Port of Freeport to join CSI

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Commonwealth of the Bahamas have signed an agreement which will allow the Bahamas to participate in the Container Security Initiative (CSI) program. CSI will enable all maritime cargo destined for the United States through the Port of Freeport to be pre-screened for terrorists and terrorist weapons. CSI is a key initiative designed to prevent global maritime cargo from being exploited by terrorists intent on inflicting harm in America and other nations of the world. The CSI security blanket continues to expand and strengthen as it encompasses the Port of Freeport.

Under CSI, officers from both CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are stationed at key seaports abroad to work with host governments to identify high-risk shipments bound for the United States and to examine these shipments prior to loading. On average, every day about 25,000 seagoing containers are offloaded at America’s seaports, and CBP’s goal is to have fifty operational CSI ports by the end of 2006. At that time, approximately 82 percent of all transatlantic and transpacific cargo imported into the United States will be subjected to pre-screening.

The Port of Freeport made headlines earlier this year when it was revealed that the Bush administration was prepared to sign an agreement with Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa to conduct a year-long test of the company’s nuclear radiation system at Freeport. Security experts and legislators were concerned because the administration yielded to pressure by the Bahamian government to have the nuclear screening done without the presence of CBP officers. Three years earlier, the Bush administration vetoed an effort by Hutchison to buy the assets of the bankrupt Global Crossings, arguing that the closeness between Hutchison’s owner and the communist government of China made such purchase risky on national security grounds.

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