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Expert: Al Qaeda Planning Seaborne Attack
I was talking about this a couple of weeks ago. The whole international shipping system is wide open to hijacking for terrorism purposes.The Al Qaeda terror network likely is planning an unprecedented maritime attack, hitting targets on land with ships carrying chemical, biological or dirty bomb weapons, a defense analyst said Wednesday. The terrorist network could easily exploit weaknesses in shipping companiesâ crew selection procedures by planting sleeper agents on vessels to eventually seize them, said Michael Richardson, a senior researcher at Singaporeâs Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (search) who writes extensively on Asian security issues. "The Al Qaeda network has serious maritime terrorism plans," Richardson told diplomats, academics and defense officials at the institute. Singaporeâs Coordinating Security Minister Tony Tan (search) has warned repeatedly since November that there is a "very serious" risk of terrorists using ships to attack the city-state. If a government minister is making these statements me thinks they know something. Such an attack could have come sooner if it wasnât so difficult to procure a nuclear device and if Al Qaedaâs operations chief, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (search), and its head of naval operations, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri hadnât been arrested, Richardson said. "Sooner or later, Al Qaeda or one of its affiliates will make and detonate a radiological bomb, whether itâs in a ship or a shipping container," he said. "If you look at how relatively easy it is to get the materials, put them together and make them go bang, and look at the motivation, terrorism is going to get bigger and itâs going to get worse," he added. A prime target would be Singapore â or any of the worldâs 40 largest port cities â or key international shipping straits and canals, Richardson said. Al Qaeda operatives could easily get jobs on ships by buying fake seafarer credentials, which are widely available, he said. But Al Qaedaâs past pattern of disciplined, coordinated attacks makes it unlikely that the network will risk hijacking a ship, or seek help from pirates outside of its circle of zealots, he said. The network has already demonstrated its willingness to attack sea targets with suicide attacks on the destroyer USS Cole in 2000 and the French oil tanker Limburg in 2002, Richardson said. In both attacks, suicide bombers detonated small explosive-laden boats next to vessels off the coast of Yemen. I have been wondering why they havenât repeated this tactic. Singapore, a close Washington ally, also claims to have foiled a plot by the Al Qaeda linked Jemaah Islamiyah terror group to blow up, among other Western targets, a U.S. Naval facility in the island nation. The city-state has detained 37 terror suspects since 2001. Posted by: phil_b 2004-03-18 |
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