Secretary Ridge Discusses Port Security at Asia-Pacific Homeland Security Summit
November 15, 2004 (Honolulu, Hawaii) - "Many nations in the Asia-Pacific region have made integral contributions to the war on terrorism – significantly building and improving counterterrorism capabilities in the immediate aftermath of the September 11th attacks.
Especially in the area of maritime security, we have made marked progress with programs such as the Container Security Initiative. Since the launch of CSI, U.S. Customs inspectors work alongside our partners to target and screen cargo in 26 international ports including Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia.
With the use of large-scale gamma ray and x-ray imaging systems, Customs officers can scan the interior of a full-size, 40-foot container in under one minute. In this way, we are able to enhance the security of our nations without sacrificing the free and swift flow of commerce on which our economy depends."