last October discovered a suspected al-Qaida member stowed away in a shipping container headed for Halifax, Canada. The Egyptian man had with him airport maps and security passes. The incident exemplified the vulnerability of the international trading network – a system that security experts argue can be a vehicle to carry out terrorism.
Protecting the U.S. homeland while preserving the flow of trade has been a hot topic lately. Monitoring the massive amount of traffic that crosses U.S. borders and floats into its waterways is an awesome challenge. In fiscal year 2001, the Customs Service reported that 479 million people entered the United States by land, sea and air. The same year, 5.7 million maritime containers and 11.1 million commercial trucks passed through Customs.
Geography contributes to the role each state has in these national numbers, which is why Maine is a key component in the effort to tighten security while still inviting trade.
In 2000, $8.7 billion worth of imports – .7 percent of total U.S. imports – came into Maine by land, sea and air. A large portion of these imports, which range from petroleum to vegetables, is eventually shipped to Canada and to southern and midwestern states.
The Port of Portland, the second largest port in New England, is an active point of trade. It is the only seaport in Maine that accepts containers, which are motor-home sized, cargo-packed, steel boxes carried on vessels and trucks.
Each week, about 30 to 60 containers enter the seaport, which is small in comparison to the seaports in Boston and New York City. But the cargo that enters Portland supplies every county in Maine. Therefore a slowdown in cargo, which occurred after Sept. 11, subsequently damages commerce throughout Maine.
Portland is the state’s most diverse port-of-entry. Crude oil is its predominant import, which is directly siphoned to Montreal through a pipeline.
The second-leading import is refined petroleum, used to produce heating oil and gasoline. The huge tankers that carry these products could seriously damage the local fishing industry if the vessel were struck in the harbor, causing the petroleum to gush into the water.
To prevent such incidents from occurring, ships coming into harbor must inform the Coast Guard 96 hours in advance. The ships must tell the Coast Guard who and what are on board. That information is run through a database to check if everyone and everything could be dangerous. Inspectors scrutinize ships that originate in other countries.
The Coast Guard is, by in large, considered first in command. Other agencies, such as Customs, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and the Agriculture Department, also participate in the inspections, but their roles depend on the type of vessel coming into port.
Inspectors usually comb the ship after it has docked Only when a ship has potentially dangerous cargo or comes from a hostile country do inspectors check its cargo outside the port.
Inspectors examine 2 percent of the cargo that comes into port. Said Lt. Mike McCarthy of the Coast Guard’s Maine safety office: “Hopefully we’re targeting the right 2 percent.”
On Sept. 11, inspectors in Portland slowed the pace of examinations significantly. In fact, the flow of the entire transportation industry slowed down, and Maine commerce felt it.
Trucking across the Canadian-Maine border ground to a halt in the face of an ill-equipped monitoring system. Companies awaiting these shipments lost money when cargoes didn’t arrive on time.
The fishing industry, lobstermen in particular, lost money because the planes that were supposed to be carrying their goods to other parts of the country were grounded. The fishermen were forced to sell their goods at a reduced price.
These days, commerce appears to be business is usual. Steven Levesque, commissioner of Maine’s Department of Economic and Community Development, said that commerce was damaged by the slowdown of goods, but only for a few weeks. Most others agree. McCarthy said that the same number of containers is arriving at the Port of Portland as before Sept. 11.
But what would happen if there was another incident? Security experts such as Sean Burke, a research associate for Stephen Flynn, a security adviser for a think-tank based in New York City, contends that it would kill the economy.
“That’s bullshit,” said Levesque, who, like many, stressed that the ingenuity and diligence of Mainers would let them fight through the commercial industry’s woes.
But, in fact, what worries national policy makers and Mainers alike is how to maintain trade if you build walls around the borders.
Needed: Money
Money is the most obvious means for improving security and maintaining trade. It pays for the new gadgets that monitor ports-of-entry and the additional inspectors positioned at the border and seaports.
Since Sept. 11, Maine’s federal representatives have pushed for legislation and additional funds that would especially benefit the state.
The most recent legislation to clear Congress was the Border Security Act. It emphasizes better communication among federal agencies, including the CIA, the FBI, the Customs Service and the INS. The new law calls for updating a centralized database containing the names and backgrounds of potentially dangerous people and for strengthening biometrics technology.
Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins are also lobbying the Senate Appropriations Committee to dole out enough money to triple the number of Customs, Border Patrol and INS agents stationed at the northern border.
“Increased funding for staffing and expanded use of technology for security and processing is essential to the economic vitality and physical security of á our northern states,” Snowe and Collins said in a joint press release.
Referring to the Maine delegation’s immediate call for beefier security after Sept. 11, Jeffrey Monroe, director of Transportation in Portland, said: “I don’t mean to blow smoke up anyone’s tuckus,” but Maine’s representatives “were right on the ball á as soon as the gates opened.”
Nevertheless, one Maine homeland security official called the amount of money “conservative.” that will go to improving security, especially in Maine. Others say that more money for more guards and more gates is a “short fuse approach.” Instead of more guards at the borders, they say, the entire system requires revamping.
Burke said the system needs to include the private sector, which is especially insistent about improving homeland security. “They’re going to pony up dough,” Burke said.
The Coast Guard, for instance, employs fishermen to report anything suspicious out on the water. The fisherman are part of the “9,000 sets of eyes” that McCarthy said the Coast Guard has asked to stay alert to dubious activity.
As Col. Mark Gilbert, Maine homeland security coordinator, put it, “Mrs. Johnson, who lives next door, knows what’s happening on her block.”
But whom does Mrs. Johnson call when she spots suspicious activity? And once she has called, say, the state agency, whom does it call? That the question is even asked points up the problem of creating an efficient system of homeland security: communication.
Monroe said there is a lack of communication among federal agencies working in the Port of Portland and that there are times when the Coast Guard doesn’t inform Portland officials of potential threats from some ships that come into port. “They city should be privy to threat assessments, and we’re not,” Monroe said.
McCarthy, however, said that communication between the federal agencies and the city of Portland is “excellent.”
Technology, Policy and Borders
Technology will have a major role in preserving trade while keeping dangerous contraband from entering into the city.
Maine’s first step has been to refurbish its border entry points, where, in addition to installing more lights to illuminate the stations and replacing battered signs, workers are implementing advanced biometric systems., thus pushing Maine beyond what Flynn calls the Customs Service’s typical “paper-based system.”
“If you are wanted in some way, and you are at a port-of-entry in Maine, you are in big trouble,” Doan said.
Other options include attaching a microcomputer to a truck’s motor control system. The microcomputer, which would receive signals from a global positioning system, would switch off a truck’s engine if the vehicle strayed from a designated path and automatically alert the police.
This same system could be used with containers carried across borders or shipped into ports. An electronic system would alert the police if the containers were tampered with.
Aside from high-tech face-lifts, which necessitate money and time to install, border adjustments have also been taken into consideration.
One idea is to place U.S. Customs inspectors at a checking point in Canada, thus relieving some of the congestion at the border crossings. But U.S. and Canadian inspectors use different security procedures, which could cause controversy among the inspectors.
An answer to that, said Wade Merritt, director of the Maine International Trade Center, could be to create a single border around North America, with the exception of Mexico. Canada supports this idea, he said, because it worries that the United States might establish a security system that would exclude its northern neighbor, thereby hurting the “symbiotic” trade relationship between the two countries.
Overseas inspection is another idea. U.S. inspectors would work at overseas ports-of-entry and would inspect cargo headed toward the United States. Overseas inspections, which would require somewhat of a global partnership, have been widely accepted as one of the best ideas to ensure security and relieve congestion along the borders.
There are other more conventional ideas as well, including Congressman John Baldacci’s proposal to impose stricter weight-limits on trucks that drive through towns on I-95 on their way to and from Canada. Inspectors could, examine the smaller cargoes more quickly..
Burke admitted that “there is no perfect system” and said that the goal should be to implement a system that would ensure that the economy could withstand another fatal incident. The obstacle isn’t just the money or the technology, he said; “the obstacle is the complexity of the system itself.”
Flynn put it this way: “A credible system would not necessarily have to be perfect, but it would need to be good enough so that when an attack does occur, the public deems it to be the result of a correctible fault in security rather than an absence of security.”
Published in The Bangor Daily News, in Maine.
