Bob Menendez: “the 9/11 Commission told us that to prevent a terrorist attack, we had to think outside the box. If an ordinary envelope…”

“the 9/11 Commission told us that to prevent a terrorist attack, we had to think outside the box. If an ordinary envelope could be turned into a biological weapon and a passenger plane into a weapon of mass destruction, then it takes little imagination to see how a container could be used to transport a nuclear weapon to the port of New York and New Jersey, or any other seaport, causing tens of thousands of casualties. The 9/11 Commission told us to think outside the box, but when it comes to port security, I believe we must think inside the container. The bottom line is, we don't know what is inside the vast majority of containers entering this country because despite repeated warnings from security experts from both within and without our Government, only 1 of every 20 containers that passes through our ports is inspected-- inspected. That is very important. Not screened but inspected. Ninety- five percent of the cargo received no inspection other than a cursory glance at the cargo manifest. Now, let me point out what the Government Accounting Office said when it stated that the manifest information, the listing of what goes into these containers ``may be unreliable and incomplete. There is no method to routinely verify whether the manifest data accurately reflects the contents within the cargo container.'' That is why I am offering this amendment with our colleagues, which will put us on the road to 100 percent container scanning.…”