Deal allows US to board ships with Liberian flags

[dArKeR]

Liberia, the world's No. 2 shipping registry, has inked a pact to let the US Navy board more than 2,000 vessels on the high seas

"If (the US) wants to be the policeman of the high seas, they can be."

US Navy sailors may board thousands of commercial ships in international waters to search for weapons of mass destruction under a landmark pact between the US and Liberia, the world's No. 2 shipping registry.

This week's accord -- which could become a model as Washington seeks other similar two-country deals -- comes amid persistent fears that terror networks might use ships for attacks, taking advantage of comparatively lax security on the seas.

With the pact -- the first of its kind, according to US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher -- US forces now may board and search any of more than 2,000 Liberian-registered foreign ships suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction, their delivery systems, or related material.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/02/15/2003098843

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. Wonder if they made a trade to lower the safety inspections

Since it's a well known fact that ships like to register out of Liberia because Liberia has very, very lax safety regulations. And the US has extremely high ones.

This could be a tit for tat deal: "Inspect us all you want for WMDs, but let us dock in US ports and forget about the raw sewage and fuel oil leaking into the water, and ignore the obviously structurally unsound rust-encrusted hulls and support members"

[Dookus]

2. Good...

next we need Panama to come on board.

There was a truly frightening article in The Atlantic a few months ago about how little international policing there is of merchant ships. It would be incredibly easy for any terrorist to smuggle a huge bomb, even nuclear, into any port in the world using these shadow ships, almost all of which sail under Liberian or Panamanian banners.

[donsu]

3. Captains I've known hate being boarded at sea by authority

or anybody else.

and if I owned a ship I'd change it's registry post haste.

[pfitz59]

4. Multinationals register ships overseas.....

to avoid coast guard safety regs and US wage laws. Furthering the Repuke agenda: Socialize the policing cost (US taxpayers fund the Navy), while maximizing private profit. If the US Navy was proportional to the US Merchant Marine it would have about 10 warships, not 300! BTW: The Captain of a ship at sea is the most autocratic person on the planet, a sovereign unto himself. Things haven't changed much since days of Jack London's "Sea Wolf"!

[mobuto]

5. That's fine

Captains don't own the ships they sail anyway - so if they're pissed off they're not going to be in a position to change their flag of convenience.

And could anyone not be sympathetic with efforts to stop some lunatic from sailing an atomic bomb into New York harbor?

[donsu]

6. nuclear weapons are being used by the bushgang in Iraq & Afghan.

DU spread by our weapons will kill in the future Afghans., Iraqs, and our troops into the next generations. (and they used it in the Balkans so add generations of those people)

[mobuto]

7. Huh?

Depleted uranium is a nuclear weapon? Really?

[donsu]

8. well, it's not cottage cheese

nt

[mobuto]

9. If you think DU is a nuclear weapon

then you clearly do not know what a nuclear weapon is. Please look up "fission" in a high school physics textbook and you'll understand why depleted uranium is not a nuclear weapon by any definition.