"Michael S. Lorrey" says:
> James Wetterau wrote:
...
> > What the heck -- I've been pondering this for a while, so I'll throw
> > the question out:
> >
> > What do you think of the possibility of delivery of nukes in a
> > container ship? This is my main scenario to fear: some North Korean
> > (or other potentially hostile nation) agents bribe dockworkers
> > somewhere close to home (South Korea in this case, though I guess this
> > just got a heck of lot less likely in the last few days) to allow them
> > to insert just one "special" carton among the thousands and thousands
> > of cartons in a container aboard a cargo ship, set to detonate via GPS
> > trigger upon arrival at the correct latitude and longitude. The
> > dockworkers might just assume it's a contraband shipment, not a weapon
> > of mass destruction.
>
> The problem with the scenario is that since we know the container ship came from
> a North Korean port, that it was North Korean agents who did it, so NK would not
> be likely to exist as a livable region for more than a week after that. That
> would not be in the best interest of the North Korean government.
Um, my example was specifically the ship coming from South Korea. The
idea being that somebody moves the weapon along the first leg of the
trip (North Korea -> South Korea) some other way. But anyway, let's
assume instead that it's some other portion of the world. You'd be
hard pressed to know that the weapon was detonated by the country the
ship originated in.
> > In the mideast, this scenario could play out as a nuke stashed in an
> > oil tanker, possibly.
> >
> > I have heard (though never got confirmation, anybody know for sure?
> > Care to tell me I'm wrong and quit worrying?) that the vast majority
> > of cargo arriving in U.S. ports never goes through any kind of
> > inspection, and if it does it's usually a random inspection of a small
> > portion of the contents, making it extremely unlikely that one
> > particular suspicious carton among the Hyundai's or whatever would be
> > noticed.
>
> Actually, all imported stuff is held in bond at the port, and they have drug
> dogs sniffing stuff out, as that is the most prevalent thing, though they have
> dogs trained to sniff for other stuff. Vehicles get weighed, as well as
> containers, and weights must match the bill of lading the receiving customer
> has.
But not every individual box containing stuff inside a container gets
opened and inspected, right? Also, if it's a GPS-controlled weapon,
it could detonate as the ship is coming into harbor. Inspection is
too late, unless it happens far from shore.
> > Of course, this gets even easier if it's a bioweapon. Essentially,
> > I'm much more worried about trojan horses more than sophisticated
> > ICBM's or other weapons systems.
>
> a bioweapons would be much easier to sneak in, for sure.
I would think nearly unpreventable.
Regards,
James
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