Among other things, GAO recommends that DHS assess TWIC program internal controls to identify needed corrective actions, assess TWIC’s effectiveness, and use the information to identify effective and cost-efficient methods for meeting program objectives. DHS concurred with all of the recommendations.

The report comes after undercover government investigators were able to get into major U.S. seaports — at one point driving a vehicle containing a simulated explosive — by flashing counterfeit or fraudulently obtained port “credentials” to security officials — raising serious questions about the program which, to date, has issued more than 1.6 million TWIC cards.

In addition to port entry, the undercover investigators conducted covert tests at enrollment centers and found that counterfeit documents could be used to obtain legitimate TWIC cards. Specifically, the report states, “the TWIC program’s background checking processes are not designed to routinely consider the results of controls in place for assessing whether an applicant’s identity documents are authentic.” They also found other ways for a unqualified individuals, including illegal immigrants, to acquire an authentic TWIC.

In response to the report Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-New Jersey told CNN “This investigation raises a disturbing question: Are America’s ports actually safer now than they were a decade ago?” and said “Not only were they able to access the port facilities, but they were able to drive a vehicle with a simulated explosive into a secure area,” he said.

Well, Dr. Cartner is back again with another hard hitting commentary on the disaster that is the TWIC program.

THE maritime hobgoblin rears its head again. Work in maritime America is meted out to the worthy by the organs of state security. The Transportation Security Administration is the gatekeeper, with the detested Transportation Worker Identification Credential. If unworthy, no TWIC, no job. The TSA airport voyeurs, frotteurs and X-irradiators say who can be chosen. These are the maritime hobgoblin’s puppet-masters.

As I have written in this journal, the TWIC premise is based on a bizarre expensive fallacy and control ju-ju. John Pistole, former FBI deputy hack, is the head ju-ju man of the hobgoblin — incredible, nefarious, bizarrely self-justifying, comically combative, a pompous caricature risible if he were not dangerous. TSA managers work to transfer abuse from passengers to seafarers. The grounds are specious, questionable legally, morally scurrilous. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, former empress of the Arizona dunes and self-appointed maritime expert, wants to spread further the TWIC rat’s nest to anyone vaguely related to commercial transportation. Take heart, though. If denied you can likely get a TWIC — if you can afford American legal fees. No money, no TWIC; no TWIC, no job.

The TSA has posted a list of sins delaying or denying a TWIC: violent felonies, for example. Of course it does not matter that the US Coast Guard and the states screen before issuing their documents. The TSA has money to burn and contractor Lockheed Martin to tell it how. Three cases tell how the TSA-DHS hobgoblin keepers are arbitrary, capricious, and wholly self-righteous.

Case 1: An unrestricted master mariner, commanding ships of the Land of the Free for 30 years, was denied a TWIC. He had been vetted by the US Coast Guard for decades, issued continuous certificates, had nothing on the list, was entrusted with lives and ship and cargo, enforced flag state laws on board, held a naval reserve commission and security clearance. He was not born in the US. The conclusion: if a birth certificate does not meet a TSA factotum’s concept of Americanism then no TWIC, no job — no matter how unspotted or shriven.

After appeal, delay and legal fees the master got the gatepass. Now there is a new secret criterion for Americanism. One supposes that the TWIC twits feel that he should be grateful.

Case 2: Another US master was assaulted and battered by a TWIC contractor employee. He seriously erred in command judgement when he pointed out that his name was stated wrongly on the face of the TWIC. The investigation was whitewashed; the criminal complaint was “lost”.

The government issues criteria for things such as TWICs. One rule even makes sense: the name on the card must match the name on the credentials presented for the issuance. The TSA and its contractor exempt themselves from any rules for national security (read TSA and Lockheed job security). Name hyphenated? More than one middle initial? Apostrophes? Cedillas? Umlaut or accent grave? Spelled uniquely? What kind of name is that? Un-American. No TWIC. No job.

