Customs mobilizes to keep nukes out

By Jeannine Aversa

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Every Customs inspector will be equipped by January with a pocket-sized radiation detector, but "there are no guarantees" that increased border security will stop a terrorist from smuggling in a nuclear weapon, the Customs commissioner said Wednesday.

Fears of a terrorist nuclear assault on the United States have risen since the Sept. 11 jetliner attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.

Customs Commissioner Robert Bonner said in an interview that he knows of no terrorist group trying to smuggle a nuclear device into the country.

"The question is, ‘Should we be concerned about it?’ " he said. "This is one of those areas where I don’t want to wait and see what happens."

About half of Customs’ inspectors — 4,000 of them in scattered locations around the country — are now equipped with pocket-sized radiation detectors. By January, the other 4,500 Customs inspectors will get the devices, Bonner said.

Customs also is looking to use more sophisticated scanning and detection technology at seaports and land crossings.

Since Sept. 11, the Customs Service has shifted its primary mission from detecting smuggled narcotics to stopping terrorists, possibly with nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, from getting into the country.

Specifically, Customs has increased security and provided better training for its inspectors and agents at seaports, airports and border crossings on land. Customs oversees roughly 300 points of entry into the United States.

The agency also is working with other countries to screen cargo containers before their shipment into the United States. Under a recent agreement with Canada, U.S. Customs has put inspectors in Montreal, Halifax and Vancouver to prescreen cargo headed for the United States. Canadian Customs officials have inspectors at some U.S. seaports.

Still, "there are no guarantees," Bonner said in the interview. "No system is foolproof."