Smart shipping containers

Homeland security mavens have been warning us about the risks from cargo containers since 9/11. Filling the ports of harbor cities like Oakland and New York, traversing international seas and literally holding up America's import supply chain, experts have warned that the murky world, of the maritime shipping industry, which is ripe with shady practices, smugglers, and even (arghh) modern-day pirates, is an easy target for terrorists. Only 2% of international shipping containers are inspected upon arrival.(Not to give saboteurs any good ideas or anything). The current dog-sniffing, x-ray scanning system could be easily scammed, so in response security companies have begun deploying "smart containers" — cargo containers equipped with bomb-sensing devices and chemical, nuclear and biological weapon detectors. They want to make smart-shipping the new standard, and have already been testing the Ports of New York and New Jersey. The gadgety angle on all this is that the company doing the testing, System Planning,
says that they will include 8 smart containers on shipments through August 2004, and that inspectors will be able to read the conatiners' sensors using Bluetooth-enabled handhelds, as well by way of satellite to a central command post. Though the detection system may make shipping companies and privacy advocates nervous, the multi-billion dollar industry has more than enough incentive, and overhead, to toe the homeland security line.