During National Preparedness Month, the last thing you need is a reminder of just how vulnerable "we" are and just how much "they" want to get "us." Actually, that's the second to last thing you need. The last thing you need is to learn that the local community is about to absorb greater risk.

In the next couple of months, if all goes according to plan, the Market Street port terminal in Portsmouth will no longer be all about salt and scrap metal. After more than a decade without it, container cargo service is about to make a comeback.

Capt. Fiaz Arain and his business partner Gerritt Paasman intend to bring container cargo back to Portsmouth, pending Coast Guard approval of their plans. Companies owned by Arain and Paasman will serve two sides of the operation: they will both manage the container service at the Market Street Terminal and charter the ships that make the run to and from Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Arain said the service could start as soon as a month after the Coast Guard completes its review of his plans. Neither Arain nor the Coast Guard was willing to estimate when that might be.

Containers-the big metal boxes piggybacking on semi-trailer trucks and railroad cars-are packed and sealed at ports around the world and loaded on huge, ocean-crossing ships. They are off-loaded at mega-ports where they are fed by truck, train or ship to smaller terminals, such as Portsmouth.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, more than 80 percent of the world's trade by volume occurs over the seas.

Arain's plan calls for running a feeder line back and forth between Portsmouth and the busy port of Halifax. Containers would be transferred between Halifax's large ships and smaller vessels that steam their way to the Market Street terminal. From there, the containers would be loaded onto trucks and driven to their final destinations.

First, the good news: adding container service creates jobs.

Geno Marconi, the Pease Development Authority's director of ports and harbors, is quick to point out the economic benefits of container service. He said Arain would need to hire security personnel, forklift drivers and crane operators.

Asked how many jobs the container operation would bring to the area, Marconi said Arain had given him a specific number but Marconi didn't want to reveal it publicly. "If you give a number that's lower than what it turns out to be, you look like a hero. If you give a number that's too high, they'll say 'You don't know what you're talking about.'"

Arain is more forthcoming with the details. He said the operation will have "at least a dozen employees the first day it opens." Over time, he said, he will expand the operation to include "at least eight to 12 longshoremen, minimum," earning union wages. Arain estimates that the service will begin with 50 containers per week and could expand to a maximum of 100 weekly.

Ships will fuel up, crews will eat, truckers will haul. All of this is good for the economy.

The bad news: containers are a security risk.

"Security here is definitely going to have to increase with container service. There is no way to sugarcoat it or sidestep it," Marconi said. "Container service is vulnerable."

George Bald, executive director of the Pease Development Authority, agrees that containers pose an increased risk over the port's current operations in scrap metal and salt. "It's a different type of cargo," Bald said. "You don't know what's in it, so to speak."

While expressing confidence that Arain and the Coast Guard will address security issues, Bald acknowledged the risk factors involved in cross-border trade.

"We are such a free society," he said. "Whether it's Portsmouth or shipping points across the East Coast, or even trucks from Mexico, there are ten thousand ways something could come in here."

Arain said cargo arriving in Portsmouth via Halifax could come from anywhere in the world. "Containers could come from the Middle East, Europe, Southeast Asia, the Far East," he said.

What will be in the containers?

"Whatever the ocean carrier" offloads at Halifax, Arain said. "What kind of containers they give us, I have no idea."

Asked how many containers will be physically inspected, Arain said. "That is up to U.S. Customs, not to us."

Lt. Kailie Benson, supervisor of the Coast Guard Marine Safety Field Office in New Castle, said, "as a general rule," containers are not inspected. "If there's intelligence about a specific container," then it will be inspected in conjunction with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Across the United States, only about 2 percent of the six million shipping container units that cross our borders are physically inspected. Others are scanned for radiation.

According to national security expert at the Council on Foreign Relations and former Coast Guard commander Dr. Stephen Flynn, the probability that inspectors using current scanning devices would detect a properly shielded nuclear warhead sealed inside a container ranges from a low of less than 10 percent to a high of 24 percent in the best of circumstances.

While the state port director acknowledges the risk, he warns against overreacting. "What we don't want is for people to hit the panic button and say every container has a dirty bomb in it," Marconi said. "We want to engage in international trade and we want to protect the community. It's a balancing act," said Marconi.

As it happens, al Qaeda is in the shipping business. William Langewiesche, author of "The Outlaw Sea: A World of Freedom, Chaos and Crime" (North Point, 2004), writes that al Qaeda is thought to "own or control up to twenty aging freighters," mostly to make money in the shipping business. Langewiesche writes that although the terrorist organization typically uses the ships to haul legitimate goods, such as sesame seeds or cement, they also used a freighter to smuggle explosives used to bomb American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Since 2002, the U.S. Navy has operated under expanded powers to hunt for rogue merchant ships. "The target has always been larger than simply the al Qaeda fleet of freighters," Langewiesche writes. "The government maintains a watch list of several hundred suspect ships whose names are constantly being changed and painted over to avoid detection, and it recognizes that terrorists, with or without a crew's knowledge, may use almost any kind of ship, from a dhow to a supersized freighter."