One marvels at the rodent TSA mind: The maritime hobgoblin punishes with unemployed time while the jobless and voiceless await the decisions of the polyester-suited twits. This TWIC victim was told by an arrogant DHS faceless voice: “If that is your name you do not get a TWIC.” Any fool except a DHS one can see that the TWIC issued with a TSA made-up name is false identification. What good is an unconfirmable TWIC except on its face when the database cannot be accessed by a card reader?

The foundational fallacy strikes again in this wholly corrupt programme. Where do they get these bully-boy oafs minding the hobgoblin? Answer: from the line of otherwise unemployable wannabees, poseurs and PhD-lites.

Case 3: A lorry driver vetted for commercial and hazardous materials service delivered goods to ports for 25 years with no blemish. He was denied for a three-decade-old second-order misdemeanour conviction. He had paid a fine.

How does that relate to port or national security? It does not. He cannot get a TWIC to ply his trade. He was punished as a sinner by the hobgoblin true believers for his Americo-Adamic fall from grace and the shortcomings of his soul three decades earlier. Conclusion: the TSA hive is now morally perfected — in its internal view. To quote : “The other was a softer voice, As soft as honey-dew: Quoth he, “The man hath penance done, And penance more will do.” The maritime hobgoblin’s voice is as also as soft as honey-dew: No money, no TWIC and no job — for an unworthy you.

The maritime job listings in America are an education. If you drive by a port you will one day need a TWIC, hopes the hobgoblin.

The TSA abuses the maritime industry. In each case a person otherwise qualified and with security vetting by governments could not earn a maritime wage temporarily or permanently. Each was denied by secretive desk-warmers not meeting payrolls or working productively and wrapping themselves in the American flag to cover their intellectual, moral and judgmental bankruptcy.

The question arises, always begged by the TSA: How does this panic-driven billion-dollar TWIC opera buffa increase port security? It does not. It cannot. It will not. The hypocritical pseudo-moralism is disgusting and ethically and economically wrong. It reminds one of the US Attorney General draping naked statues.

Who controls these farceurs? Clearly not Secretary Napolitano. Her underling lackey Pistole was too yellow to attend and explain himself and his failed agency to Congress last week.

Answer, Mr Pistole: How are port security – a matter of property right and trespass – and the denial of a TWIC and a wage on parochial, idiosyncratic, chauvinistic and pseudo-moralistic grounds to otherwise qualified maritime people related? Do not try. You will make a further fool of yourself, your misguided and misconceived bureau, the farcical hobgoblin for which you are shaman.

John AC Cartner is a UK solicitor, a maritime lawyer in Washington, DC, and an unrestricted Master Mariner. – Lloyds List

There were a couple comments on the last post. Please comment below your own TWIC horror stories.

Surely this is not the end of this issue.

Dr. John A. C. Cartner practices maritime law domestically and internationally. He is designated as Proctor in Admiralty by the Maritime Law Association of the U.S.. He is a member of the Canadian Maritime Law Association and other such associations internationally. He is a licensed (U.S.) and experienced shipmaster and is a chartered engineer (U.K.) in naval architecture. – Link

He is a graduate of the US Merchant Marine Academy and is the lead author of The International Law of the Shipmaster and you can find his website here (See a video interview here.). So his is clearly a voice of authority. With that said, here is a truly unvarnished view of the TWIC Program:

Identity card is US’ maritime hobgoblin

Tuesday 15 February 2011, 17:25 by John AC Cartner

The identity card for US transportation workers has been an expensive disaster in technical and civil liberty terms, and has brought no discernible security benefits

FOR a US seafarer, a Transportation Worker Identification Credential, or “TWIC Card” or just “TWIC”, is a necessary accoutrement. It gives the warm feeling that things are under control.The TWIC was imposed by the Department of Homeland Security, overseeing the Transportation Security Administration. These are the blank faces of the organs of state security that seafarers encounter.

