[Phoenix] Small Boats seen as a terror threat

[Phoenix Power Squadron]

By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The nation's 17 million small boats are facing increased
scrutiny from the Homeland Security Department, which fears they could
be used in a nuclear attack or a lethal explosion at a U.S. port.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said this month that he had
ordered agency leaders to "raise the protection level with respect to
small boats." Attacks this decade by terrorists ramming bomb-filled
speedboats into a U.S. battleship and a French tanker are worrisome,
Chertoff said.
The Coast Guard is seeking a new federal requirement that all boat
operators carry identification wherever they are on the water so it can
build a database of boaters found in restricted areas. The agency also
wants to require state boating courses to teach security protocols such
as avoiding cruise-ship terminals and military facilities. 
Although new mandates would apply to operators of state-registered boats
— usually those with an engine — the Homeland Security Department is
focused on protecting major ports near large cities.
Boat operators, represented by the Boat Owners Association, support the
effort as long as they don't have to get separate ID cards or install
costly tracking devices, association lobbyist Margaret Podlich said.
The Domestic Nuclear Detection Office plans to test next year whether
sensors on buoys and boats can detect radiation from a nuclear or
radiological bomb on a small vessel. "This represents a serious
vulnerability," Director Vayl Oxford said. "The consequences would be so
extreme."
Next month, the Coast Guard will give Chertoff a plan to better oversee
recreational boats and small ferries and fishing boats with "additional
surveillance, monitoring and information systems," said Dana Goward,
director of the Coast Guard's Maritime Domain Awareness program. "We
need to know more about who's out there."
Only Alabama requires boat operators to carry identification, said Ron
Sarver of the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators.
All but three states require boater education, but the requirements
often are limited to young people or personal-watercraft operators,
Sarver said.
Large boats — generally those longer than 100 feet — must have
security plans and transponders that relay their position to Coast Guard
stations. 
Council on Foreign Relations security expert Stephen Flynn said
terrorists are more likely to detonate a bomb in one of the thousands of
metal shipping containers unloaded at ports each day. 
"The consequence is all boxes would be viewed as a threat and you'd stop
the system," Flynn said.
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EnlargeAFP fileSmoke billows from the French oil tanker Limburg near the
Yemeni port of al-Mukalla in this Oct. 2002, file photo. An explosion
crippled the giant vessel, in what appeared to be a re-run of the attack
on the USS Cole in 2000. A crewmember said he saw a fishing boat
approach before the blast.