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Coast Guard: U.S. Vulnerable to Cole-Style Attacks
By Caroline Drees
Wed Jul 7, 2004
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=5612345

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States remains vulnerable to attacks
by small, fast boats like the one that killed 17 sailors on the U.S.
warship Cole in 2000, despite tough new global security laws, the head
of the Coast Guard said on Wednesday.

Adm. Thomas Collins, commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, said the new
United Nations International Ship and Port Facility Security code and
related U.S. Maritime Transportation Security Act focused on large
commercial ships, not the roughly 60 million U.S. recreational vessels.

The two new sets of regulations, designed to thwart seaborne terrorist
attacks, came into force last Thursday.

"That (an attack by a small, high-speed vessel) is one potential
vulnerability. It's not unique to the United States. Globally, that's
one potential threat," he told Reuters in an interview.

In the Cole attack in Yemen, two suicide bombers on a small craft laden
with up to 500 pounds (225 kg) of explosives pulled up to the guided
missile destroyer and rammed their boat into the vessel as it was
refueling in the port of Aden.

The new UN regulations, signed by 147 governments, require ports,
stevedoring companies and owners of ships larger than 500 tons to draw
up plans for responding to a terror threat, implement tighter security
around facilities, train staff, and obtain security certificates
proving compliance.

"The ISPS code and MTSA are largely focused on commercial facilities,
commercial traffic, the larger carriers," Collins said.

There was no national registry or national system of operator licensing
for recreational vessels, he said. Registration and licensing for these
kinds of boats are handled by individual states.

"Do we have a way to control all those (small vessels) on a 7-by-24,
day-in-day-out basis? No," he said, but added, "We can address the
issue of recreational vessels in a given port under certain threat
conditions."

Collins said the Coast Guard could take additional security precautions
for small private boats -- such as limiting movement or increasing
reporting requirements -- if intelligence indicated a terrorist threat.

But on a normal day, he said, "we are not controlling recreational
traffic in any port absent some specific threats."

"Our problem is much more complicated and grander in scale than one-
port countries," Collins said, pointing to the United States' 361
ports. "It is a complex issue. It's difficult to start imposing severe
control actions on recreational traffic."

Collins said the Coast Guard was contemplating new reporting
requirements for foreign vessels below the current threshold for
commercial ships as part of efforts to enhance maritime security, but
no decision had been taken yet.