Suspect shipping boxes held textiles

Fri., Aug. 18, 2006

Gene Johnson Associated Press

SEATTLE – Only textiles were found after a bomb-sniffing dog indicated two shipping containers from Pakistan could contain explosives, nearly half a mile around a terminal was cordoned off and some workers were evacuated, officials said.

Dozens of nonessential personnel were told to leave Terminal 18 on Harbor Island south of the downtown area Wednesday, a Port of Seattle spokesman said. A bomb squad used explosive charges to cut into the containers, then searched the contents.

All that was found were textiles, such as clothing, bedding and material intended to be used as rags, said Mike Milne, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman.

It wasn’t immediately clear what prompted the dog to alert on the containers. Using detection devices, the port’s bomb squad and city Fire Department hazardous materials team found no indication of explosives or radioactive material, officials said.

By early evening, the port moved to restore normal operations, port spokesman David Schaefer said.

The ship that brought the containers, the MV Rotterdam, is owned by China Shipping and apparently is the same vessel on which 22 Chinese stowaways hid in a container that arrived at Terminal 18 in April.

Security guards caught the 22 roaming around the terminal.

On Wednesday, Milne said agents used a “gamma-ray” device to peer through the containers’ steel walls and some of the items did not appear to match what was listed on the shipping manifest, Milne said.

That isn’t uncommon, Milne said, and the containers were then checked by the dog, a standard procedure. The dog reacted, and agents tested for hints of radiation before opening the containers.

The bomb squad apparently did not believe there was a chance of causing a larger blast by using the small charges to gain access to the containers, said spokesman Mick Shultz.

“They wouldn’t have done it if they thought there was a chance of that,” Shultz said.

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