auswegian

LINK

Yes thank you, Ms Vanstone, I never knew that boats had such dire capabilities. This is just pathetic, to use such dodgy, dodgy arguments to legitimize these sorts of reactionary government policies...its almost Rumsfeldian. Looks like the Australian government have been using the same spindoctors that the White House does

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tritium

As a former employee of an international shipping corporation, I've always been very interested in the lack of attention paid to imported containers. In the US, only approximately 20% of all containers are auditted against Bills of Lading and all cryogenically sealed items are automatically forwarded through customs inspectors without inspection. Duh....

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Macheath

It's not in the least bit Rumsfeldian...

At least Rabbit Rumsfeld has a half crazed glint in his eye and grin on his face as he gleefully launches down the rabbit hole into the Wonderland of his defence briefings where nothing is quite what it seems.

Vanstone just sits there like a lobotomised queen of tarts with a blank expression on her face as she stuffs 2 year old election victory tarts into her gaping maw and the stale words"we will decide who comes in, blah, blah, blah" dribble down her chin like treacle.

"Why, you're nothing but a pack of race cards!" said Alice...

nirol

"I don't have particular advice with respect to whether any particular boats have, but I mean boats can carry any number of people with any number of occupations and any sort of intent," she said.


Heck, I knew boats had all kinds of capabilities. I have even heard of one that carried two members of every species on earth!

.......didn't land in Australia though. Line was probably too long at check in.

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numist

now I know not to use the "machine parts" label...

from now on, everything I ship will be "cryogenically sealed"

Mephisto2

LOL

Wish I had thought of that...

Mr Mephisto

Kostya

That's why when the evil terrorists get close they chuck all the kids overboard.

Because we all know terrorist organisations would surely send their agents via risky peaople smuggling routes in sardine cans where once they arrive they can wreak havoc in desert detention camps.

tritium

You'd honestly be surprised at the number of items that come through the KLine office with Bills of Lading descriptions of machine parts. We, generally, had to contact the freight forwarder or the shipper to find out with greater accuracy precisely what was inside the container. I worked primarily with exports and say with almost 100% certainty that when shipping to Hong Kong or Shanghei, you could put whatever you wanted on the description field as long as it was truthful. God help you if the weights were even 0.00001kg off though.

Description: 1 x 40' STD Container Said to Contain 30 Taiwanese militiamen weighing 4500kgs. Actual container weight, 4500.1kgs according to HK port authority.
Customs Action: Reject cargo, place into impound lot, request Correction to Manifest to reflect accurate weight.

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tritium

Cryogenically sealed containers are never opened. The only inspection point is the thermometer on the outside of the box -- just find a gauge with a stuck arrow and it could be 90*F inside ...

You could pack enough water and food inside a 40' container to last for a lengthy trip. Considering that these containers are also shipped across borders on trains, the trips could be relatively short. We shipped lots of beef up from Mexico into Long Beach for export to PROC. Scary stuff... the US really needs to button this flap down.

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