Experience has clearly shown that the concept that the issuance of high-tech biometric transportation security cards, called the Transportation Worker Identification Credential or TWIC, could achieve these goals was fatally flawed from the beginning. With visions of al Qaeda terrorists lurking on US waterfronts and in the bowls of U.S.-flag vessels, Congress in 2002 included in the Maritime Transportation Security Act (MTSA) a requirement that unescorted access to secure areas in U.S.