The TWIC is an obscenely expensive, delusional and nakedly bizarre failure. It wastes billions of unaffordable dollars, and it does not demonstrably increase the security of ports, vessels or people. It should be abolished now.

Other existing and proven methods can readily be used. Those methods are run by people knowledgeable about maritime. The TWIC is all about misguided bureaucrats, technology, lobbyists and money searching for a mission.

There is full fallacy in the TWIC exercise. In philosophy it is called the foundational fallacy. One cannot rely on arguments coming from a complex foundation of facts or events. The argument must fail. Why? One cannot account for every variation in the future from the time the foundation was laid. Fatal errors unavoidably creep in and persist.

The TWIC, which is supposed to be perfected to keep theoretical terrorists from theoretical ports, will always fail.

The TSA crowd knows nothing about the industry. It administers cosy contracts with equally unknowing contractors.

Thus it came to pass that the TSA became the Monty Python of seaports. Existing and proven systems would have worked with minimal tinkering. The professional US Coast Guard should run all port security programmes. Never mind easily done record searches or common sense. But Congress listened to the lobbyists: we dullard wharf rats cannot possibly understand technology.

As American lecturer, essayist and poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson, pointed out, that the hobgoblin of little minds lies in dull and mindless routine. The TWIC is a maritime hobgoblin reified in the TSA.

The leading contractor for the TWIC was defence aeroplane manufacturer Lockheed-Martin. The aim was not to help in anti-terrorism but to bring another $1bn in revenue by selling a bill of goods for things unproven.

Lockheed understood the foundational fallacy — if a computer can do it, it will be effective and therefore good, and therefore solves the problem — with sufficient funds.

Then the geeks designing TWIC ignored federal guidelines for identification cards. The initial system was so cumbersome that it took a PhD in computer science to obtain a password for the website to register.

The inevitable cost excesses came. A tactic of every defence contractor is to buy in at low cost and then make up the losses by change orders. Lockheed held the government hostage for work done.

Then the reports of civil liberties abuses arose. Government auditing arms found TWIC a near-disaster. Recently came the strident shouting of TSA Administrator John Pistole, the FBI hack who proclaimed “We will not back down!” when the public protested at airport genital gropings. We await that tactic in ports with interest.

Clearly, neither the empress nor her king has clothes when Mr Pistole and the speechifying Secretary Janet Napolitano say all is well with the TWIC.

The technology for a TWIC card reader cannot be produced and will not be for years. Every credit card company has secure card readers. They deal in the real world of commerce, not the fear-mongering world of TSA Cassandras. They also accept reasonable risks of fraud. Why cannot the TSA and its contractor bedfellows produce a reader that works?

The security response to the need is not rocket science. The TSA clearly needs brains and not more defence technology to hide its bovine mooing and ovine bleating.

Other abuses came. If a name did not fit a form devised in 1898, the TSA made one up. Hyphens? Un-American. Two middle initials? Un-American. All this was for the enlightenment of a gate guard at 0300 hrs in the driving rain to read, vet and compare to other credentials. No match. You do not come in. TSA idiocy.

The pressure was put on. Assaults by contractor clerks were reported when applicants pointed out that the card was false identification when not conforming to credentials. Criminal complaints have been said to have been diverted for “national security”. A DHS spokesman reportedly said: “If that is your name, you do not get a TWIC.” A DHS mouthpiece telling a certificated seafarer his livelihood is endangered because of a wrong form of his name on a TWIC card? Unbridled hubris.

Then there is biometry, the supposed keystone. No one can define, measure, put it on a card or read it electronically accurately all the time to compare to the outdated databases run by the security weenies. No one has figured out how to make it comply with the international objectives for seafarer identification.

The TWIC is useless outside the US. In the US, reports are legion of airport TSA automatons rejecting it. One report says it is unacceptable for entering US Coast Guard headquarters in Washington.

