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The threat level in the airline sector is High or Orange. Read more.
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Release Date: September 10, 2007
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
Contact: 202-282-8010
I commend President Bush for leading this critical national campaign on import safety and I salute Secretary Leavitt for spearheading our efforts to fulfill the President’s mandate in this arena through his role as chairman of our working group.
As the Department whose job it is to lead a unified effort to secure our nation, DHS plays a critical role in ensuring the safety of the $2 trillion worth of products that arrive here annually from other countries. Indeed, protecting our country from dangerous cargo is one of our top priorities in fulfilling our homeland security mission.
Our approach to identifying and barring dangerous items is grounded on three key principles. They include partnership with the private sector, risk management and reduction, not risk elimination, and a layered approach to security.
We are engaged in a comprehensive partnership with companies to ensure a security-consciousness at every point in the supply chain. In addition, we employ risk-based targeting of the cargo itself, where our automated system screens 100 percent of U.S.-bound containers overseas in order to collect information which identifies those high-risk containers that require further inspection. Finally, we protect against dangerous goods by building a series of layers through which a shipment must pass, starting abroad and continuing on to our U.S. land borders and ports of entry.
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This page was last reviewed/modified on September 10, 2007.
