Posted on Sun, May. 25, 2003 By Jennifer Lin The Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer

In the deep channel of the Delaware River, hulking tankers with names like Agamemnon and Ophelia haul more than a million barrels of crude oil a day from Venezuela, Nigeria, Canada and the North Sea.

Oil tankers dominate the river, but since 9/11, the safety of those vessels along 120 miles of waterway has become the focus of the most intensive port security mission since World War II.

Although Houston and New Orleans handle far more crude, Philadelphia holds a geographic niche, importing and refining more oil than any other East Coast port. Recently, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security labeled the Delaware River a "high threat" port.

The biggest fear here is that a terrorist attack on an oil or chemical tanker could shut down the river and interfere with refinery operations that supply the Northeastern states.

The seven refineries in the Philadelphia region process enough crude to meet a third of the oil demands for the vast market from Washington, D.C., to Maine.

"If you damage the capability of the Delaware River system to refine oil, you'd have a significant impact on the overall economy and not just Philadelphia's," said John Veentjer, a former captain overseeing the U.S. Coast Guard in Philadelphia.

Or, as homeland security expert Stephen Gale, with the Foreign Policy Research Institute, put it: An attack here could create "an economic choke point."

Last Tuesday, the nation raised its homeland security warning to "Code Orange." But even with the ongoing state of alert since 9/11, the nation's 361 ports remain dangerously exposed to the threat of terrorist activity.

On the Delaware River, the maritime industry has identified weak points in security. The local Coast Guard station is running more patrols and boarding more vessels. Shippers are developing new ways to track cargo, vessels and crews. And the port authorities, usually rivals, are working as partners to combat terrorism.

But the task of building an effective, tighter security shield, not only for the Delaware River but for all ports, far exceeds the funds available from private and public sources.

The federal government is spending $367 million for security projects - for all 361 U.S. ports.

This month, the homeland security department kicked in another $75 million for "high threat" ports, with $6.4 million promised to Philadelphia for Coast Guard operations as well as grants to the maritime trade.

But even with that extra money, the total federal dollars for port security are well below the $6 billion that the Coast Guard has estimated it will cost to improve security for vessels, terminal facilities and port operations.

Any disruption in the maritime trade on the Delaware River - the 10th-busiest port in the country - could jeopardize more than $19 billion in imports and exports, as well as $1.5 billion in local wages, revenues and taxes, according to local port authorities.

Stretching from the sandy anchorages of the Delaware Bay to the swift, rocky waters off Trenton, the Delaware River port system is one of the most challenging in the country to secure.

In addition to refineries, the waterway has eight major bridges and the nation's second-largest nuclear power station in Salem, N.J. Of the 38 terminals on the river, 14 receive oil or chemical tankers. And recently, military cargo started moving through the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal.

Adding to river traffic is the flotilla of weekend pleasure boats. Small craft speed up and down the river or anchor outside the shipping channel, making it hard to distinguish a possible attacker from a boater dashing to a waterside bar.

"Even though this is a modest-sized port, there is a lot that makes us vulnerable," said Gale, the terrorism expert.

Protecting the oil and chemical tankers that ply the Delaware River is the responsibility of the Coast Guard, whose mission has changed radically since 9/11.

For the Coast Guard, the task of policing the nation's waterways has eclipsed all other missions such as search and rescue operations and drug interdictions, according to a recent report by the U.S. General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

The result is the Coast Guard is stretched too thin, the GAO said, lacking the manpower, vessels and funds to be all things to all people.

The aging fleet in Philadelphia, including two tugboats, a 175-foot cutter, and a handful of patrol boats, was not designed with homeland security in mind, former Coast Guard officers explain.

"Some of the assets they are working with are pathetic," said Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R., N.J.), chairman of the House subcommittee on Coast Guard and maritime transportation. "There are cutters commissioned in World War II, and while their helicopters may look shiny and new, they have a tremendous number of operational hours on their airframes."

On the Delaware River, the Coast Guard has had to turn to local law enforcement units to help patrol sections of the waterfront and rescue boaters. This winter, it asked the Camden Fire Department not to put its fireboat in dry dock in order to respond to rescues.

"Before 9/11, about 2 percent of our missions were port-security related," said Capt. John Sarubbi, who has headed the Coast Guard's Philadelphia operation since June. "Right after 9/11, that number jumped to 60 percent of what we do on a day-to-day basis."

Sarubbi said the local Coast Guard command has called up more than 100 reservists and stepped up patrols by boat, car and helicopter.

