Developments Of Securing The Nation 's Ports

Intelligence and Warning is Border and Transportation Security is responsible for protecting America's borders, territorial waters, and transportation systems by centralizing information-sharing and databases that track and monitor all aspects of border control and America's transportation systems. Domestic Counterterrorism covers a wide variety of activities, ranging from National Security Agency monitoring of telephone conversations to local police monitoring of persons of interest. Protecting Critical Infrastructure and Key Assets identifies a clear set of national goals and objectives and outlines the guiding principles that will underpin our efforts to secure the infrastructures and assets vital to our national security, governance, public health and safety, economy, and public confidence. Defending against Catastrophic Threats reduces vulnerability of the United States to terrorism. Emergency Preparedness and Response will create one emergency response plan to be used at all levels of government and will ensure that first-responders, from the federal government level down to local levels, receive proper training and equipment.

Terrorism has been one of the major concerns of the entire world; however, the incident of 9/11 entirely changed the perception of governments towards the issue of terrorism. In this regard, the United States of America has significantly improvised its approach towards dealing with terrorism. The approach of the U.S. is also justifiable as the United States is the only country that had to face the maximum ramifications caused by terrorism as thousands of people have lost their lives in multiple terrorist acts. Moreover, the U.S. has also tolerated the loss of billions of dollars in the shape of loss of capital, and investing in improved military and intelligence services. Despite of all these efforts, the U.S. has always felt the threat of terrorist activities; based on this fact, the government and legislature of the United States of America has enacted many acts of Congress to ensure the security of the residents, capital, and assets of the country. Out of various strategies to make United States a safer country, the Security and Accountability for Every (SAFE) Port Act in considered the most imperative yet debated topic among the politicians as well as the public of the U.S.

It is essential to understand America’s critical infrastructure and key resources (CIKR) and National Infrastructure Protection Program (NIPP) to ensure survivability of its critical assets, while maintaining security for America. “The plans are carried out in practice by an integrated network of Federal departments and agencies, State and local government agencies, private sector entities, and a growing number of regional consortia (DHS, 2009, p. I).” Several agencies work together to mitigate attacks on CIKR to protect public safety and security of the nation. A terrorist may stop at nothing to carry out an attack on CIKR. If an attack or natural disaster does transpire, each agency working together to restore the damage must be timely. Additionally, NIPP helps to identify hazards associated with the various sectors, and provides necessary security measures to harden resources (DHS,

The Quadrennial Homeland Security review suggest six strategic challenges that will drive the overall risk to the nation over the next five years. These six risks include: the terrorist threat; growing cyber threats; biological concerns; nuclear terrorism; transnational criminal organizations; and natural hazards (DHS, 2014). The terrorists threat is, arguably, the most publicized and popular of the six risks the DHS lists. The particular risk is unique in the fact that although it can be planned for and mitigated against by state and local governments, it is primarily a federal responsibility, or at least perceived so by most entities. The DHS itself was established due to the events of September 11th 2001 and it has since been a consistent

The terrorist attack on the United States on September 11th, 2001, exposed the country's preparedness to threats by an emerging threat of terrorism. The United States Department of Homeland Security was brought to life through the Homeland Security Act of 2002. Precisely, this was in response to the country's preparedness to stop such acts of terrorism on American soil. However, it was also mandated to response to such natural disasters such as hurricane as part of a wider responsibility to ensure people within the American borders were secured from all forms of danger (Kamien, 2006).

Bellavita Christopher is the Director of Programs for the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security. Also, from 1998 to 2002, he was the planning coordinator for the Utah Olympic Public Safety Command. The author focuses on the fact that homeland security faces a variety of threats. Many factors such as the economy, weapons of mass destruction and a lack of moral compass pose potential challenges to homeland security (Bellavita, 2009). The terrorist attacks such as the one in Mumbai, the economic meltdown, the disaster on the borders remain potential malefactors to the U. S. homeland. And to no surprise, the threats are gradually transforming into a more complex tactics. Bellavita takes aim towards a realistic assessment

Basically the SAFE Port Act balances the security with the fiscal reality, by applying business sense to bureaucracy and ensures that resources are used wisely. The Department of Homeland Security must develop agreements with nations who conserve vigorous principles of port security and consent their port security assessments and shared with other agencies (Helmick, 2008). The SMART Port Act builds on the SAFE Port Act to enhance the risk-based security measures overseas before the threat reaches the U.S. shore. An emphasis was placed on stronger collaboration between Customs and Board Protection and the United States Coast Guard to share port security

