So how secure is global maritime trade and the inter-linked supply chain on land? It is clear that before the September 11 terrorist attacks on the US, there were gaping vulnerabilities not just in aviation security but in maritime and land transport security as well.

Since then, the international community has started to take action to improve the situation, especially for ships and ports that are major players in global trade. But progress has been patchy. Some companies and countries are moving faster and more effectively than others. And some of the laggards complain that they cannot afford the new security measures. Steps are being taken by the international community, spurred by the US, to ensure the integrity of containerized cargo at sea and on land. But given the scale of maritime trade and the even vaster scale of commerce moving through the global supply chain using cargo containers, the task is far from complete.

The US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Raymond Bonner admitted as much when he told a US Senate Committee in September 2003 that although good progress had been made in implementing the Container Security Initiative in major international ports in Asia, Europe and Canada, “we still have much work to do to get CSI fully operational”.

Accurate and timely intelligence of any terrorist threat is the key to success. Those looking for signs of weapons of mass destruction or radiological substances among the many millions of containers moving around the world carrying legitimate cargo are checking for the proverbial needle in the haystack. And they are under pressure to do so without unnecessarily slowing global trade or increasing its cost.

The ABC Affair

The good news is that there has not been a terrorist attack involving the movement of cargo containers around the world, on sea or on land. But in September 2003, ABC News claimed to have exposed a crucial weakness in America's port security system by shipping depleted uranium to Los Angeles in a container from Jakarta in late July — a week before the terrorist bombing of the Marriott Hotel in the Indonesian capital that killed 12 people and wounded scores more. Depleted uranium metal is used in armour-piercing anti-tank rockets. But it cannot be used to make a nuclear weapon.