US misses deadline for scanning of imported cargo

Washington Post : The US Department of Homeland Security has found it necessary to extend the deadline established by Congress in 2006 for the scanning of all cargo containers entering the US from foreign ports. Such screening for radioactive material has proven too costly and cumbersome, according to department secretary Janet Napolitano. Instead, the DHS has been gathering intelligence and using analytical software to narrow down the search to identify the highest-risk containers. Although 100% of high-risk containers do get scanned, they amount to fewer than half a percent of the 10 million total containers shipped to the US each year. “The current system is woefully inadequate for stopping any determined adversary who wants to get a weapon of mass destruction into the United States,” said Stephen Flynn, a terrorism expert at Northeastern University and a former Coast Guard commander who has studied container security.