Secure Freight, Michael Jackson, and Puke?

Believe it or not, the below press release is from real sources, not The Onion....

The United States is boosting the concept of a neutral global shipping database that international trading partners could draw on to improve supply-chain security.

Michael Jackson, deputy secretary of homeland security, today laid out the broad terms of a so-called "secure freight" initiative at Customs and Border Protection's Sixth Trade Symposium.

The initiative would charge a private-sector entity with gathering shipping data covering the supply chain from purchase order and fulfillment to delivery. International trading partners could then draw on the common operating platform "data fusion center" for their own risk-management needs.

The database would build on existing programs such as Customs' Automated Commercial Environment, Jackson said.

He said a for-profit, or non-profit private entity is preferred, because the U.S. government "is no good at developing new, nimble technology."

Jackson proposed an initial pilot program to be set up between two or more counties, and said he has talked to other governments about the project. He would not identify the countries.
"This is a fundamental philosophical jump from where we are today," Jackson said. "But we can't do it as a bunch of government pukes on our own nickel."

I'm not really sure what concerns me more...that one, for profit entity out there could be the gate keeper for every last bit of supply chain meta-data? Or the fact that a senior US government official actually used the term "puke" in an official press statement!