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10 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News Government Update The U.S. Department of Homeland Security recently released its draft White Paper on a National Cargo Security Strategy. The Department is seeking stakeholder feedback. The vision is for "a system for supply chain security that mitigates the evolving terrorist threat and facilitates the free flow of global commerce in order to ensure the physi- cal and economic well being of the United States and its trading partners." The White Paper is a long-belated and somewhat half-hearted attempt to mend fences and appear to be moving forward, while expending little new capital. The paper runs on for nine pages, offering no new ideas and making few commit- ments. It has the appearance of an uneasy political compromise between feuding federal agencies. The one clear commitment is found on page eight, where it says the Department "will, as a short-term step, mandate the use of high security mechanical seals on all in-bound containers." There is, as yet, no official government standard as to what constitutes a high security mechanical seal. While there is a recently-developed ISO standard on this topic, it is unclear if qualifying seals are being produced in sufficient numbers to meet the projected need. The remainder of the White Paper is vague, talking about enhancing the physical security of the supply chain, leveraging federal resources, pushing out the border, and working with the international community without really explaining how. The document itself is what the State Department would call a "non-paper." It is marked "Draft". It bears no letter- head or other indication that it is an offi- cial DHS document. It was distributed at a forum sponsored not by DHS, but by the Homeland Security Institute. It talks about seeking industry feedback, but provides no points of contact or addresses to which comments can be submitted. The term "plausible denia- bility" comes to mind. The concept with which DHS is labor- ing is — at its heart — fairly direct, although the execution is extremely dif- ficult. There are three basic elements: (1) the authorities must know what is entering the system, where entry is Cost effective marine communications for your fleet starts before the first call is placed or the first e-mail is sent. The SeaWave Solution lowers the cost of communications by removing administration, simplifying crew access and providing state-of-the-art throughput technology and automatic least cost routing over multiple satellite systems and cellular GSM. With SeaWave you benefit from a family of value added services designed to curb costs, enhance performance and increase shore based control. ENHANCED PERFORMANCE SeaWave’s proprietary Throughput Technology Software (TTS) accelerates the transmission of every e-mail and file attachment. This same TTS application also makes accessing the Web a more cost effective and land-like experience. LEAST COST ROUTING ... VOICE AND DATA Money is wasted when the wrong communication device is utilized at the wrong time. When is it most cost effective to choose Inmarsat A, B, Mini M, Fleet, Iridium or Cellular? Are they available – did your message go through? SeaWave’s proprietary Least Cost Routing (LCR) automatically solves these problems by choosing the best service available based on data speeds, air time rates, file size, geographic variances, signal quality and more. SeaWave LCR assures economical voice and data communications. INCREDIBLE VALUE SeaWave saves you money and provides additional service through these value added applications: SeaWave STAR – Economically track one vessel or an entire fleet from your office mySeaWave – Free onshore access to e-mail, billing and account management SeaWave Weather – Schedule automatic color and text NOAA weather forecasts SeaWave Billing – One bill for all communications summarized by user, vessel, fleet or by communications device Crew Billing – Take the administration out of permitting crew access Report Optimization – Streamline shore-based reporting 3 1 2 SeaWave Integrator 3.0t: Comes complete with a built in Iridium modem, GSM modem and GPS. Inmarsat A, B, Mini M, Fleet 33/55/77 compatible. Network and PBX ready. Easy–to-use & easy-to-install. Contact a SeaWave specialist today to reduce your communications costs right away! (800) 746-6251 • sales@seawave.com • www.seawave.com MT115MT104MT105MT112MT32MT116MT114MT97MT99MT107MT105MT110MT103MT32MT97MT110MT100MT32MT114MT101MT112MT111MT114MT116MT105MT110MT103 Circle 250 on Reader Service Card Cargo Security Strategy Dennis L. Bryant, Senior Maritime Counsel at the law firm of Holland & Knight, Washington, D.C., is a contributing editor of MR/EN. MR JANUARY 2005 #2 (9-16).qxd 1/6/2005 10:58 AM Page 2
