Officials Investigating 'Potential Threat' Aboard Maersk Containership in Port of...

They use the Term "Potential Threat" because the threat came over a phone call from an unknown source. They don't know if its real or a hoax, so its a "Potential threat" which makes people take it serious with out panic. if you said its a "Potential Hoax" no one would do anything till it blew up. if you called it a a Suspected Dirty bomb most people would freak out and cause more damage trying to flee.

My question is.... why wasn't this brought to light in Newark?

I shipped HazMat for 22 years. About ten years ago, my fellow boys in blue (USCG) reported undeclared radioactive cargo on a containership entering NYC. Ship was detained for two days at $25k wasted money per day. After much discussion, determined cause of alarm was residue uranium in Italian ceramic clay. Detection device was set on a overly sensitive setting and misread. There never was a threat. Over zealous inspector didn't double check his data. Expensive mistake that we never got reimbursed for.

Single shipments of 40 containers (abt 20 tons ea), 40 tons of RDX, various warheads, Cobalt 60, Uranium Hexafluoride, and a wide variety of nasty stuff, on different ships, are routine. In my view, the most dangerous material carried is toxic gases. Release of large amounts of toxic gas can do a lot of damage.