“ It is one of the most heavily-guarded checkpoints on the border between Israel and the Gaza strip. Security is so tight at Karni that goods are transferred from trucks parked back-to-back to prevent smuggling. But despite those precautions, a truck carrying two suicide bombers left the border crossing into Israel at about 2 o’clock in the afternoon of March 14 headed for the deepwater port of Ashdod, about 40 kilometers south of Tel Aviv. By 3:30 pm, the truck had arrived at the port, one of Israel’s busiest. About an hour later, the terrorists detonated their explosive devices, killing ten and wounding 18.”(Schoen, MSNBC)
The excerpt above is from an article written by John Schoen of MSNBC in which he describes how ports are attractive targets for terrorism. In the article, he provides a very detailed account of how a heavily guarded port in Israel, one of the safest ports in the world, was compromised by two suicide bombers. With this paper, I intend to discuss the purpose of ports, daily port operations, port security, and ports areas of vulnerability. Next, I intend to show the financial impact if a port is shut down. I found this topic intriguing because if a terrorist act could be successfully launched at a heavily guarded port in Israel, then it is imperative that ports around the world use this situation as a learning tool to prevent it from occurring again. While there are over 100 ports within the United States alone, my paper will on how port address security to deter and identify terrorist activity. Finally, the paper will conclude with an assessment of the security of US Ports.