Houston Ship Channel security is getting an upgrade

[HarvestMoon]

PROTECTING AN ASSET
A closer eye on the Ship Channel
By JENALIA MORENO Houston Chronicle
Feb. 5, 2010, 11:55PM

For a couple of years, Harris County sheriff's deputies have patrolled the Houston Ship Channel by boat, using an underwater camera to inspect ships' hulls for hidden explosives or other potential threats.

And soon they'll add such equipment as sonar, bomb-hunting robots and radiation detectors as the newly created Houston Ship Channel Security District ramps up efforts to prevent and respond to terrorist attacks or accidents along the waterway.

Harris County will administer $133.2 million in federal grants that have provided initial funding for the Security District, which held its first board meeting in January.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...s/6853970.html

[jess]

Excuse me if I sound cynical, but that is horsesh***. It's nothing but toys on the taxpayer's dollar.

[Joe-Nathan]

Excuse me if I sound cynical, but that is horsesh***. It's nothing but toys on the taxpayer's dollar.

Man you never know. Those surfers that ride the ship wakes in the bay could be terrorist...

[kobayashi]

PROTECTING AN ASSET
A closer eye on the Ship Channel
By JENALIA MORENO Houston Chronicle
Feb. 5, 2010, 11:55PM

For a couple of years, Harris County sheriff's deputies have patrolled the Houston Ship Channel by boat, using an underwater camera to inspect ships' hulls for hidden explosives or other potential threats.

And soon they'll add such equipment as sonar, bomb-hunting robots and radiation detectors as the newly created Houston Ship Channel Security District ramps up efforts to prevent and respond to terrorist attacks or accidents along the waterway.

Harris County will administer $133.2 million in federal grants that have provided initial funding for the Security District, which held its first board meeting in January.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...s/6853970.html

Excuse me if I sound cynical, but that is horsesh***. It's nothing but toys on the taxpayer's dollar.

Man you never know. Those surfers that ride the ship wakes in the bay could be terrorist...

Jess I suspect alot of people who are or have been to the Texas City Dike will remember a big shops anchor at the entrance to the causeway.

I do since it's a big 18 footer and I asked about it.

It was a 5 ton anchor of the Grandcamp and was a mile away when it blew. The 8"+ H-beams outside the doors of the QA lab were warped and scalloped like Ravioli. They were a part of "The Texas City Disaster" in April 1947. It was an accident but stood as the largest loss-of-life disaster
until 911.

I don't have any faith in the TSA to speak of and the "Technology Solution" of the 'naked scanners' for example has already been countered successfuly by jihadists in Europe and Israel.

Picture this: The Grandcamp was a de-mothballed liberty ship given to France after WWII as part of the Marshall Plan. A much larger ship containing a more hazardous cargo is 'attacked' by someone in say a Scarab.

Can I leave it to your imagination?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_Disaster

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster

http://www.local1259iaff.org/texascitydisasterpics.htm

The Plant at whose docks the explosions occurred was the "Monsanto Texas City Refinery". Way before my time but the CIO was an Eagle Scout when it happened and described in detail, and my co-worker was a teenager in Galveston when it occurred.

....just going over old Texas memories......here in the snow

Anyone else remember hearing about it?