Exclusive: Carolina Professor Proves Port Threat

Doctor Jim Giermanski does not live close to water or any port, but the transportation security expert at Belmont Abbey College says he knows what keep ports moving, and what could shut them down.
 
“I think it's clear, eventually we are going to lose a few ports. We are going to either have a container coming in here that has nothing in it but explosives and it will be from a shipper,” said Giermanski, a former FBI agent.
 
Giermanski's warning is not unique. Since 911, Homeland Security and private companies took notice by adding more security and creating technology used to track containers' every move.
Turns out, terrorist could someday use that same technology to carry out an attack.
 
It's called RFID or radio frequency identification. 
 
It’s the same technology used at department stores to track clothes.  Those security tags that cause an alarm go to off when you leave the store---that's RFID. 
 
Here's how it works at the ports:
 
An RFID tag is attached to a container. When it reaches a port, the RFID tag digitally 'talks' to a port receiver through radio frequency to let a computer know the container safety reached its destination.  Giermanski says terrorists can use the same technology to trigger a bomb.
 
He proved it on November 13, 2007. With the help of a college undergraduate, $20 dollars worth of equipment purchased at radio shack, he simulated the same radio frequency used at many ports and turned a RFID into a trigger.
 
For more than two weeks we called, and wrote to the State's Ports Authority, Homeland Security, and Border Protection to ask anyone to respond to the demonstration. Each one either denied our request for an interview, or say the demonstration does not prove a threat exists.
 
The professor also invited several lawmakers to attend the demonstration. None of them attended, including U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham.
 
“I don’t need to attend one of his meetings. I very well understand what kind of threats exists to our ports,” Graham said.
 
Graham says Giermanski has a motive other than protecting the country. The doctor owns a patent that could replace RFID technology at ports. 
 
Giermanski disagrees. He says the demonstration shows a dangerous threat that's more important that money, and he's frustrated Graham's office has yet to contact him. 
 
Giermanski says he thinks Homeland Security is reluctant to respond to the threat because millions of dollars are invested in RFID. There's even a RFID Caucus headed by two congressmen who advocate its use.