Not letting our Guard down

Paul Clinton

As America prepares to remember the worst terrorist attacks in the

nation’s history, a local congressman is calling for a fresh approach

to how the United States Coast Guard protects ports and coastlines,

which could mean added security for the country’s largest pleasure

harbor.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, whose district includes Costa Mesa, has

asked to be seated on a homeland security committee that would be

created with a new agency that has been proposed by President George

W. Bush.

“It’s going to require a new commitment [from the Coast Guard] to

doing what’s necessary and expanding their scope to ensure that we

are protected from terrorism,” Rohrabacher said. “They are the last

wall that stands between us and some pretty heinous acts of

terrorism.”

A small, but visible, crack appeared in that wall in late May,

when 10 Chinese nationals paddled to shore at Crystal Cove State

Beach on a Styrofoam raft.

A stone’s throw away from Crystal Cove in Corona del Mar is a base

for the Coast Guard’s cutter Narwhal. Its captain and crew have also

been sent to monitor ships entering the bustling shipping ports at

Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Without divulging any details about how the agency protects the

nation’s largest pleasure harbor, Coast Guard Lt. Stephen LaLonde

acknowledged that not all of the coastline can be blanketed at all

times.

“We can’t talk about security measures that are in place in

Newport Beach,” LaLonde said. “We are everywhere we can be. Is it

realistic to think we are 100% of the places 100% of the time? No.”

Few worries

Even with the Coast Guard paying more attention to the two

commercial harbors to the north of Newport Beach, local boaters and

fisherman say they aren’t worried about the security of the harbor.

The Corona del Mar Coast Guard base, a line of watchful residents

living along Balboa Peninsula and the harbor’s highly visible, narrow

channels give Davey’s Locker manager Norris Tapp a sense of security.

“People are very cognizant of anything that would look untoward,”

Tapp said. “You have some very aware people. There are a lot of

high-dollar vessels here.”

After terrorists struck the World Trade Center and Pentagon a year

ago using commercial airplanes and attempted to take over a plane

that ultimately crashed in a Pennsylvania field, public safety

officials beefed up security at the nation’s ports and harbors.

The Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that claimed the lives of more than

3,000 people have been linked to the Osama bin Laden and his

terrorist group Al Qaeda.

Coasts to safeguard

Since its inception in 1790, the Coast Guard has been charged with

protecting the nation’s inner waters, shorelines and waterways.

Leaders of the Coast Guard are trying to extend their jurisdiction to

12 miles from shore in response to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Alexander Hamilton, in “The Federalist Papers” in 1787, first

proposed the idea of “a few armed vessels, judiciously stationed at

the entrances of our ports.”

After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, the Coast Guard

launched a massive effort to protect the nation’s coastline. Since

that time, the agency’s focus has shifted somewhat, officials said,

to rescuing troubled boaters and stopping drug runners.

Prior to the terrorist attacks on the East Coast, the agency

devoted less than 2% of its budget to port security. Not

surprisingly, the agency spent about 50% of its budget on port

security in the two months after Sept. 11, a number that since has

fallen low again.

Though the budget allotted to protecting ports has risen from the

2%, it’s still not enough, Rohrabacher said.

Rohrabacher, who would represent both the ports of Los Angeles and

Long Beach if reelected in November, said he would push for

additional funding for the agency, if he is appointed to the

committee.

“We’ve got to totally reexamine the responsibilities of the Coast

Guard,” Rohrabacher said. “If we’re going to expand their

responsibilities, we have to expand their assets.”

Even with the Chinese nationals’ arrival at Crystal Cove, Brett

Hemphill, a member of the Balboa Yacht Club, said he doesn’t think a

quiet pleasure harbor like Newport Harbor would even be considered a

target by Al Qaeda or any other terrorists.

“There’s no shipping you can shut down,” Hemphill said. “I don’t

have any concern about it.”

Checking out the sea

On the deck of the Narwhal, Lt. John Kidwell has focused his

boat’s efforts toward looking for ships with a “potential for

strangeness.”

Kidwell and his crew have been escorting cruise liners, liquid

tankers and ships on a first-time transit into the country.

They contact the boat and accompany a team of sea marshals who

check the vessel’s manifest, the list of passengers and cargo.

“The main thing is that if anything strange is happening on board,

we won’t allow it to make land,” Kidwell said. “Right now, the Coast

Guard is seeing everything as a potential concern.”

* PAUL CLINTON covers the environment and politics. He may be

reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at paul.clinton@latimes.com.