Terrorists could use containers to smuggle not only dangerous weapons, but also dangerous people.

In October 2001, while the ruins of the twin towers were still smoldering, police in Gioia Tauro, Italy, discovered Egyptian-Canadian Amid Farid Rizk drilling ventilation holes from the inside of a container. Rizk, popularly dubbed "Container Bob," was traveling in style. Langewiesche writes:

"The container was equipped with a bed, a toilet, a heater, a water supply, a cell phone, a satellite phone, and a laptop computer. Investigators also found cameras; a valid Canadian passport; maps and security passes for airports in Canada, Thailand, and Egypt; a Canadian aircraft-mechanic certificate; and an airline ticket from Montreal to Cairo via Rome."

No one ever found out his purpose. The following month, the Italian court let Container Bob out on bail. He hasn't been heard from since. The last scheduled port of call for Container Bob's compact stateroom: Halifax, Nova Scotia.With an average of more than half a million containers passing through Halifax annually, Halifax Port Authority spokesperson Michele Peveril can recall only one container that vanished without a trace from her port in the last couple of years. This was within the last few months. "The last I heard, it's still under investigation," Peveril said.

Here in Portsmouth, Arain is aware of the risk of human transport in containers. "It's happening in this country, let me tell you," Capt. Arain said. "We have stowaways who come from South America and sometimes they end up dead. It's inhumane treatment. And the terrorists can come that way, too."

Despite this, Arain said he was "absolutely confident" of the international security standards. Asked if the containers would be inspected at any time during their journey-either at their port of origin or at Halifax-Arain said, "I have no idea."

Canada does little better than Uncle Sam on inspections. Halifax Port Authority spokeperson Michele Peveril said Halifax is in line with the Canadian national average of a 2-5 percent physical inspection rate.

Critics of the federal government's response to port security have said that it's not doing enough to protect the nation against terrorist threats.

Dr. Stephen Flynn of the Council on Foreign Relations, in written remarks submitted before a U.S. House of Representatives committee on Aug. 25, testified: "A token security effort in the maritime transportation sector may prove worse than making no effort at all...because it seduces the American people into having a false sense of security that forestalls making real investments in protecting our critical infrastructure."

"Only an extraordinary instance of good luck would allow U.S. authorities to detect a compromised 'low-risk' user in time to foil a terrorist attack," Flynn wrote.

The co-owner of Portsmouth's newest shipper agrees with Flynn's analysis. "Stephen Flynn is known to me, and he's excellent," Arain said. "He's one of the best experts we have. Whatever Stephen Flynn says is correct."

Arain, a professor on leave from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, New York, is also critical of the government's spending priorities. Airport security gets the vast majority of funding, he said.

"It's pathetic. It's not wise at all. We need the money and we don't have the funding. People vote. Cargoes don't vote. That's our drawback" compared to airports. "Seaports are crumbling, they are not very secure. They are run-down areas. Whereas you go to airports, you get first class service," Arain said.

Arain would like to see greater security measures implemented in the shipping industry. "Every container should be scanned through special detection devices," so nuclear and biological weapons material can't get through, Arain said.

As for the facility he plans to operate, Arain said that his company would pay for security measures such as video cameras and a full-time guard.

The Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 was Congress' response to vulnerabilities in sea transport following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The act brought the United States into compliance with an international treaty of the International Maritime Organization. The MTSA aimed for a comprehensive approach to security, with provisions for vessel and cargo tracking, personnel identification, and assessing port risks.

The MTSA required ports to develop and implement security plans by July 1 of this year.

The Coast Guard and the Government Accountability Office has estimated that implementing the MTSA will cost the maritime industry-mostly port and vessel owners and operators-$7.3 billion over 10 years.

The Department of Homeland Security has dispensed some $563 million in port security funding since 2002. The Bush administration's budget for fiscal year 2005, which begins in October, requested $46 million in grants for the Department of Homeland Security's port security grant program.

Should the threat of WMDs and Container Bobs arriving at Market Street keep you up at night? Probably not. For one thing, chances are the bad guys wouldn't blow anything up in this area because of its low population and lack of highly symbolic targets. Although the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard is militarily significant, it is not internationally renowned.

On the other hand, Portsmouth could serve as a transshipment point for materiel or personnel of vile intent. Before September 2001, who could've guessed that international terrorists would use Portland, Maine, as a way station?

After the telephone interview, Arain called back to make sure everyone understands how much his service will boost the local economy. This time, he said, "I think the fear (of terrorism) is a little overblown."