Speech #1090170914

The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. which Senators COLEMAN and LEVIN lead. Issued a report in March that stated we are only inspecting 0.34 percent of all containers destined for the United States overseas and of those that were considered highrisk containers. we are only inspecting about 17.5 percent. Given this low inspection rate. it is really no surprise that each year we find illegal immigrants stowed away on cargo containers destined for the United States. This spring. 22 Chinese stowaways were apprehended at the Port of Seattle. So if illegal immigrants know that they have a good shot at entering the United States in cargo containers because of our failure to inspect the contents. it ought to be no great leap of imagination to expect that terrorist organizations might also have the same idea. In fact. the C.I.A. has reported that a weapon of mass destruction is most likely to be delivered in the United States by a cargo container entering a seaport. But the problems extend beyond our failure to inspect cargo.