The problem is not port security, it is the TWIC programme. It was and is a failure. It promises but gives nothing except false security, press releases and only attracts ridicule. One should not sleep better at night knowing John Pistole is on watch. – Lloyd’s List (Republished with permission of the author)

Feel free to voice your opinion in the comments.

As bad as the US TWIC program is, it is nothing compared to the mess that is the UN’s version of the seafarer ID, as defined in the International Labour Organisation’s Seafarers’ Identity Documents Convention (Revised) 2003. But more on that later.

“Strengthening the security of our maritime global supply chain is critical to protecting our nation from evolving threats,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. “This new TWIC process is a critical step toward ensuring that foreign maritime workers can quickly and efficiently obtain the necessary credentials to do their jobs and help grow the American economy.”

Under this process, foreign maritime workers who need to acquire a TWIC for the performance of their official duties must provide notice of their need for a TWIC to DOS upon application for a B-1 visa, as well as a letter from their employer indicating that the individual will be required to perform service in secure port areas. Upon receipt of the new TWIC-annotated B-1 visa, each individual will apply separately for a TWIC. As is the case for all visa and TWIC applicants, these foreign maritime workers will undergo rigorous background checks, including checks against the terrorist watchlist, criminal history, and immigrations records.

This new process will apply to the approximately 4,000 to 6,000 foreign workers in U.S. ports who are required to have a TWIC for the performance of their official duties.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) published a TWIC final rule on Jan. 25, 2007, allowing non-citizens to apply for a TWIC provided that they meet one of TSA’s eligible immigration categories. Following input from maritime industry stakeholders, DHS and DOS collaborated to create a process allowing essential maritime personnel who fall within the B-1 visa category and require a TWIC to acquire one—designing an annotated B-1 visa to meet the needs of the TWIC Program as well as the maritime community.

Join the discussion on this article in the gCaptain forum HERE.

TWIC Program Update – One million port and longshore workers, truckers and others at ports across the nation have enrolled in the Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program. The program’s goal is to ensure that any individual who has unescorted access to secure areas of port facilities and vessels has received a thorough background check and is not a known security threat.

“American ports from coast to coast are more secure today because of the significant progress this program has made,” said Gale Rossides, acting administrator, Transportation Security Administration (TSA). “Enrolling 1 million workers in less than 18 months is a testament to the collaborative efforts of TSA and the United States Coast Guard on this important maritime security effort.”

Today, 36 of the 42 Captain of the Port Zones across the country require workers to have a TWIC. All ports must be in compliance with credential requirements by April 14, 2009. Port security personnel are trained to ensure workers have valid cards and Coast Guard officials are conducting random compliance inspections at these ports.

More than 150 fixed enrollment centers will ultimately vet more than 1.2 million maritime transportation system workers by the April deadline. In addition to fixed sites, more than 450 mobile enrollment sites have been deployed, registering workers at locations convenient to their places of employment.

Source: TSA.gov

How would you rate your experience getting a TWIC Card? Leave your comments below.

Procrastinating? Check out our TWIC articles, forum posts and podcast for all the TWIC information you need!

With the help of our friends at Vessel Trax and many hours at the computer we have taken the list of Transportation Worker’s Identification Card ( TWIC ) Enrollment Locations from the TSA’s TWIC Info page and embedded them on the google map. Why the TSA has not done this already and is not blogging about TWIC is a question we can not answer but we are happy to take up their slack.

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TWIC Locations Mapped:

View Larger Map
To view the map in Google Earth CLICK HERE | View Larger Map

To view this map in full size CLICK HERE.

For all our TWICLocation related posts and podcast please CLICK HERE.
To join the TWIC discussion on our forum CLICK HERE.

Four weeks ago, I had my original TWIC enrollment experience. The post is here.

Today I picked up my TWIC. Last Thursday I went online to see if the card was ready and the info said yes. I printed out the form and made an appointment to pick up the card for Monday at 08:15.