It also started a port security committee to address the terrorism threat, bringing together FBI agents, state troopers, police, and firefighters with river pilots, oil terminal operators, security experts, and port officials.

"If you measure success in terms of the number of patrols you do on the river, it doesn't paint the whole picture," Sarubbi said. "You've got to use information, intelligence... and you have to be partners. That's how I'm approaching it."

Today, every vessel that enters the Delaware River must notify the Coast Guard 96 hours in advance, listing its crew, cargo and previous port calls. Agents for the Coast Guard, FBI and CIA analyze the information to decide which "high interest vessels" the Coast Guard should board and escort to destinations.

Nationally, the Coast Guard has boarded more than 2,000 vessels for security reasons since Sept 11. On the Delaware River, about 90 high-interest vessels, mostly tankers, were boarded in the 20 months since the attacks.

Sarubbi said a boarding team is put on the bridge and in the engine room to gain "positive control" of vessels. This is done, he said, to "make sure a vessel is not taken over by the crew or some unscrupulous individual and used as a weapon."

Terrorists in the Middle East already have shown an interest and capability for striking maritime targets.

On Oct. 12, 2000, a small boat carrying explosives slammed into the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen, killing 17 U.S. sailors. Two years later, on Oct. 6, 2002, a French supertanker, the Limburg, was rammed near Yemen, dumping 90,000 barrels of oil.

Fears of a disaster like the Cole or Limburg weigh heavily on the Delaware River port community. Last month, the local Coast Guard command and law enforcement officials walked through what would happen if there was an attack like the Cole bombing on the Delaware River. Two other terrorist drills are scheduled for later this year.

A participant of the first Coast Guard exercise said the drill revealed how easily a terrorist in a small boat could pass suspicion and hit a target.

"A fast boat going down the river - no one would even make a call. It would just be a pleasure boat on the river," the participant said.

In one of the few positive outcomes of 9/11, the specter of terrorism has forced the fractious Delaware River port community to work together.

"We've never had the cooperation that we do now," said William Boles, security manager for the Port of Wilmington. "We're getting along as a region and forgetting about our own turfs."

If there's an attack, he said, "we'll all suffer."

Sat May 24, 2003 09:02 PM ET By Eduardo Orozco

CUSCO, Peru (<a href=reuters.com>Reuters) - Latin America will sign its own death warrant if it joins a planned pan-American free trade deal that is not designed to help the poor, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Saturday.

"Venezuela is on the side of the people and we propose a new integration system that is definitely not the FTAA which, as it has been put forward, is a perverse mechanism that would be a death order for the future of the region," Chavez told Reuters in an interview.

The United States is a strong advocate of the Free Trade of the Americas (FTAA) pact, which is due to be finalized by 2005 and would facilitate commerce from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego.

Chavez, who faces ongoing violence at home over his controversial rule and has a tense relationship with Washington, was in the Andean city of Cusco for a summit of the 19-member Rio Group of Latin American nations.

Leaders discussed how to curb social unrest, recharge economies and make Latin America a key trader in a globalized world. Many -- like Chile, which is waiting for Washington to sign a bilateral trade deal -- seek to boost trade with the United States, through bilateral deals or the FTAA.

Critics of the free trade deal say, however, that it will chiefly benefit North America's bigger, industrialized economies and will not help millions of poor Latin Americans.

Chavez proposed instead a social and political pact called the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, named after Simon Bolivar, the 19th century general who struggled in vain to politically unite South America.

"We don't even need anything like Mercosur (a trade bloc grouping Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay), because we can't put the economy first in terms of integration. Political unity needs to come first," he said.

Chavez's opponents, who have organized months of violent protests, accuse him of authoritarian, communist-style rule in the world's No. 5 oil exporting nation. One person was killed and 22 hurt on Saturday when shooting erupted at an anti-Chavez rally in Caracas.

The Venezuelan leader declined to comment on the violence, which came a day after government and opposition negotiators agreed to a pact that could lead to a referendum on his rule.

"I don't know if there will be a recall referendum. It's a possibility if the opposition meets all the constitutional requirements," said Chavez, who has declared his willingness to submit to a referendum. "If there is, I will defeat (the opposition) again. The people will defeat them again."

"The Rio Group countries...are sure that (the agreement) will strengthen the democratic process in our brother nation," the leaders at the summit said in a declaration.

CARACAS, Venezuela, May 24 (<a href=www.nytimes.com>NYTimes.com-Reuters) — One person was killed and 15 were wounded by gunfire that broke out during a rally held by foes of President Hugo Chávez in a pro-Chávez district of Caracas today, officials said.

