Israel Begins CSI Cargo Security Operations at Port of Ashdod
09/17/2007
Washington — U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced today that the port of Ashdod in Israel became the 54th operational Container Security Initiative port to target and pre-screen maritime cargo containers destined for U.S. ports.
CBP’s Container Security Initiative, launched weeks after the terrorist attacks of 2001, is a cooperative effort with host country governments to identify and screen high-risk shipments before they leave participating ports. More than 80 percent of all cargo containers destined for U.S. shores originate in or are transshipped through 54 CSI ports in North, South and Central America, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
“Securing global trade is a major priority for CBP, so I am pleased to be partnering with Israel to expand the Container Security Initiative,” said CBP Commissioner W. Ralph Basham. “We are committed to using high-tech equipment and smarter, more secure containers to safeguard the supply chain, and realize that cooperation from our friends around the globe is our most potent weapon.”
CBP and Israel’s Customs Directorate cosigned the Declaration of Principles to bring CBP’s Container Security Initiative to the ports of Ashdod and Haifa on March 26.
The initiative seeks to:
Identify high-risk containers. CBP uses automated targeting tools to identify containers that pose a potential risk for terrorism, based on advance information and strategic intelligence.
Prescreen and evaluate containers before they are shipped. Containers are screened as early in the supply chain as possible, generally at the port of departure.
Use technology to prescreen high-risk containers to ensure that screening can be done rapidly without slowing down the movement of trade. This technology includes large-scale X-ray and gamma ray machines and radiation detection devices.
CSI addresses the threat to border security and global trade posed by the potential for terrorist use of a maritime container to deliver a weapon. CSI proposes a security regime to ensure all containers that pose a potential risk for terrorism are identified and inspected at foreign ports before they are placed on vessels destined for the United States.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of the nation’s borders at and between the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.
CBP’s Container Security Initiative, launched weeks after the terrorist attacks of 2001, is a cooperative effort with host country governments to identify and screen high-risk shipments before they leave participating ports. More than 80 percent of all cargo containers destined for U.S. shores originate in or are transshipped through 54 CSI ports in North, South and Central America, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
“Securing global trade is a major priority for CBP, so I am pleased to be partnering with Israel to expand the Container Security Initiative,” said CBP Commissioner W. Ralph Basham. “We are committed to using high-tech equipment and smarter, more secure containers to safeguard the supply chain, and realize that cooperation from our friends around the globe is our most potent weapon.”
CBP and Israel’s Customs Directorate cosigned the Declaration of Principles to bring CBP’s Container Security Initiative to the ports of Ashdod and Haifa on March 26.
The initiative seeks to:
Identify high-risk containers. CBP uses automated targeting tools to identify containers that pose a potential risk for terrorism, based on advance information and strategic intelligence.
Prescreen and evaluate containers before they are shipped. Containers are screened as early in the supply chain as possible, generally at the port of departure.
Use technology to prescreen high-risk containers to ensure that screening can be done rapidly without slowing down the movement of trade. This technology includes large-scale X-ray and gamma ray machines and radiation detection devices.
CSI addresses the threat to border security and global trade posed by the potential for terrorist use of a maritime container to deliver a weapon. CSI proposes a security regime to ensure all containers that pose a potential risk for terrorism are identified and inspected at foreign ports before they are placed on vessels destined for the United States.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of the nation’s borders at and between the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.
