Seeking Safe Harbor

Sea trade is the backbone of the global economy. It's also the Achilles' heel of homeland security.


If Bryan Smith doesn't look like a soldier, it's because he's serving in an unconventional war. The front line that the journeyman Customs inspector serves on is the Howland Hook Marine Terminal on the northern shore of Staten Island, New York.

 While it doesn't look much like a battlefield, if Smith turns his gaze north across Newark Bay on a clear day, he can see the Manhattan skyline and picture where the World Trade Center's twin towers stood before terrorists armed with box-cutters and conviction brought them down. But on a rain-soaked Friday morning in February, Smith isn't thinking about the Manhattan skyline. He's thinking about bananas....

By Katherine McIntire Peters March 1, 2002
http://www.govexec.com/magazine/2002/03/seeking-safe-harbor/11100/print