Reply #23: Yep, the real weakness in the UAE deal - intelligence for Al Queda

[Tin Man]

Imagine for a moment that Al Queda is able to position a single operative into the Port Management chain, such that he can spirit-away electronic copies of Port Operations databases - pretty easy to do.

With this info in hand, Al Queda can examine the databases for patterns in US inspection practices - specifically, how the likelihood of inspection might correlate to ship manifests, shipping companies, port of arrival, countries of origin, etc..

By simply stealing a database or two, Al Queda is better able to identify the weaknesses in the inspection system - as a consequence, they vastly improve their chances of smuggling a nuke or other WMD into the US.