Three of the wounded were National Guard soldiers whose patrol came under fire as they took up positions in a security operation to try to prevent violence at the opposition rally. Advertisement

Government and opposition representatives blamed each other for the shootings.

The gunfire erupted as several hundred supporters of the opposition Democratic Action Party held a rally in a narrow street in Catia, a poor, crime-ridden neighborhood that is a bastion of support for Mr. Chávez.

"This country doesn't just belong to Chávez supporters, but to all Venezuelans," said one of the demonstrators, Ana Maria Colmenares.

Mr. Chávez's opponents accuse him of ruling like a dictator and of trying to install Cuban-style communism in Venezuela, the world's fifth leading oil exporter.

Witnesses said some of the shots appeared to have come from side streets where groups of Chávez supporters had gathered to shout insults at the opposition protesters.

The violence broke out a day after government and opposition negotiators announced they had agreed to a pact to hold a referendum on Mr. Chávez's rule after Aug. 19.

The agreement aims to end months of conflict in Venezuela over Mr. Chávez's presidency. He was elected in late 1998 and survived a brief uprising last year.

Vice President José Vicente Rangel told reporters that 1 person had been killed in the shootings and 15 more wounded, including three National Guard troops.

The authorities had sent 2,000 police officers and troops to the area of sprawling hilltop slum neighborhoods in west Caracas where the rally was to take place.

It was not clear whether the violence might affect the formal signing of the referendum pact, which was scheduled to take place here in the coming week in the presence of the secretary general of the Organization of American States, César Gaviria.

Mr. Chávez, who has said he is willing to submit to the recall referendum allowed under the Constitution, was attending a meeting of Latin American presidents in Peru.

news.bbc.co.uk One person was shot dead and 15 wounded on Saturday during a demonstration against President Hugo Chavez in Caracas, said Vice-President Jose Vicente Rangel.

Three of those injured were National Guard soldiers whose patrol was ambushed as they took part in a big security operation to try to keep the peace at the rally, which was being held in a Chavez stronghold.

Chavez supporters and opponents have blamed each other for the violence.

The fresh blood was spilled just 24 hours after a 19-point accord was brokered between Venezuela's warring factions which looked set to see a referendum held on Mr Chavez's rule in a few months' time.

Panic and confusion

The man shot and killed in the gunfire was named as Modesto Martinez, 48, by the director of the police department, Lazaro Forero.

Among those injured was a motorcyclist shot in the neck and a person shot in the chest.

There were scenes of panic as demonstrators threw themselves to the ground or tried to flee through the labyrinthine alleyways of Catia, a poor, strongly pro-Chavez district of the capital.

The small streets also impeded the operations of between 2,000 and 4,000 police deployed to keep order.

'Conquest of western Caracas'

Some witnesses described shots coming from side alleys, where groups of Chavez supporters had gathered to shout insults at protestors.

Small bands of self-proclaimed pro-government street fighters had also warned Venezuelans not to attend the demonstration, predicting violence.

But the general of the National Guard, Marcos Rojas, accused the opposition group Red Flag of instigating the violence.

Chavez supporters stood on the sidelines to jeer at demonstrators

Ruling party lawmakers have also accused the rally organisers, the Democratic Action party, of deliberately provoking the clashes by holding the rally in Catia, which houses more than half of the city's four million inhabitants.

The protest had been dubbed "the conquest of western Caracas" by the organisers.

It is not clear whether this latest flare-up will derail the planned formal signing of Friday's pact between the government and opposition next week.

The plan was finally agreed after six months of negotiations brokered by Cesar Gaviria, secretary-general of the Organization of American States.

Referendum on Chavez

A key point is Mr Chavez's agreement to submit to a referendum on his rule - long demanded by the opposition but outlawed by the constitution until at least half-way through his six-year term.

The two sides are said to have agreed that the referendum will go ahead after that date - which falls on 19 August - as long as government opponents gather signatures from 20% of the electorate as constitutionally required.

Another hurdle that remains is the government insistence that the National Assembly first select a new National Electoral Commission to verify the referendum petition.

Lawmakers are still haggling over which candidates should make up the new commission.

Both sides also agreed to:

• Shun violence
• Respect democracy
• Disarm the civilian population, after the deaths of at least 50 people and wounding of several hundred more in clashes over that last 18 months.

A strike called in December by Chavez opponents struck a severe blow at the economy before finally petering out in January.