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TSA will miss 1 August air cargo screening deadline
TSA will miss the congressionally mandated 1 August deadline of having 100 percent of cargo carried on planes screened; all cargo loaded onto passenger planes departing from domestic airports will be checked for explosives by the deadline, but screening all international cargo entering the United States has proved more challenging; the reason: an estimated 2.8 billion pounds of air cargo arrives in the United States every year on passenger aircraft from 94 different countries; the cargo is handled in the global air cargo supply chain by a vast number of participants; each of these 94 countries has unique air cargo security programs and regulatory requirements, many of which differ significantly from those required by TSA
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Ship of fools // By Ben Frankel
On Monday Israel forcibly stopped a ship heading toward Gaza; since Gaza is controlled by Hamas, a terrorist organization officially committed to the destruction of Israel, Israel insists on inspecting cargo heading to Gaza; al Qaeda operatives are already in Gaza, and Iran is the largest supplier of weapons and munitions to Hamas; the Israeli military operation was clumsy, but it revealed that the supposedly peaceful activists on the ship were anything but: they were equipped with stun grenades, guns, knives, machete, and other weapons, an attacked the Israeli soldiers with intent to kill; since Hamas is likely to try this flotilla approach to public relations again, Israel may want to think of more creative ways to intercept future ships heading toward Gaza
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The long view
How to verify a comprehensive Iran nuclear deal
With the negotiation between the P5+1(the United States, European Union, Britain, France, Russia, and China) and Iran resuming yesterday (Wednesday) about a set of parameters for an eventual Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the shape of a final deal about Iran’s nuclear program has emerged. Many important provisions of a final deal, however, remain to be negotiated in the coming months. David Albright, the president of the Institute for Science and International Security, says that a critical set of these provisions involves the adequacy of verification arrangements which would be in place to monitor Iran’s compliance with a deal. Tehran’s long history of violations, subterfuge, and non-cooperation requires extraordinary arrangements to ensure that Iran’s nuclear program is indeed peaceful.
