Border Battle: TX agents now looking for terrorists smuggling radioactive material

(TRUNEWS) Texas Game Warden’s have begun training to counter the potential threat that terrorists could use the Port of Houston to smuggle radioactive material into the United States.

In an interview with local news, Tom Harvey, the Deputy Director for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Departments Communications Division, said Friday that “game wardens encounter all kinds of things on their patrols, including a lot of illegal fishing, and this [the threat of terrorists smuggling radioactive material] is a new threat we’re gearing up to be able to address.”

Harvey said that the Port of Houston has for years had radiation detectors to scan cargo, but now “we’ve acquired about a hundred devices that allow game wardens to detect radiological or nuclear emissions. These are little devices that can be worn on someone’s belt.”

Exclusive: Radioactive material stolen in Iraq raises security fears

Iraq is searching for “highly dangerous” radioactive material stolen last year, according to an environment ministry document and seven security, environmental and provincial officials who fear it could be used as a weapon if acquired by Islamic State.

The material, stored in a protective case the size of a laptop computer, went missing in November from a storage facility near the southern city of Basra belonging to U.S. oilfield services company Weatherford (WFT.N), the document obtained by Reuters showed and officials confirmed.

Arctic Oil On Life Support

Keep in mind that this will mostly be a problem for the West and not Russia, who insisted it will forge ahead with developing Arctic oil and gas despite sinking prices and sanctions.

 

Oil companies have eyed the Arctic for years. With an estimated 90 billion barrels of oil lying north of the Arctic Circle, the circumpolar north is arguably the last corner of the globe that is still almost entirely unexplored.