Sunday, August 14, 2011

Obama Scraps Nuclear Material Detectors at Ports of Entry

by Douglas V. Gibbs

Once again the Obama administration has shown that it does not take the Islamist threat seriously - either that, or Barry is proving once again that he holds a certain affection, and trust, towards the Muslim world, which can only result in the extreme arm of Muhammadism striking at the United States with a devastating terrorist attack.

Part of defending the nation is the willingness to take preventive measures with the best equipment possible.

One way to act in a preventive manner when it comes to protecting this country from potential terrorist activity is to be on the look out for nuclear material entering the country through any entry point. On this important part of national defense, the Obama administration has failed badly, opting out of proven equipment, to settle for unproven and less efficient equipment.

The Obama administration has eliminated a program that would have installed nuclear material detectors at U.S. ports of entry. The cost would have been $1.2 billion.

The excuse was that the equipment is unreliable as far as its "technical glitches" that included false positives or false alarms. Then again, they said the same about the "Star Wars" missile defense system, even though tests said otherwise. Besides, I would prefer false alarms over failure to detect radioactive material at all.

Homeland Security Department plans to instead go with a small-scale version of the original plan using handheld radiation detectors, equipment that took $230 million to develop. However, A recent Government Accountability Office report said the costs of the equipment have risen significantly. The original equipment was designed to check 100% of all cargo, while the hand-helds will be limited to checking only the cargo the people decide to check. Though the goal is 100%, before 9/11 personnel only checked 2% of all cargo crossing into the United States. In other words, the Obama administration is sacrificing quality for price - yes, we need to cut spending, but not in the areas that are required to keep this nation safe.

The concern over the possibility of nuclear material entering our country follows several "Red Team" undercover operations that revealed undercover operatives were able to sneak radioactive material into the United States across both north and south borders and through other entry points.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary


Obama administration cancels DHS nuclear detection program - Examiner

Defending Missile Defense - New York Times

Obama Surrenders to Russia on Missile Defense - Talk Wisdom

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