AERIAL DRONES MAY PATROL U.S. BORDER

The agency responsible for making sure that terrorist weapons, drugs, and
people aren't smuggled into the United States is exploring the possibility
of using unmanned aerial drones.

Robert Bonner, commissioner of the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection,
told a House of Representatives panel yesterday that it makes sense to
conduct a pilot program using unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones.

Bonner, who said he would be briefed on the question, said his agency still
needs to examine how useful drones would be in helping to police the
borders as well as how cost-effective they would be.

"I do expect we'll do some sort of pilot in the near term," Bonner said in
an interview after the hearing. He said the technology is being looked at
"to enhance our detection capability, particularly at our land borders."

Bonner also said more Border Patrol agents are needed, although he does not
yet know how many are needed. Roughly 10,000 Border Patrol agents currently
are deployed along the southwestern and northern borders, the General
Accounting Office says.

The Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, part of the Homeland Security
Department, was formed March 1 and now includes the Border Patrol as well
as agriculture, immigration, and customs inspectors.

On other issues, Bonner said the government is working to expand a program
to improve the security of sea cargo coming into the United States.

It also wants to work out agreements with Latin American countries, such as
Panama, Argentina, and Brazil, that would place customs inspectors at those
ports and screen cargoes bound for this country.

Most current agreements cover ports in Europe and Asia.

The United States already has expressed interest in expanding the
sea-container security program to include some ports in the Middle East,
such as those of the United Arab Emirates.

Bonner also said an array of technologies is being used to augment
pocket-sized radiation detectors in the bureau's efforts to make sure
nuclear weapons aren't smuggled in by terrorists or others.

"We found that some of the radiation detection equipment being
used--radiation pagers--have a limited range and are not designed to detect
weapons-usable nuclear material," Richard Stana, director of homeland
security and justice issues at the GAO, said yesterday in testimony to the
panel.