As we already know that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was created in 2002 as a result of September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Transport Security Administration is one of the agencies within the DHS tasked to provide security especially in the Nation’s Transportation Systems. TSA came into existence when congress enacted the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (ATSA), which gives “TSA regulatory authority and responsibility for security over all transportation modes” (Department of Homeland Security, 2007). The Nation’s transportation systems comprises of aviation sector, Maritime sector, mass transit and passenger rail, Highways and motor carriers, Freight Rail, Pipelines, commercial vehicles, etc. (Mayenschein, 2015). Each

The Unites States has made some changes to the way we handle Security with respect to the effects of 9/11. We began to be much more vigilant looking at every aspect of transportation from enhancing our airline security, railroad to include maritime operations. One particular area of focus is our ports and how we support our trade and make it safer against the threat of another terrorist attack. The ports are extremely vital to the U.S. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 14 percent of U.S. counties that are adjacent to the coast produce 45 percent of the nation's gross domestic product

Since the September 11, 2001 events, the United States of America gravitated towards a more aggressive approach in its security. The result of the tragic events was the establishment of homeland security. The White House, the federal government and the Congress joined together to establish it. On September 20, 2001, President George W. Bush issued an executive order 13228 to establish an Office of Homeland Security within the White House and assigning the Governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Ridge as its Director (Bullock, Haddow, & Coppola, 2013, p. 4). Ever since, the United States (U.S.) Department of Homeland Security diversified and evolved the way it is today. The Homeland Defense was also integrated into Homeland Security to protect the U.S. soil and its territories. However, what are Homeland Security and Homeland Defense? This paper will address those question as well as covering their missions/goals, tasks, duties, and responsibilities. In addition, a section of this paper is the assessment of the critical infrastructure protection programs of the U.S. The assessment will also include the overall capability of the nation’s critical infrastructure protection program to ensure the survivability of its critical infrastructure.

The SAFE Port Act was approved in October, 2006, which to hardened the maritime ports. This Act will help track and protect vessels before they reach American ports. The Act itself is defined, “To improve maritime and cargo security through enhanced layered defenses, and for other purposes.” (2006). The SAFE Port Act has elements of protection against radiation, employee-employer disputes, and border patrol operations in the United States Virgin Islands. This Act also incorporates elements on partnerships between the United States government and private sector trade partnership in order to yield against terrorism and illegal smuggling operations. This SAFE Port Act talks to every possible idea to protect the security of our ports. How

office of the president has come up with three main strategies to respond to disasters and protect the critical infrastructure in the USA. The President has charged the National Strategy for Homeland Security (NSHS) with the responsibility to address the vulnerabilities that involve more than one sector or needs the responsiveness of more than one agency. The advanced strategy calls for interconnectivity and complementarity of homeland security systems. The second approach involves the National Strategy for the Physical Protection of Critical Infrastructures, and Key Assets (NSPPCIKA) identifies

The United States Coast Guard has eleven duties that they are responsible for, “By law, the Coast Guard has 11 missions: Port, Waterways, and Coastal Security, Drug interdiction, Aids to navigation, Search and rescue, Living marine resources, Marine safety, Defense readiness, Migrant interdiction, Marine environmental protection, Ice operations, and Other law enforcement” (Missions). For the purposes of this paper, I will limit the explanations to two duties that involve aspects of maritime security; the two duties are ports, waterways, and coastal security and drug interdiction.

Stephan Flynn argues that Homeland Security has been separated from national security, and that Americas infrastructure is vulnerable to attack (White 2014, 381). It seems that Flynn’s main concern is U.S. soil which hasn’t been the forefront of concern and could be a major weakness in the fight on terrorism. One his main argument is the lack of protection of U.S. ports (White 2014, 128). The CIA sights the sea as the most vulnerable spot of entry for weapons of mass destruction (White 2014, 381). Suitable action, at least in Flynn’s opinion, has not been taken to secure the ports.

The article begins by giving a brief introduction of the genesis of the problem whereby R. White, T. Boult and E. Chow identifies the September 11 attack as the genesis for a need to mitigate the vulnerability of the key infrastructures in the US. They build up a history of the progress that has been taking place since 2001 whereby in 2002, Homeland Security Act was enacted and mandated the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), with a prime obligation of protecting the Critical infrastructure in the US. The department developed a protection plan which is in use up to date. However, these authors point out that the plan was full of flaws according to a research conducted by National Research council of