On Friday, I was close to the enrollment office (very close the $3.32 per gallon gas on the reservation – the lowest in town) in my hometown of Anacortes WA and decided to stop by to see if I could pick up the card. There was one person being processed and one person in line. Cool, I figured. The clerk asked if I had an appointment, I said no. When pressed to see if anyone had an appointment after the guy in the que, she said they didn’t know and I’d have to take my chances. What? A computerised system and the local office didn’t have access to the data base of appointments. Correct.

This morning’s experience was much better than I could have anticipated:

08:00 Arrival for 08:15 appointment

08:07 Seated for processing

08:16 Out the door with TWIC in hand

It is interesting, that they used my fingerprint to call up my record. I never gave my name.

You can check the status of your TWIC and make appointment to pick it up, if it’s ready, here.

Editorial Note: For an audio account of the TWIC experience click HERE

This week we bring you the real life experience obtaining a TWIC ( Transportation Worker’s Identification Card ) with Captain Kelly Sweeney, monthly contributor to Professional Mariner magazine and author of From the Bridge: Authentic Modern Sea Stories. For more real life experiences in obtaining TWICs visit the TWIC Page of gCaptain’s Forum.

Download MP3 file: Messing About In Ships 17 – TWIC

Subscribe Via iTunes HERE

Shownotes at the Messing About In Ships blog

It comes as no surprise that we in the United States are security aware. Possible threats create new legislation on a regular basis. Today, I enrolled for my Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC.) The office was due to be opened at 08:00. Here’s what happened.

07:57 I arrive at the Anacortes Wa. enrollment location, 5 miles from my home.

08:07 Worker #1 arrives and apologizes for being late.

08:11 Worker #2 arrives

08:12 Workers #1 and #2 discuss if the computer is up an running

(they are subcontractors to Lockheed Martin who is a subcontractor to TSA)

08:12 Second enrollee arrives for a 08:15 appointment

Workers indicate enrollee #2 will be served first (I preenrolled before appointments were offered)

08:13 Phone call is placed stating, “There are workers here to be enrolled.”

08:19 Lockheed Martin supervisor of the enrollment site arrives and unlocks the computer

08:28 Second enrollee is seated for an interview

08:45 Second enrollee’s interview is completed

08:48 I am seated for the interview

My credit card is charged the $132.50 fee

Information on my pre-enrollment form is confirmed

Finger prints are taken (electronically)

Passport is scanned

My picture is taken

09:02 Process is completed

This was day two of the Anacortes, Wa enrollment operation. The signage for the location only exists at the door and is remote. The workers expect the office to be opened through November 2008.

Folks related to the Coast Guard have told me that TWIC came about because the Department of Homeland Security could not get Coast Guard computers and TSA computers to share information. As licensed mariners in the US are aware, we already have gone through a rigorous FBI background check and have been finger printed. The cost for this privilege of this new card is $132.50

I already carry my Master’s License, Passport, and Maritime Consortium (drug testing) Card aboard the vessels I work on.. I wonder how one more piece of ID is going to keep us safer.

Information from the TWIC website reads:

The Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) is a vital security measure that will ensure individuals who pose a threat do not gain unescorted access to secure areas of the nation’s maritime transportation system.

TWIC was established by Congress through the Maritime Transportation Security Act (MTSA) and is administered by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and U.S. Coast Guard. TWICs are tamper-resistant biometric credentials that will be issued to workers who require unescorted access to secure areas of ports, vessels, outer continental shelf facilities and all credentialed merchant mariners. It is anticipated that more than 750,000 workers including longshoremen, truckers, port employees and others will be required to obtain a TWIC.

The official TSA TWIC site is here.

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This post was written by Richard Rodriguez, Rescue Tug Captain, and US Coast Guard approved instructor for License Training. You can read more of his articles at the BitterEnd